DETERMINANTE UTJECAJA POJEDINACA NA DRUŠTVENIM MREŢAMA – PRIMJER INSTAGRAMA : Diplomski rad

Dolaskom Interneta društvene mreţe su zaţivjele u novom formatu te su postale iznimno bitan oblik komunikacije i društveni medij za krajnje korisnike. Instagram je jedna od poznatijih online društvenih mreţa te posjeduje mnoštvo potencijala za marketinške aktivnosti. Utjecajni pojedinci, danas poznatiji kao influenceri, koji su na temelju svoje popularnosti ili struĉnosti kvalificirani da im ljudi vjeruju, ostvaruju veliki broj suradnji s raznim kompanijama u svrhu promoviranja njihovih proizvoda i usluga. Kroz rad se nastojalo otkriti ĉimbenike koji utjeĉu na ţelju korisnika Instagrama da prate influencere. TakoĊer, nastojalo se identificirati ĉimbenike koji pridonose izgradnji povjerenja u informacije koje influencer pruţa svojim pratiteljima, kao i na reakciju pratitelja nakon što prime te informacije. U teorijskom dijelu rada definirane su društvene mreţe, influencer marketing i potencijalni faktori utjecaja influencera na pojedince kako bi se pruţila teorijska podloga na koju će se nastaviti istraţivanje. U empirijskom dijelu rada predstavljeno je istraţivanje provedeno na uzorku od 329 ispitanika te njegovi rezultati. Obradom dobivenih podataka zakljuĉeno je da sliĉna ţivotna dob i uĉestalost objava ne utjeĉu na sklonost korisnika Instagrama da prate influencere, za razliku od zajedniĉkih interesa. TakoĊer, utvrĊeno je da korisnici Instagrama traţe dodatne informacije i kupuju proizvode i usluge za koje su saznali prateći profile influencera te da je utjecaj influencera izraţeniji kada se radi o kupovnim odlukama vezanim uz dobra manje novĉane vrijednosti. Konaĉno, navedena su ograniĉenja i doprinosi rada te smjernice za buduća istraţivanja.With the advent of the Internet, social networks have come to life in a new format and have become an extremely important form of communication and social media. Instagram is one of the most well-known online social networks and has a lot of potential for marketing activities. Influential individuals, better known today as influencers, who, based on their popularity or expertise, are qualified to be trusted by people, engage in a large number of collaborations with various companies for the purpose of promoting their products and services. The paper sought to discover the factors that influence the desire of Instagram users to follow influencers. It also sought to identify factors that contribute to building trust in the information that an influencer provides to his or her followers, as well as to the reaction of followers after receiving that information. The theoretical part of the paper defines social networks, influencer marketing and potential factors due to which influencers influence the individual in order to provide a theoretical basis on which to continue research.. In the empirical part of the paper, the research conducted on a sample of 329 respondents and its results are presented. By processing the obtained data, it was concluded that similar age and frequency of posts do not affect the propensity of Instagram users to follow influencers, as opposed to common interests. Also, it was found that Instagram users seek additional information and buy products and services that they learned about by following influencer profiles, and that influencers' influence is more pronounced when it comes to purchasing decisions related to goods of lower monetary value. Finally, the limitations and contributions of the work and guidelines for future research are listed. The theoretical part of the paper defines social networks, influencer marketing and potential factors due to which influencers influence the individual in order to provide a theoretical basis on which to continue research.. In the empirical part of the paper, the research conducted on a sample of 329 respondents and its results are presented. By processing the obtained data, it was concluded that similar age and frequency of posts do not affect the propensity of Instagram users to follow influencers, as opposed to common interests. Also, it was found that Instagram users seek additional information and buy products and services that they learned about by following influencer profiles, and that influencers' influence is more noticable when it comes to purchasing decisions related to goods of lower monetary value. Finally, the limitations and contributions of the work and guidelines for future research are listed