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Impact of humour on firm-initiated social media conversations

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Ge

    (Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Tourism)

  • Ulrike Gretzel

    (University of Southern California)

Abstract

Customer engagement is seen as a central measure of marketing effectiveness on social media; yet, very little is known about the factors that drive it. This research focuses on message characteristics and more specifically the role of humour in encouraging likes, comments and reposts. Based on a sample of firm-initiated Weibo posts by a Chinese provincial destination marketing organization, it investigates whether humorous messages overall are more effective, and specifically whether image-based humour is more effective than text-based humour. It also considers whether a message contains a product focus and is complex in terms of its length, lexical density and inclusion of multimodal elements. The findings confirm the proposed influence of humour (with picture-based humour particularly effective), but suggest an even stronger impact of non-product related contents and also indicate that message simplicity is important for eliciting customer engagement.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Ge & Ulrike Gretzel, 2018. "Impact of humour on firm-initiated social media conversations," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 61-83, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infott:v:18:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s40558-017-0097-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s40558-017-0097-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lanham, Richard A., 2006. "The Economics of Attention," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226468822.
    2. A. Peter McGraw & Caleb Warren & Christina Kan, 2015. "Humorous Complaining," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(5), pages 1153-1171.
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    5. Martin Eisend, 2011. "How humor in advertising works: A meta-analytic test of alternative models," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 115-132, June.
    6. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Onofrei, George & Filieri, Raffaele & Kennedy, Lorraine, 2022. "Social media interactions, purchase intention, and behavioural engagement: The mediating role of source and content factors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 100-112.
    2. María Bonilla-Quijada & Juan Tugores-Ques & Josep Lluís Olmo Arriaga, 2021. "Promotion of urban tourism: insights into user engagement on social media," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 611-632, December.
    3. Rajat Kumar Behera & Pradip Kumar Bala & Nripendra P. Rana, 2024. "Reaching new heights: investigating adoption factors shaping the moon landing of metaverse tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 219-253, June.
    4. Yuqian Wei & Hengyu Liu & Wenhui Zhuo & Keun-Soo Park, 2025. "The Influence of Social Media Attributes on Impulsive Travel Intentions: Integrating the Stimulus–Organism–Response Theory and Information Adoption Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Tran, Hai-Anh & Farrell, Andrew & Evanschitzky, Heiner & Nguyen, Bach & Ackfeldt, Anna-Lena, 2024. "Using affective content to promote high-involvement services on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    6. G. Onofrei & R. Filieri & L. Kennedy, 2022. "Social media interactions, purchase intention, and behavioural engagement on social networking platforms: The mediating role of source and content factors," Post-Print hal-04779119, HAL.

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