It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media
Introduction
Today’s Internet has replaced the traditional marketplace as the center of social discourse (Pan and Zinkhan, 2005, Seraj, 2012). In this digital world, consumers engage in communication, socialization, transactions, and learning experiences that are similar to offline activities (Seraj, 2012). With the rise of social media, consumers now are more prolific than ever in their online dialogue. According to a recent industry report (Boyd Joshua, 2018), more than 3 billion social media users generate 60 billion messages per day on Facebook and Whatsapp, 91.8 million blog posts per month on WordPress, and 6000 tweets per second on Twitter. Following this trend, many marketers nowadays are striving to develop meaningful viral marketing tactics in order to tap into the power of such social discourse through consumer electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) (Koch & Benlian, 2015). Indeed, modern consumers can engage in eWOM in many different fashions (van Doorn et al., 2010), from simply “liking” the brand on Facebook (Bernritter, Verlegh, & Smit, 2016), posting product reviews, to sharing brand-related information with both their close and remote networks.
In this social media world where consumers are regarded as information transmitters as opposed to their traditional role as simply communicators (Cathcart & Gumpert, 1986), one of the fastest growing categories of product endorsements is consumers’ use of social media to share product and brand information either in the form of a formal review (Chen, Fay, & Wang, 2011) or informal mentions of brands and products accompanying their consumption. For instance, a consumer who has just purchased a new electronic gadget or arrived at an exciting vacation destination may choose to share these purchases or experiences on social media (Chen and Berger, 2016, Naylor et al., 2012, VanMeter et al., 2015). In fact, today’s consumers are increasingly likely to showcase their purchases and consumption online to a variety of audiences such as friends, acquaintances, and the public, for various purposes, such as to practice impression management (Leary and Kowalski, 1990, Sedikides, 1993) to gain self-esteem or social status (Wilcox & Stephen, 2013) to obtain social approval or self-approval (Arndt, 1967, Dichter, 1966, Fehr and Fischbacher, 2002), or simply to be viewed positively (Baumeister, 1982).
Given the prominence of such online communication in consumers’ life today, the current research puts a particular focus on investigating the phenomenon of consumers’ brand mentions on social media platforms. We propose a novel distinction that categorizes social media brand mentions as either direct mentions, which are explicit acknowledgements and displays of brands or related information by the social media posters, or indirect mentions, which are implicit or unintentional acknowledgements and displays of brands or related information by the social media posters. We contend that this distinction between direct and indirect social media brand mentions is both theoretically novel and managerially important since although the two types of brand mentions are both prevalently seen on social media, they may exert contrasting consequences for posters and brands. Moreover, this distinction is important for social media marketing practice as the two types of brand mentions may be similar in appearance but can have very different implications for brand management purposes. Specifically, we predict that direct brand mentions lead to more favorable evaluations for both the social media poster and the focal brands compared to indirect brand mentions. Furthermore, we argue that this novel effect is due to differences in the perceived authenticity of the poster. In addition, we propose that social network tie strength moderates these effects such that direct mentions are preferred in a context of weak tie strength but not in a context of strong tie strength.
Past literature on social media marketing has documented a fast growing interest from brands’ perspective to engage in social media marketing activities in order to reap brand-related benefits such as positive brand reputation, heightened brand awareness and brand image, superior brand performance, and increased purchase intentions (Godey et al., 2016, Kim and Ko, 2010, Kim and Ko, 2012, Rutter et al., 2016, Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). Specifically, survey results show that social media marketing contributes to brand building through a holistic framework of multiple factors, including entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth (Godey et al., 2016, Kim and Ko, 2012). In addition, studies identified interactive strategies for how social media marketing contributes to three types of customer value including customer lifetime value (Hamilton, Kaltcheva, & Rohm, 2016). Most of the extant investigations on social media marketing, however, examines the effects of firm-driven activities on brand performance. In contrast, the examination of the effects of consumer-driven social media activities on brand performance is relatively scarce. Some notable exceptions include analysis of likes and comments on brand posts on Facebook (De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012) and social media marketing influences on likes and shares by fans on social media (Chang, Yu, & Lu, 2015). Nevertheless, most of these efforts are focused on consumer response to brand information on social media rather than consumer created brand information. Indeed, recent reviews on social media marketing demonstrates that the literature remains fragmented and focuses on isolated issues and could benefit from studies from multiple dimensions (Felix, Rauschnabel, & Hinsch, 2017). Consistent with this recommendation, in the current research, we focus on identifying the downstream consequences of consumer-generated brand information on social media. Specifically, we examine the relationship between consumer-generated brand mentions and subsequent poster and brand evaluations.
Today, social media platforms are utilized prevalently to construct and express idealized aspects of the self (Bernritter et al., 2016, Manago et al., 2008, Wilcox and Stephen, 2013). And since brand plays a crucial role in consumers’ daily lives through helping express and enhance consumers’ self-identity (McEwen, 2005), brand mentions on social media has become an important avenue to communicate information and convey self-identities (Abosag, Ramadan, Baker, & Jin, 2019). More importantly, past research in marketing has documented that brand mentions have important influences on the observer as well. For instance, studies suggest that overt use of branded products leads to negative brand impressions among observers with a weak connection to the brand (Ferraro, Kirmani, & Matherly, 2013). Other research further suggests that when branding signals and gestures are perceived as overly self-promotional, it leads to more negative impressions of the brand user from the view of observers (Scopelliti et al., 2015, Sheehan and Dommer, 2014). These past findings, however, focus on the traditional domain of offline or face-to-face consumption and social interactions. In the current research, we examine how brand mentions could affect observers (i.e. social media viewers) in terms of evaluation towards both the poster and the brand in a social media context. More importantly, we offer conceptual advancement by defining two types of social media brand mentions, direct versus indirect, that may have contrasting outcomes for both the evaluation of the poster and the brand.
When browsing social media platforms, it is increasingly common for a consumer to come across brand mentions in other users’ posts. However, it is important to note that these posts may differ in terms of the nature of the brand mentions. For instance, a review of a new electronic gadget naturally draws direct attention to the brand in focus, whereas an Instagram post documenting a recent vacation may feature a branded handbag in the photo without directly mentioning the brand or product. Apart from these observational evidence, past findings on online social discourse and electronic word-of-mouth also suggest that online product and brand mentions can be either deliberate and self-serving (Berger, 2014, Cheema and Kaikati, 2010, Chen and Berger, 2013, De Angelis et al., 2012) or random and unpredictable (Morrissey, 2007). In the current research, we drawing on these findings to propose a novel distinction within brand mentions. Specifically, we define direct brand mentions as mentions with explicit and direct acknowledgement of brands and products or intentionally drawing social media observers’ attention to the target brand. In contrast, we define indirect brand mentions as mentions with no direct or explicit acknowledgement of the brand or conscious motives to draw viewers’ attention to the brand. We further predict that these two distinct types of brand mentions will impact the evaluations of posters and brands differently.
Past findings in marketing research has demonstrated that consumers are consistently drawn to and prefer market offerings that are perceived as authentic (Beverland and Farrelly, 2010, Grayson and Martinec, 2004, Thompson et al., 2006). For instance, consumers are found to be drawn to cues that convey authenticity in objects and seek authentic consumption experiences (Beverland & Farrelly, 2010). In contrast, a lack of perceived authenticity may hurt a brand by diminishing the identity value the brand provides to consumers (Thompson et al., 2006). More important to the current research, literature on social media marketing has identified authenticity as a crucial mechanism through which social media influencers create and maintain positive influence on word of mouth and purchase likelihood of products and brands (Audrezet et al., 2018, Pounders et al., 2016).
In the current research, we therefore put forth and test a unique theoretical account that direct brand mentions lead to more favorable evaluations for posters and brands than indirect brand mentions due to differences in perceived authenticity of the poster; as such perceived authenticity of the poster is critical in the impression formation of social media brand mentions. A conceptual framework of our theoretical account is shown in Fig. 1.
Past research in marketing has recognized that the construct of authenticity often encompasses multi-faceted and complex meanings (e.g. Audrezet et al., 2018, Grayson and Martinec, 2004). In the current research, we adopt the concept of authenticity as often utilized in the context of social media marketing, which captures the extent to which a poster is perceived by an intended audience as intrinsically motivated to freely express himself/herself as opposed to extrinsically motivated to deceive or imitate for other hidden agendas such as to meet social standards or to make money (Audrezet et al., 2018, Cohen, 1988, Holt, 2002, Thompson and Tambyah, 1999). Therefore, authenticity in social media and branding contexts is related to concepts such as perceived sincerity, trustworthiness, and credibility (Huang et al., 2011, Napoli et al., 2014). As the audiences’ evaluations of the poster are likely to be influenced by their interpretation of the brand mentions in the social media post (Reis & Shaver, 1988), prior research demonstrates that such interpretation is largely focused on the motives audiences infer for the poster to share the information (Miller, Cooke, Tsang, & Morgan, 1992). Consequently, when the audiences infer an extrinsic motive for self-presentation, their evaluation of the poster will likely be adversely affected (Ferraro et al., 2013, Pancer, 2013). We contend that this is particularly true when the brand mention is indirect as such indirectness can lead the audience to further infer that the poster shares the brand information due to the extrinsically-driven signaling potential as opposed to the intrinsic value of self-expression. By comparison, as theorized earlier, direct mentions are more likely to be perceived as reflecting authentic and intrinsic motives of the poster compared with indirect mentions, leading to more favorable evaluations. Formally: H1 Compared with indirect brand mentions, direct brand mentions lead to more favorable evaluations of posters on social media. H2 Perceived authenticity mediates the relationship between direct versus indirect brand mentions and evaluations of posters.
Follow the above theorizing, we further propose that types of brand mentions influence observers’ evaluations of the mentioned brands as well as posters. Existing research in social media marketing demonstrates that social media marketing activities may have a direct influence on brand evaluations (Godey et al., 2016, Kim and Ko, 2012, Rutter et al., 2016). Specifically, as brand mentions become a popular aspect of social media activities, audiences’ evaluation of brands are also likely to be influenced by social media brand mentions (Reis & Shaver, 1988). Furthermore, past research suggest that consumers infer and develop their brand preferences based on others’ usage of the brand (Ferraro et al., 2013), such that when consumers see others engaging in different types of brand usage, they may form different impressions and attitudes towards the featured brand. In addition, higher perceived authenticity from brand-related information has been found to lead to higher brand preferences (Sundar & Noseworthy, 2016), as in the case of direct brand mentions. However, in contrast, when the social media audience infers low authenticity from the brand mention, as in the case of indirect brand mentions, we propose that brand evaluations will be dampen as the audience associate the brand with extrinsic motives. Although low perceived authenticity of the poster may not directly impact the perceived quality of the brand, past research suggests that consumers often seek authentic brand experiences as an important component of perceived brand value (Napoli et al., 2014, Pine, 2009, Price et al., 2000), which will be negatively impacted by low authenticity. Therefore, we hypothesize that low authenticity stemming from social media posts decreases perceived brand experiences and subsequently brand evaluations. Formally, H3 Compared with indirect brand mentions, direct brand mentions lead to more favorable evaluations for brands due to higher perceived authenticity (see Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6).
Tie strength, the level of intensity of the social relationship, is a combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy, and the reciprocal services that vary across an individual’s social network (Granovetter, 1977, Lin et al., 1981). It characterizes the closeness and interaction frequency of relationship between two parties (Marsden and Campbell, 1984, Steffes and Burgee, 2009). If the social relationship was identified as a family members or friend, the tie was classified as “strong”. If the social relationship was labeled merely an acquaintance or complete strangers, the tie was classified as “weak” (Brown & Reingen, 1987). Specifically, strong tie sources tend to bond similar people to each other such that they are mutually connected (Krackhardt, Nohria, & Eccles, 2003), whereas weak ties sources are typified as distant and with infrequent interactions (Ryu & Feick, 2007). Previous research suggests that strong ties sources may be perceived as more credible and have greater influence over their network than weak tie sources (Brown and Reingen, 1987, Rogers, 2010).
Ample research regarding tie strength shows that closeness of interpersonal relationships functions as a critical moderator to various social behaviors, including interpersonal communications (Chen and Berger, 2013, Davis and Rusbult, 2001, Dubois et al., 2016, Gino and Galinsky, 2012, Zhao and Xie, 2011), shared decision-making and goal pursuit (Huang et al., 2015, Tu et al., 2016), and gifting and prosocial behavior (Small and Simonsohn, 2008, Ward and Broniarczyk, 2011). For instance, Ward and Broniarczyk (2011) demonstrate that gifting an identity-contrary gift to a close friend causes an identity threat to the giver while gifting the same gift to a distant friend eliminates the effect. Recent work in social media and online marketing research demonstrates that tie strength moderates various behaviors on social media platforms and in online communications (Benford et al., 2006, Dubois et al., 2016, Wilcox and Stephen, 2013). For instance, focusing on close friends on Facebook enhanced participants’ self-esteem and subsequently led to lowered self-control compared to participants who focused on distant friends (Wilcox & Stephen, 2013). Past research also suggests that the norm for modesty was found to be different among friends compared to strangers (Tice, Butler, Muraven, & Stillwell, 1995). Specifically, self-presentations to friends was found to be consistently more modest than to strangers and manipulated deviations from these social norms led to impaired recall for the social interaction, suggesting that people habitually form and use different self-presentation styles based on the social distance of the audience.
Based on these findings, we predict tie strength to be a critical moderator to the outcomes of social media brand mentions. Past research show that strong ties that are well aligned with the family and close friends’ wants and needs should more frequently result in referrals of information (Steffes & Burgee, 2009). They are more likely to understand the close friends’ needs than those of the strangers given the level of intensity of the social relationship. Therefore, indirect brand mentions should be seen as more in line with such social expectations and the norm for modesty in strong ties, leading to more favorable poster evaluations compared to direct brand mentions. In contrast, weak ties, i.e., strangers and distant friends with infrequent interaction, should less frequently result in referrals of information (Steffes & Burgee, 2009). However, as weak ties facilitate the flow of information between diverse segments of a social system (Brown & Reingen, 1987), direct brand mentions should be seen as more in line with social expectations in the context of weak ties as the social norms prescribe lower levels of intimacy, emotional response, and actions of modesty compared to strong ties (Money, 2004, Shen et al., 2016, Tice et al., 1995). Thus direct brand mentions are predicted to lead to higher poster evaluations than indirect brand mention in this context of weak ties. Formally, H4 Tie strength moderates the effects of direct versus indirect brand mentions such that when facing strong ties (weak ties), indirect (direct) brand mentions lead to higher evaluations of the poster than indirect brand mentions.
Section snippets
Overview of experiments
We test our hypotheses in four experiments. Experiment 1 tested H1 and H2 that people form more favorable impressions for social media posters who engage in direct over indirect brand mentions and offer evidence on the mediating role of authenticity. Experiment 2 tested H3 that direct versus indirect brand mentions impact the evaluation of brands and ruled out the alternative account of impression management. Experiment 3 added converging evidence with novel manipulation and dependent measures
Participants and design
Two hundred and fifty-seven US participants (54.1% female, mean age = 33.16, SD = 9.08, age range = 18–71) were recruited online from a national panel in exchange for monetary compensation. Five responses were removed due to incompletion (retaining these five responses in the analyses did not alter any results), leaving a total of 252 participants. The experiment had a 2 (brand mention: direct versus indirect) between-subject design.
Procedure
For this initial study, we chose Instagram as the social media
Participants and design
Eighty-seven Chinese participants affiliated with a large public university in Shanghai were recruited to participate in the current study in exchange for partial course credit (74.7% female, mean age = 21.82, SD = 3.89, age range = 17–37). The experiment had a 2 (brand mention: direct versus indirect) × 2 (post topic) mixed-model design with post topic serving as a within-participant factor.
Procedure and material
In the current experiment, the social media setting we chose was Weibo, the largest Chinese social media
Participants and design
One hundred-nine participants (57.8% female, mean age = 28.98, SD = 6.99, age range = 18–55) were recruited from a large Chinese online panel with a sample representing the general population to participate in the current study in exchange for a monetary prize. The experiment had a 2 (brand mention: direct versus indirect) × 2 (post topic) mixed-model design with post topic serving as a within-participant factor.
Procedure
Two novel brand scenarios different from past studies were used in the current
Participants and design
Two hundred and fourteen Chinese participants affiliated with a university in Shanghai were recruited to participate in the current study in exchange for a monetary payment (56.5% female, mean age = 24.29, SD = 2.44, age range = 18–30). The experiment had a 2 (brand mention: direct versus indirect) × 2 (tie strength: strong versus weak) × 2 (post topic) mixed design with brand mention and tie strength as between-subject factors and post topic as a within-subject factor.
Procedure and materials
Stimuli and procedures
General discussion
The current research introduced a new theoretical perspective for understanding the effects and outcomes of brand mentions on social media, including the evaluations of both posters and targeted brands. In four experiments with samples from two national populations, we consistently demonstrated that participants perceived direct brand mentions as more favorable than indirect brand mentions due to differences in perceived authenticity. In addition, we tested the moderating effect of tie strength
Conclusion
Research on social media marketing has vastly expanded in the past decade (e.g. Felix et al., 2017, Lamberton and Stephen, 2016) and the current research contributes to this literature by documenting the relatively new phenomenon of social media brand mentions and proposing a novel perspective that there may be many nuanced forms of user-generated social media behavior such as the distinction between direct and indirect brand mentions. As social media transforms how consumers share information
Miao Hu is Associate Professor of Marketing at Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Consumer Research, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Business Research among others. Her research interests are focused on branding, social power and social status, and cross-cultural research.
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Cited by (0)
Miao Hu is Associate Professor of Marketing at Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Consumer Research, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Business Research among others. Her research interests are focused on branding, social power and social status, and cross-cultural research.
Jie Chen is Professor of Marketing at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China). She is also the member of American Marketing Association. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Business Research. Her research interests are focused on luxury branding, cross-cultural research, and social influence.
Qimei Chen is the Jean E. Rolles Distinguished Professor at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Retailing and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Her current research interests include social technology, innovation, knowledge management, and consumer empowerment.
Wei He is Associate Professor of Marketing at School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His articles have appeared in Journal of Advertising and Customer Needs and Solutions. His research interests include social media marketing and advertising research.