How To Convert Millennial Consumers to Brand Evangelists Through Social Media Micro-Influencers

Undoubtedly, in the modern age of digitalization, Millennials, who are considered digital natives, have become a massive target market for salespersons. Changes in the way Millennials think accompanied by an explosion of social media have led to an increased focus on social media influencer marketing in the company sector. To help establish a new marketing paradigm that accounts for these changes, this research aims to conceptualize and investigate the process of building consumer-brand relationships with Millennial consumers through social media micro-influencers. Findings based on structural equation modeling revealed that four core characteristics of social media micro-influencers (i.e., authenticity, the meaning of the influencer, specific content, and secret sharing) were a significant antecedent of brand engagement and brand love, which, in turn, mediated the pathway from social media micro-influencer characteristics to brand evangelism. Understanding what social media micro-influencers mean to Millennials offers the promise of improving brand evangelism through more precise market analysis and market strategy. In the discussion, the paper introduces a three-stage building method towards brand evangelism through social media micro- influencer, including: (1) the stage of selecting influencers; (2) the stage of constructing intense emotional responses to the brand (brand engagement and brand love); and ultimately (3) the stage of becoming a brand evangelist. Lastly, limitations and future directions were discussed.


INTRODUCTION
Millennials have perpetually been considered to be an impressive generational group for marketers with the most purchasing power (Bolton et al., 2013;Moreno et al., 2017;Smith, 2012) and the highest use of social media (Chatzigeorgiou, 2017). Millennials are known as digital natives (Anaya-Sánchez et al., 2020; Bolton et al., 2013) born in the digital world from 1980 to 1995 (Buzza, 2017). e earlier research has shown that Millennials habitually interact with others on a social media platform for their purchasing activities (Bolton et al., 2013;Moreno et al., 2017). For example, they actively exchange, share, and search for opinions and reliable information about products and services on social media (Bolton et al., 2013;Smith, 2012). In response, the e ectiveness of digital marketing aimed at this market segment is also increasingly becoming a priority on both research and corporate agendas.
Since Millennials rely more heavily on peer-to-peer communications more than traditional media (Goldghen, 2004; Hughes, Swaminathan, & Brooks, 2019; Smith, 2012), this phenomenon is manifested as a critical possibility for marketers to strengthen the consumer-brand relationships with this influential segment. In practice, there has been an unprecedented surge in the company involved in developing social media influencer marketing (Casaló et al., 2018). Nearly 93 percent of marketers use influencers as the focal action to reach online consumers (Fertik, 2020), especially in the cosmetic industry (Biron, 2019). Unsurprisingly, cosmetic companies keep investing in digital marketing to enlarge the market share and engage with their online customers (Casaló et al., 2018). Over 75 percent of consumers preferred to buy cosmetic products recommended by the influencer (Marketeer, 2019).
In the same vein, the power of social media influencers has evoked a plethora of researches on this issue during the last decades. Most academic researchers have confirmed the ability of mega-and macro-influencers leading to higher purchase intention (Colliander & Dahlén, 2011;Hsu et al., 2013;Meng & Wei, 2015), positive word-of-mouth (Casaló et al., 2018;Hughes et al., 2019), brand trust (Bijen, 2017;Kolarova, 2018), brand attitude (Colliander & Dahlén, 2011;Xiao et al., 2018), and brand engagement (Hughes et al., 2019). However, it has not yet clearly explicated the relative strengths of micro-influencer. On the contrary, from a business perspective, the company reported that micro-influencers with 1,000-99,000 followers (Gómez, 2019) generate the highest interaction and engagement compared to mega-and macro-influencers (Nachum, 2019). As they are perceived as authentic (Gómez, 2019) and a relatable person like friends or family members, this leads to a strong connectedness between social media micro-influencers and their followers (Brown & Fiorella, 2013;Jin et al., 2019).
To support this perspective, a framework for building brand evangelism through social media micro-influencer has been developed (Pornsrimate & Khamwon, 2020). The findings offer compelling evidence of a positive relationship between the characteristics of social media micro-influencer (i.e., authenticity, the meaning of the influencer, specific content, and secret sharing) and consumer-brand relationships, including brand engagement, brand love, and brand evangelism. However, the effects of social media influencers on brand evangelism are not as straightforward as initially expected. It is completely mediated by brand engagement and brand love. It has been suggested that brand engagement and brand love are the crucial stages in building brand evangelism.
In apparent recognition of this, this research has devoted considerable attention to unveil the model that contributes most to maximizing influencer marketing. To the best of knowledge, this process has been primarily studied in the general population, leaving aside specific questions about the process in which these critical characteristics of social media micro-influencer can drive brand success within the digital native group. This is caused by the fact that Millennials are the first generation that completely use social media for information (Bolton et al., 2013) and for socializing with their community and friends (Paulin et al., 2014). They are being influenced and influencing others through their social networking platforms (Smith, 2012). Chatzigeorgiou (2017) proved that the value approach to reach this generation is social media. Consequently, it can be predicted that social media micro-influencer has the potential to be highly impactful in Millennials' perception of the brand.
The research marks a number of contributions to the digital marketing literature. First, this paper generalizes the prior process of building brand evangelism applicable to a wide range of adaptations by focusing on Millennials and their responses to social media micro-influencers. Second, it explicitly demonstrates that social media micro-influencers play a significant indirect role in developing brand evangelism. Third, this research stresses the pivotal mediation effects of brand engagement and brand love along the path from social media micro-influencer to brand evangelism.

Social media influencer
An explanation for the role of social media in uencers was drawn from a multi-step ow model of marketing communications (Robinson, 1976). e theory suggested that the initial mass media information ows to wider population directly and indirectly through an information intermediary called opinion leader (Dlodlo, 2014;McQuail & Windahl, 1983). It observes that opinion leaders tend to have more social networks (Liu, 2007), higher education (Marshall & Gitosudarmo, 1995), and more signi cant interests in the topic (Robinson, 1976). Additionally, it can be noted that they favorably share their knowledge with others in networks (Dlodlo, 2014). For example, to apply this model to social media in uencers, it has been shown that the initial messages ow directly to individuals in the whole and are transmitted by in uencers (Ramadanty & Martinus, 2018). It has been argued whether in uencers will interpret brand messages, share their experience, and act as a reference to their followers through their social media platform (Kenechukwu, 2015). Ultimately, audiences disseminate this message to their friends and their networks (Dlodlo, 2014).

Social media micro-influencer characteristics
It can be recognized that intimate in uencers, namely friends, family members, and co-workers, in uence consumer purchase decision. As stated by Chatzigeorgiou (2017), Millennials commonly consider their friend's reviews trustworthy and realistic. is phenomenon accounts for a new type of in uencer called micro-in uencer, which has been widely used in the marketing sector over the recent decade (Burke, 2017). Additionally, this trend leads to the inevitable issue for company confronted by the age of globalization when communication technology is improved dramatically (De Perthuis & Findlay, 2019) and social media micro-in uencers become a crucial key for the company (Djafarova & Tro menko, 2018).
In a similar vein, Casaló (2018) highlighted that micro-in uencers are typically interesting because of their ability to share speci c content authentically. Evidently, an increased number of followers may lead to higher perceptions of popularity and likeability (De Veirman et al., 2017). However, it does not mean that consumers will engage with posted content such as retweeting, sharing, or replying. (Romero et al., 2010). Due to the fact that a high number of followers lead to the idea that the product is not unique, consumers may not generally consider the macro-in uencer as an opinion leader a er all (De Veirman et al., 2017).
For this reason, it is necessary to delineate the core characteristics of micro-in uencers that signi cantly enhance the positive outcomes. According to Pornsrimate and Khamwon (2020), four crucial aspects were selected for describing social media micro-in uencer characteristics, including; (1) authenticity; (2) the meaning of the in uencer; (3) speci c content; and (4) secret sharing. It has been shown that these aspects tend to represent the micro-in uencers and provide favorable outcomes.
Firstly, authenticity refers to the in uencers who use their intrinsic motivation and inner desires generating content on social media in order to represent their identity (Audrezet et al., 2018; Grayson & Martinec, 2004). It was illustrated that this facet in uences consumer-brand relationship (Michael, 2019), as well as consumer behavioral intentions such as the intention to recommend, intention to follow the advice, and intention to purchase (Casaló et al., 2018).
Secondly, the meaning of the in uencer refers to the characteristic of in uencers who have the ability to form an intimate relationship with audiences as real friends (Colliander & Dahlén, 2011).  (Collins & Miller, 1994), and a positive attitude of love (Wheeless & Grotz, 1977).
Notably, it can be expected that these social media micro-in uencer characteristics have a greater impact on consumer-brand relationships in the perspective of brand love and brand engagement, spe-ci cally the importance they place on Millennials.
is argument is based on the notion that the speci c personalities of social media in uencers signi cantly in uence the trust in in uencer marketing among Millennials (Chatzigeorgiou, 2017).

The process of building brand evangelism
Brand evangelist can be defined as an active consumer who truly has a strong emotional In addition, the process of building brand evangelism through social media micro-in uencer was found (Pornsrimate & Khamwon, 2020). Importantly, the e ect of social media micro-inuencer on brand evangelism is not direct but primarily mediated through brand engagement and brand love. It can be argued that empowering brand evangelism requires an intense emotional attachment to the brand before becoming a brand evangelist.

AIM AND HYPOTHESES
is study aims to investigate the mediating effect of brand engagement and brand love as potential mechanisms explaining how social media micro-in uencers convert Millennial consumers to brand evangelists. In the conceptual model (See Figure 1), both brand engagement and brand love act as mediators of the relationship between social media micro-in uencer and brand evangelism. e following hypotheses were set:

Data collection and sample
e sample frame in this study comprised Facebook users of beauty communities, selected from three major communities in ailand. ree hundred respondents participated in the research questionnaire and met the requirement of millennial ages (25-40 years old), following at least one cosmetic micro-in uencers, engaging with the recent last month cosmetic posts of Facebook fan pages by likes, shares, or comments. e research design was used to collect data on social media micro-in uencers, brand engagement, brand love, and brand evangelism. A web-based survey including the scales of these constructs was developed via Google Form. Initially, the backward translation approach was used to translate the instrument to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding between two languages. In stage one of the pre-test, the content validity of the measurement items was performed. ree professors majoring in Marketing o ered constructive

Data analysis
e statistical processes for assessing the hypotheses and the research framework were done using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). e statistical so ware SPSS and AMOS was chosen to perform the model estimation. Initially, variables were tested for normality and multicollinearity. e results showed that the value of skewness (-0.558 to 0.096) and kurtosis (-0.827 to 1.128) fell within the range of -2 to 2. us, the data collected is normally distributed. en the absence of multicollinearity was also proved with the correlation matrix and the Variance In ation Factor (VIF). e results showed that all tolerance values (.234 to .325) were higher than .10 and all VIF values (3.076 to 4.272) were less than 10 for all variables (Hair et al., 2010). It also approved that multicollinearity was not an issue in this study. e nal step of statistical analysis is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). SEM consist of two sub-models including the measurement model and the structural model (Hwang & Takane, 2014). First, to emphasize convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability, measurement models were empirically tested using Con rmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Second, the SEM is applied to test proposed hypotheses in the structural model. e analysis results of the con rmatory factor, reliability, validity and SEM are discussed in the following paragraph. Table 1 shows that the majority of the respondents were Millennial women representing 87.7 percent. About half of the respondents' highest educational backgrounds were bachelor's degrees (62 percent). Moreover, as many as 92.7 percent of respondents follow micro-in uencer on Facebook, 29 percent on Instagram and 2.7 percent on other platforms (i.e., YouTube, Twitter, Line). e absolute majority of respondents answered that face care was a product type that micro-in uencers immensely share on their platform, demonstrating 85 percent. e remaining answers included body care (47.3 percent), fragrance (43.3 percent), hair care (25 percent), and aerosol products (19 percent), respectively.

RESULTS
To examine the data and test the proposed hypothesis model, this research employed a two-stage structural equation modeling approach (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Firstly, Con rmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to investigate the unidimensionality of each factor. Additionally, the reliability and validity of the constructs were approved in this stage. Secondly, the theoretical relationships between constructs were analyzed through a structural equation model (SEM). e reliability and validity of the measurement instruments were evaluated by a Con rmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), including all the multi-item constructs in the theoretical framework. As shown in Appendix A, the results of the CFA suggested that the measurement model provides an excellent t to the data based on a number of t statistics. In terms of convergent validity, it can be seen that the Cronbach's coe cient alphas of all the constructs exceeded the required level of .80 (Hair et al., 2010). e squared multiple correlations (SMC) exceeded 0.50 for all items (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). e results illustrated the values of Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE), calculating from the formula proposed by Fornell and Larcker (1981). It can be observed that the CR varied from .833 to .956, satisfying the criteria of .70. Moreover, the AVE varied from .790 to .864, thus, exceeding the criteria of .50 (Hair et al., 2010).
Furthermore, to ensure that each construct was empirically unique and demonstrated phenomena of interest that other constructs in the model do not represent (Hair et al., 2010), the discriminant validity should be assessed. Table 2 shows that the square root AVE of each construct, varying from 0.889 to .930, was greater than its correlation. us, discriminant validity was con rmed by this study.  Finally, the goodness of fit of the model was verified. The results showed that the measurement model proposed is fit to the actual data (χ2= 786.568, df = 848, p = .935, χ2/df = .928, GFI = .901, CFI = 1.000, sRMR = .0329, and RMSEA = .000). The ratio of the chi-square to degree of freedom (χ2/df = .928) is below the recommended cutoff point of 5 (Hair et al., 2010). All indices of model fit (GFI = .901, CFI = 1.000) exceeded 0.9 (Kline, 2010), and the value of precise conformance measures (sRMR = .0329, RMSEA = .000) were below .08 (Hair et al., 2010;Byrne, 2010). Hence, all fit indices achieved satisfactory levels.
The estimation results of the model revealed that social media micro-influencers have a positive effect on brand engagement (β = .623, p < .001) and brand love (β = .528, p < .001), which in turn positively predicted brand evangelism. Thus, H1 and H2 were fully supported. As expected, the indirect effects of social media micro-influencers on brand evangelism were indeed mediated by brand engagement (β = .363, p < .001) and brand love (β = .536, p < .001). Therefore, H3 and H4 were also supported. Overall, the structural model showed a superior explanato-ry power. The model explains 76 percent of the variance in brand evangelism. Figure 2 graphically portrays the results of the final model.

DISCUSSION
With respect to all hypotheses, this study makes a contribution to the digital marketing literature and offers comprehensive influencer marketing for salesmen. From a theoretical point of view, this study has further expanded the process of building brand evangelism through social media micro-influencer, as previously drawn by Pornsrimate and Khamwon (2020). This study empirically tests the model by eliminating the path from social media micro-influencer characteristics to brand evangelism and shedding light on the mediation effects of brand engagement and brand love on the path to brand evangelism. Importantly, this study focuses on the Millennials, who are highly active in social media and being promoted as a potential consumer market with tremendous buying power (Klein & Sharma, 2018). Additionally, Millennials are generally being influenced by others through their social networking platforms (Smith, 2012). As expected, this study supports the suggestion that social media micro-in uencers potentially build brand evangelism. is research adds additional empirical evidence to the recent observation by con rming the mediation role of brand engagement and brand love on the relationship between social media micro-in uencer and brand evangelism among Millennials. e proposed model produces a better t than the previous model with excellent t indices. It can be argued that social media micro-in uencer has the ability to be highly impactful in building brand evangelism with Millennial consumers.
From a practical point of view, this framework can help marketers to explain how social media micro-influencer can serve as a key marketing tool to improve an influencer marketing for a company. To capitalize on new influencer opportunities for Millennials, this framework displays three main stages that emerged from substantive findings.
Firstly, the stage of selecting influencers provides several important calls for marketers. Based on the findings, the framework offers the evidence that four key characteristics (i.e., authenticity, the meaning of the influencer, specific content, and secret sharing) play an essential role in determining the brand evangelism. In this stage, marketers can consider these four criteria for choosing the right micro-influencer to assure that the audience is reached in terms of a marketing campaign. Consequently, it is critical for marketers to assess: (1) Where are they based?; (2) What are their character traits?; (3) What values do they share with the brand?
Applying the proper criteria for influencer selection is critical in this stage.
Secondly, the stage of constructing intense emotional responses to the brand by using social media micro-in uencer was performed. It can be recognized that the four key micro-in uencer characteristics positively in uence brand engagement and brand love. It represents a strong connectedness between micro-in uencers and consumers.
us, at this stage, the company can increase the level of consideration and encourage consumers to learn more about the brand, and what the brand can o er. ere are several points that marketers should consider: (1) the primary marketing objectives; (2) target audience; (3) in uencer selection; and (4) content creativity (Levin, 2020). is stage holds the key to success in in uencer marketing which leads to brand engagement and brand love.
irdly, the stage of becoming brand evangelist causes the vigorous behaviors among consumers, including purchase intentions, positive brand referrals, and oppositional brand referrals. ese outcomes are the ultimate result of the framework for building brand evangelism. Following the steps outlined in the framework, the last stage is to measure the e ects and results of the in uencer marketing. According to Levin (2020), it can be argued that the purpose of in uencer marketing is to gain a comprehensive understanding of why the company launches an in uencer marketing campaign and how to de ne success. us, marketers can set brand evangelism as their main outcome of measuring the results of a campaign. For example, marketers can evaluate success based on sale numbers or positive reviews from customers.

CONCLUSION
e Millennial's use of social media is a dramatic force in changing the marketplace and challenging marketers. It will ultimately lead to new business paradigms, processes, and strategies. Integrating literature streams of social media micro-in uencer, millennials, and brand evangelism, this study adds to the marketing literature by empirically investigate the mediation in uence of brand engagement and brand love on the relationship between social media micro-in uencers and brand evangelism. ese ndings indicate that social media micro-in uencer plays an important role in the everyday life of Millennial consumers and can even in uence the construction of superior consumer-brand relationships (i.e. brand engagement, brand love, and brand evangelism). is framework provides the tool for marketers to nd the right micro-in uencer that meets their marketing needs and helps turn Millennial consumers to brand evangelists.
While this study addresses the e ectiveness of social media micro-in uencer from multiple perspectives, it also provides a starting point for future research. First, this study only focused on four characteristics of the social media micro-in uencer. Academic researchers still need to investigate conceptual development of relevant characteristics such as product/brand involvement, perceived quantity, and quality of the content.
Second, a fruitful avenue for future research is to examine other antecedents of brand evangelism in the context of social media micro-in uencer. For example, it has been noted that social media in uencer has bene cial impact on brand trust (Bijen, 2017;Kolarova, 2018). It seems possible that authenticity and secret sharing could exert an amplifying e ect on brand trust, which leads to favorable behavioral intentions.
One other promising area for further research is to investigate comparative research of the di erent in uencer types (i.e., mega-in uencer, macro-in uencer, and micro-in uencer) to build brand engagement, brand love, and brand evangelism.