The Impact of Following Duration on the Perception of Influencers and Their Persuasive Effectiveness Explained by Parasocial Relationship Stages

In recent years, social media influencers (SMIs) have emerged as prominent brand endorsers. Among their followers, some have followed their chosen influencers from the start, while others only recently subscribed to their channels. However, it has not yet been investigated if the persuasive impact differs among followers based on their duration of following. Consequently, our study aimed to investigate how the duration of following influencers on social media influences their persuasive effectiveness, utilizing the parasocial relationship stages model. Employing a four-level between-subjects online experiment (N = 217), our findings indicate that compared to non- and short-term followers, individuals following influencers for middle and long durations experience heightened parasocial interaction (PSI) as well as perceived source credibility when viewing sponsored posts. Consequently, this enhanced PSI and perceived credibility contributes to increased advertising effectiveness. These results shed light on the intricate effects of influencer endorsements on their followers.