Effective Social Media Campaigns: Using Style and Substance to Shift Consumers into More Rigorous Processing Routes

Open Access
- Author:
- Wertheim, Erica Marni
- Area of Honors:
- Marketing
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Margaret Grace Meloy, Thesis Supervisor
Lisa Elizabeth Bolton, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Central route processing
systematic processing
peripheral route processing
social media
brand attitude
Facebook
Twitter - Abstract:
- How do consumers process information in a social media environment? Do they process Facebook posts and Twitter posts (tweets) differently, and if a company is interested in driving traffic to its webpage and generate a positive impression, what can they do to facilitate this from a social media environment? This thesis seeks to address these questions by drawing on academic literature from the study of persuasion processes to determine whether there are differences in style and substance that can facilitate positive impressions. According to the persuasion literature, central route processing allows a person to carefully analyze the information being presented in order to evaluate its significance and implications before formulating an opinion or plan of action. Rhetorical questions (versus statements of fact) and the valence of the messages being negative (versus positive) are two methods used to encourage consumers to engage in this more rigorous central route processing. This more rigorous processing should lead to more positive social attitudes towards the brand, as well as increase the likelihood of patronage of the brand. In order to test these hypotheses, participants were asked to read the social media posts of a restaurant, visit the restaurant’s website and indicate which tabs they were interested in viewing on the firm’s website. They then completed a survey regarding their social media usage habits and attitudes towards the restaurant’s social media posts and website. Participants were placed in one of eight conditions, with the following variables: social media platform (Facebook vs. Twitter), the valence of the information (positive vs. negative), and the form of the information (factual statements vs. rhetorical questions). Indeed participants who were in the negative factual statement Twitter condition were better able to recall the information that had been presented to them through social media than all other participants. In addition, these participants spent more time reading the social media posts and viewing the company’s website than any other participant. These results suggest that when the information presented is in a clear, concise manner, with fewer distractions, as it is on Twitter, participants used central route processing, and sought additional information on the company’s website. In contrast, Facebook, has a much more cluttered format, which increases the users’ tendency to skim all of the posts, rather than carefully read each one. These participants engaged in peripheral route processing and were less able to recall the negative information contained in the posts. Therefore, Facebook users had a more positive attitude towards the brand than Twitter users, even in light of negative information. However, because of the way Facebook users tend to process information, they may not accurately absorb the content of the messages and may even perceive negative information as positive. I will examine how these two social media platforms can be most effectively used for specific applications due to the differences in their formats and the types of information processing they generate.