Emergence of online social networks began the era of social media influencers. Influencers became a primary source of information for many Internet users and consumers. Online influencers can influence the opinions, purchasing decisions, and behavior of their followers. Many companies have identified online influencers as a new advertising channel where content is seen as more organic and authentic compared to traditional business-generated ads. The vast majority of users of online social networks follow at least one or more online influencers. The aim of this master`s thesis is to research the motives of individuals to follow online influencers on the social network Instagram. The first part of the master's thesis offers a definition of important concepts and an overview of studies and past research on this topic. In the second part, based on the results of a quantitative survey of 196 respondents, I analyze and draw conclusions about the importance of selected motives for following such as trust, uniqueness, similarity, consistency and number of followers. Although trust proved to be the most important motive in the research, and the number of followers proved to be the least important, there is still a lot of room for further research.
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