and 3 tips on how businesses can adopt, utilize, and optimize this method of marketing.

Youtube is one of the most interpersonal social media platforms. A creator may upload lengthy videos discussing their personal thoughts, feelings, and problems on nearly anything and broadcast it to a platform containing billions of viewers. This video creator (or, blogger) is widely known as a “vlogger.” There are vloggers for every topic under the sun, from cooking videos, prank videos, “follow me around” videos to product review videos. When I was in my third year Western Michigan University, I did research and wrote a paper on product review vloggers. This article contains the results of that paper in a condensed form.

First things first, who watches vlogs?

According to YouGov surveys conducted in November 2018,

• almost half of all U.S. adults watch vlogs,
• Women watch more vlogs than men do,
• 18 to 34 year olds are the highest percentage to watch vlogs, (ages 55+ watch the least).
  

Viewers develop a close bond to vloggers through years of watching the same vlogger. This article explains how video bloggers influence not only the subscribers’ purchase decisions but also the subscribers in general. We will also look at why viewers feel so connected with their favourite vloggers, and how this might create a deeper level of trust in how the vloggers promote and review products.

How do subscribers interact with vloggers?

Subscribers interact with vloggers by:

• Commenting (general social media experience),
• Sending them mail/gifts (watching fan mail opening vlogs),
• Sharing on other social media sites (general social media experience).

Why do consumers buy something (or not), based on what a vlogger says?

Consumers make product decisions based on social media reviews because of:

• Social influence from opinion leaders,
• Trust in the authenticity of the reviews as from credible communicators,
• The number of reviews with the same opinion, posted by separate individuals,
• Opinions from both expert and amateur users,
• Opinions from celebrities and everyday people,
• The attractiveness of the vlogger,
• Similarities in attitude and characteristic between the consumer and the vlogger.

What makes people subscribe to a product review channel?

Youtube vlog subscribers are motivated by:

• Product review, recommendations and product criticisms,
• Entertainment value and humour,
• The vlogger's vulnerability and honesty.

What kind of person follows what kind of vloggers?

Vlog activity type is differentiated by psychological aspects in that:

• Social-adjustive (people that place importance on social standing) vloggers focuses more on branding than value-expressive (emphasis on value and quality over flashiness) vloggers,
• Viewers are more likely to follow a vlogger they view as similar to themselves,
• A social-adjustive or high self-monitoring person is more likely to watch or review about high-status, exclusives, or speciality products/retailers,
• A value-expressive or low self-monitoring person is more likely to watch a review of a broad variety of goods/retailers, convenience, and price.

What makes people trust vloggers?

Viewers feel connected to/trust vloggers because:

• Of similarities and likenesses between themselves and the vlogger,
• As opposed to TV or other ads, the vlogger gives a word-of-mouth product review,
• Of the social proof created by other followers/subscribers,
• The more influential vloggers will not promote products they don’t actually like.

We also found that in general, viewers

• Trust certain YouTube vloggers more than they do salespeople,
• Observe how vloggers interact with followers/react to online hate in deciding whether they trust the vlogger’s product reviews or not
• Often read the comments section of the review videos to get other subscribers' opinions before deciding whether to purchase a product or not

The results show that vloggers do have a big influence on their subscribers’ purchase decisions. Vloggers’ personality traits play an important role in the connection that the viewers feel toward them. This connection directly contributes to how much subscribers trust them, and this impacts the subscriber’s purchase decision.

How you can apply this to your marketing efforts.

If you’re planning to get into influencer advertising or getting people to do video reviews of your product, here are 3 tips to make sure that you’re being as efficient as possible,

1. Make sure you know who your target market is. What is the demographic?
2. Create a customer persona and imagine which vloggers this persona would enjoy. Note those down and start researching to see if those vloggers’ subscribers are your target market,
3. Make sure the vlogger is someone your business wants to be associated with.