Social media influencers are popular marketing partners, requiring the focus of brands to enhance the purchase intention. The majority of brands are passionate to collaborate with favorable social media influencers but lack the understanding to maintain followers' attitude. These circumstances could jeopardize the reputation of brands, leading to a waste of investment. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to examine the effect of credible sources and advertising content (stimuli) on purchase intention (response), mediated by followers' attitude toward social media influencers (organisms). A quantitative study design with purposive sampling was used to select 291 respondents living in Indonesia. The respondents were active social media users and followers of influencers. An online survey questionnaire was distributed through WhatsApp. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied for data analysis. The results showed that credible social media influencers as source of information and entertainment are the main reason for followers to show a positive attitude towards themselves leading to intention to purchase product. Trustworthiness serves as a mandatory element to establish healthy long-term relationships with followers and brands. Those who succeed in maintaining credibility and the ability to share valuable content are the best investment of brands.
SOR framework, followers' attitude, social media influencers, source credibility, advertising value, purchase intention
Dian Natalia. Corresponding author. Graduated from Binus Business School, Jakarta. She is currently assigned as Global- Meeting Group Event Manager in one of the biggest companies for tourism industry. She is an enthusiastic learner and her research interest in Digital Marketing as well as Human Resources Management. Email: dian.natalia001@binus.ac.id
Sevenpri Candra. Presently a professor in Business and Management and Deputy Campus Director (Academic and Student Development) at Binus University Bekasi, Indonesia. His research interest is in Digital Business and Management. Prior to joining Binus, he spent years as a professional in Consulting Business and Information Technology. This allow him to be an expert in Management, Business Development, Marketing and Strategy. Email: seven@binus.ac.id
“All authors equally contributed to the conception, design, preparation, data gathering and analysis, and writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
This work was not supported by any funding.
This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of Binus Business School. The conduct of this study has been approved and given relative clearance(s) by Binus Business School.
AI tools were not used in writing this paper.
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Cite this article:
Natalia, D. & Candra, S. (2025). Leveraging followers' attitude toward Indonesian social media influencers on purchase intention. International Journal of Academe and Industry Research, 6(1), 30-55. https://doi.org/10.53378/ijair.353141
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