INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS’ CREDIBILITY ON FOLLOWERS’ RELIGIOSITY AND SPIRITUALITY IN MALAYSIA: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL THE USE OF DA’WAH STRATEGIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING

Abstract

The growing trend of social media influencers (SMI) inspires their followers in almost every aspect of life. The new da’wah strategies through digital platforms proved massive dissemination of religious teachings to the ummah population compared to the conventional method of da’wah. The emergence of religious social media influencers in social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok undeniably attracted huge followers’ social engagement that resulted in a behavioral change leading to a positive outcome, particularly in religiosity and spirituality, subjective well-being, and self-regulation toward the Islamic lifestyle. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of religious social media influencers’ credibility on followers’ religiosity and spirituality in Malaysia. The researcher constructed new conceptual da’wah strategies based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Source Credibility Theory (SCT) for the effectiveness of persuasive religious content of the preachers. This study uses qualitative research methods through library research and intensive literature. Results showed that the credibility of the source (Social Media Influencer) affected the acceptance and reliability of the followers to practice Islamic Lifestyle that strengthen followers’ level of religiosity and spirituality towards Islam.