Influencer marketing in social media

This publication addresses the research questions of the extent to which influencer marketing in social media is suitable as an opinion-forming tool in online communication and what potential can be demonstrated through the collaboration of brand ambassadors (influencers) with companies. The theoretical part of the thesis defines the term influencer marketing examines the use of social media by companies investigates the opportunities and risks associated with the use of influencers and explores the impact of influencer marketing. The methodological part of the thesis analyzes a highly acclaimed social media campaign from 2015 featuring the renowned influencer Bianca Heinicke. To this end the video material of the campaign is evaluated for audiovisual information on the one hand and on the other hand the YouTube comments on the announcement video are subjected to a qualitative content analysis. The results clearly show that it was useful to carry out such a project in order to be able to present findings on successful influencer marketing campaigns on social media platforms.