Influencer Marketing Building Brand Communities and Engagement

This is one of the first textbooks to explore the phenomenon of Influencer Marketing and how it fits within marketing communications to build brands and their communities. Influencers ? those who can impact a brand?s marketing and advertising strategies as well as build brand communities ? are making extensive use of the new digital and traditional communications platforms. Influencers offer brands the ability to deliver the ?right? communication and marketing messages to a specific target audience.

Across four core sections, this book brings together the key theory and practical implications of this new marketing tool: how it works as part of communications campaigns, including how to select the right influencers and measure their success, the dark side of influencer marketing, and the legal and ethical framework. With contributions from authors across the globe, each chapter is also accompanied by an in- depth case study ? from the Kardashians to Joe Wicks ? that demonstrates how the theory translates to practice.

Influencer Marketing is important reading for advanced, postgraduate and executive education students of Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing Communications, Brand Management and Public Relations. With its accessible style and practical content, it is also highly valuable for Marketing Communications, Branding and PR specialists.

Introduction Part 1: Exploring Influencers and Influencer Marketing 1. The Rise of Influencers and Influencer Marketing 2. Social Media Influencers versus Traditional Influencers: Roles and Consequences for Traditional Marketing Campaigns 3. Identifying and Selecting the Right Influencers in the Digital Era 4. How to Map and Select Digital Influencers for Marketing Campaigns Part 2: Influencers as part of Marketing Communication Campaigns 5. Choosing the Right Influencer for Your Brand 6. Post Millennials and Their Motivation to Engage with Influencers Brand-related Content on Instagram 7. Parasocial Relationships of Generation Z Consumers with Social Media Influencers 8. Can you make the world more sustainable with Influencers? Exploring consumers’ motivations to engage with and Influencers’ sustainable content on Instagram 9. Female Environmental Influencers on Instagram Part 3: The Dark Side of Influencers 10. "Hope this is not sponsored": Is an Influencer's credibility impacted when using sponsored versus non-sponsored content? 11. The Monetization of Opinions: An investigation into consumer responses to covert endorsement practices on Instagram 12. The Art of Deception: Will fake followers decay trust and can authenticity preserve it? Part 4: Legal and Future aspects of Influencer Marketing 13. Influencer Marketing and the Law 14. Taking the Biscuit: Exploring Influencers, Advertising and Regulation 15. Virtual Influencers: More Human Than Human 16. Influencer Marketing: Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Sevil Yesiloglu P.h.D., is a senior lecturer in Advertising at London College of Communication, University of Art London, UK.

Joyce Costello P.h.D., is a Public Affairs Specialist for the US Army, and was previously a senior lecturer in Digital Marketing at Bournemouth University, UK.