social Media influencers typology 159 carlos flavián and sergio barta Social Media Infuencers Typology The emergence and development of social net- working services such as Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as the growing impor- tance of the opinions transmitted on social net- works and the increasing infuence that some people exert on others, have motivated some people to create and share content related to specifc experiences or topics on different social networks in a professional, semi-professional or altruistic way (Weismueller et al., 2020). These people are commonly called infuencers. They are an important source of information for their followers and may affect their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and behaviours (Casaló, Flavián and Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020). These infuenc- ers have been divided into different categories based on different criteria. There is a distinction between nano-infuencers, micro-infuencers, macro-infuencers and mega- infuencers. Typology is based according to the number of followers on which there is a certain consensus (Turner, 2020), as follows: • nano-infuencer (less than 1000); • micro-infuencer (1000 to 100 000); • macro-infuencer (100 001 to 1 million); • mega-infuencer (more than 1 million). Different characteristics have been attributed to each category. Infuencers with a smaller number of followers create quality content, have greater closeness with their followers and a higher level of persuasion. Infuencers with a larger number of followers have a much greater reach and are considered to be opin- ion leaders and more popular (De Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders, 2017; Kay, Mulcahy and Parkinson, 2020). According to the degree to which the infu- encer creates content on different platforms and to the audience contact generated by the infu- encer, four categories have been established (Gross and Wangenheim, 2018): • Snoopers: create content simply for entertainment. They enjoy creating con- tent and sharing it with a like-minded audience. They seek to build a network of friends and contacts with whom to share experiences. They have a limited reach but establish close relationships with their audience. • Informers: seek to share their knowledge with their audience, who are looking for advice on very specifc issues. They often pay close attention to the comments of their followers to explain the solution to their problems, which, in turn, their audi- ence broadcasts. In this category, being perceived as a reliable and credible source of information is essential. • Entertainers: seek to provide fun and entertainment. To do so, they produce creative content with personal details to encourage their followers to have a good time. Contact with the audience is not as close and frequent as in the previous categories. Usually, interaction with their followers occurs through Q&A videos, live-stream videos or asking for feedback on the content. • Infotainers: a mix between informers and entertainers. They are experts on an area but do not initially seek to offer advice to followers. They create personalized entertainment content but also informa- tive content and content that is a mixture of both. As a result, they attract a more diverse audience. One group of follow- ers engages with them to seek advice by Carlos Flavián and Sergio Barta - 9781800377486 Downloaded from PubFactory at 11/30/2022 11:16:01PM by sbarta@unizar.es via Sergio Barta