How Selfies Change the Effect of Product Endorsers in Social Media: The Role of Self-Disclosure and Social Interactivity

This paper studies the role of selfie and social interactivity in the effect of product endorsers in social media. Given taking selfie is a self-presentation photograph about people’s private information, we interpret selfie as a high form of self-disclosure. We think this form of self-disclosure can moderate the effect of product endorsers’ attractiveness and credibility on consumers’ attitudes. Meanwhile, as selfie is usually posted in social media like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, the environment of social media also should influence the effect of product endorsers. Towards social media environment, we select social interactivity as one of social media characteristics and propose that social interactivity also can moderate the effect of product endorsers’ attractiveness and credibility on consumers’ attitudes. Then we discuss the methodology and potential contribution of this study.