Research Article

INFLUENCER MARKETING THE CASE OF NORTH MACEDONIA

ABSTRACT

It is believed that influencer marketing is making a huge impact on businessess. Whenever someone online attracts the attention of the consumer, he/she can be considered as an influencer. Whether the consumer is following a politician or an expert on Instagram, or picking recipes and cooking according to the Facebook chef page or is growing flowers as a Pinterest gardener, or is watching a video from the favorite YouTube vlogger, it is a matter of communicating with an influencer. Influencer is a person who is at the forefront of social trends. He/ she is able to create new ideas, concepts or content (innovators) or discovers trends before anyone else and is spreading them further into the social medium (disseminators). Influencers are Internet users with a lot of subscribers across different social networks, who have significant influence on their followers. In simple words, an influencer is a person who is able to impact on purchasing decisions of others by using social networks. Companies are trying to use influencers in order to attract more consumers to see and buy their products or services. However, there are many intrigues related to this kind of marketing. Many experts and marketers believe that influencer marketing is not achieving the expected results and that it is only about tricks and frauds. This paper attempts to explain the use and impact of influencer marketing on Macedonian consumers. Do they believe in influencers and do they buy according to influencers‘ recommendations. In order to achieve this goal and answer the questions, an electronic survey was conducted

Keywords

Influencer marketing social networks Instagram Facebook YouTube innovators disseminators