The purpose of this study is to investigate influencers on Twitter to discover the characteristics of their tweets through PIAR, a unique data mining research tool developed by the University of Salamanca that combines graph theory and social influence theory. An analysis of 3853 users posting about two automotive Japanese car firms, Toyota and Nissan, reveals the characteristics influencers have on this social network. The findings suggest that influencers use more hashtags and mentions on average when they tweet, and their word count is fewer than those with less power on this virtual community. Surprisingly, they tend to include less embedded links on their posts. Additionally, influencers have on average a large number of people they follow and they clearly express their opinions and feelings (either positive or negative) when tweeting. The results broaden the understanding of how influencers write and behave on social networks when they communicate with their users' community. Further, it provides insights for practitioners and marketers on how to discover influencers talking about their brands by observing tweets' content.

Digital content marketing that increases consumers’ favorable behavior is of increasing interest to marketers. However, there is a lack of studies that examine the relative effect of digital content marketing on brand defense. Building on the theoretical lens of elaboration likelihood model, attachment theory, and source credibility theory, this experimental study examines the relative effect of two types of digital content marketing on brand defense, taking into consideration the mediation effect of behavioral engagement and the moderation effect of age generation. Based on 237 participants collected from a United States sample, the findings of this study revealed that user-generated content is a stronger predictor of brand defense and behavioral engagement compared to firm-generated content. Further, behavioral engagement served as a mediator variable between the digital content marketing types and brand defense. Significant evidence has additionally been found between behavioral engagement and brand defense. Moreover, the findings of the moderation analysis illustrated that Generation Z is the most influenced by user-generated content, followed by Generations X and Y. Generation Y is the most influenced by firm-generated content, followed by Generations Z and X. This study adds empirical relevance to the growing literature of the importance of digital content marketing, behavioral engagement, and generation as well validates the effects of those constructs on brand defense.

Purpose: Due to the size and importance of social media, user-generated content analysis is becoming a key factor for companies and brands across the world. By using Twitter messages’ content, the purpose of this paper is to identify which elements of the messages enable tweet diffusion and facilitate eWOM.Design/methodology/approach: In total, 30,082 tweets collected from 10,120 Twitter users were classified based on four assorted brands. By comparing with multiple regression techniques high vs low purchase involvement and hedonic vs utilitarian products and using the theory of heuristic-systematic processing of information, the authors examine the causes of tweet diffusion.Findings: The authors illustrate how the elements of a tweet (hashtags, mentions, links, sentiment or tweet length) influence its diffusion and popularity.Research limitations/implications: This study validated the use of information processing theories in the social media field. The study showed a picture on how different Twitter elements influence eWOM and message diffusion under several purchase involvement situations.Practical implications: The results of this study can help social media brand community managers of all types of companies on how to write their Twitter messages to obtain greater dissemination and popularity.Originality/value: The study offers a unique deep brand analysis which helps brands and companies to understand their social media popularity in detail. Depending on product category, companies can achieve maximum social impact on Twitter by focusing on the interactivity items that will work best for their products or brands.

Companies are becoming increasingly involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to enhance their self- rather than public interests, and this has made CSR ambiguous when considering organizational goodwill. This study therefore investigated the relative effects of CSR motivations on brand advocacy while considering psychological distance as a moderating variable. Two between-subject experiments were conducted using coffee shop customers in the United States as participants. The findings revealed that customers demonstrate more brand advocacy toward a company when they believe the company has conducted a CSR activity with a public-serving motivation than when they believe the company has conducted a CSR activity with a firm-serving motivation. Furthermore, customers demonstrate greater brand advocacy with respect to public-serving motivations when a firm’s spatial or temporal CSR initiative distances are low (when there are local or present benefits, respectively). However, customers demonstrate greater brand advocacy with respect to firm-serving motivations when a company conducts a CSR initiative with a low social distance (when there are in-group benefits).

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the different results and the level of success obtained with advertising campaigns developed on Facebook to promote postgraduate programs to create awareness and engagement.Design/methodology/approach: This study combined the data envelopment analysis technique to measure advertising efficiency with multidimensional scaling (MDS) representation, thus offering alternatives for practitioners and organizations on how to evaluate social advertising performance.Findings: Investments on social paid advertising are an affordable and effective way both to promote postgraduate programs and create engagement with prospective students. Facebook advertisements maximize visibility, which improves social and online positioning and encourages student recruitment.Practical implications: Higher education institutions can efficiently promote their programs with a minimal social investment contributing to dissemination and engagement. Compared to other forms of traditional or digital advertising, social media ads can be efficient and affordable with wider segmentation and targeting options. Moreover, results are immediate and measurable and campaigns can be instantly modified to better suit the audience’s requirements.Originality/value: This study is unique as it offers a new, alternative way of measuring efficiency, in addition to the classic ratios of payment models in digital advertising that combine clicks and impressions, on a sector where there are few empirical studies. Moreover, it can be easily applied to many other sectors in public and private organizations.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the differential impact of gain versus loss message framing on the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications in eliciting online brand engagement within the hospitality industry. Furthermore, this research aims to examine the extent to which evoked happiness and message credibility mediate the relationship between CSR message framing and online brand engagement, as these mediating factors have not been thoroughly examined in the existing academic literature.Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes a between-subjects experimental design to test an integrative research framework, which is grounded in message framing theory and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), in order to examine the interrelationships among the various constructs of the study within a coffee shop context on Facebook.Findings: The findings of this study indicate that gain framing is a more powerful predictor of online brand engagement than loss framing. A mediation analysis supports the assertion that the effects of CSR framing communications on online brand engagement are mediated by evoked happiness and message credibility. Specifically, when the CSR message was framed in a positive (gain) manner, it was perceived as more credible and evoked more happiness, leading to increased online brand engagement. Additionally, the study’s results provide empirical evidence for the notion that the happiness elicited by brand messages enhances their credibility, leading to further online brand engagement.Originality/value: This research makes a novel contribution to the literature by investigating the distinct effects of message framing on online brand advocacy and examining the complex interrelationships that modulate consumer engagement within the context of the hospitality industry.