The impact of social cues and effectiveness in check-in advertising

Abstract

Purpose

Check-in based advertising is growing dramatically as the popularity of social media increases. The purpose of this paper is to explore which social cues are appropriate for check-in based advertising in social media based on media richness theory and how content effectiveness affects content generation intention based on achievement motivation theory.

Design/methodology/approach

A laboratory experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of social cue strategies on content effectiveness of attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall. The influence of effectiveness on content generation intention are also measured in the experiment.

Findings

The results of a laboratory experiment indicated that a strategy of using plentiful social cues has high effectiveness as measured by the concept of attitude toward the ad. Content effectiveness measured by attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall can directly affect user intentions to generating check-in based advertisements.

Research limitations/implications

Although check-in based advertising is driven by the customers themselves rather than by the company, companies can encourage their customers to follow an appropriate check-in content generation strategy to improve effectiveness.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide useful information for designing the content of social media designed to facilitate the promotion of products and companies in online marketing.

Originality/value

In theoretical contribution, this study integrates media richness theory and achievement motivation theory to explore how users intent to generate check-in advertising according to social cues effectiveness.

Citation

Liu, C.-L. (2014), "The impact of social cues and effectiveness in check-in advertising", Kybernetes, Vol. 43 No. 7, pp. 984-1002. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-01-2014-0015