Engaging in Dialogues: The Impact of Comment Valence and Influencer-Viewer Interaction on the Effectiveness of YouTube Influencer Marketing

YouTube is a popular social marketing platform. Marketers or advertisers can collaborate with a YouTube influencer to present marketing messages. However, negative user-generated comments may affect the effectiveness of message delivery. Thus, one pretest and two main studies were conducted to investigate the influence of negative comments on consumers and the strategy to combat the negativity. The first study examined the influence of comment valence on product attitude and perceived trustworthiness of influencer. The second study examined how the increased frequency of influencer–viewer interaction mitigated the damage inflicted by negative comments. The findings of the studies reveal that negative comments have a strong influence on consumers. However, if an influencer is actively replying to negative comments, the negative influence is likely to be mitigated. Theoretical and practical contributions of the studies were discussed.