NON-COMMERCIAL CROSS-CULTURAL SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS TELLING CHINA’S STORY A CASE STUDY OF A CHINESE INFLUENCER IN PERSIAN CULTURE

Abstract

This study used the perspective of social media communication strategies to explore the non-commercial social media influencers in the context of cross-cultural communication. Social media influencers, having enormous followers and high marketing potential, have been the center of studies in recent years. Given that the literature in this field only concentrated on commercial social media influencers, this study took a different approach to explore the non-commercial cross-culture social media influencers’ roles beyond their native cultures. Employing the quantitative content analysis method, this study examined the @anahitachin Facebook page run by a Chinese journalist and social media influencer in Persian culture. This article explains the content pattern and utilization of social media communication strategies, clarifying cross-cultural social media influencers' pathways. Similarly, the practical contributions of this study for the cross-culture social media influencers and its theoretical implications are discussed.

Keywords

• China’s story
• cross-culture social media influencers
• non-commercial social media influencers
• public engagement
• social media communication strategies
• social media influencers

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