Influencers as creators of public opinion and brand product promoters

Diplomskim radom naziva Influenceri kao kreatori javnog mišljenja i promotori brendova proizvoda nastojalo se prikupiti relevantne informacije kako bi se unaprijedilo znanstvene spoznaje o influencerima i njihovom djelovanju. U prvom dijelu diplomskog rada dan je pregled društvenih medija s podjelom na blogove, društvene mreže i zajednice sadržaja. Objašnjavaju se elementi promotivnog miksa, definira se pojam brenda i analizira odnos brenda, influencera i potrošača s posebnim naglaskom na influencere. Za potrebe diplomskog rada, u drugom dijelu rada je provedeno istraživanje metodama polustrukturiranog intervjua i analize sadržaja čime se odgovorilo na postavljena istraživačka pitanja. Kako je opći cilj rada bio operacionaliziranje pojma influencera, influenceri predstavljaju javno izložene pojedince, utjecajnike, koje dio društva smatra svojevrsnim celebrityjima te koji putem društvenih medija utječu na razmišljanja, stavove i navike sljedbenika. Od društvenih medija se najviše koriste YouTubeom, a potom Instagramom. Putem svojih medija objavljuju vrstu sadržaja koja je u skladu s područjem njihova djelovanja i interesa. Prema tome, analizirani hrvatski influenceri djeluju u području ljepote, stila života, glazbe, društvenih medija i kreiranja sadržaja. Brendovi s kojima su surađivali iz različitih su gospodarskih djelatnosti i nude proizvode i usluge kao što su Fitness.com, Vichy, Hrvatski Telekom, Blitz Cinestar, ShoeBeDo, Webnode.hr, A1, Konzum, Huawei i Samsung. Najčešće se ostvaruje dugoročna suradnja influencera i korisnika njihovih usluga, a do sklapanja dolazi samo ako se određeni klijent uklapa u njihov sadržaj koji stvaraju odnosno ako im se omogući sloboda kreiranja i njihovo međusobno podudaranje vrijednosti. Analizirani ispitanici smatraju se kreatorima javnog mišljenja, najviše zbog svoje stručnosti u određenom području u kojem objavljuju, zbog suradnje s brendovima, posjedovanja slobode kod kreiranja sadržaja i poistovjećivanja sljedbenika kroz objavljivan sadržaj. Kao takvi, diktiraju nove trendove na tržištu, a zbog neprestanog korištenja društvenih medija, na kojima su najčešće aktivne mlađe dobne skupine, na njih je moguće najviše utjecati. Iako se ispitanici većinom slažu u mišljenju kako postoji pozitivan i negativan utjecaj, većina njih ističe kako je njima cilj ostaviti pozitivan utjecaj i trag na društvo. Sukladno podjeli s obzirom na broj sljedbenika, analizirani ispitanici spadaju u različite skupine. Prema tome, u istraživanju su sudjelovali mikro-, makro- i nanoinfluenceri.The master's thesis Influencers as creators of public opinion and brand product promoters has tried to gather relevant information on influencers and their actions in order to improve scientific knowledge about them. The first part of the thesis gives an overview of social media with a division into blogs, social networks and content communities. Both the explanation of the elements of the promotional mix and the definition of the term brand are given as well as the analysis of the relationship among the brand, influencers and consumers with a special emphasis on influencers. In the second part of the thesis a research has been conducted using the methods of semistructured interview and content analysis by means of which the answeres have been provided to research questions. The overall objective of the work was to operationalize the notion of influencers, as influencers represent publicly exposed individuals, influencers, who are considered to be celebrities by one part of society and who influence the thoughts, attitudes and habits of followers through social media. Of the social media they mostly use YouTube, followed by Instagram. Through their media, they publish a type of content that is in line with their area of activity and interest. Therefore, the Croatian influencers analysed in this work are active in the field of beauty, lifestyle, music, social media and are content creators. The brands they have worked with are from various economic activities and offer products and services such as Fitness.com, Vichy, Hrvatski Telekom, Blitz Cinestar, ShoeBeDo, Webnode.hr, A1, Konzum, Huawei and Samsung. Most often, a long-term cooperation among influencers and users of their services is achieved, and the conclusion of the contract occurs only if a particular client fits into the content they create. That is, if they are allowed freedom to create and if the values they share mutually coincide. The analyzed respondents are considered to be the creators of public opinion mostly because of their expertise in a particular field in which they publish, their cooperation with brands, possession of freedom in creating their content and identification of followers through the published content. As such, they dictate new market trends, and due to the constant use of social media, on which younger age groups are most often active, they can affect them the most. Although the majority of respondents agree that they have a positive and negative impact, most of them point out that their goal is to leave a positive impact and a mark on society. According to the division with regard to the number of followers, the analyzed respondents belong to different groups. Therefore, micro, macro, and nanoinfluencers participated in the study