Social media influencer’s credibility toward millennial’s purchase intention of IT products in Malaysia

This study aims to analyse the characteristics of influencers’ credibility in social media marketing which may affect the purchase intention of IT products from the millennials’ perspective in Malaysia. This study utilised and integrated source credibility model to examine several influencer’s attributes, which include attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness that affect the credibility of social media influencers and customer purchase intention. Data were collected online from 204 millennials in Malaysia via the purposive sampling method and analysed through SmartPLS. The credibility of social media influencers had a significant impact on the audience’s buying intention. Attractiveness and trustworthiness of social media influencers are also the characteristics that are significant in shaping the credibility of the influencer yet influence the audience’s purchase intention as well. Credibility also has a significant mediating role in between attractiveness and trustworthiness towards the audience’s purchase intention. This study’s result can guide the marketer in choosing the right candidates. They have the relevant attributes and are well-matched to the brand identity and values, which can greatly affect the customer purchase intention yet to achieve the marketing campaign objective. This study used the source of credibility to study the influencing power of social media influencers towards purchasing intention of IT products, with the context of millennials in Malaysia as a target group. This study has also tested the mediating effect of influencers’ credibility between millennials’ purchase intention and a few influencer attributes.