Drivers of User Engagement in Influencer Branding: An Empirical Analysis of Brand-Related User-Generated Content on Instagram (Innovatives Markenmanagement)

The knowledge on how to influence user engagement metrics and thereby brand visibility plays a crucial role in influencer branding - both for social media influencers as well as marketers. Based upon two holistic empirical models and the analysis of real-world data, Tanja Fink is able to show important drivers of user engagement in influencer branding. Therefore, the author is building upon established models from research in celebrity endorsement, product placement and social media marketing. The profound empirical results reveal surprising and highly relevant insights for brand managers which call for a more conscientious (visual) integration of brands in user-generated content (UGC) on Instagram. In addition, the author detects several mechanisms for increasing user engagement while preventing user reactance towards the brand endorsement. About the Author: Dr. Tanja Fink received her PhD at Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmanns markstones Institute of Marketing, Branding & Technology at the University of Bremen. Geleitwort Vorwort Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables 1 User Engagement in Influencer Branding as Research Objective 1.1 Relevance of Social Media Influencers for Brand Management 1.2 The Basic Model of Influencer Branding 1.3 Performance Measurement in Influencer Branding 1.4 Drivers of User Engagement in Influencer Branding as Research Gap 1.4.1 Evaluation of the Current State of Research 1.4.2 Conclusion and Derivation of Research Gaps 1.5 Research Objective, Research Aims and Study Outline 2 Theoretical Foundations on Drivers of User Engagement 2.1 Integration of SMIs in the Identity-based Brand Management Model 2.2 User Engagement as a Focal KPI in Influencer Branding 2.2.1 Derivation of the Construct User Engagement 2.2.2 Distinction of User Engagement Metrics 2.2.3 Outcomes of User Engagement 2.3 Deduction of User Engagement Drivers in Influencer Branding 2.3.1 SMI-related Drivers of User Engagement 2.3.2 Brand-related Drivers of User Engagement 2.3.3 Content-related Drivers of User Engagement 2.3.4 Summary of User Engagement Drivers and Selection of Control Variables 3 Empirical Validation of Drivers of User Engagement in Influencer Branding 3.1 Methodological Basis and Operationalization of Variables 3.1.1 Methodology and Research Context 3.1.2 Operationalization of Variables 3.2 Data Coding and Data Sample 3.3 Empirical Models for Measuring User Engagement in Influencer Branding 3.4 Results of Data Analysis 3.4.1 Review of Model Assumptions for Regression Analysis 3.4.2 Overview of Estimation Results for the User Engagement Models 3.4.3 SMI-related Drivers of User Engagement 3.4.4 Brand-related Drivers of User Engagement 4 Conclusion, Reflection and Outlook 4.1 Summary of the Empirical Results 4.2 Managerial Implications 4.2.1 SMI Trustworthiness and the Moderating Role of the SMI/Brand-Fit 4.2.2 SMI Expertise and the Moderating Role of the Type of Content 4.2.3 Prominence of SMI and Brand Placements 4.2.4 Plot Connection 4.3 Implications for Further Research References