Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

12-2020

Abstract

While the use of social media influencers (SMIs) by brands is becoming more widespread, the academic literature about SMI communication is still scarce. This is one of the first studies on SMI brand storytelling, using data mining and natural language processing to understand how SMIs tell brand stories on Instagram, what kinds of stories they tell, and the impact they have on follower engagement. The findings show that the "rise-fall" emotional arc was the most common story arc used by SMIs. In addition, SMIs frequently used the first-person perspective and featured themselves as the protagonists in their stories. Last, SMIs who used more first-person pronouns and more positive emotions in their stories received more "likes" than those who used fewer first-person pronouns and fewer positive emotions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for SMI communication theory-building and practice as well as its limitations.

Keywords

social media influencers, narrative persuasion, storytelling, Instagram, data mining

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Communication Technology and New Media | Social Media

Research Areas

Corporate Communication

Publication

Journal of Applied Business and Economics

Volume

22

Issue

10

First Page

81

Last Page

96

ISSN

1499-691X

Identifier

10.33423/jabe.v22i10.3714

Publisher

North American Business Press

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.33423/jabe.v22i10.3714

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