Influencer Marketing: Building Brand Communities and Engagement

Influencers offer brands the ability to deliver the 'right' communication and marketing messages to a specific target audience. This is one of the first textbooks to explore the phenomenon of influencer marketing and how it fits within marketing communications to build brands and their communities. Across four core sections, this book brings together the key theory and practical implications of this new marketing tool: how it works as part of communications campaigns, including how to select the right influencers and measure their success, the dark side of influencer marketing, and the legal and ethical framework. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of influencer marketing from the perspectives of influencers, agencies, brands, and platforms. This 2nd edition has been fully updated to refresh and add content on agency recruitment, brand-influencer partnerships, analysis of cultural differences and cross-border promotions in China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa, influencer crisis and care, emerging regulations, sharenting, de-influencing, virtual influencers, the impact of AI, and metrics and measurements for efficacy. It also delves into regulatory impacts on influencers, agencies, and brands. Interviews with influencers and agencies help the reader delve into lived experiences. Underpinned by academic theory, the book incorporates case studies, questions, platform considerations, and ethical implications to stimulate discussion amongst students and show how the theory is applied in practice. Influencer Marketing should be core and recommended reading for advanced undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education students of Digital Marketing, Advertising, Marketing Communications, Brand Management, and Public Relations. With its accessible style and practical content, it is also highly valuable for Marketing Communications, Branding, and PR specialists. Online resources include PowerPoint slides, podcasts, an instructor manual, and test banks.