In conclusion, influencer marketing is becoming increasingly more popular and influencers are getting better at hiding these brand deals from their audiences. Instagram influencers have become marketers go-to form of advertising their brand and products. Through this research, findings are able to confirm that marketing through the use of sponsored content and Instagram influencers can be high risk but also high reward for both the influencer and the brand participating in the brand deal. A sponsorship disclosure does not necessarily mean that consumers will react positively towards sponsored content. As discussed previously, consumers can react in a variety of ways to sponsored content and disclosure statements from Instagram influencers.
Limitations and Future Research
Despite the findings discussed above, this study had some limitations that could impact the results. The first limitation lies in the demographic of this study. Using a specific demographic of females in college ages eighteen to twenty four limited the sample size for this study. This also created a lack of diversity among the results. This survey also included Instagram posts from influencers whom the participants may have previously known and have already seen sponsored content from, that could potentially lead to research bias. Another limitation was the use of convenience sampling and recruiting participants through personal networking, which limits the study's external validity and could also lead to research bias.
The internal validity of this study was strong. The survey went through a round of revision and was approved by Endicott College faculty. This survey was also tested on Endicott students to ensure internal validity was strong. There were also filter questions to remove any one who did not meet the demographic requirements which also helped to strengthen the internal validity. The external validity was fairly weak, due to the amount of respondents. A little over one hundred respondents participated in this survey, which is too small of a sample size to represent an entire population. Future research should use a broader sample size to strengthen the external validity and provide a stronger sample. Future research could also explore different types of social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.