Many years ago, I conducted a small experiment on persuasion for a graduate school class. I went to a grocery store with a friend, and we found products to rave about out loud while pretending to be shopping. Our script was,
"Oh, wow, they have this new... Have you tried it? It's amazing and hard to find. I'm getting two boxes."
We would then watch the people who overheard our enthusiastic exchanges and record whether or not they bought the products we mentioned. I don't recall our numbers, but there were many purchases. We did not realize we were original influencers circa 1990 before it was "cool."
A modern-day "digital influencer" is an individual with a dedicated social media following over which they have influence (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Successful influencers utilize their knowledge,........