TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional and emotional traits of corporate social media message strategies
T2 - Behavioral insights from S&P 500 Facebook data
AU - Ji, Yi Grace
AU - Chen, Zifei Fay
AU - Tao, Weiting
AU - Cathy Li, Zongchao
N1 - Funding Information:
This research project was funded by the RSCA Infusion Grant at San Jose State University.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Drawing from literature regarding public engagement, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), computer-mediated communication research, and emotion psychology, this study examines the effects of companies’ social media communication strategies on public engagement behaviors as indexed by post likes, shares, and comments. Specifically, it investigates how corporate Facebook posts’ functional traits (functional interactivity and vividness) and emotional traits (emotion presence, valence, and strength) impact public engagement online. Through data mining and computer-assisted sentiment analysis of 33,379 posts from 106 Standard & Poor 500 companies’ Facebook accounts, this study finds a negative effect of functional interactivity but a positive effect of vividness on engagement. It also shows that emotional traits overall yield stronger public engagement outcomes. Two-way interactions between emotional and functional features are also detected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
AB - Drawing from literature regarding public engagement, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), computer-mediated communication research, and emotion psychology, this study examines the effects of companies’ social media communication strategies on public engagement behaviors as indexed by post likes, shares, and comments. Specifically, it investigates how corporate Facebook posts’ functional traits (functional interactivity and vividness) and emotional traits (emotion presence, valence, and strength) impact public engagement online. Through data mining and computer-assisted sentiment analysis of 33,379 posts from 106 Standard & Poor 500 companies’ Facebook accounts, this study finds a negative effect of functional interactivity but a positive effect of vividness on engagement. It also shows that emotional traits overall yield stronger public engagement outcomes. Two-way interactions between emotional and functional features are also detected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
KW - Computer-assisted sentiment analysis
KW - Elaboration Likelihood Model
KW - Emotion
KW - Functional interactivity
KW - Message strategies
KW - Social media engagement
KW - Vividness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058629830&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058629830&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.12.001
DO - 10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.12.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85058629830
VL - 45
SP - 88
EP - 103
JO - Public Relations Review
JF - Public Relations Review
SN - 0363-8111
IS - 1
ER -