This document summarizes a literature review on how social media influencers have replaced traditional spokespeople in cosmetics advertising targeted at millennials. It discusses how media-multitasking, electronic word of mouth, and self-performance on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat have influenced advertising strategies. Social media influencers are everyday consumers who shape attitudes through their social media content. They have helped bridge the gap between advertisers and millennials by providing a more personal and trusted endorsement compared to celebrity spokespeople. As the use of these influencers increases, it could significantly impact millennials' purchasing habits over the next ten years by empowering them as more educated consumers.

1. Jordyn Stoneberg
Dr. Melba Vélez Ortiz
COM 498-04
February 9, 2016
How Electronic Word of Mouth, Media-Multitasking, and Self Perception
Influence the Latest in Social Media Advertising: A Literature Review
Abstract
With the recent transition from traditional forms of media advertising such as television,
print, and radio to internet platforms in attempts to seek a younger audience, advertisers need to
be conscious of media-multitasking, electronic word of mouth, and self-performance in order to
be successful. This literature review examines these components and includes insights from
scholarly researchers who have studied these subjects from as early as Erving Goffman (1959)
to studies conducted in the last year.
Keywords: Media multitasking, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), self-performance, aesthetics,
identity, social media, millennials, advertising, online communication, social networks, interface,
self-expression, self-promotion
Introduction
Until recently advertisers had been at a loss as to how to reach millennials on a consumer
level; as traditional forms of entertainment were being traded for personal handheld devices,
companies were no longer able to capture the attention of this age group as they once were in the
days they were easily sated solely with Saturday morning cartoons. Instead of waiting for
millennials to tune back into that advertising channel (a day that may never come), advertisers

2. have chosen to actively pursue this demographic by integrating traditional forms with social
media platforms. While advertisers have had success with this technique, in order to continue
being successful, they need to consider the power of media-multitasking, eWOM, and self-
perceptions and what roles they play in social media.
Media-Multitasking
Media-multitasking is just as it sounds: multitasking between various (2 or more) forms
of media. This idea comes from viewers tuning in to a television broadcast (whether it’s a series,
event, etc.) and diverting their attention from the TV to other media (namely a computer or
phone) during the commercials (for those who can’t/choose not to skip commercials altogether
with DVR). While those who choose to multitask are able to opt out of the ads, the companies
who show those ads aren’t able to opt out of the charge it cost to broadcast those message to
them (even though they didn’t fully hear the message or missed it entirely). Therein lies the
problem: companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to display their
advertisements to an audience that isn’t engaged in them.
In a study conducted by Microsoft Advertising (2014) found that out of media-marketing
came two types of individuals: “grazers” and “spiderwebbers”. A “grazer”, which are is the most
common type, is the viewer that engages in an unrelated secondary type of media such as
checking social media or their email inbox. For “grazers” this activity is “born out of habit, and
motivated by staying up to date with work and social or current affairs,” as Robert Angell, a
marketing lecturer from Cardiff Business School, states. He goes on to explain that being this
type of multi-tasker does not allow the individual to engage in the message being transmitted by
the primary form of media. “Spiderwebbers” are the opposite; this audience utilizes the
secondary form of media to complement the primary from. An example of this would be a

3. viewer watching a talent focused show on TV and voting for his/her favorite contestant during
the commercial break. “It requires both activities to be congruent and tends to increase attention
and stimulate cognitive elaboration” (Angell et al., 2016). When the secondary form of media
syncs with the primary form, the primary resonates better with the viewer. Microsoft
Advertising’s study suggests that if an advertisement were able to be engaged from a secondary
source of media, that the advertisement would have the potential to better resonate with the
viewer as well. Some advertisers have already started to incorporate their ads with social media
by suggesting a hashtag (#) in their TV ads for viewers to use online to talk about their product
along with other multi-media strategies. If advertisers learn to tread the line between engagement
and entertainment, keeping traditional forms of advertising may have a better chance in capturing
the attention of millennials.
Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM)
Word of mouth (WOM) advertising is a form of advertising that has stood the test of time
and will continue to as long as humans are able to communicate with one another. WOM
advertising is the most reliable form of advertising, as it is all based on trust of the person giving
the endorsement. If strong feelings are had by a consumer about a certain product, that user of
that product is likely to share their opinion of that product with others. Previous to technological
revolution experienced in America in the last 150 years, print and physical word of mouth were
the only way for products to be advertised other than in the shops themselves. Companies still
heavily rely on WOM to encourage the sale of their product(s), and with the integration of the
internet, the emergence of eWOM (electronic word of mouth) has come into play.
“EWOM is any positive or negative statement made by potential actual, or former
customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and

4. institutions via the Internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004). Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram, and Snapchat are all on the top applications list on the Apple App Store, which are all
social media platforms that are used by young adult consumer; that is quite a bit of opportunity
for a message to spread. While it is essential for companies to advertise on social media to reach
this demographic, they also need to understand how it spreads and what controls the speed at
which it spreads.
A study conducted in 2015 by lead researcher Jacob Hornik (of Recanati Business School
in Tel-Aviv University) and his associates sought to prove the theory of how negative
information spreads more quickly online than positive information does. They conducted two
online experiments: the first study consisted of choosing 27 students to participate in a three day
long laboratory experiment and the second, a field study, which examined 60 students over a
day. While both experiments were vastly different from one another, they both found the theory
to be true; in fact they found that “in both experiments, people tended to add significantly more
reactions and information to negative information than to positive information” (Hornik et al.
2015). “Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster!” This saying holds true for information
between a small group of people and for the entirety of the internet, which is exactly why eWOM
is so important for advertisers to study.
Self-Performance
Unlike media-multitasking and eWOM, the theory of self-performance is not a current
one. Goffman (1959), in his theory symbolic interactionism, discusses the difference between
giving a genuine interaction and giving a reaction that is meant to be perceived as genuine. It
also studies how people suppress or emphasize facts depending on who they are surrounded by
and how they want those people to perceive them. Jose van Dijck (University of Amsterdam)

5. compares the actions as being married and making a point to emphasize that fact or conceal it. In
his study about “performing the self”, van Dijck applied Goffman’s theories to the difference in
presentation between social media platforms Facebook and LinkedIn. “For most users, there is a
distinct difference between one’s professional persona, addressed mainly to co-workers and
employers, and one’s self-communication towards ‘friends’” (Dijck, 2013). While neither of
these personas are to be seen as more authentic than the other, self-performance and appealing to
a certain aesthetic certainly plays a big role in advertising to millennials on social media. “In
[Tapscott and Williams] opinion (Wikinomics 2006), transparency, peer collaboration, audience
participation and globalization are changing markets and companies and social networks like
YouTube are crucial” (Pérez-Latre, 2010).
This personality duality was studied by examining athletes through Instagram, a visual
social media platform.
“Athletes rely a great deal on their public image. Indeed, how the public perceives
an athlete can play a significant role in his/her ability to obtain endorsements and in
leveraging sports teams when seeking to re-negotiate contracts. For example, an athlete
seeking to re-negotiate his/her contract could be the most loyal teammate on the roster,
but if media accounts framed her/him as “selfish” and “greedy” these perceptions were
likely to shape how fans viewed the athlete” (Smith and Sanderson, 2015).
Lauren Reichart Smith (University of Alabama) and Jimmy Sanderson (University of Arizona),
Ph.D.s and assistant professors, categorized the social media accounts of sports stars into seven
categories: Socialite, Humanitarian, Family Driven, Personality Traits and Interests, Dedicated
Athlete, Endorser. Each category pertains to the image that an athlete may give him or herself

6. online. All of the athletes placed into these categories are consciously manipulating their image
using social media to portray what is, or what they see to be, the best version of themselves.
Why is self-performance integral to the success of advertisers and who they choose to
advertise with online? Same as athletes, companies can choose to themselves market themselves
a certain way online or choose to market with people that present themselves a certain way. In
order to appeal to the millennial audience, many companies have taken aesthetics into
consideration and market their products in a manner that would appeal to a certain segment of
millennials.
Media-multitasking, eWOM, and self-performance all play an inherent role in how
advertisers should target the millennial generation online. Companies learn how to be, and how
to choose influencers that, balance on the line of being able to engage millennials with an
aesthetic that appeals to them while being able to entertain them and deliver a message
simultaneously. If companies can learn how to do that, the attention of the whole market of 81.3
millennials will be at their disposal.

7. “A Study on the Switch to SMIs and Their Influence
on Millennial Consumer Habits”
Jordyn Stoneberg
Grand Valley State University
Dr. Melba Vélez Ortiz
COM 498-04
Due April 26, 2016

8. ABSTRACT
The purpose of conducting this research was to discover how the traditional meaning of a
“spokesperson” in advertising for cosmetics has changed to the modern “spokesperson” in
advertising for cosmetics on visual social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and
Snapchat and how could that change influence young adult females as consumers in the next ten
years. Due to the recent nature of these social media platforms and their potential impacts, most
of the knowledge in this thesis is obtained through primary research of these social media outlets,
knowledge from being an avid user, and from being a social media influencer. Young adults are
not as susceptible to traditional forms of advertising such as television, print, and radio ads. This
transition of the spokesperson has been translated to the modern day Social Media Influencer
(SMI), which has provided a way to bridge the advertising gap between millennials and
companies in a more personal manner. As a result, these consumers become more educated
buyers and feel empowered to share the knowledge they have learned with others by word of
mouth, a typed online review, or by making her/his own video. This is a trend that is predicted to
only yield more positive results as the years progress, though SMIs may continue to live on
through platforms other than YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat.
Key words: millennials, young adults, purchasing habits, consumer behavior, advertising, social
media, social media influencer, guru, influencer, content creator

9. INTRODUCTION
Word of mouth has always been the most effective means of advertising; Sally likes this
product while Sue likes that one, and at one time either listening to the recommendation of a
friend or blindly trying something for oneself was the only way for a person to find out if an item
worked or not. Traditional forms of media (print, radio, and then television) picked up on this
and issued a broadcast version of word of mouth by introducing the spokesperson in as early as
the beginning of the 1900s. Consumers love(d) seeing their favorite style icon endorsing clothing
or beauty products that they already use (or are easily accessible to them), whether it be people
of royalty speaking on the behalf of Ponds skincare in one of the first evidences of endorsements
in the 1920s (Segrave, 2005) or, more recently, Brooke Shields and how nothing comes between
her and her Calvins (a slogan for Calvin Klein undergarments). As a result of purchasing these
items, consumers felt, and still feel, closer to their icons, and the brands they represent gain a
positive association with that consumer (as long as the experience with the product is positive).
“Advertising practitioners and scholars consider consumer attention a scarce and precious
resource that is difficult to obtain and easily lost (Robert Angell).” As technology progresses and
new generations of people are coming to being, advertising on television and radio is becoming
increasingly less successful, namely for millennials (born between the late 1980s and late 1990s)
who have been exposed to it constantly for their entire lives. Millennials that do engage in
traditional forms of electronic entertainment have learned to bypass advertisements by utilizing
DVR (digital video recorder supplied by their cable company) or simply choose to media
multitask during commercial breaks. Currently millennials hold the record for the largest age
group in America with having an estimated total (due to the indistinguishable line of where the
line is drawn as to who a millennial is) of 83.1 million people as of last year, according to the

10. U.S. Census Bureau. This resistance to traditional means of advertising by millennials has
created a gap between advertisers and young consumers, causing the potential loss of millions of
dollars, and thus a desperate demand by advertisers for a new way to engage this audience has
emerged. Now that information about any given product can be found with a few taps of the
finger, millennials want an advertising spokesperson that they feel they know on a personal level
and can trust with opinions on what to purchase, whether it be clothing or a foundation. This
need is now being met with the recent introduction of the social media influencer.
Who are social media influencers? “Social media influencers (SMIs) represent a new type
of independent third party endorser who shapes audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the
use of other social media (Freberg).” Social media influencers (who are also known as
influensters, beauty gurus, beauty bloggers, and content creators) are everyday (non celebrity)
consumers with social media outlets that are essentially hired by advertisers to bridge this gap in
intimacy between themselves and the millennial. “Influencers are usually novel information
contributors who have the ability to affect the behavior and attitudes of others” (Liu et al., 2015).
SMIs have come with the second social media revolution of the internet; the first appearance
being by contextual social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter that rely mostly on words in
order to communicate with one another. The second overhaul (and the most current use of social
media), the visual wave, relies heavily on images and video in order to communicate.
Applications such as YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are among the most popular visual
social media sites available with over 1 billion daily users altogether.
Millennials are typically cautious to spend their money (speculated to be partially due to
growing up during the recession) and advertisers want to know how to gain their trust again. Do
millennials need a friendly, familiar face in order to be truly convinced to buy? Which leads to

11. the question: How has the traditional meaning of a “spokesperson” in advertising for cosmetics
changed to the modern “spokesperson” in advertising for cosmetics on visual social media
platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat and how could that change influence
young adults as consumers in the next ten years?
METHODOLOGY
Due to the recent nature of these platforms and their potential impacts, most of the
knowledge in this thesis is obtained through primary research of these social media outlets,
knowledge from being an avid user, and from being a social media influencer.
The appeal of SMIs is that they are an average consumer, just like the audience tuning in.
In the past consumers were unable to relate to celebrity spokespeople due to their status and the
fact that most celebrity endorsers are never actually seen utilizing the advertised product other
than in their paid commercials. SMIs, while still online, have the ability to talk (what seems like)
directly to the consumer on their preferred social media platform, whether it be through video or
an image with a caption, which gives them a much more personal touch than spokespeople have
had previously. Viewers are able to see the product being used by influencers that are relatable to
them through posts such as demonstrations with a review solely on the item or “favorites” posts
where the item is simply being mentioned as being frequently used. Every beauty guru has a
niche market that she (or he, as there are male beauty gurus as well) appeals to, which ranges
from ultra-feminine to 90s grunge. These digital natives want to see themselves in the blogger
that they follow and be convinced that the product their guru is selling would work for them
specifically, as opposed to someone with different features or style. “Image is an integral part of
human communication” (Ibrahim, 2015). Humans are exposed, now more than ever, to images
that constantly tell them how to dress and how to act, and therefore their concern for others

12. image of themselves is at a record high; after discovering that the demographic that they were
after is a generation completely fixated on image, advertisers have found a way to capitalize on
their obsession.
There are multiple ways for advertisers to reach viewers through influencers online. A
popular way young adults are subjected to advertisements on YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat
on a social media influencer’s account is through ad clicking. Each platform has different ways
of exposing viewers to these ads (YouTube has AdSense, Instagram has Sponsored posts, and
Snapchat has clips of advertisements between public snaps) that work best with the flow of the
platform. The amount paid to SMIs from this type of advertising is based on how many clicks
each ad received. Generally the more followers that could potentially be exposed to the ads, the
more successful it will be, but all depends on that person’s account engagement. A person with
100,000 viewers will generally make less than someone with 1 million viewers, but if the
account with 100,000 views has the same amount of active followers (followers who like,
comment, and share creator’s content) as the account with a million potential viewers, the two
accounts could make similar profits. Unfortunately there is no way to predict how many viewers
are going to fall victim to these ads and click on them whilst viewing a video, so content creators
(in most cases) can’t rely on ad clicking alone to support their accounts and companies how no
way to control how many people engage in these ads.
Sponsorships are the main source for content creators to make money. In the early stages
(tens of thousands of followers) on an SMI’s account, companies will reach out and ask for an
SMI to promoting products for free, also known as a trade deal. A popular strategy used by
advertisers on Instagram is to offer to pay influencers to tag their items in their pictures. As an
audience gets bigger, a channel becomes more valuable to advertisers and therefore they will

13. reach out more frequently to that account. Companies can ask SMIs to feature their product by
simply using the item or they could ask them to do a full review of the item along with a
demonstration, it all depends on the agreement (which should be a written one in order to
eliminate potential confusion for either party). Sponsorships are a more dependable source of
income for SMIs as well as a more stable way to advertise for companies. SMIs can sign
contracts with companies for an extended period of time and can charge a set amount in order to
showcase an item. This makes it easy for SMIs to calculate how many sponsorships they need to
run their channel and know they have to get at least that much in ad revenue. This is more stable
for companies as well because through the contracts their products are shown at least the agreed
upon amount and length of time.
While it is particularly difficult to measure any given company’s ROI from engaging in
social media marketing, affiliate links and codes at checkout are a more discreet form of
sponsorship that can also be used to monitor where the sales are coming from. A company will
give a SMIs viewers a certain percent off to their online store by either using a specific link
given to the influencer or by the consumer using a certain code at checkout; this way they know
where that customer came from. Generally gurus get a certain payment for each time their
link/code is used (but not always, and the payment per consumer use changes from deal to deal).
Other, less common SMI-advertiser relationships include, but are not limited to:
advertisers paying for SMIs to make appearances at events or attend trips to different locations,
advertisers having SMIs create and sell brand related merchandise, companies may choose to
collaborate with a creator on a certain product or line, and by companies having influencers
make content for use by the company on what social platforms they use.

14. While this technique may work in some capacity to measure ROI, affiliate links and
codes can negatively affect the relationship between the viewers, the guru, and the company
they’re representing. Young consumers seek the honest opinion of the guru they follow, and if
that guru is being paid or receives some form of compensation from reviewing a product, it
raises concerns that the review isn’t truly genuine. In the United States it is illegal to receive
compensation for a product being reviewed without disclosing that there was compensation
given that is mandated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is different than in other
countries. SMIs let their viewers know if a video or image was sponsored by leaving a disclaimer
in the description of that video or image (LearningToBeFearless, 2016):
Certain companies will only work professionally with an influencer they feel represents
their brand. The current (and previous) issue both companies and celebrities endorsers face with
these agreements is that they both have high reputations to uphold; if either party were to

15. publicly act in a manner seen as controversial or against the status quo, the other is seen
negatively as well, which could damage business for both in the future. What is unique about
bloggers (which is much of their appeal) is that they’re consumers just like their audience and
bloggers can purchase items to review themselves, just like anyone else can. A company may not
directly want to work with a guru, but since gurus are entitled to purchase goods just as the
general public is, companies can’t stop from certain gurus reviewing their products (whether it
be good or bad) and that guru being associated with that brand.
It is understood by viewers that many beauty gurus work for YouTube as their full-time
job (due to the time commitment involved in creating and editing content), and that in order to
keep the channel running there has to be some sort of income. Viewers generally receive the
content for free, so the revenue to supplement the channel has to come from somewhere. In order
to keep creating videos and posts that are relevant and on-trend, influencers need the funds to
purchase these items to then review on their platforms for their viewers. That being said, content
creators are not forced to accept any of these forms of compensation, so they are able to pick and
choose which sponsorships they want to receive (whether that be all or nothing). This discretion
allows for creators to get paid to endorse products that they actually like and for the relationship
between creator and consumer to remain positive.
YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are three of the top 10 applications in the Apple App
Store (an application used frequently by millennials) currently and are also the top three social
media sites overall on that list. While all three of these platforms is wildly popular, each platform
is unique in the way it allows SMIs to interact with viewers and vice versa.
YouTube, founded February 14, 2005, is a media sharing website comprised of content
creators and consumers of media, which altogether total up to be over 1 billion users (which

16. happens to also be almost a third of all users currently of the internet). With this many users
there are over hundreds of millions of hours of content consumed daily, which as a result leads to
hundreds of millions of views for creators (which leads to hundreds of millions of dollars in
advertising revenue through ad clicking, sponsorships, etc.). According to YouTube’s page on
statistics, it is especially beneficial to advertisers who choose to advertise on YouTube right now
due the fact that YouTube is up 40 percent in people watching videos since last March (with
evidence to support that next year this trend will only continue to grow) and that YouTube, on its
mobile platform alone (its app for smartphones and tablets), reaches more 18-34 year olds than
any cable network in the U.S. (YouTube, 2016) On the other end, YouTube claims that its
partner revenue is up 50 percent since last year, a continuing trend for the last three years.
Creators/channels that earn six figures a year making content on YouTube is up 50 percent as
well, which keeps influencers motivated to keep making content. Out of the 6 current YouTube
Space production facilities (located in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and Sao
Paulo) alone there have been over 10,000 videos produced, which has had over 1 billion views
and over 70 million hours of play time.
The way that SMIs are able to communicate to millennials through this platform is
mainly through video, which includes regular video postings and live streams (live video chats
broadcasted through YouTube), and some SMIs choose to interact with their viewers though the
description box or the comment section (see below). (DailyPolina, 2016)
.

17. SMIs can choose to use an upload schedule and upload at will, which is at the discretion of the
creator. Influencers may also choose to have a more personal channel that features vlogs (video
blogs, similar to a video diary that can be on a single day, extended over a few days, or duration
of an event) that in some cases can have almost as many viewers as their main, business channels
(and aren’t always comprised of the same viewers are their main channels). These channels are
created to give more insight on what a SMI’s personality is like, which can often be concealed
(in an effort to be more professional) on their business channels.
“The close relationship between images and young people was noted in a Forbes report
which cited teenagers as losing interest in Facebook and migrating to other sites such as mobile
chat and photo-sharing sites such as Instagram and Snapchat” (Yasmin Ibrahim). Instagram and

18. Snapchat can be, and often is, used to supplement an influencer’s YouTube channel. Since
creators can’t post content on their channels around the clock, they utilize these other outlets to
stay connected and relevant. Creators allow more of a behind the scenes view of videos or sneak
peaks of videos to come.
Instagram, the home of overwhelming amounts of pictures of puppies and what everyone
ate that day, was launched on October 6, 2010. This photo-sharing application currently has 300
million active users and is very popular with young adults. While the beauty sector of YouTube
focuses on technique and the process of how things are done (whether it be a tutorial or an outfits
of the week video) Instagram more focuses on aesthetic. Of course there are shortened tutorials
and quick looks at how a favorite influencer styles a certain pair of shoes, a SMI usually focuses
more on music and filters accompanying the content to give their page a certain feel. As
previously stated, advertisers can subtly have influencers wear one of their products, have the
company tagged in the photo, and the sponsored content is complete. No fuss or extended
periods of editing content, which gives Instagram its appeal. A newer angle of advertising is
becoming increasingly more popular involves cosmetics and skincare brands planning exotic,
over the top vacations for select influencers of their choosing to attend to promote their products.
Since aesthetics play such an integral part of Instagram, the lavish settings give influencers an
opportunity to promote that company's items whilst on the beach during sunset; both sides
benefit.
Snapchat, the newest of the three chosen platforms and the least studied, was created in
September of 2011. Snaps (pictures sent from user to user) are sent by over 100 million users
daily. While advertising on Snapchat would seem to be more difficult due to the nature of the
app (the pictures sent between users disappear in under 10 seconds of being opened), advertisers

19. have found a way to reach millennials here as well. In general Snapchat offers more of a behind
the scenes look of whoever users choose to friend; the app allows users to send ten second (or
under) snaps to one another, as well as post snaps to a “story”, which is a compilation of snaps
users can make public to be seen by all of their friends for 24 hours. Influencers have infiltrated
Snapchat by making accounts that coordinate with their professional accounts (on other
platforms such as YouTube or Instagram) to give their viewers a sneak peek into their personal
lives, which helps to reinforce their connection with viewers. Viewers that friend SMIs on
Snapchat encouraged to believe to be in a type of secret club often referred to as a “Snapchat
Fam[ily]” and are perceived as true fans of the influencer. Snapchat friends often get to see
behind the scenes footage of projects that gurus are working on as well as first looks (although
they are only ten seconds) of future videos. SMIs on Snapchat can not only advertise to viewers
by showing them using products in their everyday routines, but also can “snap” themselves at
events and trips paid for by a company to promote a brand (same as Instagram).
Could having a more personal account in addition to a professional account (such as a
snapchat linked to a professional YouTube channel) harm the success of a SMI? After all, Mark
Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was quoted in 2010 saying that “having two identities for
yourself is an example of lacking integrity.” He, of course, said that due to the nature of
Facebook and other narrative social media platforms (LinkedIn, dating websites, etc.) and how
they survey users in order to “sell them” to advertisers, which a streamlined “authentic” account
would make much more simple. While this is true for those platforms, the same isn’t true for
YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. “That is, the more genuine an [influencer] appears, or the
more they appear to share similar interests and characteristics with audiences, that may be more
fruitful than tactical driven self-presentation” (Smith and Sanderson).

20. FINDINGS/RESULTS
This new breed of spokesperson is infiltrating the market and making millennials a
valuable commodity. By bridging the gap between these consumers and advertisers through
social media influencers, companies are able to get feedback on their items as well as make a
profit off of the sales SMIs encourage. As a result of this content being available for the public,
these platforms have created more educated consumers, which is mostly a positive for
companies, but can be detrimental to companies will poor quality products. Consumers feel
empowered by this knowledge and thus are more likely to share their results, whether that be
with friends, leaving a review, or making a video/post of their own. There is so much potential
for profit for SMIs and companies utilizing them, but with no real way to measure the return on
their investment, companies will have to keep blindly supporting these influencers with hopes
that the trend in their sales from year to year only improve.
DISCUSSION
This research is the most recent in discovering how advertisers are targeting the female
millennial audience and is done from both an inside and outside perspective. Advertisers will
continue to choose to market to consumers through traditional forms of media because it is safe,
but this new form of advertising will stem from advertising to millennials and grow to influence
people outside of that market. It would be beneficial for advertisers to study how influence by a
SMI on millennial purchasing could then influence older generations purchasing habits. If a
young adult female were to be taken shopping with or by her mother (or a feminine older figure
in their lives), would that mother not be exposed to those products as well? Would that exposure
lead to a purchase, and then potential for word of mouth advertising? A study regarding that
topic would be interesting to see. The SMI-company business relationship helps to stimulate the

21. economy not only by increasing purchases, but also by creating jobs. SMIs can be self-employed
or being managed by an agency or multiple channel network (MCN), and since anyone could be
a social media influencer, the potential for jobs is limitless.
In future research it would be beneficial to looking into effects of gender and culture of
SMIs on their audience and how their influence could differ from one another. There is also a
large body positivity community online which spans across all three forms of this social media,
and it would be interesting to see how SMIs, who encourage positive self-image through their
content, rank in influence against those who do not.
While it seems evident that SMIs are here for the long haul due to their success, new
platforms, such as Vessel, are emerging that have content similar to YouTube, but charge a
subscription fee to view content. It will be interesting to see how these new platforms perform
long term and if they have the same success as YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat have had, and
will continue to have.
LIMITATIONS
There is so much information about these social media platforms, but because the
research is so current and constantly evolving, finding relevant, scholarly research on this topic
was impossible. Most scholarly studies on advertising with social media are done with Facebook,
which was on the last “wave” of the social media revolution and therefore makes the data not as
credible. Rates for social media advertising change from SMI to SMI and are kept private, which
makes proving how much an SMI is paid very difficult to discuss. A real problem companies are
facing with the integration of the internet with advertising is that there is no foolproof way to
measure ROI with online advertising, so there is no reliable way to prove what influence these
SMIs have other than to observe their content and the response to that content online.

22. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Lisa Hanasono, an assistant professor at Bowling State Green
University, for taking the time to discuss my research with me and for her insight on
communication theories. I would also like to thank Dr. Melba Vélez Ortiz for her guidance and
for putting me in contact with scholars on my research topic.

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