Issue Summary
March (Vol. 66, Issue 1)

When Influencer Size and Message Style Work Best Together

Does a larger follower count make influencers more persuasive? This research argues that the answer depends on how consumers psychologically construe the message. Drawing on construal-level theory, the authors show that an influencer’s follower size signals social distance—larger influencers feel more distant, while smaller influencers feel closer to audiences. Across secondary data and three experiments, the study finds that persuasion increases when this perceived distance matches the style and placement of the message. Influencers with smaller followings are more effective when posts clearly identify the brand (such as through brand tagging) and appear on the influencer’s own channel. In contrast, influencers with larger followings perform better when brand promotion is more subtle or appears on a brand-owned channel. The findings show that influencer effectiveness depends not simply on follower count, but on aligning the influencer’s perceived social distance with the level of message concreteness.