ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the current state of research on environmental communication by social media influencers and highlights research desiderata. It surveys the definitions and theoretical foundations currently used to explain influencers’ communication and provides an overview of the existing empirical research on the content of social media influencers’ communication and the effects on followers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The review reveals that most research on social media influencers’ communication has been conducted in the area of marketing and advertising, while there is a dearth of research on non-business-oriented influencer communication. In particular, research on the content and effects of social media influencers’ engagement for environmental and sustainable causes remains scarce but is slowly growing in importance. Future research is therefore encouraged to investigate the concept of social media influencer from an environmental communication perspective by applying a broad range of empirical methods, which would foster a deeper understanding of environmental influencer communication.
