Titelaufnahme

Die nachfolgende Masterarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Einflussnahme von Social Media Influencern hinsichtlich der Produkteinstellung von ihren EmpfängerInnen. Social Media Influencer werden als jene Personen definiert, die die Einstellung ihrer RezipientInnen durch Blogs, Tweets und der Verwendung von Sozialen Medien formen können (vgl. Freberg, Graham, McGaughey & Freberg, 2011). Ähnlich wie jene Influencer werden auch (Online) Opinion Leader definiert, welche eine bereits nachgewiesene wichtige Rolle spielen, wenn es um das Kaufverhalten von KonsumentInnen geht (vgl. Flynn, Goldsmith & Eastman, 1996). Anhand einer Querschnittsanalyse in Form einer Online-Befragung wurde untersucht, inwiefern die Merkmale Popularität und Aktivität jener Instagram UserInnen zu einer Attestierung von Opinion Leadership führen und ob diese Einfluss auf die Produkteinstellung der RezipientInnen ausüben können sowie, ob diese auch besser von ihren EmpfängerInnen bewertet werden.

The following master thesis deals with the influence of Social Media Influencer concerning the purchase intention of their recipients. Social Media Influencer can be defined as individuals, who can form the attitudes of their recipients through blogs, tweets and the usage of Social Media Networks (Freberg et al., 2011). Similar to Social Media Influencer seems to be the concept of (Online) Opinion Leadership. (Online) Opinion Leader can be defined as people, who play an important role in the purchase behaviour of other consumers (Flynn et al., 1996). If the characteristics popularity and activity of those influencers can lead to the attestation of opinion leadership, if they can influence recipients concerning their purchase intention and rating of their profil was conducted through a cross-sectional analysis in form of an online survey. Popularity and activity were inserted as varying conditions. With a sample size of n = 271 the results have shown following findings: Popularity and activity of Social Media Influencer have no significant influence on the purchase intention of their recipients. Furthermore the results couldn't indicate that social media usage has a negative effect on this relation. Popular and active Instagram users perceived as opinion leader and couldn't influence the recipients concerning their purchase intention. The study could show, that popular and active Instagram users got a better rating than from their recipients than less popular and active users. Finally in parts significant relations were found between the attestation of opinion leadership and the rating of the profile.