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Exploring the factors affecting content dissemination through WeChat official accounts: a heuristic-systematic model perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Bo Yang

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Yue Hu

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Xusen Cheng

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Ying Bao

    (University of International Business and Economics)

  • Wenjing Chen

    (Renmin University of China)

Abstract

WeChat official accounts attract huge traffic and have an extremely high marketing value. However, as the number of accounts on the platform increases, a new concern for the account operators is garnering more traffic than competitors. Here, we employed the heuristic-systematic model to classify the influencing factors affecting information dissemination through WeChat official accounts and provided reference suggestions for the operators. We used data from nine official accounts of Beijing Sootoo Network Company as the research object and employed negative binomial regression. Our empirical results revealed that for entertainment and emotion official accounts, article titles that fit the account theme improved content spread, while they negatively affected traffic on news official accounts. We observed that the first article was advantageous when harnessed properly and that the number of images and amount of text was also crucial. Owing to time and manpower constraints, we only selected nine WeChat official accounts in this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Bo Yang & Yue Hu & Xusen Cheng & Ying Bao & Wenjing Chen, 2023. "Exploring the factors affecting content dissemination through WeChat official accounts: a heuristic-systematic model perspective," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 2713-2735, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:elcore:v:23:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s10660-022-09559-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10660-022-09559-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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