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With the growing trend of omni-channel marketing, brands are increasingly looking to offer a seamless experience to their online fan base by connecting with them across multiple social media platforms. This paper explores the relationship between brand posts' characteristics and popularity for start-ups across four different social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

A total of 1,200 social media posts from 10 start-ups were subjected to content analysis. Regression analysis was employed with brand posts' popularity (likes, comments and shares/retweets) as the dependent variable.

The results reveal several nuances in brand post popularity for start-ups across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Antecedents of the popularity measures of likes, comments and shares/retweets also fared differently.

The paper reports one of the earliest empirical studies to better understand how the qualities of brand posts are related to their appeal across multiple social media platforms. It advances the literature on social media marketing and offers insights to social media managers of brands, particularly start-ups, on how to offer smoother customer journeys across numerous digital touchpoints.

The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between employee-generated content (EGC) and firm-generated content (FGC) in the form of LinkedIn posts, employer brand perception, and the effect of employer's attractiveness and corporate reputation on this relationship.

This study comprises two phases. In phase 1, the focus was on stimuli selection through an online questionnaire on favourability. In phase 2, for the main study, data were gathered through an online survey from 214 information technology (IT) employees via a survey. Multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were conducted.

The results show that EGC and FGC have a positive influence on employer brand perception, and the relationship is positively mediated by employer attractiveness and corporate reputation. These findings suggest that organizations can strategically use their own as well as employees' LinkedIn accounts, and encourage employee advocacy initiatives to attract new talent, enhance attractiveness and corporate reputation.

The study covers two different categories of content – employer and employee-generated – and examines both content types' influence on employer brand perception. It adds to the body of literature regarding employee branding and paves the way for further research in employee advocacy.

This paper aims to report the results of implementation of blogging within a LinkedIn discussion group in an international marketing course for a multicultural group of students focusing on the students’ perceptions of the subject-related blogging.

This study adopts a qualitative approach; data have been collected through online observations of the students’ activity in a LinkedIn discussion group and structured interviews with volunteers after the completion of the course.

The results indicate the students’ positive attitudes towards blogging in LinkedIn. Blogging perceptibly contributed to the students’ acquisition of knowledge in the subject area, development of multicultural awareness and writing skills and improvement of critical thinking. In most cases, this type of activity had an impact on the development of the students’ creativity and personal expression. Some patterns are only identified for subgroups of students with a certain cultural background (Chinese, Asian, German-speaking and European students).

The results of this qualitative study are specific for a particular setting (a small international class of students) and a certain type of assignment (in terms of its structure and instructor involvement).

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on using social media-based assignments in business education by generating a better understanding of how participants in a multicultural group perceive the process of experiential learning while blogging in a LinkedIn discussion group.

This paper aims to identify content strategies on social media that influence engagement and to analyze those operations to describe important features for co-creation and trust.

This paper addresses the question of how social media content can influence engagement by using a medium-sized Swedish company for an empirical case study. This empirical study is based on a participatory action research methodology. By using the company account on LinkedIn, the authors experimented with relational content to understand the effects on customer-perceived value and trust.

Results reveal that action-oriented messages had a more significant impact on engagement than product-oriented messages and value-based messages.

This paper builds on the existing literature in two ways: drawing upon business-to-business relationships and perceived value and using recent advances in the use of social networking sites to understand the value of co-creation through a participatory culture.

This study aims to explore the emergence of the human resource (HR) analyst role. The job posts on LinkedIn display the industry demand and skills required by the organizations. This study identifies the different knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) required for an HR analyst role in different stages of professional growth (i.e. entry-level, middle-senior level and top-level) across different industries/sectors as applicable to the crisis.

A total of 80 job posts were extracted from LinkedIn. Details such as industry, job levels, qualifications, job experience, job functions, job descriptions (JDs) and job skills (JS) were collected. Further, 30 videos were extracted from YouTube and converted into text. Text analysis was conducted using NVivo software to analyze JDs, JS and job functions. Using NVivo, word frequency, word cloud, word tree and treemap were created to visualize the data. Finally, ten in-depth interviews were conducted with senior HRA managers based in India to understand the essential competencies required for the HR analyst role and the strategies to develop them.

The findings indicate that not only technical skills are needed, but business and communication skills are particularly important for all job levels during a crisis. The JD word cloud showed words, such as data, business, support and management, and the word tree depicted HR data and change agents as important words with many related sentences as branches. General JS included analytical, communication, problem-solving and management. Technical JS were the most widely used and included structure query language, system applications & products in data processing, human capital management, TABLEAU, management information system and PYTHON. Strategies to develop these competencies included case studies, live projects, internships on HR analytics (HRAs) assignments and mentoring by senior HRA professionals.

The sample used was small, as the study included 80 job posts available on LinkedIn restricted to India. The study was restricted to qualitative approach and text analytics was used. Survey methods and a quantitative approach can be used to collect data from HR recruiters, job holders and senior leaders to understand the role of HRAs in the job market and then these variables can be tested empirically.

Based on the McCartney et al.’s (2020) competency model for the HR Analyst role, this study has explored the KSA framework using data visualization techniques and used text analytics to analyze LinkedIn job posts for different levels, videos from YouTube and in-depth interviews. It also mapped the KSA for the HR analyst role to the various stages of crisis system management given by Mitroff (2005). The use of social media analytics, such as analyzing LinkedIn data and YouTube videos, are highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to explore ethical issues related to pharmaceutical marketers’ social media efforts including the prevalence and forms of direct-to-consumer web 2.0 advertising (eDTCA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages across social networking sites (SNSs). One goal is to determine if these eDTCA posts comply with draft guidelines issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Content analysis of ten pharmaceutical marketers’ SNS posts documented the frequency and types of posts devoted to eDTCA, drug risks and benefits, CSR, and other purposes.

eDTCA represents about 35 percent of all pharmaceutical firm SNS posts and primarily communicates help-seeking messages via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Firms also promote their ethical image through CSR-related posts. These posts primarily highlight employee-focussed and community-focussed initiatives. Analysis of consumer behavior in response to each post shows that eDTCA affects only liking of YouTube videos, but CSR increases behavior responses on all SNSs except LinkedIn.

Despite absence of final guidance, pharmaceutical marketers seem to abide by FDA draft social media guidance. In line with the FDA’s draft fair-balance regulations, almost all product-claim eDTCA posts state both benefit and risk information. Nevertheless, the FDA should issue final eDTCA guidance without delay consistent with traditional media direct-to-consumer advertising guidance. This should benefit consumers through consistency with their existing advertising literacy competencies.

The study represents an initial attempt to document ethical issues in the current state-of-the-practice of pharmaceutical social media marketing related to eDTCA and CSR.

This study investigates online corporate opinion leadership on professional social media from two different perspectives: first, how corporate opinion leadership indicated by corporate followers is related to company revenue and second, what are the drivers and mediators of corporate opinion leadership?

The authors randomly selected more than 300 companies with active profiles on LinkedIn from the S&P 500 list and then collected data on corporate followers as an indicator of corporate opinion leadership and revenue during a year. Moreover, the authors collected daily information on content generated by companies, users, and employees such as job posts, users' reactions to posts, and employee profiles during a 44-day period, which allowed the authors to apply panel estimation techniques to estimate the determinants of corporate opinion leadership.

The estimation results reveal that corporate opinion leadership and business revenue are positively and significantly correlated. Furthermore, after controlling for firm fixed effects and endogeneity, the authors show that corporate, user and employee-generated content (mediated by groups and skills) have a significant impact on corporate opinion leadership.

Individual online opinion leaders are currently paying considerable attention to practitioners. However, professional networking platforms have also created an opportunity to establish corporate opinion leaders who may play an important role in business. The study provides useful and practical insights on the activities that companies can undertake to develop corporate opinion leadership.

This study seeks to expand previous research on opinion leadership with a focus on the corporate dimension, which is increasingly visible on professional networking platforms. Contrary to former research that collected data on perceived opinion leadership, the authors obtained data directly from LinkedIn. Moreover, the authors contribute to signaling and social identity theories by exploring how professional networking platforms constitute an environment for signaling and developing multiple professional identities.

This paper aims to explore how a global fashion retailer uses a social media platform to build an appeal via a process of online employer branding.

The study involved a narrative and thematic analysis of posts of a global fashion retailer on LinkedIn. The authors sampled organisational posts and the responses they received over a six-month period.

The organisation uses carefully curated success stories of “ideal” existing employees to build an appeal based on the values of growth and belonging. While varied, the responses of platform users tend to be limited to brief contributions, questioning the success of the organisation’s attempts at creating an appeal.

The authors argue that employer branding literature needs a new conceptual toolbox, which better reflects the mediated, affective and networked nature of platforms.

To avoid career-washing, employer brands should engage with the networked nature of platforms, fostering authentic conversations with users rather than using platforms merely as a billboard to post content.

The authors theorise the appeal of the employer brand through the concept of the “employer brand promise”. Furthermore, they show how, on social networks, this promise attempts to create value through meaningful engagement. They also conclude by observing how the employer brand promise can act as a form of career-washing, where there is a significant dis-connect between the promise offered and the reality of retail work on the ground.

This research aims to explore generation (Gen) Z's personal branding on social media when job seeking.

Gen Z students, in their final year of university, were interviewed about personal branding, as well as recruiters and career advisors to gain insights into the recruitment process and expectations of online personal brands. Before interviewing, Gen Z students' LinkedIn profiles were examined, and then fed into the interview process.

Using impression management theory, the findings show that Gen Z perceive online personal brands as a crucial tool to gain more advantage in job markets. A gap was found between desired and perceived selves in Gen Z's online personal brands. Strategies such as effective self-reflection, authentic communication, self-promotion processes, awareness of risks and constantly controlling digital footprints were suggested to build stronger and more coherent personal brands. Gen Z are in favour of a more dynamic, interactive, work-in-process of authentic personal brands.

This research demonstrates the importance of authentically building online personal branding strategies and tactics to bridge the divide between Gen Z's desired and perceived images in personal branding on social media when job seeking.

This paper aims to examine the use of social media for sustainability reporting by the largest Australia companies as a means of seeking legitimacy from stakeholders.

Qualitative content analysis was applied to examine social and environmental disclosures posted by Australian companies on three social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and to observe stakeholder interaction in relation to the social and environmental postings.

The findings of this study indicate a limited use of social media by the top 50 Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed companies for sustainability reporting as only 46 per cent of the companies used Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn. Nevertheless, those companies which actively used social media were able to seek legitimacy through information disclosure and dialogue with stakeholders. Social issues such as community support, employees, gender equality and diversity dominated the three social media platforms when compared to environmental issues and all disclosures had a positive tone. These disclosures in turn framed the dialogue with stakeholders, leading to use of social media platforms that companies preferred and enabling a close control over online discussions.

This study highlights that social media sustainability communication focuses on symbolic legitimacy strategies, leading to companies managing the impressions of their stakeholders and controlling the dialogue with them.

This study provides an understanding of the actual practice of social media sustainability communication and has implications for both organisations and their stakeholders.

This study provides in-depth insights into the use of social media to transform sustainability reporting, an issue that has limited coverage in prior literature and extends the application of legitimacy theory to social media communication.