Motives for following social media influencers: Scale development and validation

Abstract

The study develops a 33 items Influencer Following Motives Scale for analyzing why people follow social media influencers. The study unfolds in four stages: initial item formation through interviews and literature review, item refinement via exploratory factor analysis, validation of the scale through confirmatory factor analysis, and final validation using the Multi-Trait Multi-Method Matrix. The scale identifies eleven motivational dimensions: Beauty, Authenticity, Learning, Boredom, Expertise, Entertainment, Aesthetics, Curiosity, Sharing, Similarity, and Information. The developed measurement scale aids in understanding follower motivations, offering insights for influencers and content creators to engage their audience more effectively.