Assessing Brand Communication Strategies on Social Media: A Comparative Analysis of Global Brands’ Twitter Usage in the U.S. and South Korea

Abstract

This study aims to explore how Twitter is used as a marketing communication tool for many global brands and the cultural differences between the U.S. and South Korea in terms of message strategies. A content analysis is used to examine the communication strategies used by global brands on Twitter. The results show that informational messages are more prevalent in South Korea, while transformational messages are more prevalent in the U.S.. As for action code strategies, messages with an announcement occurred more often in South Korea compared to the U.S. The multinational brands in South Korea used more active message tactics such as asking for a relationship, redirecting to other media, whereas US global brands used more indirect tactics such as retweeting their tweets to their followers. The global brands used non-verbal cues such as emoticons, repeated punctuations more often in South Korea. This study will provide new insights for advertising and marketing practitioners that will help them better integrate their social media into a marketing communication plan for the global market.