The social network Instagram became an important tool for brands, which are able to create consumer trends through influencers. Advertisers are already recognising Instagram as one of the most effective media for marketing, as influencers should have a greater social influence than traditional advertising, due to their communication style. Because influencers are attributed with an important social influence, we wanted to, throughout this study, identify and categorise major factors, that affect influencer - follower relationship, where we, due to the lack of relevant studies, focused on followers' perception of this relationship. To this end, we have formulated and distributed the Questionnaire of perceived characteristics of the relationship between the influencer and the follower on Instagram from the follower's perspective. In the survey, we concentrated on motivational factors of following, characteristics of parasocial relationship, social comparison and persuasion. 64 participants were included in the study. The results obtained show motivation for following because of perceived similar interests of the follower and influencer, relating primarily to the lifestyle. We have identified some attributes of the parasocial relationship, specifically similarity of interests, attractiveness and continuity of the relationship. The comparison of the personality characteristics of the influencer and follower has shown that the followers perceive the influencer as more open, meanwhile when comparing their lifestyles, the influencer was perceived as more active, successful, attractive and optimistic, while they assess themselves as more open to new knowledge. When measuring the social influence, we have not found any important correlation between active, successful, attractive and optimistic lifestyle of influencer various aspects of the consumer behaviour, such as likeability of products, desirability of possessing products and intentionality of buying products. Influencers personality was recognised as an important factor in shaping desirability of products. At the same time such lifestyles do not have direct influence on desirability of certain lifestyle. In comparison with previously conducted studies our study presents more holistic approach in understanding and explanation of mechanisms shaping relationship between followers and influencers on Instagram. Traditional psychology of crowds and influence does not provide satisfactory number of studies of more current phenomena in virtual communities, even though they are important parts of every day life especially for certain demographic groups.
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