IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i7p3812-d526951.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Driving Consumer Engagement through Diverse Calls to Action in Corporate Social Responsibility Messages on Social Media

Author

Listed:
  • Myoung-Jin Chae

    (Department of Marketing and International Business, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

Although a growing number of consumers acknowledge the importance of firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, how companies can effectively communicate these initiatives to consumers is still a challenge. Although the rise of social media platforms has provided firms with opportunities for more immediate and interactive communication with consumers, recent academic studies related to social media have mostly focused on effective communication of promotional messages, and relatively little attention has been paid to prosocial messages. For better communication, social media branded messages have encouraged user participation (i.e., calls to action), but how diverse types of calls to action can generate consumer engagement remains unexplored. Using over 2000 branded posts from popular consumer product brands on Facebook and Twitter, this research explores diverse types of calls to action that drive consumers’ attitudinal (i.e., likes) and behavioral (i.e., shares) engagement with CSR-related messages on social media. The research findings suggest that the types of calls to action matter in the effectiveness of CSR messages. Specifically, CSR messages inviting consumers to brand-related programs or games generated a greater number of likes and shares. However, the overall engagement was lower when CSR messages encouraged further conversations, and rewarding consumers was also less effective. Finally, the results show that multiple calls to action within one message decrease engagement. Overall, this study contributes to the academic literature and management by providing new insights and actionable guidelines on how to encourage user participation when designing CSR messages to enhance consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral engagement within social media, thereby contributing to sustainable development while enhancing the effectiveness of marketing communications.

Suggested Citation

  • Myoung-Jin Chae, 2021. "Driving Consumer Engagement through Diverse Calls to Action in Corporate Social Responsibility Messages on Social Media," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3812-:d:526951
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3812/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3812/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shampy Kamboj & Zillur Rahman, 2016. "Erratum to: The influence of user participation in social media-based brand communities on brand loyalty: age and gender as moderators," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 733-733, November.
    2. Tser-Yieth Chen & Tsai-Lien Yeh & Chin-I Chang, 2020. "How different advertising formats and calls to action on videos affect advertising recognition and consequent behaviours," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5-6), pages 358-379, April.
    3. Ana Reyes-Menendez & Jose Ramon Saura & Pedro Palos-Sanchez, 2020. "Identifying key performance indicators for marketing strategies in mobile applications: a systematic literature review," International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 11(3), pages 259-277.
    4. Mochen Yang & Yuqing Ren & Gediminas Adomavicius, 2019. "Understanding User-Generated Content and Customer Engagement on Facebook Business Pages," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 839-855, September.
    5. de Vries, Lisette & Gensler, Sonja & Leeflang, Peter S.H., 2012. "Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91.
    6. Chu, Shu-Chuan & Chen, Hsuan-Ting & Gan, Chen, 2020. "Consumers’ engagement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in social media: Evidence from China and the United States," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 260-271.
    7. Shampy Kamboj & Zillur Rahman, 2016. "The influence of user participation in social media-based brand communities on brand loyalty: age and gender as moderators," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(6), pages 679-700, November.
    8. Matthew T. Ballew & Allen M. Omoto & Patricia L. Winter, 2015. "Using Web 2.0 and Social Media Technologies to Foster Proenvironmental Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-29, August.
    9. Magdalena Öberseder & Bodo Schlegelmilch & Verena Gruber, 2011. "“Why Don’t Consumers Care About CSR?”: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Role of CSR in Consumption Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(4), pages 449-460, December.
    10. Soontae An & Gayle Kerr & Hyun Seung Jin, 2019. "Recognizing Native Ads as Advertising: Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1421-1442, December.
    11. Hsin-Hsuan Lee & Willemijn Dolen & Ans Kolk, 2013. "On the Role of Social Media in the ‘Responsible’ Food Business: Blogger Buzz on Health and Obesity Issues," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(4), pages 695-707, December.
    12. Dokyun Lee & Kartik Hosanagar & Harikesh S. Nair, 2018. "Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5105-5131, November.
    13. Axel Berger & Tobias Schlager & David E. Sprott & Andreas Herrmann, 2018. "Gamified interactions: whether, when, and how games facilitate self–brand connections," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 652-673, July.
    14. Shuili Du & Edward Vieira, 2012. "Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 413-427, November.
    15. Menon, R.G. Vishnu & Sigurdsson, Valdimar & Larsen, Nils Magne & Fagerstrøm, Asle & Sørensen, Herborg & Marteinsdottir, Helena Gunnars & Foxall, Gordon R., 2019. "How to grow brand post engagement on Facebook and Twitter for airlines? An empirical investigation of design and content factors," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Glen Whelan & Jeremy Moon & Bettina Grant, 2013. "Corporations and Citizenship Arenas in the Age of Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(4), pages 777-790, December.
    17. Tser-Yieth Chen & Tsai-Lien Yeh & Chin-I Chang, 2020. "How different advertising formats and calls to action on videos affect advertising recognition and consequent behaviours," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 358-379, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Pilgrim & Sabine Bohnet-Joschko, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility on Twitter: A Review of Topics and Digital Communication Strategies’ Success Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Reihaneh Hajishirzi & Carlos J. Costa & Manuela Aparicio, 2022. "Boosting Sustainability through Digital Transformation’s Domains and Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán & Cristina Aibar-Guzmán, 2023. "Editorial for the Special Issue “Business Strategies Concerning the Sustainable Development Goals and the SDG Compass”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-5, January.
    4. Maximilian Schacker, 2022. "Tackling Fuzziness in CSR Communication Research on Social Media: Pathways to More Rigor and Replicability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Jiangjun Li & Tao Fu & Shengyue Han & Rui Liang, 2023. "Exploring the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Media Attention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gregory D. Saxton & Lina Gomez & Zed Ngoh & Yi-Pin Lin & Sarah Dietrich, 2019. "Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining Public Reactions to Firms’ CSR Efforts on Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 359-377, March.
    2. Zhao, Lu & Zhang, Mingli & Ming, Yaxin & Niu, Tao & Wang, Yu, 2023. "The effect of image richness on customer engagement: Evidence from Sina Weibo," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Lim, Weng Marc & Rasul, Tareq & Kumar, Satish & Ala, Mamun, 2022. "Past, present, and future of customer engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 439-458.
    4. Sara Amabile & Francesca Conte & Agostino Vollero & Alfonso Siano, 2022. "Measuring and evaluating CSR information and involvement strategies on corporate Facebook pages," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2022(3), pages 341-369, September.
    5. Boyd, D. Eric & McGarry, Benjamin Michael & Clarke, Theresa B., 2016. "Exploring the empowering and paradoxical relationship between social media and CSR activism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2739-2746.
    6. Kunpeng Zhang & Wendy Moe, 2021. "Measuring Brand Favorability Using Large-Scale Social Media Data," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(4), pages 1128-1139, December.
    7. Kirsti Iivonen, 2018. "Defensive Responses to Strategic Sustainability Paradoxes: Have Your Coke and Drink It Too!," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 309-327, March.
    8. Halloran, Timothy J. & Lutz, Richard J., 2021. "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About: Which Social Media Engagements Predict Purchase Frequency?," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 83-95.
    9. Lucie Kvasničková Stanislavská & Ladislav Pilař & Klára Margarisová & Roman Kvasnička, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media: Comparison between Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-19, June.
    10. Lijuan Bai & Xiangbin Yan, 2023. "Impact of social media capability on firm performance: new evidence from China," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 118-136, February.
    11. Li, You & Chang, Yaping & Liang, Zhehao, 2022. "Attracting more meaningful interactions: The impact of question and product types on comments on social media advertisings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 89-101.
    12. Vasu Unnava & Ashwin Aravindakshan, 2021. "How does consumer engagement evolve when brands post across multiple social media?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 864-881, September.
    13. João Guerreiro & Paulo Rita & Duarte Trigueiros, 2016. "A Text Mining-Based Review of Cause-Related Marketing Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 111-128, November.
    14. Oliveira, João S. & Ifie, Kemefasu & Sykora, Martin & Tsougkou, Eleni & Castro, Vitor & Elayan, Suzanne, 2022. "The effect of emotional positivity of brand-generated social media messages on consumer attention and information sharing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 49-61.
    15. Laura Illia & Stefania Romenti & Belén Rodríguez-Cánovas & Grazia Murtarelli & Craig E. Carroll, 2017. "Exploring Corporations’ Dialogue About CSR in the Digital Era," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 39-58, November.
    16. Shahbaznezhad, Hamidreza & Dolan, Rebecca & Rashidirad, Mona, 2021. "The Role of Social Media Content Format and Platform in Users' Engagement Behavior," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 47-65.
    17. Gregory D. Saxton & Charlotte Ren & Chao Guo, 2021. "Responding to Diffused Stakeholders on Social Media: Connective Power and Firm Reactions to CSR-Related Twitter Messages," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(2), pages 229-252, August.
    18. McClure, Clair & Seock, Yoo-Kyoung, 2020. "The role of involvement: Investigating the effect of brand's social media pages on consumer purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    19. Martin Thomas Falk & Eva Hagsten, 2021. "When international academic conferences go virtual," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 707-724, January.
    20. Xiao, Lin & Li, Xiaofeng & Zhang, Yucheng, 2023. "Exploring the factors influencing consumer engagement behavior regarding short-form video advertising: A big data perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3812-:d:526951. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.