Paper Details

The Accelerated growth of digital technologies has led to influencer marketing becoming a popular promotional tool, particularly in the service sector. Influencer marketing relies on social media personalities to shape consumer's views and opinions, boost brand visibility and affect purchasing decisions. Its increasing relevance in India reflects the expansion of social media usage and changing consumer preferences toward digital content and peer recommendations. The comparative assessment of influencer marketing platforms in India emphasizes momentous distinction in terms of scope, engagement, and functional utility. According to recent digital reports (DataReportal, 2025; Reuters, 2026), YouTube has the largest estimated user reach in India, followed by Instagram and Facebook, while Twitter maintains a comparatively smaller audience base. In spite of YouTube’s extensive reach, Instagram emerges as the most supreme platform for influencer marketing due to its visually oriented interface and higher engagement metrics. Features such as Reels enable rapid dissemination of promotional content and encourage active audience interaction. On the other hand, YouTube contributes substantially to building consumer trust by offering detailed content such as product evaluation, tutorials, and authentic-user experiences. Facebook continues to play a supporting role, while its influence is gradually declining, while Twitter (X) has limited applicability for influencer-driven promotions. In terms of sectoral impact, influencer marketing has shown strong effectiveness across various service industries. In the tour and travel sector, influencers enhance tourist perception, choices and guide Their choices and promoting experiential tourism through visual storytelling. In financial services, influencers contribute to improving financial literacy, building trust, and clarify easily complex financial products for consumers. Similarly, in the hotel and restaurant sector, influencer marketing promotes customer interaction, enhances brand reputation and significantly influences dining and accommodation choices through feedback and immersive content. The research finds that while platform reach remains important, engagement levels, content layout and sector-oriented applicability play a more critical role in determining the effectiveness of influencer marketing in the service sector.

Influencer Marketing, Social media platforms, Service industry marketing, Tourism and Hospitality, finacial services.