SMM3 - Persuasive intent & social influencers

What are the three characteristics that make SMM unique?

Innovation, social, relevance

Define persuasive intent

An explicit desire to influence someone; marketers often hide this because it can affect message persuasiveness

Define persuasion knowledge (Friestad & Wright, 1994)

Personal knowledge about persuasion tactics that helps consumers identify how, when and why marketers try to influence them, used to offer resistance and give a sense of control

What are the three components of the Persuasion Knowledge Model on the target's side?

Topic knowledge, persuasion knowledge, agent knowledge

What is agent knowledge, with an example?

What the target knows about the company/source trying to persuade them; e.g. recognizing the Burger King logo in an ad

What is the difference between agent knowledge and persuasion knowledge in an ad?

Agent knowledge = knowing who is behind the message (the brand); persuasion knowledge = recognizing the specific tactic being used (e.g. a low price as a hook)

What happens when a marketer realizes the target has persuasion knowledge about a topic?

They change the ad/strategy to avoid triggering recognition of the persuasion attempt

What is detachment in the context of the PKM?

When the target disengages from the persuasion context after recognizing the attempt; marketers try to suppress this

Why do people trust social influencers more than brands? (Croes & Bartels, 2021)

Influencers present themselves as "ordinary" people, appearing approachable, authentic and friendly, which reduces perceived persuasive intent

What are virtual influencers and what motivates people to follow them?

CGI/AI-based avatars with realistic expressions; motives include curiosity, intrigue, perceived similarity, and following general life-related content

Name two similarities and two differences between virtual and human influencers

Similarities: celebrity status, parasocial responses; Differences: VIs have no offline presence, audiences feel more distant since agencies create the content

Why might virtual influencers be perceived as more authentic than human influencers, and what does this affect?

Lee et al. (2025) found VIs are perceived as more authentic; authenticity is positively associated with trust, and trust is positively associated with purchase intention

Explain why influencer posts have lower persuasion knowledge activation than brand posts, and what effect this has

Influencer content feels more personal/authentic and less like advertising, so PK is lower, which leads to more positive SMM effects (less resistance)

What did Vassey et al. (2025) find about how e-cigarette influencer networks function on Instagram vs. TikTok?

Instagram is a dense, interconnected community (influencers follow each other); TikTok is more fragmented, spread via the For You Page algorithm rather than network ties

Explain why a small number of "super-influencers" matter so much in vaping promotion networks

They form the structural core of the network; removing them would cause the global network to largely collapse, and algorithmic amplification pushes their content to non-smokers