Abstract:

At the present time, the increasing of competition and product range make consumers and their behaviours more important for businesses. The consumer is influenced by a variety of individuals and factors, primarily family, circle of friends, and opinion leaders in his or her behaviors. Recently, the increase in the use and impressiveness of social media platforms has brought influencers to the fore as opinion leaders in consumer behavior. Influencers able to affect consumers by sharing own experiences about goods, services and ideas. In this study, online survey was conducted to 500 participants with convenience sampling method and the collected data was analyzed. The aim of the study is to determine whether influencers are seen as opinion leaders by consumers in consumer behavior. In this study, it is extrapolated that consumers who are social media users consider influencers as an opinion leader and this consideration differs according to consumers demographic characteristics such as age, education, gender and income level.