Consumer engagement on social media: Evidence from small retailers

This study investigates which characteristics of the social media posts of small firms in Tasmania, Australia elicit higher levels of consumer engagement. Results from an analysis of small retail firms’ social media postings (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) (N = 2,607) illustrate the importance of the content of the post (i.e., businesses‐related vs. non‐business‐related), the activity (i.e., text, image or video), the time of day of the posting and the platform on which the activity was posted, in eliciting responses from followers. Results show Facebook received significantly higher levels of engagement, compared with Twitter and Instagram. Contrary to expectations, the specific day of the week did not have any impact on levels of engagement. This research demonstrates how small businesses can improve their use of social media marketing to engage more effectively with customers and followers.     

“Do human values matter for promoting brands on social media? How social media users' values influence valuable brand‐related activities such as sharing,content creation,and reviews”

Companies consider social media‐based consumer engagement behaviors such as sharing, content creation, and reviews for brands as more valuable than “liking” or consuming brand content. Studies show that branded content shared or created by consumers on social media may drive more brand awareness and loyalty than “likes” (Adweek, 2013). Global companies are increasingly focusing their efforts on motivating consumer‐driven content creation (e.g., Coca‐Cola #shareacoke and Apple #ShotoniPhone; Sprout Index, 2018). However, marketing practitioners are only recently beginning to understand social media audiences who engage in such activities (Adweek, 2018). This study posits that human values can be used to identify and segment audiences for social media‐based valuable brand activities. Three online surveys were conducted with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users (ages 18–34) on Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 491). The relationship between social media users' values and their reported social media activities was examined. Findings indicate that the human values examined (conservation, self‐enhancement, openness to change and self‐transcendence) are significant drivers of valuable brand‐related social media activities. Companies should address conservation‐driven users in order to elicit brand sharing and creation activities. Companies should target conservation‐driven users for sharing promotions, self‐enhancement‐driven users for sharing informational content and writing of product reviews, and openness to change‐driven users for user‐generated content. Bussinesses should further highlight their corporate social responsibility efforts as a negative relationship is found between users' self‐transcendence values and brand activities. Recommendations are provided on how brandscan address users' values in their social media marketing to motivate sharing of branded content and content creation.     

‘Check Your Selfie before You Wreck Your Selfie’: Personality ratings of Instagram users as a function of self-image posts

This study considered the relation between self-image posts (i.e., selfies, posies) on Instagram and the personality and self-perception attributions made by unfamiliar perceivers based on those posts. Phase 1 involved 30 undergraduates who completed self-report inventories and whose Instagram posts were coded and then screenshot for the second phase. Phase 2 included 119 undergraduates from a different university. Phase 2 participants (perceivers) rated Phase 1 participants (targets) on 13 attributes (e.g., self-absorption, low self-esteem, extraversion, successfulness) based on these screenshots. Targets who posted more selfies were rated more negatively (e.g., more lonely, less successful). Although self-image posts on social media may not be clearly indicative of personality/self-perception, they may be cues for how the depicted person is perceived by others.     

Picture This: The Influence of Emotionally Valenced Images,On Attention,Selection, and Sharing of Social Media News

Social media platforms have become the primary conduits to news for many consumers, yet little is known about how the content in social media posts is viewed and evaluated by consumers or how it shapes their decisions about selecting and sharing this information. A within-subjects eye-tracking experiment (N = 60), was conducted to examine the influence of image presence and valence on attention to and engagement with news stories on social media. Participants viewed a series of 29 social media posts of news stories, each of which was either paired with no image, a positively valenced image, or a negatively valenced image. Participants attention to the images was captured via eye tracking, and they answered dependent measures to gauge level of emotion and arousal, and intention to click and share. The results show that posts containing positive images elicited a higher level of visual attention than those with negative or no images, which led to higher intentions to click and share posts with positive images. The results provide a deeper understanding of the importance of images in driving news consumption, and offer practical implications for journalists, news organizations and groups using social media to spread a message.     

Affinity to mnemonic features of social media: Antecedent and consequences

This research explores consumer loneliness and its resulting preference for mnemonic features as the psychological antecedents of social media use and studies its consequence on consumer behavior. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey with a large sample (N = 1307) and analyzed the data using PLS structural equation modeling method. We show that individuals with higher (vs. lower) feelings of loneliness show a lower (vs. higher) affinity to mnemonic features of social media platforms, making them more likely to use Snapchat (vs. Facebook). This effect persists after controlling for demographic factors (such as age and gender) and other known motivations behind social media choice. These two groups of social media users also exhibit different types of consumer behavior resulting from their underlying affinity to mnemonic features. Snapchat users tend to be more variety-seeking and prefer newer brands (vs. established brands) than Facebook users. Our research contributes to the literature on the adoption of social media platforms by studying an important individual difference variable and integrating the concept of mnemonic features of social media as a key driving factor in that choice. The findings can give managers essential insights into the usership of social media platforms and help them select the right platform for their social media campaigns.     

强势品牌广告竞争的溢出效应

本研究探讨同一品类两个强势品牌广告竞争对弱势品牌产生的影响, 研究尝试将广告重复、广告长度作为操控广告竞争强度的具体手段, 运用感知到的广告竞争水平来表示广告竞争强度。研究结果表明, 同一品类两个品牌同时进行广告重复的水平不同, 可以导致被试感知到的广告竞争水平有显著差异, 广告重复次数越多, 被试感知到的广告竞争强度越高, 广告长度对感知到的广告竞争作用不显著。研究同时发现：随着两个强势品牌广告竞争强度的提高, 消费者对弱势品牌的品牌态度降低, 这表明强势品牌广告竞争对弱势品牌具有溢出效应。另外, 研究还发现产品涉入度和产品属性相似性对强势品牌广告竞争的溢出效应具有调节作用, 涉入度低的产品和属性相似性高的产品溢出效应更大。本研究丰富了溢出效应理论, 增加了溢出效应类别, 同时对同一品类内部的广告实践具有重要的指导意义。     

Adolescents’ Body Shame and Social Networking Sites: The Mediating Effect of Body Image Control in Photos

Adolescents’ social networking site (SNS) use has dramatically grown in the past few years and has increasingly become focused on pictures and visual self-presentation. Attention directed toward online physical appearance appears to trigger some body-related behaviors (e.g., body image monitoring) which potentially are related to self-objectification and problematic SNS use. Indeed, the use of social media platforms (including the active creation of content and peer interactions) provides a highly accessible medium for socializing with self-objectification. The present study evaluated the previously unexplored predictive role of body shame on SNS use, testing the mediating effect of body image control in photos on SNS. A total of 693 Italian adolescents (45% male; M_age?=?16 years, range?=?13–19 years) participated in the study. Results only partially confirmed the direct effect of body shame on problematic SNS use. However, body shame strongly predicted body image control in SNS photos, leading indirectly to both male and female adolescents’ problematic social media use. The study demonstrated novel findings in the field of self-objectification research and contributes toward the ongoing debate on possible predictors of problematic SNS use.

     

How does green advertising skepticism on social media affect consumer intention to purchase green products?

Underpinned by the stimulus–organism–response model, this study explores the underlying mechanism through which green advertising skepticism on social media affects consumer green purchase intention. It also investigates the boundary factors that moderate this indirect relationship. Performing structural equation modeling on data collected from an online survey on Sina Weibo, this study finds that green advertising skepticism on social media negatively affects green purchase intention through the mediation of perceived information utility. Moreover, interdependent self‐construal positively moderates, and independent self‐construal negatively moderates this indirect relationship. These findings suggest that truthful and consumer‐tailored green advertising is crucial to green product marketing.     

A Self‐Categorization Explanation for the Third‐Person Effect

Three studies tested a self‐categorization theory explanation for the third‐person effect. In Study 1 (N= 49) undergraduate students judged the influence of the National Enquirer, Wall Street Journal, and TV show Friends on themselves, relative to low‐ and high‐status outgroup members, and other undergraduate students. The profile of first‐ and third‐person perceptions was largely consistent with predictions, and the size of the third‐person effect decreased as perceived similarity to target others increased—but only for media that were normative for comparison others. Study 2 (N= 49) provided evidence for this process with different media and showed that the profile of first‐ and third‐person perceptions matched closely with perceived norms of media consumption—but not the social desirability of those media. Study 3 (N= 64) showed that the third‐person effect for the same media and target other shifts with the frame of reference in which the judgment is made. Taken together, the findings are consistent with self‐categorization theory and difficult to reconcile with other explanations.     

Social Beliefs and Visual Attention: How the Social Relevance of a Cue Influences Spatial Orienting

We are highly tuned to each other's visual attention. Perceiving the eye or hand movements of another person can influence the timing of a saccade or the reach of our own. However, the explanation for such spatial orienting in interpersonal contexts remains disputed. Is it due to the social appearance of the cue—a hand or an eye—or due to its social relevance—a cue that is connected to another person with attentional and intentional states? We developed an interpersonal version of the Posner spatial cueing paradigm. Participants saw a cue and detected a target at the same or a different location, while interacting with an unseen partner. Participants were led to believe that the cue was either connected to the gaze location of their partner or was generated randomly by a computer (Experiment 1), and that their partner had higher or lower social rank while engaged in the same or a different task (Experiment 2). We found that spatial cue‐target compatibility effects were greater when the cue related to a partner's gaze. This effect was amplified by the partner's social rank, but only when participants believed their partner was engaged in the same task. Taken together, this is strong evidence in support of the idea that spatial orienting is interpersonally attuned to the social relevance of the cue—whether the cue is connected to another person, who this person is, and what this person is doing—and does not exclusively rely on the social appearance of the cue. Visual attention is not only guided by the physical salience of one's environment but also by the mental representation of its social relevance.     

How Readability Shapes Social Media Engagement

We suggest that text readability plays an important role in driving consumer engagement on social media. Consistent with a processing fluency account, we find that easy‐to‐read posts are more liked, commented on, and shared on social media. We analyze over 4,000 Facebook posts from Humans of New York, a popular photography blog on social media, over a 3‐year period to see how readability shapes social media engagement. The results hold when controlling for photo features, story valence, and other content‐related characteristics. Experimental findings further demonstrate the causal impact of readability and the processing fluency mechanism in the context of a fictitious brand community. This research articulates the impact of processing fluency on brief word‐of‐mouth transmissions in the real world while empirically demonstrating that readability as a message feature matters. It also extends the impact of processing fluency to a novel behavioral outcome: commenting and sharing actions.     

Predicting Adolescents’ Self-Objectification from Sexualized Video Game and Instagram Use: A Longitudinal Study

A growing body of research has demonstrated negative effects of sexualization in the media on adolescents’ body image, but longitudinal studies and research including interactive and social media are scarce. The current study explored the longitudinal associations of adolescents’ use of sexualized video games (SVG) and sexualized Instagram images (SII) with body image concerns. Specifically, our study examined relations between adolescents’ SVG and SII use and appearance comparisons, thin- and muscular-ideal internalization, valuing appearance over competence, and body surveillance. A sample of 660 German adolescents (327 female, 333 male; M_age?=?15.09 years) participated in two waves with an interval of 6 months. A structural equation model showed that SVG and SII use at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. Furthermore, SVG and SII use indirectly predicted both thin- and muscular-ideal internalization through appearance comparisons at Time 1. In turn, thin-ideal internalization at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. The results indicate that sexualization in video games and on Instagram can play an important role in increasing body image concerns among adolescents. We discuss the findings with respect to objectification theory and the predictive value of including appearance comparisons in models explaining the relation between sexualized media and self-objectification.

     

Waif goodbye! Average-size female models promote positive body image and appeal to consumers

Despite consensus that exposure to media images of thin fashion models is associated with poor body image and disordered eating behaviours, few attempts have been made to enact change in the media. This study sought to investigate an effective alternative to current media imagery, by exploring the advertising effectiveness of average-size female fashion models, and their impact on the body image of both women and men. A sample of 171 women and 120 men were assigned to one of three advertisement conditions: no models, thin models and average-size models. Women and men rated average-size models as equally effective in advertisements as thin and no models. For women with average and high levels of internalisation of cultural beauty ideals, exposure to average-size female models was associated with a significantly more positive body image state in comparison to exposure to thin models and no models. For men reporting high levels of internalisation, exposure to average-size models was also associated with a more positive body image state in comparison to viewing thin models. These findings suggest that average-size female models can promote positive body image and appeal to consumers.     

Taking sustainable fashion mainstream: Social media and the institutional celebrity entrepreneur

There is a growing imperative to address the negative environmental impact of fashion and an increased awareness of sustainability issues: the sustainable fashion concept (SFC). However, while consumers are becoming more aware and concerned about sustainability, this is not resulting in the purchase of sustainable fashion products in preference to “mainstream” goods. This so‐called attitude–behaviour gap is well documented in academic literature, and yet there is a lack of research into potential methods of disrupting this phenomenon. This study seeks to redress this by examining the potential influence of celebrity institutional entrepreneurs (CIEs) to raise awareness of the SFC and to therefore guide and change consumer behaviour towards more sustainable practice. CIEs are celebrities who use their social position to espouse their values with the intention of influencing institutional habits and behaviours. In this case, Emma Watson is identified as an appropriate and credible proponent, and her @the_press_tour Instagram account was used to examine her influence. A netnographic investigation of this account was conducted in combination with eight in‐depth interviews with account followers to examine attitudes and actions towards sustainable fashion. Findings showed that the account had partial impact on consumer engagement with the SFC in that it led to the participants being more likely to discuss and consider the issues around sustainable fashion; however, it had no significant impact on purchases of sustainable fashion. The study concludes that CIEs can impact the attitudes of mainstream consumers towards sustainable fashion; however, further research is required to determine any long‐term influence.     

Conversations on contexts and meanings: On understanding therapeutic change from a contextual viewpoint

Recent developments within family therapy theory, often referred to as the Post-Milan Movement, have once again stressed the therapeutic encounter'squality of conversation. When therapy is looked upon as conversation, attention is not only paid to the fact that most of what happens in a session is talking. Rather, a more fundamental stance towardshuman life as basically meaning- making is taken. This is one of the essential premises of the contextualist approach to the social sciences.When applied to human problems this approach claims that symptoms evolve when (1) a person gives meaning to and performs a social act within a context inappropriate to the socially shared meaning of that act, and (2) the behavior of the person is accepted as a symptom by him/herself and the observing community. The therapeutic conversation establishes an exclusive context within which the domains of discourse of the client's life can be accounted for and renegotiated. With the acceptance of these accounts, changes evolve in the context-act relationships (i.e. meanings) construed by the client. This appears to be the basis for the self-healing aspects of psychotherapy.     

It's not just what you say,it's how you say it too. Adolescents' hostile attribution of intent and emotional responses to social comments

A highly prevalent and relevant situation in which adolescents have to interpret the intentions of others is when they interact with peers. We therefore successfully introduced a new paradigm to measure hostile attribution bias (HAB) and emotional responses to such social interactions and examined how it related to youth's aggressiveness. We presented 881 adolescents (M_age = 14.35 years; SD = 1.23; 48.1% male) with audio fragments of age-mates expressing social comments that varied in content (e.g., what the person says) and tone of voice (e.g., how the person says it). Participants' peers also reported on their aggressiveness. In general, added negativity of content and tone was driving the youth's intent attribution and emotional responses to the comments. In line with the Social Information Processing model, we found more hostile attribution of intent and more negative emotional responses of aggressive youth to ambiguous stimuli. Aggression was also related to more hostile intent attributions when both content and tone were negative. Unlike most studies on HAB, the aggression effects in the current study emerged for girls, but not boys. Implications of these results and future use of the experimental paradigm are discussed.     

Moscow on the fashion map: between periphery and centre

This essay considers Moscow??s simultaneously peripheral and central position on the global fashion map. It is predicated on a study of imaginary Russian geographies presented in Vogue and other fashion media, advertisements and promotional activities by important fashion brands, as well as the promotional texts and visuals of several new Russian fashion designers. While these different players all contribute to shaping the imagery of Russian fashion today, their agendas and aesthetics differ. This essay identifies three main approaches within the field of the symbolic production of Russian fashion. Western fashion designers and fashion media mainly rely on Russian imperial sartorial heritage in their orientalizing approach to Russian fashion. Secondly, Russian Vogue perpetuates Moscow??s peripheral international fashion position either by passively transmitting derivative Western representations of Russianness, or by reconstructing its own high-fashion versions of traditional Russian decorative style. Finally, several young Russian fashion designers deconstruct both traditional Russian and socialist iconography, in a fundamentally new development for the country??s fashion scene.     

Connectedness to the criminal community and the community at large predicts 1‐year post‐release outcomes among felony offenders

Connectedness to one's community relates to positive psychological and behavioral outcomes. But what implications do connectedness to distinct communities—the criminal community and the community at large—have for inmates about to be released from jail? This study (N = 383) prospectively examined connectedness to the criminal community and community at large prior to release from jail and functioning at 1‐year post‐release. Connectedness to the community at large positively predicted community adjustment, whereas connectedness to the criminal community positively predicted recidivism. Targeting both types of community connectedness may enhance interventions intended to undermine recidivism and increase positive outcomes for inmates.     

社交媒体分享线索如何影响消费者的选择：印象管理与自主感缺失

随着社交媒体, 第三方消费点评网站及各类电商平台的蓬勃发展, 消费者能够越来越容易地与他人分享自己的消费和体验。为了适应这一迅猛的发展势头, 企业采取一系列措施加入社交媒体营销刺激消费者分享。如在产品界面添加分享按钮, 在各大社交平台添加主题标签, 或者直接使用带有分享刺激的广告口号。与以往研究关注消费者决策后的分享行为不同, 本研究提出社交媒体分享线索在消费者决策中发挥着重要作用, 影响消费者的判断与选择。具体来说, 本项目认为社交媒体分享线索一方面激发了消费者的印象管理动机, 另一方面也降低了自主感, 在此基础上探究了的两个行为决策结果：产品兴趣和决策终止。本项目具有重要的理论意义, 突破前人研究大多关注决策后分享的局限, 对现有社交媒体分享, 及数字环境如何影响消费行为是有益的补充。在实践上, 对企业如何更好地开展社会化媒体营销有着重要的指导意义。     

The Effect of Comparative Advertising on Consumer Perceptions: Similarity or Differentiation?

Purpose  

Comparative advertising is seen as an effective means of conveying the differentiating advantages of a brand. Nevertheless, several studies show that a primary effect of comparative advertising is to lead consumers to associate the advertised brand with the competitor brand identified within the ad: it seems that comparison generates perceived similarity among brands instead of differentiation, per se. In order to clarify the issue, the aim of the research is to investigate the relative effectiveness of comparative and non-comparative advertising in communicating the differentiating attributes of a brand.