How Micro-Celebrity (MC) Maintains Followership and Achieves Endorsement Success in Social Media: The Role of MC-Follower's Relationship Building

Abstract

Micro-celebrities (MCs) are people who leverage on their popularity gaining among followers through social media and other online communities. With the rise of social media, an increasing number of MCs are launching their careers and actively performing on social media platforms. Many MCs achieve success in their careers as MCs. For example, one can become famous by attracting and maintaining a loyal group of followers, or by earning economic benefits as a marketing channel for brands' promotion (i.e., product endorsement). Given the growing popularity of MCs, it remains challenging for MCs to sustain long-term loyalty from followers in practice. Moreover, although some MCs are able to maintain a large group of followers in the long run, the effectiveness of their endorsements is still not satisfactory. Previous studies on MC have examined MC's endorsement from various perspectives. However, few of them have considered the importance of unique relationships between MC and followers established on social media. Compared to traditional celebrities, MCs have two unique features when building relationships with their followers. First, MC is perceived as a "friend-in-distance" to followers and has more intimate communication with followers than traditional celebrities. Second, MC is perceived as "semi-professional" in their talent domain. Thus, it is interesting to investigate MC's success from the perspective of MC's unique relationships with followers. In specific, how do MCs build relationships with their followers? What role can these relationships play in influencing the success or failure of the MC in maintaining followership and endorsing the products? In the proposed research project, we plan to conduct two studies.

Chapter 1 introduces the research background, the motivation of this thesis, the specific research questions, and the potential contributions of the thesis.

Chapter 2 is the first study. In study 1, we seek to answer the question: "How will an MC utilize social media affordances to build relationships with followers?" and "How do such relationships contribute to the MC's success in maintaining followership?" Based on emotional attachment theory and attainable role-model perspective, a two-level theoretical framework is built. A nested dataset, which includes real posts from different MCs and questionnaires from those MCs' followers, was collected. The data analysis results show that both MC-related factors and follower-related factors enabled by social media are important the MC-follower relationship building. In specific, MC's self-disclosure breadth, the interactivity between the MC and the follower, and the follower's need for relatedness are positively associated with the follower's emotional attachment to the MC. Moreover, MC's self-disclosure depth is negatively associated with followers' emotional attachment to the MC. The perceived talent of the MC in a specific domain, the perceived congruency between the MC and the follower's ideal self, and the follower's need for self-enhancement are positively associated with the follower’s role-model identification with the MC. Furthermore, follower's role-model identification with the MC can positively contribute to the follower's emotional attachment. Moreover, both followers' emotional attachment and role-model identification on the MC are important for followers continuous following intention and behaviors.

Chapter 3 is the second study. In study 2, we explore the question of "How will relational factors influence endorsement success?" and "What is the role of MC's social impact in this influencing process?" From the perspective of social impact theory, we built the theoretical model and conducted a survey among followers of various MCs in mainland China to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that followers' emotional attachment and identification with the MC as a role model positively influence the MC's endorsement effectiveness, primarily through influence strength and social immediacy. Furthermore, the fitness between the MC and the product will influence the MC's endorsement effectiveness, but the moderating effects of fitness on the relationship between the MC's social impact and MC's endorsement effectiveness are not found.

In chapter 4, a summary of the thesis, theoretical and practical contributions, implications, limitations, and future research directions has also been discussed.

Date of Award	23 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Choon Ling SIA (Supervisor)