Social Media Followers: The Role of Value Congruence and the Social Media Manager

Abstract

Despite organizational interest in leveraging participation in social media, the impact of the social media manager in its success has been neglected in scholarly research. Through a moderated mediation process, this research examines the impact of value congruence of the social media follower with the brand social media presence on his/her willingness to pay premium price, considering the mediating role of the social media manager’s perceived authenticity and the moderating role of perceived task competence. This study employs data from 327 social media brand followers. The results support the model and show that social media followers’ value congruence influences perceptions of social media manager’s authenticity, and eventually the followers’ willingness to pay a premium price. Finally, social media managers’ perceived task competence enhances the relationship between the value congruence and perceived authenticity and between perceived authenticity and willingness to pay a premium price. These findings highlight the need for social media managers to learn about the values of their target audience before engaging with them and, once they have done so, to align the social media messages and content to these values. This value congruence will result in superior judgments and behavioral intentions.