Influencer Marketing, Interface Signals, and Microvisual Storytelling: Toward a Credible Verification Framework for the Creator Economy
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article explores how interface-level symbols like verification badges function as micro-visual storytelling mechanisms that compress complex signals of identity, professionalism, and credibility into a single visual cue. Bridging influencer marketing, platform studies, visual semiotics, and information economics, this essay critiques current general-purpose verification systems and proposes a theoretically grounded framework for a specialized influencer marketing verification badge. The framework draws on signaling theory, platform governance, visual semiotics, and relational labor to contextualize trust formation and risks in influencer economies. It outlines a three-tiered badge evaluation model and introduces design and governance considerations to ensure signal credibility and reduce manipulation of metrics and eligibility criteria. The paper also addresses platform-specific affordances and genre-cultural differences, ultimately arguing for a contingent, auditable, and ethically sensitive signaling infrastructure to support transparency and quality in digital marketing ecosystems.
DOI: 10.3998/gs.8759
Author: Max Beck
Institution: Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administración
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7083681008
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