Factors Driving Social Media Engagement on Instagram: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of nonverbal information, verbal information, and content characteristics on social media engagement (i.e., likes and comments). The dataset comprised 486 posts, 373,235 likes, and 6,933 comments from 19 universities’ Instagram accounts in Indonesia. The results confirm that publishing content in carousel formats or sharing achievement can improve likes. Also, embedding questions in posts or sharing informational content can enhance likes and comments. The findings further show that transactional posts (i.e., competition and promotion) reduce likes. Moreover, rational content (i.e., coverage and holiday) decreases both likes and comments. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Social media
• Instagram
• customer engagement
• social media marketing
• content marketing

Acknowledgments

No acknowledgments.

Declaration of interest statement

I confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, RMW, upon reasonable request.