Variations in the diffusion of social media content across different cultures: A communicative ecology perspective

ABSTRACT

Along with traditional marketing channels, social media outlets are integrated into firms’ marketing mix. Social media has changed the dynamics of interactions between organizations and their consumers by fostering an online relationship. These dynamic channels are challenging the belief in the effectiveness of traditional unidirectional marketing. This study uses communicative ecology theory to explore the diffusion of social media content within the communicative ecology framework to improve the existing theoretical understanding of the dimensions of social networking services. Additionally, the study examines the moderating effect of culture on the diffusion of social media content within the communicative ecology framework. We analyzed 1,787 posts to firms’ Facebook brand fan pages for 5 different brands of a single product category in 3 different countries. Ordinary least squares and hierarchical moderated regression was used to test the hypotheses. The current study extends the information system success-related dimensions by finding that the volume of moderator posts to a brand fan page on Facebook is the most important predictor of consumer engagement in the United Kingdom, the day of the post is a highly significant predictor in the United States and the time of the post is a substantial predictor of enhanced customer engagement in Australia. Practical implications for managers are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• brand fan pages
• communicative ecology theory
• post contents
• social media marketing
• social networking services (SNSs)

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the insightful proofreading from Mr. Ken Margel; valuable suggestions and comments from marketing colleagues (Dr. Muhammad Abdullah, Tauqir Ahmed Ghauri, and Dr. Zeeshan Ahmad); IS colleagues (Dr. Sohail, Akhtar Wahab, Umar Ajmal, and Tanawar Khan), and the participants of IS summer school at Harbin Institute of Technology, China.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Imran Khan

Imran Khan is Lecturer at Department of Management Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. His research interests include the social media marketing, digital consumer behaviour and e-health. In 2013, khan was awarded a Cultural Exchange Scholarship from government of China for pursuing his doctorate at School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. His work has appeared in ASLIB Journal of Information Management and presented in International Conference on Complex Information Systems (COMPLEXIS).

Han Dongping

Han Dongping is Professor and Vice Dean at School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. She received her PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Her research interests include technical economy and management.