The Impact of Minority Influencers: Exploring Consumer Reactions to Social Media Content

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of minority representation on consumer responses on social media. The authors analyze data from sponsored and organic content posted by both brands and influencers on Twitter. Utilizing over 10 million posts, they leverage artificial intelligence techniques to construct a measure of minority representation in sponsored posts by influencers. Their findings indicate that minority representation has a U-shaped effect on consumer engagement with subsequent brand-authored posts, suggesting that it may be suboptimal for brands to adopt a moderate approach to diversity in their social media strategy. Additionally, the paper explores the potential moderating effects of brand characteristics, such as public signaling of support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and brand popularity, which intensify the U-shape relationship between minority representation and consumer engagement. These insights can help managers improve their influencer marketing strategies.