Functional and emotional traits of corporate social media message strategies: Behavioral insights from S&P 500 Facebook data

• Published in: Public relations review Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 88 - 103
• Main Authors: Ji, Yi Grace, Chen, Zifei Fay, Tao, Weiting, Cathy Li, Zongchao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring Elsevier Inc 01.03.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Communication research; Companies; Computer-assisted sentiment analysis; Data mining; Elaboration Likelihood Model; Emotion; Emotions; Functional interactivity; Internet; Mass media effects; Message strategies; Psychology; Sentiment analysis; Social media; Social media engagement; Social networks; Vividness; Functional interactivity; Social media engagement; Message strategies; Elaboration Likelihood Model; Emotion; Vividness; Computer-assisted sentiment analysis
• ISSN: 0363-8111; 1873-4537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.12.001

•Interactivity negatively impacts while vividness positively impacts engagement.•Emotional traits yield stronger engagement outcomes than functional traits.•The joint effects between emotional and functional traits vary by outcomes. 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.