Navigating the online reputation maze: impact of review availability and heuristic cues on restaurant influencer marketing effectiveness

Restaurants can engage and attract social media users by showcasing their food or services through influencer marketing campaigns. However, the influencers and restaurant companies need to understand the underlying mechanism for presenting online reviews to attract customers to restaurants better. This study applies the theory of judgment heuristics and develops a conceptual model to test the effects of review availability (present vs. absent) and heuristic cues (scarcity, vividness, and frequency) on followers' perceptions and behavioral intention. Two experiments were conducted. Results showed that the scarcity cue moderates the mediation effect of informativeness between review availability and visit intention. The study also found that instead of being cognitive "misers", consumers use multiple cues to assist their purchase decisions. The findings provide restaurant companies and food influencers with meaningful insights that they can employ to craft effective social media content.