Leveraging followers’ attitude toward Indonesian social media influencers on purchase intention

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.