Review of Social Media Influencer Marketing with Sponsored Posts

Instagram serves as a vital platform for the selection of tourism destinations. Travel influencers on Instagram appear to exert considerable influence in this regard; however, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting this assertion. This paper endeavors to illuminate this subject.The objectives of this study are twofold: (a) to investigate the impact of Instagram travel influencers on users’ perceptions of a sustainable destination, and (b) to assess the significance of geo-location data employed by influencers in users’ selection of such destinations. The research selected thirty sustainable tourism destinations and analyzed the influence of ten macro-travel influencers on Instagram, as gauged by their followers' interactions with their posts. A mixed-method approach was employed, integrating cross-sectional and quantitative data analysis. The study utilized panel data in conjunction with multiple hierarchical analysis and a regression model. The findings indicate that Instagram travel influencers, functioning as communicators within social media, positively correlate with the selection of sustainable destinations. While sponsored posts by social media influencers (SMIs) on Instagram have increased dramatically as an advertising strategy, empirical results on their effectiveness are still lacking. This study investigates consumer engagement with sponsored posts versus nonsponsored posts (NSPs), particularly comparing microinfluencers and macroinfluencers. We also explore engagement with sponsored posts featuring different advertising appeals—informational versus transformational. Using a binomial regression on a data set of ۶۴,۴۳۸ sponsored Instagram posts by SMIs, we find that (۱) users engage more with sponsored posts than NSPs, (۲) notably with microinfluencers, and (۳) more with informational appeals from macroinfluencers compared to microinfluencers. These findings offer insights for advertisers and SMIs and contribute to the literature on influencer advertising and marketing.

Keywords:

Instagram Influencers , Sustainable Tourism , Social Media Strategy , Sponsored Content , Consumer Trust.