The Influence Of Vloggers’ Interaction Strategies On Source Trustworthiness And Brand Trust From The Perspective Of Pra-social Relationship

The popularity of Internet technology promotes the development of social media,especially video social media(such as live broadcast,Tiktok,Vlog,etc.).As a new form of short video,Vlog is a Video-Blog used by video bloggers to record their daily life.Vlog,which has the characteristics of authenticity,presence and interactivity,can draw consumers’ psychological distance from vloggers and form an intimate perception similar to friendship in continuous contact.Such one-way and virtual para-social relationship(PSR)can make more and more consumers willing to trust and buy the brands and products recommended by vloggers.The theory of Para-social Relationship is widely used in the research of celebrity endorsements and influencers’ marketing effectiveness.In the past,scholars focused on "why para-social relationship are formed",and spent a lot of effort to determine that the attributes of audience and media figures(such as physical attractiveness,similarity,etc.)are prerequisites for parasocial relationship,which can promote marketing effects;With the popularity of video social media,the instant interaction with consumers and the presentation of scenario-based content have enabled the construction of para-social relationship from passive to active.However,at present,the academic community lacks systematic research on "how to build para-social relationshiphips" in the context of social media,and relevant empirical research is also relatively lacking.Based on the existing research gaps,this paper,in the context of Vlog,attempts to explore the impact of interactive strategies on the construction of pra-social relationships,the role of pra-social relationships between interaction strategies,source credibility and brand trust,moreover the impact of sponsorship disclosure types on marketing results.This paper uses the method of combining theoretical research with empirical research to review the para-social relationship theory,social penetration theory,social presence theory,source credibility theory,etc.,proposes the conceptual model,and carries out the following research: Study 1,on the basis of combing the existing literature,summarizes social media interaction strategies into three dimensions: interactivity,self-disclosure and social presence,and explores the impact of interaction strategies on pra-social relationships,and ranks the importance of the influencing factors of interaction strategy.On the basis of study 1,study 2 puts forward relevant conceptual models with para-social relationshiphip as the mediating variable,source credibility and brand trust as dependent variables,to explore the influence of interaction strategies on source trustworthiness and brand trust;By demonstrating the positive effect of source trustworthiness on brand trust,this paper explores the chain mediating effect of para-social relationshiphip and source trustworthiness on interactive strategies and brand trust.Using 412 questionnaires from the Vlog audience of bilibili video website,based on partial least squares regression structural equation modeling method(PLS-SEM)and Smart PLS software,reliability and validity test,structural equation modeling analysis,and mediation effect analysis were carried out for the above two sub-studies.Finally,the research results were obtained: First,the interactive strategies has a significant positive effect on the pra-social relationship,and the degree of influence is in descending order of interactivity,social presence and self-disclosure.Second,the para-social relationship plays a mediating role between the three interactive strategies,the source trustworthiness,and brand trust;Third,para-social relationshiphip and source trustworthiness play a chain mediating role between the three interactive strategies and brand trust.Throughout the whole paper,this paper focuses on the research direction of "The impact of Vlogger interaction strategies on source trustworthiness and brand trust from the perspective of pra-social relationship" and makes innovations in the following two aspects: On the one hand,in the context of domestic Vlog for the first time,based on the characteristics of video social media and literature review,this paper systematically explores the influence of social media interaction strategies such as interactivity,self-disclosure and social presence on the pra-social relationship between audiences and vloggers.It enriches the research results of the antecedent construction of the para-social relationship theory.On the other hand,based on the source credibility theory and pra-social relationship theory,it provides a more reasonable explanation for the mechanism of social media interaction strategy on brand trust.To sum up,this study has constructed a theoretical framework of "social media interaction strategy-pra-social relationship-source trustworthiness-brand trust" in the context of domestic Vlog,which is conducive to enriching the theoretical knowledge of Vlog marketing.It also provides advice to vloggers and their partner brands on social media how to manage their self-presentation and how to use Vlog to properly promote their marketing campaigns.