Aiming to explore the process of social influence in the social media environment, this study addresses consumers' complex psychological processes, attitudes, and behaviors when interacting with social media influencers (SMIs). Our main objective is to explore the impact of follower status on parasocial relations (PSRs) with SMIs considering the moderating role of the involvement with the product the SMI is advertising on Instagram. Furthermore, we investigate how follower status, mediated by PSRs and the SMI's credibility, has an impact on the effectiveness of the persuasive process and contributes to SMIs' social influence in online environments. We worked together with an actual female SMI with 12,000 followers who posts content on Instagram. Contrary to our predictions, our results showed that being a follower on Instagram does not necessarily mean having a PSR with an SMI. Product involvement has a moderating role in the sense that only those followers who report having high involvement have a strong PSR with the SMI. Moreover, a PSR positively impacts the SMI's credibility, leading to positive attitudes toward the brand and increased intentions to purchase the advertised products and spread the content created by the SMI on social media.

本研究旨在探索社交媒体环境中的社会影响过程，探讨消费者在与社交媒体影响者 (SMI) 互动时复杂的心理过程、态度和行为。我们的主要目标是探讨追随者状态对与 SMI 的准社会关系 (PSR) 的影响，考虑到参与 SMI 在 Instagram 上宣传的产品的调节作用。此外，我们调查了由 PSR 和 SMI 的可信度介导的追随者状态如何影响说服过程的有效性，并有助于 SMI 在在线环境中的社会影响。我们与一位在 Instagram 上发布内容的拥有 12,000 名追随者的真正女性 SMI 合作。与我们的预测相反，我们的结果表明，成为 Instagram 上的追随者并不一定意味着拥有带有 SMI 的 PSR。产品参与具有调节作用，因为只有那些报告参与度高的追随者对 SMI 有很强的 PSR。此外，PSR 对 SMI 的可信度产生积极影响，导致对品牌的积极态度，增加购买广告产品的意愿，并在社交媒体上传播 SMI 创建的内容。