Emojis or Not? How Emotional Vividness Influences Brand Attitude in Social Media

Abstract

Social media has become a major platform for brand-customer interactions, and nonverbal cues such as emojis are widely used in text-based communication. Previous research suggests that emojis are perceived inappropriate and childish in work-related contexts, but it remains unknown whether these nonverbal cues would have a similarly negative effect when brands interact with customers in social media, or what the mechanisms underlying their possible effect are. Through a laboratory experiments this paper finds that more vivid emotional expressions in the form of emojis enhance consumers' brand attitude, and this positive effect is mediated by processing fluency and perceived persuasive intent. The findings have both theoretical contributions and practical implications for brand managers.