Congruency and Users’ Sharing on Social Media Platforms: A Novel Approach for Analyzing Content

Abstract

With users increasingly spending time on social media platforms, firms are expanding their activities to cover more than one platform. Each has a unique vernacular—its popular communication style—which increases the need for firms to use platform-specific content optimization. This study distinguishes between textual and visual content intentions, depending on the degree of informative and affective appeals used. We examine how congruency between visual content and platform type and textual content affects users’ sharing. We distinguish between hedonic platforms, such as Facebook, primarily used for entertainment and social interaction, and utilitarian platforms, such as Twitter, primarily used for receiving timely information. We develop a new approach to examine how textual and visual content composition affects users’ sharing behavior across platforms. Based on this new approach, we analyze posts by S&P 500 members operating on Facebook and Twitter. Our results show that posts with visual content congruent with the primary user intent of the platforms are more likely to be shared. Furthermore, Facebook users prefer affective textual and visual content, while Twitter users are more inclined toward a combination of informative visual and affective textual content.