Exploring how followers’ verification behavior influence sharing decisions: the role of source, content and audience factors

What the paper says

Purpose Due to the pervasive use of social media platforms, firms use social media influencers (SMIs) to exploit the massive number of social media users to promote their products and services. The success of influencer marketing remains in strong influencer–follower engagement. One method to engage with SMIs is through sharing their content. Yet, little has been investigated about the factors that encourage followers’ sharing decisions. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by adopting the communication persuasion matrix to identify factors related to the source, message and audience. Moreover, it explores how followers’ verification behavior influences their sharing behavior, using digital media literacy to understand how followers evaluate and verify SMIs’ content. Design/methodology/approach Given the lack of past studies and the exploratory nature of this research, the authors adopted a qualitative approach to gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors that inspire followers to engage with and share SMIs’ posts. Qualitative research allows for an in-depth exploration of the concepts under study, aiming to generate insights that can advance theory rather than derive statistical inference. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews, this approach enabled us to gather rich, detailed information on the motivations and behaviors of social media users. Findings This qualitative study’s findings conclude that factors like source popularity, content creativity, audience personal values and self-efficacy influence followers’ sharing behavior. The results also suggest a framework that links verification behavior to sharing behavior and demonstrates that verification behavior is important when engaging with SMIs. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to highlight factors that engage followers to share SMIs’ posts, filling a gap in the literature by incorporating source, content and audience-related factors. The study introduces the concept of followers’ verification behavior, linking it to engagement and sharing decisions, and paves the way for new research avenues. In addition, by using semi-structured interviews, the authors provide a nuanced understanding of follower−influencer engagement, offering fresh insights often overlooked in quantitative studies.