Detecting Social Media Influencers of Airline Services through Social Network Analysis on Twitter: A Case Study of the Indonesian Airline Industry

The internet and social media are widely used tools that have acquired significant global penetration. Its far-reaching scope makes it a powerful tool for the purposes of marketing, especially in the form of `organic' advertisement such as through social media influencers. Influencer marketing contributes positively to consumers' purchase intention, and as such, detection of users that can be considered as social media influencers is a prudent issue. This study is conducted as an attempt at detecting social media influencers relevant to the brands of several airline companies operating in Indonesia, using social network analysis with in-degree, out-degree, degree centrality, and betweenness centrality as the primary parameters. The findings of this study show that Twitter accounts with the most influence over airline services brands tend to be the official or customer care accounts of said airline companies. This implies that the presence of influencer marketing as conducted by individual influencers is an unseen presence within Indonesian Twitter.