SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AND FEMALE CONSUMER ATTITUDE IN PAKISTAN: IMPACT OF INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS

Social media influencers are becoming popular and increasing in a large number more effectively. Influencers act as role models to inspire people through their content. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of Instagram influencers on consumer attitude and purchase behavior in the light of exposure to Instagram, trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, and para social interaction with respect to young Pakistani female users of the aforementioned social networking platform. The methodology used for this study is that of quantitative research. To verify a set of research hypotheses, a conceptual model was developed incorporating the variables of this study. The data collection was done using the convenience sampling technique. The population of this study was young Pakistani female users of Instagram from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi. A sample size of 250 respondents was collected for the analysis. The online survey link was distributed to the young Pakistani females through social networks like Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter to outreach the target audience more efficiently. The findings based on survey data showed that para social interaction has a higher positive relationship with consumer attitude among all variables. Furthermore, the relationship between trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, para social interaction, and purchase intention has also shown a positive relationship.


INTRODUCTION
The social network called "Instagram" is mobile photography and video sharing app that was launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010. Moreover, Instagram is among the fastest-growing social media platform at the marketing level as well (Website Planet 2020). Although, Social Influencer is "being well-known among a large number of audiences on social media" (Marwick, 2013, in Abidin, 2016. According to the recent survey reporting by Napoleon Cat (October 2021), approximately 35.5% of young women are Instagram users in Pakistan. The largest user group of people aged were 18 to 24 (5,700,000). Moreover, Djafarova & Rushworth (2017) observed that digital celebrities on Instagram and YouTube are considered more trustworthy and have more effect on the purchase behaviors of female consumers between the age of 18-30 years as compared to traditional celebrities.
With the rise of social media and social influencers, it also affects the aspect of a person's life by evaluating their personal and social needs. Furthermore, Consumer attitude refers to the study of individuals, groups, or organizations grounded on the beliefs, emotions, behavior, preferences, thoughts to experience the idea in order to satisfy their needs by selecting and using a particular product or service. Consequently, before making a purchase decision consumer are also looking forward to social influencers as an inspiration to make their final decision to buy the products (Kotler & Keller, 2016).
Whereas Purchase intention can be defined as a degree of willingness. When consumer identifies their current state of need and desire after evaluating and searching for the best value information related to a product or service to make an actual purchase finally (Allport, 1935, Sinigaglia, 2016. Nevertheless, consumers enthusiastically seek out recommendations from social influencers before making purchase decisions. Further, this varies from person's exposure, interest, need, and experience. Although, consumers who are interested in particular brands and products keep themselves updated through social networks platform like Instagram (Brandão et al., 2019). Consequently, Source credibility is relevant to consumer's attitude in the decision-making process that significantly indicates how the message and information are perceived, processed, or judged and how it may influence the changes in consumer attitude and behavior. Whereas source credibility consists of the indicators of source such as trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertise (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953). Additionally, trustworthiness refers to the degree of confidence where the communicator's intent is perceived as credible, believable, and genuine. Therefore, trustworthiness plays an important role for social influencers to be considered valuable. Moreover, source expertise refers to the belief where the communicator is perceived as skilled and knowledgeable in their specific subject (Hovland et al., 1953, p. 21). According to Schouten, Janssen & Verspaget, (2020) the knowledge, skills, and experiences of social influencers play a vital role in generating expertise in order to promote a particular product or service. Furthermore, Source attractiveness refers to the similarity between the source and receiver's beliefs, attitudes, and preferences. When the source's personality, appearance, and styling sense is perceived as attractive it can unconsciously affect the consumer attitude and purchase intention. In addition, attractiveness towards social influencers also fascinates the audience to follow them when they find their content visually appealing and unique (Djafarova & Trofimenko, 2019).
On the other hand, Para social interaction is an illusionary relationship that is only one-sided exists between social media users and media personality based on their mutual interests and values which also enhance the trust and attractiveness towards social influencers more often. Moreover, Consumers feel more connected to social influencers through para social interaction which also tends to influence their attitude and purchase intentions as well.
Thus, social media is an essential part of individuals' life at both personal and social levels by staying updated and active on social networks like Instagram. Consequently, consumers are more willing to adapt the behavior and choices of the products that are recommended by social influencers.

Problem Statement
In order to fit into society, youngsters get more influenced by things that they see online and make most of their purchase decisions based on that. This continuous cycle of trying to seek validation has various effects on people's buying decisions and consuming behavior, this also enforce them to always do the things that are in trend or fashion to stay trendy and updated. Moreover, female users get more influenced by the trends that are set by social influencers e.g., outfit styling, hairstyle, makeup, décor, wedding, party themes, photographs, videos, lifestyle, etc. To conclude everything, it has come to our knowledge that social media influencer marketing heavily affects the way people make purchases. However, the previous study reveals the lack of understanding in the influential phenomena of social influencers in the term of their impact on Pakistani female consumer attitude and purchase behavior. In order to identify what gratification young adults, perceive by social influencers, it is needed to analyze that to what extent consumers get influenced by them which outrage the intention to purchase. This study focuses on ample aforementioned research gap. It is fundamental that a quantitative survey method study to be conducted in Pakistan to determine the impact of Instagram influencers on the consumer attitude and purchase behavior of young Pakistani female users Objective of the study 1.
To examine the impact of exposure to Instagram influencers on consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users.

2.
To identify the impact of Instagram influencers' credibility on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users.

3.
To find out the effect of para-social interaction between influencers and their followers on the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users.

4.
To study the effect of para-social interaction between influencers and their followers on purchase intention of young Pakistani female users.

Significance of the Study
This study would be beneficial for brand managers in developing an effective customer engagement strategy on visual social media who are trying to expand their audience by promoting reliable and relevant content to them. PR agencies will be more likely to understand the consumer attitude and buying behavior towards their strategies. It will be useful to social influencers as well who are trying to opt for more effective tactics for collaboration with brands while creating creative content for their followers. It will also come in the knowledge to what extent social media influencers are impactful in our society.

1.
Does exposure to Instagram influencers have an impact on the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users? 2.
Does the trustworthiness of Instagram influencers have an impact on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users? 3.
Does the attractiveness of Instagram influencers have an impact on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users? 4.
Does the expertise of Instagram influencers have an effect on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users? 5.
Does the para-social interaction between influencers and their followers have a positive effect on the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users? 6.
Does the para-social interaction between influencers and their followers have a positive effect on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Instagram is now the most preferred channel by brands to outreach the audience at a larger level through social influencers to run their marketing campaign strategies in a modern way (Sanz-Blas et al., 2019). Through social media exposure, users can engage and give feedback through liking and commenting on the social media content (Almenara et al., 2016). According to Mc Quail the level of exposure can be measured through (1) Duration of watching the broadcast, (2) Frequency: how long the show is watched by the audience, and (3) Attention: how much attention is given (to impressions) (McQuail, 2011). Therefore, prior literature based on exposure will help us to measure the consumer attitude more effectively.
Within the advancement of the digital world, social influencers have emerged as a third-party endorser who forms the viewers' attitude via their content (Freberg et al., 2011), Perhaps social influencers are found in all sectors: Beauty, fashion, health, food, fitness, high-tech, and others (Klassen et al.,2018). Those social influencers who show good taste in particular fashion and lifestyle are more attractive in effecting their followers' attitude which increases their following and engagement rate as well (Ki and Kim, 2019). Whereas Lisichkova and Othman, (2017) stated that influencers play a vital role and to some extent have an ability to impact the online purchase intent by several factors which include reviews and recommendations, satisfaction level, and need of the product.
In today's era, social influencers have the influence to change the consumer attitude into purchase intentions through their effective content. Whereas consumers also search for the recommendation of the products posted by influencers on social media to reduce the risk of dissatisfaction. In addition, Djafarova & Rushworth, (2017) revealed that consumers are uncertain in their decision-making abilities, that's the reason they seek opinions and recommendations by influencers which enhances their self-esteem to buy a product or service and to reduce the risk of dissatisfaction. Moreover, Social media influencers influence the consumer's attitude and the desire to mimic after perceiving the online content while the satisfaction level of the product and purchase behavior positively arises the self-confidence and influence the purchase intention (Ki & Kim, 2019).
Several previous studies found that the success of an influencer impacting purchase intentions in a favorable way depends on the way their viewers or audience perceives them (Hassan et al., 2021).

Gap in Literature
Due to the rapid increase of social influencers on social media, many researchers have paid attention to social influencers in a different context such as social media influencers vs traditional celebrities (Djafarova and Trofimenko, 2019),social media influencers as Opinion leaders (Casaló, Flavián, & Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2018), Influencers marketing (Schouten et al., 2020), Brand /advertisement endorsement and sponsorship disclosure (Lee & Kim, 2020), Brand attitude, engagement strategy (Tafesse & Wood, 2021), Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), trustworthiness, brand image, (Plidtookpai & Yoopetch, 2021), para social relationship (Breves el at., 2021), brand authenticity (Yang el at., 2021), impulsive buying behavior, (Djafarova, & Bowes, 2021), perceived trustworthiness and source credibility (Sokolova & Kefi, 2020) and other causes of purchase intention. Most of the studies are qualitative in nature based on a few famous influencers. It makes it fascinating to research how influential these social influencers are in Pakistan particularly because it's a developing country and a Muslim nation where tools such as social, cultural, and socio-economic environment are not the same. So, the result will be different based on the Pakistani context. The literature review from the sources helps us to find out some gaps in the information that we are looking for which is not covered yet in this area of research in Pakistan. Since we want to examine the impact of Instagram influencers on consumer attitude and purchase intention of young Pakistani female users. It will make us able to know their perception and attitude towards social influencers as well. As we have discussed above, the relevant literature to formulate the hypothesis. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is discussed in the next section.

Theoretical framework and Conceptual Model
In this study, we develop a conceptual model to examine the impact of Instagram influencers on consumer attitudes and purchase intention of young Pakistani female users. We construct our conceptual model through selected variables that touch the three elements in the light of source credibility theory: Attractiveness, Trustworthiness, and expertise which are somehow relevant to my study. On the other hand, the theory of Para-social interaction also helps us to find accurate outcomes of this study because it is predicted that para social interaction also influences the consumer attitude and purchase intentions.

Source Credibility
The source of the communication plays a vigorous role in persuasive communication and attitude change approach. It contains numerous characteristics of communicators such as credibility, attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, likeability, and similarity to the audience that has been observed by many researchers. Trustworthiness Neisse and Wegdam (2008) define trustworthiness as the trustor's degree of belief in the trustee regarding a specific aspect. In previous literature, it is commonly stated that the trustworthiness of an influencer affects the perception of consumers towards their messages and endorsement methods (Hassan et al., 2021). Attractiveness Several studies state that the attractiveness of a source has a significant and positive effect on the attitudes of consumers, along with the way they perceive the advertising and promotional efforts of social media influencers (Majidian et al., 2021). According to Thilina (2021), source attractiveness can be associated with the perception of similarity, likability, and familiarity. Expertise Past research has commonly stated that credibility can be conceptualized as different dimensional constructs, which include the social media influencer's expertise. In other words, if a social media influencer is perceived with high levels of expertise, this could have a positive impact on his or her perceived credibility, and ultimately lead to changes in the attitudes, buying intentions, and purchasing decisions of consumers (Nafees et al., 2020).

Para-Social Interaction on Instagram
Abd Razak and Zulkifly (2020) stated that para social interactions are defined as relationships that are only one-sided, that exist between users and a media personality in the context of social media. Para social relationship usually builds among social media users with the online influencers through mutual interest and values (Hwang & Zhang, 2018).

Formulation of Hypothesis
To conclude everything, we have reviewed enough prior literature to develop our hypothesis to test the relationship between our variables which are as follows: H1: The consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users is affected by their exposure to Instagram influencers. H2: The purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the trustworthiness of Instagram influencers.
H3: The purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the attractiveness of Instagram influencers.
H4: The purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the expertise of Instagram influencers. H5: Para-social interaction between influencers and their followers has a positive impact on the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users. H6: Para-social interaction between influencers and their followers has a positive impact on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users.

Figure 1. Conceptual Model.
With the aim of testing the hypothesis through our proposed model to get a better understanding of how and to what extent consumer attitude and purchase intention are influenced by social media influencers because influencers serve as an independent variable and consumer attitude and purchase intention are dependent variables. Through the lens of the Source credibility and its indicators with the combination of para social interaction theory, we will see how Instagram influencers influence the consumer attitude and purchase intention of young Pakistani female users through their content illustration and to what extent their followers consume Instagram influencer's content that changes their attitude or behavior and intentions.
It is hoped that the above aforementioned proposed conceptual modelwill allow us to get appropriate results and conceptual analysis to answer the research questions of this study.

METHODOLOGY
The objective of this study is to examine the impact of Instagram influencers on consumer attitude and purchase intention. Hence mostly previous studies are limited by a qualitative method. It is interesting to conduct quantitative research to get results at a larger level. So, it is expected that we will get fruitful outcomes through the quantitative survey method to collect data for this study.

Population
The representative population of study were the young female users of age between 18-28 from the selected cities of Pakistan; Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi, who have an account on Instagram, also considering those who stay active and follow social influencers on Instagram.

Sample size
The representative sample size of this research was the maximum amount of online young Pakistani female users that we need for the research results to be statistically significant within our defined parameters. Therefore, a sample of at least 250 female Instagram users will be collected through an online survey for this study.

Sampling Technique
A convenience sampling technique was adapted for the data collection. As the goal of this study is to examine the effects of Instagram influencers on consumer attitude and buying behavior of young female users, through an online survey it will be convenient to collect data at a larger scale. The Instagram young female users were selected through a non-probability sampling and also considering those who stay active on the social media apps like Instagram.

Data Collection
Data was collected by distributing a Google form online which means the questionnaires was available online to young females' followers of Instagram influencers. Since Instagram is typically a mobile application, so the questionnaire was filled on users' mobile phones and gadgets. Therefore, survey research may provide more generalized results.

The Measures
This study aims at completing the survey from maximum respondents to strengthen the external validity. However, the survey questionnaire was based on indicators demonstrating the changes in consumer attitude and purchase intentions caused by Instagram influencers. In our questionnaire, the Likert scale was appropriate to measure the opinion and attitude of the respondents. To classify the responses, they had to disagree and agree to some extent on each statement. It was measured through 5 points of the Likert scale from (Strongly disagree =1, Strongly agree=5).

Type of Data Analysis
Data analysis plays a crucial role in order to understand better and analyzing the information for the research. It is the process of identifying the relationship between variables, comparison between variables, and describes the outcomes of the collected data (Mertens, 2014).
For the data analysis, we have analyzed data through IBM SPSS statistics 26 to get accurate results at a larger level. It helped us to find out the relationship between our variables for the substantial result to test the hypothesis through Spearman Correlation coefficient analysis.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The data was collected from 250 respondents through an online Google form survey from young Pakistani female users who are Instagram users. It probably took four weeks to collect and put the data in an excel file to analyze and attain the results. Later the excel file was transferred to SPSS software. To analyze the data SPSS was used for descriptive statistics and frequencies analysis such as (mean, median, mode, and Std. Deviation).  (2-tailed) .000 N 250 250 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Relationship between Exposure to Instagram and Consumer Attitude
The first hypothesis of this study was: the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users is affected by their exposure to Instagram influencers. Therefore, the statistics indicate that the more exposure consumers have to Instagram the more it affects their attitude towards social influencers. Whereas the level of significance is (n=250, r= 0.249, p<0.000) which is considered highly significant. Therefore, H1 has been proved. On the other hand, social presences also boost confidence and generate different causal effects of trustworthiness, brand attitude, and envy (Jin et al., 2019).

Relationship between Trustworthiness and Purchase Intention
The second Hypothesis of this study was: the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the trustworthiness of Instagram influencers. It indicates that when trustworthiness increases, the purchase intention will also increase. On the other hand, the results of Kim & Kim, (2021) revealed that trust has an impact on expertise, authenticity, and homophily that linkages the loyalty and marketing outcomes. It is also worth identifying that the sig (2-tailed) value is 0.000. It shows that the positive relationship between the selected variables is statistically significant. (n=250, r= 0.408, p<0.000). Therefore, H1 has been proved.

Relationship between Attractiveness and Purchase intention
The third hypothesis of this was: the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the attractiveness of Instagram influencers.
The analysis identifies that the coefficient r value is 0.331. It depicts a strong positive relationship between selected variables. Whereas the sig (2-tailed) p-value is 0.000 that identifies a statistically significant relationship between the variables. This indicates that when attractiveness towards social influencers increases then purchase intention will also increase. Moreover, the study of Tamara, Rafly & Mersi, (2021) results also showed that attractiveness has a positive effect on purchase intention. Therefore, H3 has been proved.

Relationship between Expertise and Purchase intention
The fourth hypothesis of this study was: the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users is affected by the expertise of Instagram influencers.
The analysis identifies that the coefficient r value is 0.448. It depicts a strong positive relationship between selected variables. Whereas sig (2-tailed) p-value is 0.000 that identifies a statistically significant relationship between the variables. It indicates that expertise has a positive relationship with purchase intention. On the other hand, the findings contrast with the study of Rahayu & Arifin, (2020) that the expertise of social media influencers has shown an insignificant relationship with consumer attitude and purchase intention due to the lack of expertise knowledge and lack of credibility about the endorsed product. Therefore, H4 has been proved.

Relationship between Para social Interaction and Consumer attitude
The fifth hypothesis of this study was: Para-social interaction between influencers and their followers has a positive impact on the consumer attitude of young Pakistani female users.
The analysis identifies that the coefficient r value is 0.449. It depicts a strong positive relationship between selected variables. The sig (2-tailed) p-value is 0.000 that identifies a statistically significant relationship between the variables. It indicates that when Para social interaction increases, consumer attitude will also increase. The results also align with Leite & Baptista, (2021) that social influencers enhance the para social relationship with their followers by increasing the trust in the promoted brand which also intensifies the perception of credibility. Therefore, H5 has been proved.

Relationship between Para social Interaction and Purchase Intentions
The sixth hypothesis was: Para-social interaction between influencers and their followers has a positive impact on the purchase intention of young Pakistani female users.
The analysis identifies that the coefficient r value is 0.399. It depicts a strong positive relationship between selected variables. The sig (2-tailed) p-value is 0.000 that identifies a statistically significant relationship between the variables. It indicates that when Para social interaction increases, purchase intention will also increase. relationship between Para social interaction and purchase intention among all the variables. The findings are consistent with the study of Sokolova & Kefi, (2020) that the credibility of social influencers and Para social interaction had a positive and significant relationship with purchase intention. Therefore, H6 has been proved CONCLUSION Social media influencers play an important role in shaping consumer attitudes. Whereas they tend to keep the audience aware and updated about new trends within their specialists' areas. Consumers also look forward to social influencers based on their interest to get inspiration and motivation from social influencers' content to keep themselves updated and trendy. Whereas influencers play an important role in increasing consumer attitude and purchase intention. This study suggested a conceptual model to understand the impact of Instagram influencers on consumer attitude and purchase intention through the indicators like exposure to Instagram, trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, and Para social interaction. The results demonstrated that source credibility factors such as trustworthiness, attractiveness, the expertise of social influencers, and Para social interaction between social influencers and their followers have a significant and positive impact on consumer attitude and purchase intentions. So, it is concluded that all five independent variables of this study (i.e., Exposure to Instagram, trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, and Para social interaction) have a significant and positive impact on dependent variables such i.e., consumer attitude and purchase intentions. In this study, it is also observed that Para social interaction intensifies the consumer attitude and purchase intention which also enhances the social influencer's credibility when they stay connected and updated to their daily life events and experiences. On the other hand, young Instagram female users get inspired and motivated by social influencers' content which also enhances their knowledge about new trends. Whereas the study of Ermis, (2021) also found that purchase intention is affected by the perceived level of attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise. Additionally, the results of Lim et al., (2017) demonstrated that when respondents have a favorable attitude towards the product endorsed by the social influencers would also impact the purchase intention. Therefore, it is observed that social influencers play a vital role in shaping the attitude and opinions of the audience about certain things which also increases the purchase intention to whether buy a product or not. On the other hand, the audience finds their content more relatable to their daily lifestyle that's the reason they look forward to social influencers' content more often.
The findings of this thesis add to the literature on influencer marketing, consumer attitude, and purchase intention in the light of trustworthiness, attractiveness, expertise, and Para social interaction. This study allowed us to understand the perception and attitude of Instagram consumers towards social influencers in the Pakistani context which is still investigated in a limited way.

Limitation and Future Research Recommendations
This present study has also some limitations, firstly this study was done in a Pakistani audience context where the tools and culture are different as compared to prior studies. Secondly, in this case, the method was only quantitative analysis. Further research could be also carried out through qualitative analysis through in-depth interviews and open-ended questions to get more specific results. Thirdly nonprobabilistic convenience sample was used which can't generalize the whole population. Fourthly, the sample of this study is limited to only young female users. Therefore, future studies could investigate both genders to consequently differentiate the impact of Instagram influencers. Due to limited time and resources the sample size of this study is 250 respondents, future research could also take a maximum number of representative samples. Furthermore, this study doesn't cover all the provinces of Pakistan. Future researchers can incorporate population from all over the country especially Balochistan because this study is limited to the population of three provinces of Pakistan. Moreover, this study has been concerned with a proposed conceptual model to test the limited number of variables further research can investigate through different variables. Furthermore, they can also do research in social media influencer point of view such as what challenges they face as a social media influencer and how they manage the things to keep the engagement rate high on daily basis., how they make themselves credible and trustworthy to gain the trust and confidence of audience and how they manage to do endorsements in more effective ways without giving a negative impression of doing paid sponsorship.