Search results

1 – 10 of over 54000
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2023

Maxwell Poole, Ethan Pancer, Matthew Philp and Theodore J. Noseworthy

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in online traffic, with many assuming that this technology would facilitate coping through active social connections. This study aims…

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in online traffic, with many assuming that this technology would facilitate coping through active social connections. This study aims to interrogate the nature of this traffic-engagement relationship by distinguishing between passive (e.g. browsing) and active (e.g. reacting, commenting and sharing) engagement, and examining behavioral shifts across platforms.

Design/methodology/approach

Three field studies assessed changes in social media engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies included social media engagement with the most followed accounts (Twitter), discussion board commenting (Reddit) and news content sharing (Facebook).

Findings

Even though people spent more time online during the pandemic, the current research finds people were actively engaging less. Users were reacting less to popular social media accounts, commenting less on discussion boards and even sharing less news content.

Research limitations/implications

While the current work provides a systematic observation of engagement during a global crisis, it does not claim causality based on its correlational nature. Future research should test potential mechanisms (e.g. anxiety, threat and privacy) to draw causal inference and identify possible interventions.

Practical implications

The pandemic shed light on a complex systemic issue: the misunderstanding and oversimplification of how online platforms facilitate social cohesion. It encourages thoughtful consideration of online social dynamics, emphasizing that not all engagement is equal and that the benefits of connection may not always be realized as expected.

Originality/value

This research provides a postmortem on the traffic-engagement relationship, highlighting that increased online presence does not necessarily translate to active social connection, which might help explain the rise in mental health issues that emerged from the pandemic.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 58 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 8 August 2013

Emma Parry and Adriano Solidoro

This chapter examines the use of social media within organizations in order to engage with both current and potential future employees.

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter examines the use of social media within organizations in order to engage with both current and potential future employees.

Design/methodology/approach

It is commonly claimed that social media technologies can help organizations to engage with both current and potential employees. This chapter examines these claims through an examination of the use of social media within two organizations: a UK television company and an international UK telecommunications company. Data was gathered from the company websites and via 34 semi-structured interviews.

Findings

The two case studies confirm that social media has promise with regard to facilitating the engagement of existing employees. However, the findings suggest also that the use of social media to engage employees will not be successful unless the culture and leadership of the organization already embraces open communication and participation.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are limited in that they rely on two case studies and therefore might not be applicable to other organizations. Despite the limitations, this chapter has significant implications for organizations considering the adoption of social media as a means to improve employee engagement. It suggests that when adopting social media for organizations, the very first step should be to assess the organizational readiness with a focus on culture and people rather than on the technology itself. This is because managerial behaviors and styles are central to the level of engagement individuals feel with an organization. For the same reason leaders need to be trained to lead collaboratively, and to be able to understand the new social practices.

Originality/value

The chapter makes an important contribution to an extremely sparse literature on social media as a means for engaging with employees through the provision of rare empirical data and is therefore valuable both for managers and for HR scholars and practitioners.

Details

Social Media in Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-901-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Boyu Lin, Woojin Lee and Yunseon Choe

Local events play a significant role in rebuilding relationships and increasing engagement with local communities in the postpandemic. This study aims to investigate how potential…

Abstract

Purpose

Local events play a significant role in rebuilding relationships and increasing engagement with local communities in the postpandemic. This study aims to investigate how potential attendees’ usage of local event hashtags facilitates social media engagement, further enhancing their intentions to attend local events.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed approach. The qualitative phase used 12 semistructured in-depth interviews to explore motivations for hashtag usage and developed instruments to measure hashtag usage and social media engagement. The quantitative phase examined the relationship among motivations and behaviors of hashtag usage, social media engagement and behavioral intention through 522 online surveys.

Findings

Qualitatively, four themes manifest in hashtag users’ motivations in the context of local events: self-promoting, searching, summarizing and conforming. The quantitative findings show that these motivations influence active and passive hashtag usage differently, leading to different types of social media engagement (i.e. persistent, customized and triggered engagement). All social media engagements can significantly enhance the intention to attend local events.

Originality/value

This study divides active and passive hashtag users, conceptualizes social media engagement through hashtag usage under the affordance approach and develops instruments for these concepts. It emphasizes the importance of hashtag usage that drives social media engagement and provides insights for local event planners.

研究目的

在后疫情时期, 本地活动在重建关系和增加与当地社区的参与方面发挥着重要作用。本研究调查了潜在参与者对当地活动话题标签的使用如何促进社交媒体的参与, 进一步增强了他们参加当地活动的意愿。

研究方法

本研究采用了一种探索性的顺序混合方法。定性阶段采用了12次半结构化的深度访谈, 以探讨话题标签使用的动机, 并开发了用于测量话题标签使用和社交媒体参与的量表。定量阶段通过522份在线调查研究了动机与话题标签使用、社交媒体参与和行为意向之间的关系。

研究发现

在定性研究中, 话题标签用户的动机在当地活动背景下表现为四个主题:自我推广、搜索、总结和顺应。定量研究结果显示, 这些动机以不同方式影响主动和被动话题标签使用, 从而导致不同类型的社交媒体参与(即持续型、定制型和触发型参与)。所有社交媒体参与都能显著增强参加当地活动的意愿。

研究创新

本研究区分了主动和被动话题标签用户, 通过能力方法构想了话题标签使用下的社交媒体参与, 并为这些概念开发了测量工具。本研究强调了推动社交媒体参与的话题标签使用的重要性, 并为当地活动策划者提供了见解。

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2023

Charitha Harshani Perera, Long Thang Van Nguyen and Rajkishore Nayak

The rapid adoption of social media has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way communication and collaboration take place. While social media is recognized as an important…

Abstract

Purpose

The rapid adoption of social media has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way communication and collaboration take place. While social media is recognized as an important marketing communication tool, it has become overlooked how social media marketing activities (user-generated and firm-generated content) influence brand equity creation in the higher education sector. Drawing from social identity theory, this study identifies how higher education institutions develop customer-based brand equity using social media marketing and social brand engagement, taking cross-comparison between high and low subjective norms.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was used to collect data from a sample of 936 undergraduates of private higher education institutions in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. These data were gathered using purposive sampling, and in testing the hypothesis and structure among the variables, structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationship between the study variables.

Findings

For the conceptual framework, the authors found that the structural equation model complies with the empirical data. The structural equation model shows that social brand engagement mediates the relationship between user-generated content, firm-generated content and brand equity. Further, the subjective norms were found to moderate the relationship between user-generated content, firm-generated content and social brand engagement, highlighting that the lower the subjective norms the higher the influence on social brand engagement as students receive low pressure and influence from external parties.

Research limitations/implications

The study was conducted at private higher education institutes in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Future research could benefit from the perceptions of undergraduates in public higher education institutes. Future researchers could widen the diversity of service settings in the sample and replicate this investigation to discover if the results are consistent across the whole services sector.

Originality/value

The current research contributes to the services marketing and branding literature in the higher education context. The paper presents the crucial elements in building brand equity for higher education institutes to fill the existing gaps in higher education branding literature. The findings of the current study provide strategies to improve the higher education sector.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 37 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 May 2023

R.V. ShabbirHusain, Atul Arun Pathak, Shabana Chandrasekaran and Balamurugan Annamalai

This study aims to explore the role of the linguistic style used in the brand-posted social media content on consumer engagement in the Fintech domain.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the role of the linguistic style used in the brand-posted social media content on consumer engagement in the Fintech domain.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 3,286 tweets (registering nearly 1.35 million impressions) published by 10 leading Fintech unicorns in India were extracted using the Twitter API. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionary was used to analyse the linguistic characteristics of the shared tweets. Negative Binomial Regression (NBR) was used for testing the hypotheses.

Findings

This study finds that using drive words and cognitive language increases consumer engagement with Fintech messages via the central route of information processing. Further, affective words and conversational language drive consumer engagement through the peripheral route of information processing.

Research limitations/implications

The study extends the literature on brand engagement by unveiling the effect of linguistic features used to design social media messages.

Practical implications

The study provides guidance to social media marketers of Fintech brands regarding what content strategies best enhance consumer engagement. The linguistic style to improve online consumer engagement (OCE) is detailed.

Originality/value

The study’s findings contribute to the growing stream of Fintech literature by exploring the role of linguistic style on consumer engagement in social media communication. The study’s findings indicate the relevance of the dual processing mechanism of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) as an explanatory theory for evaluating consumer engagement with messages posted by Fintech brands.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 42 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 January 2023

Olusoyi Richard Ashaye, Ali B. Mahmoud, Afzal Sayed Munna and Nurhanisah Ali

This paper focusses on demonstrating the role of social media engagement and considering emotional intelligence (hereafter EI) as a critical concept to successful employment…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper focusses on demonstrating the role of social media engagement and considering emotional intelligence (hereafter EI) as a critical concept to successful employment, mainly when individuals fail to reach the desired employment despite “meeting” the role requirements.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted a qualitative approach through semi-structured in-depth interviews of some randomly selected university students in the UK, young adults aged 19–32. The participants were selected based on different demographics to provide a broader and less biased representation of young adults in the UK.

Findings

This research suggests that recruitment organisations should introduce the latest requirements and trends of employers to ensure that the expectations of employers and potential candidates are aligned to improve the employment rate in young adults.

Originality/value

This research extends the literature regarding EI in social media engagement and successful employment. It also brings new perspectives on successful employment in young adults by demonstrating the role of social media engagement and EI traits leading to a conceptual framework exploring successful employment based on the role of social media engagement and EI.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 August 2022

Ethan Pancer, Matthew Philp and Theodore J. Noseworthy

Recent research has demonstrated that people are more likely to engage with fatty food content online. One way health advocates might facilitate engagement with healthier…

4594

Abstract

Purpose

Recent research has demonstrated that people are more likely to engage with fatty food content online. One way health advocates might facilitate engagement with healthier, calorie-light foods is to alter how people process food media. This research paper aims to investigate the moderating role of viewer mindset on consumer responses to digital food media.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experiments were conducted by manipulating the caloric density of food media content and/or one’s mindset before viewing.

Findings

Results show that the relationship between nutrition and engagement is moderated by consumer mindset, where activating a more calculative mindset before exposure can elevate social media engagement for calorie-light food media content.

Research limitations/implications

These findings contribute to the domain of obesogenic digital environments and the role of nutrition in consuming food media. By examining how mindsets interact with affective evaluations, this work demonstrates that a default mindset based on instinct can be shifted and thus alter subsequent behavioral intentions.

Practical implications

This work provides insight into what can boost the visibility and engagement of healthy food content on social media. Marketers can help promote healthier food media by cueing consumers to think more deliberately before exposure.

Originality/value

This research builds on recent work by demonstrating how to boost engagement with healthy foods on social media by cueing a more thoughtful mindset.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 May 2020

Youngsu Lee, Joonhwan In and Seung Jun Lee

As social media platforms become increasingly popular among service firms, many US hospitals have been using social media as a means to improve their patients’ experiences…

1377

Abstract

Purpose

As social media platforms become increasingly popular among service firms, many US hospitals have been using social media as a means to improve their patients’ experiences. However, little research has explored the implications of social media use within a hospital context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a hospital’s customer engagement through social media and its association with customers’ experiential quality. Also, this study examines the role of a hospital’s service characteristics, which could shape the nature of the interactions between patients and the hospital.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 669 hospitals with complete experiential quality and demographic data were collected from multiple sources of secondary data, including the rankings of social media friendly hospitals, the Hospital Compare database, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) cost report, the CMS impact file, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Analytics database and the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. Specifically, the authors designed the instrumental variable estimate to address the endogeneity issue.

Findings

The empirical results suggest a positive association between a hospital’s social media engagement and experiential quality. For hospitals with a high level of service sophistication, the association between online engagement and experiential quality becomes more salient. For hospitals offering various services, offline engagement is a critical predictor of experiential quality.

Research limitations/implications

A hospital with more complex services should make efforts to engage customers through social media for better patient experiences. The sample is selected from databases in the US, and the databases are cross-sectional in nature.

Practical implications

Not all hospitals may be better off improving the patient experience by engaging customers through social media. Therefore, practitioners should exercise caution in applying the study’s results to other contexts and in making causal inferences.

Originality/value

The current study delineates customer engagement through social media into online and offline customer engagement. This study is based on the theory of customer engagement and reflects the development of mobile technology. Moreover, this research may be considered as pioneering in that it considers the key characteristics of a hospital’s service operations (i.e., service complexity) when discovering the link between customers’ engagement through a hospital’s social media and experiential quality.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 April 2021

Hafiz Muhammad Basit Feroz, Salman Zulfiqar, Sadaf Noor and Chunhui Huo

Knowledge acquisition is a pivotal concern for the students and many sources help them to obtain knowledge. In this paper, the authors theoretically examine three engagements such…

Abstract

Purpose

Knowledge acquisition is a pivotal concern for the students and many sources help them to obtain knowledge. In this paper, the authors theoretically examine three engagements such as social media, peer and academic engagement by the theoretical foundation of engagement theory which tells that students interact and collaborate, sharing information for the acquisition of knowledge that enhances their academic performance. But due to the abundance of information, knowledge and resources available to students for the acquisition of knowledge, it becomes difficult for them to comprehend the most relevant information. In this vein, this study examined the impact of information overload on the relationship between social media, peer and academic engagement and knowledge acquisition of students.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model and structural relationships were validated using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique through AMOS, version 24.0. To empirically test the hypothesized model, data are collected from the universities of the Sahiwal region (Sahiwal, Okara, Pakpattan) using structured questionnaires.

Findings

The findings revealed that social media engagement and academic engagement are positively associated with knowledge acquisition, whereas peer engagement is negatively associated with knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the results of the study further suggested that information overload dampens the positive relationship between social media, peer and academic engagement and knowledge acquisition, which causes negative consequences on students' knowledge acquisition and learning outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

Researchers can use this study as the literature as many of the previous studies focused on the positive side of social networking sites and technologies for knowledge purposes, but this study extends the research and focused on the other side of the picture which has been ignored earlier by researchers. The authors theoretically explained the adverse effects of information overload on students' academic progress caused by social media and the abundance of irrelevant information these advanced technologies offer daily. The current research focused on identifying the critical role of social media, peer and academic institutions providing a lot of information to students which caused stress, anxiety and other psychological issues in them. So, this study adds to the literature by highlighting the adverse effects of unnecessary information provided by multiple resources to students.

Practical implications

Educationalists can adopt this study as a tool in academic institutions for promoting learning and to actively engage students in collaborative learning activities. As the findings of the study confirm that information overload is caused by the imbalanced use of information technology (IT) and social media sites, so teachers can help students in developing creativity and maintaining the balance between using technology and innovation in their studies pattern. Universities and institutions can play a vital role by exploring further opportunities for students and by making such policies that can help students in their learning progress. For this purpose, the authors developed a model based on the literature and theories that could change the academic system of Pakistan and enhance students’ practical knowledge by motivating students in taking part in learning activities by making the higher education system of Pakistan more engaging.

Social implications

The authors are presenting simulation games-based learning as an alternate approach to learning and teaching that can positively influence students' engagement with learning activities in Pakistan. By adopting this model, the education system of Pakistan could improve as it can lead to better academic performance of students, which ultimately leads to a better education system. Thus, games if correctly designed and implemented in the education system of Pakistan, it can make a great difference in students' value of learning experience. The enjoyment, interactive and realistic nature of the simulation games appears to produce this value, and students tend to engage more toward these types of games rather than traditional learning methods. Simulation games provide students with an opportunity to engage in both hard (financial management, strategy making, decision-making) and soft skills (negotiation, collaboration) in business by challenging their thinking and decision-making power in a safe learning environment.

Originality/value

The phenomena of overload have become increasingly viable due to abundance of resources providing unnecessary information to students as they can get information from peers, teachers, social media platforms, blogs, wikis and many other platforms, which ultimately exhaust their capacity and leading them toward poor academic performance and other negative consequences (Yu, 2019; Bosch, 2016). This study focuses on students of higher education in Pakistan (Sahiwal region) and discusses the major challenges and opportunities that they had to face with the advancement of technology and the current social state of the knowledge in society.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Hua Pang, Kaiyang Qin and Min Ji

The primary goal of this article is to review the existing studies and offer clarity regarding the association between social media adoption and youth civic engagement.

1315

Abstract

Purpose

The primary goal of this article is to review the existing studies and offer clarity regarding the association between social media adoption and youth civic engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

This research systematically summarizes and reviews 42 original articles published from 2010 to 2019 with an objective of offering insightful results. Additionally, a theoretical framework was carefully designed by adopting various conceptions from citizen participation and computer-mediated communication research literature.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that social media usage could generally have a positive correlation with civic participation among younger generations. Moreover, the result also highlights that certain functional features of social media uses including using social media for news consumption and expression could significantly predict civic engagement.

Originality/value

Despite the ever-growing importance of social media technologies, investigations on their differential, nonlinear and even inconsistent effects on civic engagement remain theoretically ambiguous and empirically unsubstantiated. The study represents one of the first scholarly attempts to review, summarize and analyze the extant research evidence from the past ten years.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 46 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 54000