Social Media Engagement Research Articles

Know Your Firm: Managing Social Media Engagement to Improve Firm Sales Performance

We examine the impact of firm social media engagement on sales performance, answering “whether,” “what,” and “how” questions. The study uses a quasi-experimental design in a social e-commerce setting, for which propensity score matching and difference-in-differences methods quantify a mean 20.67% sales increase after firm social media adoption. We also find that firms that sell low-involvement products benefit more from social media adoption, compared to those that sell high-involvement products. Further, in terms of how to manage social media engagement, we find that informative content, in general, is effective for sales of high-involvement products, whereas promotional content, a new type of content discovered in this study, is more beneficial for sales of low-involvement products. Meanwhile, more social media followers generate better firm sales performance. We used instrumental variables and the control function method to address endogeneity issues and conducted robustness checks to support our conclusions. This study sheds light on the value of firm social media, particularly regarding industry differences and firm know-how.

Is Social Media Engagement and Sentiments the Right Metric for Investing in Crypto-Currencies? Implications for Entrepreneurs and Investors

Is Social Media Engagement and Sentiments the Right Metric for Investing in Crypto-Currencies? Implications for Entrepreneurs and Investors

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Shares: The Case of Destination Canada’s Social Media Visual Storytelling Campaign

This case is designed to assess the visual storytelling social media strategy created by Destination Canada (DC), the country’s national destination marketing organization, regarding their objective, to drive demand among international travelers, to uncover insights into how it has performed since the devastating impact of COVID-19, and how the future might unfold. DC curates and shares a variety of unique photos and videos to their Instagram page on a near-daily basis, inspiring users to connect emotionally with the brand, develop a desire to visit, and ultimately choose to travel to Canada. Despite success to date with their strategy, DC has faced unprecedented challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have made their path forward unclear. In this case, students will draw upon visual storytelling and social media engagement concepts in tourism and marketing to examine key data related to DC’s campaign and Instagram engagement across their posts, and ultimately piece together the key information required to evaluate the effectiveness of DC’s campaign, along with where changes may be needed for DC to remain engaged with users post-pandemic.

Unlocking Deeper Insights into Customer Engagement Through AI-Powered Analysis of Social Media Data

P.K. Kannan, Yi Yang, and Kunpeng Zhang describe their method for using AI to map and analyze the structure of social media engagement, which spans thousands of brands in different categories. By using this method, managers can extract valuable information about customers, trends, ties to other firms, and impending opportunities or threats.

Digging deeper into responsibility: an investigation of responses to online help-request marketing campaigns in social networking groups

PurposeThere is a growing trend among online merchants to conduct help-request marketing campaigns (HMCs), which refers to a kind of marketing campaign that leverages participants' help-request to encourage the subsequent engagement of participants' online friends. The paper aims to investigate how individuals respond to online HMCs in social networking groups (SNGs). Integrating the norm activation model and regulatory focus theory, this paper examines the mediation effects of the two facets of responsibility perception, i.e. perceived causality and perceived answerability.Design/methodology/approachA field experiment was conducted by organizing a real HMC on WeChat. To manipulate request individuation, experimental confederates were engaged to serve as requesters in the HMC. The actual responses provided by the recipients (subjects) were captured via the HMC pages. The multiple-group analysis was used for data analysis.FindingsEmpirical results reveal that request individuation strengthens the effect of relationship closeness on perceived causality but reverses the effect of relationship closeness on perceived answerability from being positive to negative. Except for the negligible impact of perceived answerability on inaction, both perceived causality and perceived answerability affect recipients' reactions to HMCs as expected.Practical implicationsFirst, social media platforms should promote other-oriented prosocial values when designing features or launching campaigns. Second, the designers of HMCs should introduce a “tagging” feature in HMCs and provide additional bonuses for requesters who perform tagging. Third, HMC requesters should prudently select tagging targets when making a request.Originality/valueFirst, this paper contributes to the literature on social media engagement by identifying responsibility as an other-oriented motivation for individuals' social media engagement. Second, this paper also extends our understanding of responsibility by dividing it into perceived causality and answerability as well as measuring them with self-developed instruments. Third, this study contributes to the research on WOM by demonstrating that individuals' response behaviors toward help-requests embedded in HMCs can take the form of proactive helping, reactive helping or inaction.

여행사 소셜미디어 정보특성과 인게이지먼트, 브랜드 태도, 행동의도 연구

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of travel agency social media information characteristics on engagement, brand attitudes, satisfaction, and loyalty. The proliferation of smartphones has led to the expansion of social media creation and use, and social media has become an important marketing medium for brand formation and information delivery. This study aims to analyze the effects of social media information characteristics and engagement, a state of information immersion, on brand attitudes and behavioral intentions.
 Methods: The survey was conducted with a sample of people who have used travel agency social media. A self-administered survey using simple random sampling was conducted from July 18 to August 31, 2022, and a total of 317 copies were used for analysis. Frequency analysis, validity and reliability analysis, correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were conducted using the SPSS 22.0 program.
 Results: The impact of travel agency social media information characteristics on engagement was found to be significantly influenced by quality, liveliness, professionalism, and interactivity among social media information characteristics; engagement was found to have a significant impact on brand attitude; brand attitude has a defining effect on satisfaction and loyalty; and satisfaction has an impact on loyalty.
 Conclusion: This study provides a theoretical foundation for future empirical studies in the same field by establishing the conceptualization of marketing variables and measurement factors using social media, measuring their constructs, and studying their relationships.

Social media integration: An opportunity for SMEs sustainability

The changing trend in the circular economy has pushed most firms to be competitive in their business activities using emerging technology. SMEs in recent times are increasingly leveraging technologies such as social media to enhance their interactions with their customers, increase their reach and become competitive. Despite this, SMEs in the manufacturing sector in developing economies are often underexplored in literature in their resolve to leverage social media to improve their performance and sustainability. This research explores the integration of social media in SME manufacturing firms’ activities toward their performance and sustainability in developing countries. Drawing on relevant literature and the social media engagement theory, we employed a questionnaire survey to collect data from 417 managers/staff of SME manufacturing firms in Ghana, using PLS-SEM techniques for the analysis. Research findings revealed that social media integration proved a direct positive correlation with SME manufacturing firms’ performance. Additionally, it was revealed that social media utilization has a positive and significant effect on SME manufacturing firms’ performance. The findings further show that social media usage assists SME firms’ performance and fosters their sustainability. It is concluded that SMEs should incorporate social media marketing strategies for firms’-customer relationships and internal and external collaboration. By implication, this study offers practitioners and researchers knowledge regarding social media integration among SMEs in emerging economies.

Impact of Demographic Factors on Emotional Intelligence in Selected Organization in the Kathmandu Valley

This study's main goal is to investigate how socio-demographic factors affect employees' Emotional Intelligence (EI), particularly in Kathmandu valley organizations. Cross-sectional, the quantitative study design was used; convenience sampling techniques and the sample size were calculated using Cochran's formula. However, the instruments tested content validity, factor analysis, reliability, and a pilot test. There were 35 EI questions, and socio-demographic features (gender, age, work experience, qualification, marital status, and EI training). Descriptive, Regression, and ANOVA test were utilized to accomplish the goal. The findings reveled that there was a significant relationship between EI with work experiences, EI training, marital status, and social media engagement. In this regards, researchers suggested that; EI is a skill that can be acquired, researchers suggest that; organizations should create a culture where emotional intelligence can be fostered. Factors such as social media engagement, work experiences, and EI training, play a role in an employee's success.

The Interplay between Right-Wing Alternative Media, Mainstream Media, and Political Elites in the United States

Right-wing anti-establishment sentiment has enabled the mainstreaming of alternative media outlets across Europe and the United States. Earlier research has quantified the public recognition of these media actors through web traffic rankings, direct social media engagement (e.g., reactions, comments, shares), and topic overlap with establishment counterparts. We demonstrate a computationally scalable approach which (1) sharpens the analytical unit from topic (e.g., “immigration”) to specific news event (e.g., “migrant caravan traveling from Honduras”) and (2) enables the temporal ordering of the same news event appearing among media and politicians. Our method uses a combination of URL matching, word embedding similarity metrics, and network-based eventdetection techniques. We draw two main findings from a dataset of articles from 13 U.S. right-wing media outlets and (re-)tweets by congressional Republicans from 2016 to 2020. First, we identify a clear shift in politicians’ media consumption from left- to right-wing outlets. While established-right outlets made the largest gains (30% to 42% of all (re-)tweets), alternative-right outlets also grew from 2% to 5%. Second, we identify increasing content alignment among established- and alternative-right outlets as the URL-to-dyad ratio is almost halved over the time period. Finally, we present a proof-of-concept for detecting media outlets’ indirect political alignment.

Antecedents and Consequences of Customers’ Engagement with Pro-Environmental Consumption-Related Content on Social Media

Social media has been widely used to design and publish pro-environment campaigns; the goal is to spread awareness about environmental issues and explain how customers can change their consumption behavior to protect the environment. Customers’ engagement with pro-environmental campaigns (CEPC) on social media is crucial to achieving these objectives. Limited studies have examined the factors that could increase CEPC, and its effects, on pro-environmental consumption behavior. The available literature suggests the antecedents of social media engagement, but is restricted to brands/products. Based on these findings, this study explores the effects of advertising attractiveness, advertising-based skepticism, online interaction propensity, and privacy concerns on CEPC. This study also suggests that customers’ engagement with pro-environmental consumption-related content can be defined as a pro-environmental experience that could lead to pro-environmental consumption. The study was based on a sample of 262 responses from online users; the results indicated that CEPC is largely affected by advertising attractiveness, advertising skepticism, and online interaction propensity. The study further established that pro-environment consumption is a potential outcome of CPEC. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insight into ways in which activist groups can inspire consumers to engage with pro-environment content and exploring whether that engagement translates into a pro-environment intention.

THE ROLE OF LIFE SATISFACTION AS A MODERATOR IN THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT WITH FEAR OF MISSING OUT IN YOUNG ADULTS

This study aims to examine the role of life satisfaction as a moderator in the relationship between social media engagement and FOMO. The participants of this study consisted of 407 young adults aged 18 to 35 years who have and are active in using social media using an accidental sampling technique. This research is a quantitative research with a Moderation Regression Analysis (MRA) data analysis method using SPSS and JASP. The measuring instruments used in this study were the Social Media Engagement (SME) questionnaire, Satisfaction With Life Scales (SWLS), and the Fear of Missing Out Scales (FoMOS). The results showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between social media engagement and FOMO. Life satisfaction as a moderator variable itself can not moderate the relationship between social media engagement and FOMO.

Sweet escape: The role of empathy in social media engagement with human versus virtual influencers

Virtual influencers engage in emotional sharing to gain and keep followers. However, given that many people use social media for diversion purposes, this emotional sharing may hinder users’ ability to escape from everyday emotional experiences, particularly for highly empathetic individuals. Using a between subjects, randomised experimental design, we explore how empathy affects reactions to virtual vs. human influencers, showing that those highest on empathy are more likely to follow a virtual influencer, and rate her as more socially attractive, than a comparable human influencer; these results disappear when the influencers’ true nature is unknown to participants. We postulate that these results represent an “escapism effect”, where the virtual influencer is expected to provide greater diversionary benefits from everyday human emotional experiences and require fewer cognitive resources in the form of emotional sense making. We present practical implications and future research opportunities arising from this effect.

Social media engagement and impacts on post-COVID-19 travel intention for adventure tourism in New Zealand

This study examined the online search behavior of international students and the impacts of social media content on their intention to purchase adventure tourism products during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 international students in Auckland, New Zealand. The data collected were analysed using a qualitative thematic analysis approach. The findings demonstrate the importance of adventure tourism organizations having a comprehensive understanding of tourist perceptions and search behaviors on social media for information related to purchase intention. Both Firm-Generated Content and User-Generated Content were found to be effective and convincing with popular sources of both types of content on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TripAdvisor, as well as other more specific content and platforms directly targeting Chinese tourists. The study demonstrates how changes in customer behavior including how international tourists search for information on social media affected their intent to purchase. This highlights the importance of social media when marketing adventure tourism destinations including destinations in New Zealand. Management implicationsThe research findings further highlight the importance of social media in the era of COVID-19 with increased use and reliance of content on social media platforms produced by firms and users. Therefore, adventure tourism marketers need to formulate new social media marketing strategies to trigger purchase intentions in accordance with the preferences of the target audiences and their own business objectives.

Disruptive Mobility Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study on the Brand Development Strategies of Yulu

India is home to many technology-based startups in the global economy (Gai & Joffe, 2013) and is ranked as the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world (Indian Startup Ecosystem, 2022). Within India, Bangalore, the country's "Silicon Valley," was named one of the nine International Startup Hubs outside the United States (Pullen, 2013). Bengaluru is ranked 23rd in an annual analysis of the world's most hospitable startup environments (Business Standard, 2021) and in a silicon city such as Bengaluru, startups emerge, grow, and fall. Yulu is an urban micro-mobility startup that started in 2017 to solve the first and last mile connectivity problems and help the environment. This study intends to understand the various brand development strategies adopted by the mobility startup Yulu before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mixed methods adopted for the study attempts to analyze the social media engagement of the brand on Instagram and Facebook from 2018 to 2021. The results indicate that the key measures and steps taken by Yulu helped it to rise above the competition and evolve from merely a startup to a brand. The unprecedented pandemic posed challenges to all businesses, but Yulu found its way out through various strategies. Yulu was timely with their social awareness campaigns and content, allowing people to connect and react better. Yulu was also successful in exciting its users with rapid expansions in different zones of the city and across the country.

Health belief model and social media engagement: A cross-national study of health promotion strategies against COVID-19 in 2020.

Using the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study analyzed tweets related to COVID-19 published by national health departments of the United States, the South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and India to explore their differences in (1) the health measures against COVID-19, (2) the health promotion strategies, (3) the social media engagements that those measures and strategies have triggered. We conducted a content analysis with 1,200 randomly selected COVID-19-related tweets from six national health departments' Twitter accounts from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. We coded the six HBM constructs and 21 sub-themes of the HBM constructs for each tweet. Results showed that all six HBM constructs were used in the full sample. The most commonly used HBM construct was cues to action, followed by susceptibility, benefits, self-efficacy, severity, and barriers. All the HBM constructs were positively related to Twitter engagement variables except barriers. Further analysis illustrated that people from the six countries responded differently to the HBM constructs and the HBM sub-themes. Twitter users in Germany, India, the U.S., and Japan positively reacted to the clear directions of "what to do against COVID-19" (cues to action), while Twitter users in the U.S. and Japan were also eager to know the justifications for such directions (benefits); people in South Korea and the U.K. were mainly seeking a diagnosis of the severity and susceptibility of COVID-19, instead of health measures, of COVID-19 in the year 2020. This study showed the use of HBM constructs is generally effective in inducing Twitter engagement. The further comparison illustrated a homogenization in the promotion strategies that the health departments implemented and the health measures they promoted, yet responses to such promotions varied across nations. This study broadened the scope of HBM applications from predicting health behaviors in surveys to guiding the design of health promotion messages online.

The role of social media engagement in building relationship quality and brand performance in higher education marketing

PurposeSocial media engagement is widely used by the higher education institutions (HEIs) to improve brand performance through brand image and brand loyalty. This study focusses on the effect of social media engagement on relationship quality and brand performance in the higher education marketing (HEM) context. Social media engagement dimensions comprising social interaction, sharing of information, surveillance and information quantity are tested as antecedents to relationship quality. Relationship quality is examined as antecedents to brand image and brand loyalty.Design/methodology/approachData are obtained through survey questionnaire from 410 undergraduate and postgraduate students from six HEIs in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis.FindingsThe findings of this study reveal that social interaction, sharing of information, surveillance and information quantity have positive effect on relationship quality. Relationship quality has significant positive influence on brand image and brand loyalty, respectively.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the extension of social exchange theory through the development of an integrative framework of social media engagement (exchange) needed for improving relationship quality (relational responses) and brand performance (behavioural outcomes) in the HEM.

The impact of brand perceptions on the post-to-purchase journey: a family branding perspective

PurposeDespite brands’ growing use of social media, most research has overlooked the impact of brand perceptions, particularly that of a family brand identity and perceptions of authenticity. Often the purpose of a social media post is to positively change or enhance these perceptions and, consequently, increase a consumer’s purchase intentions. However, how a post influences purchase intentions, that is, the post-to-purchase journey, is not well understood. This study aims to investigate how characteristics of social media post influence purchase intentions through the mediated effects of social media engagement and perceptions of brand authenticity and how a family brand identity enhances this post-to-purchase journey.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on signalling theory, a sequential mediation model is devised, reflecting the post-to-purchase journey. Starting with identifying desirable characteristics of social media content, the sequential roles of social media engagement and brand authenticity and ending with purchase intentions – with the impact of family brand identity overlayed at each step. This model is analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and data from 227 UK consumers.FindingsFour desirable characteristics of social media posts are affirmed – creativity, information, persuasion and inspiration. Each was theoretically justified as costly signals and captured different aspects of effective content, indicating their relative importance. The proposed post-to-purchase journey is supported, with family brand perceptions enhancing each step.Originality/valueAddressing a need to look beyond current conceptualisations and theoretical underpinnings, this paper puts forward a post-to-purchase journey, incorporating brand-related perceptions, resulting in a deeper understanding of how social media builds purchase intentions.

Basic Need Satisfaction through Social Media Engagement: A Developmental Framework for Understanding Adolescent Social Media Use

This article provides a theoretical review of how within notions of self-determination theory adolescents’ use of social media can contribute to both the satisfaction and/or frustration of their basic psychological needs and thus contribute to (or impede) their attainment of key developmental goals in adolescence, such as identity formation and peer affiliation, and how these may impact their overall well-being. In this way, this work provides important insights into the motivational (i.e., basic psychological need satisfaction) and developmental (i.e., identity formation and peer affiliation) processes underlying youths’ social media engagement and has important implications for future research, as well as the development of intervention and prevention efforts targeting youth experiencing negative outcomes related to their social media engagement.

The Role of Graduate Medical Education in the Fight Against Health Misinformation.

The Role of Graduate Medical Education in the Fight Against Health Misinformation.

Evaluating Sentiment, Engagement, and Perception of Biologics Among Patients with Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis on Reddit.

Limited analyses of social media content among psoriasis (PsO) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients exist. These patients may turn to social media to gain insight into treatments such as biologics. This study aims to analyze the content, sentiment, and engagement of social media posts regarding biologics for PsO and PsA. Posts and comments discussing biologics were extracted from publicly accessible PsO and PsA Reddit groups. Posts were assigned higher (HOT) and lower order (LOT) themes, sentiments, and engagement scores. Of 1141 posts extracted, 705 posts were classified under the HOT general/efficacy. Twelve lower order themes (LOTs) were identified: general advice/experience (10.2%), symptoms improved (36.6%), switching biologics (10.5%), and time to results (13.4%). 61.3% of content was of positive sentiment, 24.0% was neutral, and 14.7% was of negative sentiment. The mean sentiment score, defined as the average of all posts' sentiment scores (where negative=-1, neutral=0, and positive=1), was overall positive at 0.47, 95% CI [.41-.52]. Mean sentiment scores between LOTs were significantly different (P<0.001). Information regarding biologics on Reddit is mostly positive; however, there remains a significant number of users expressing dissatisfaction with their efficacy or with biologics in general. Many users sought anecdotal advice. These findings can help guide educational efforts to anticipate concerns and appease hesitancy regarding biologics and their efficacy. J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(3):306-309. doi:10.36849/JDD.7124.