EWOM EFFECTS ON FACEBOOK

The rapid growth of Facebook has become an important channel of eWOM. Facebook users can openly illustrate their attitudes toward products to their friends, either by casually clicking a like or deliberately writing a comment on advertisements. This study explored how friends’ involvement in advertisements and tie strength affected Facebook users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Moreover, we investigated how product type moderates fWOM (eWOM on Facebook) effects. This study recruited 384 respondents to participate in a 2 (friends’ involvement in advertisements: high/low, between-subject) × 2 (tie strength: strong/weak, between-subject) × 2 (product type: search/experience, within-subject) experimental design. The results showed that friends’ involvement in advertisements positively influenced users’ intentions to click. Tie strength of Facebook friends also positively affected users’ product attitudes, intentions to purchase, and intentions to click. Lastly, product type moderated the effects of tie strength of Facebook friends on users’ product attitudes and intentions to click; however, it did not moderate the effects of friends’ involvement in advertisements on their attitudes and intentions

Do firms still need to be social? Firm Generated Content in social media

The aim of this paper is to investigate how firm-generated content (FGC) impacts consumer brand awareness, brand loyalty, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and how this, in turn, influences consumer purchase intention. In order to test this conceptual framework, statistical analysis was carried out employing structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that FGC has a positive impact on brand awareness, brand loyalty, eWOM and purchase intention. Furthermore, the results reveal that a link exists between consumer eWOM behaviour and brand awareness and loyalty. This study also demonstrates that company communication through Facebook and Instagram has a positive effect on consumer purchase intention. Finally, it has been shown that, regarding eWOM and purchase intention, firm-generated content posted on Instagram has a greater impact on its users than that posted on Facebook. Consumer purchase intention is increasingly impacted by the growing use of social media (SM) by companies and marketers. This changing environment has opened up new challenges. However, there is still much work to be done in understanding the full effects of firm-generated content communication, and how this influences consumer brand perception and purchase intention

Are Facebook Brand Community Members Really Loyal to the Brand?

Although research into consumer participation in online brand communities has grown in recent years, still little is known about how membership in a Facebook brand community is related to brand loyalty. This study tests the direct and indirect effects of brand community engagement, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention, and community promotion behavior on attitudinal loyalty, repurchase intention, and positive word-of-mouth. Partial least squares modeling is used to test the conceptual model on data from a survey of 1,936 Facebook brand community members. The results support most of the hypotheses and show that whereas brand community engagement and eWOM intention are strongly associated with all the aspects of brand loyalty, community promotion behavior only affects word-of-mouth. The results also reveal that user activity in the Facebook brand community has no effect on positive word-of-mouth

Electronic word of mouth in social media: The common characteristics of retweeted and favourited marketer-generated content posted on Twitter

Marketers desire to utilise electronic word of mouth (eWOM) marketing on social media sites. However, not all online content generated by marketers has the same effect on consumers; some of them are effective while others are not. This paper aims to examine different characteristics of marketer-generated content (MGC) that of which one lead users to eWOM. Twitter was chosen as one of the leading social media sites and a content analysis approach was employed to identify the common characteristics of retweeted and favourited tweets. 2,780 tweets from six companies (Booking, Hostelworld, Hotels, Lastminute, Laterooms and Priceline) operating in the tourism sector are analysed. Results indicate that the posts which contain pictures, hyperlinks, product or service information, direct answers to customers and brand centrality are more likely to be retweeted and favourited by users. The findings present the main eWOM drivers for MGC in social media.Abdulaziz Elwalda and Mohammed Alsagga

Impacts of WeChat on Millennials’ Perceptions and Consumption Behaviors in the Hotel Industry

Social media, known as interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications, has deeply changed and reformed interpersonal communication and business operation with the wide spread of Internet and the development of technology. In the past few years, since mobile apps are becoming more and more popular, the access of social media is not limited to tablet computers only, but is also available for almost all kinds of smart phone devices, such as iPhone, Android, Symbian and so on. The function of social media is not confined to real- time message transmission or information sharing any more. It has expanded to a widely range of features, such as online purchase and payment, e-commerce business, and service for different types of social events. Social media plays an increasingly important role in daily personal life as well as in business activities. People are not merely considered as social media users, but also the component of social media itself. As a result, it is very crucial for people to realize the importance and impacts of social media, especially for those business operators. WeChat (Weixin in Chinses, literally “micro message”) is a cross-platform instant text and voice messaging communication service for multiple mobile devices, developed by Tecent in China, first released in the January of 2011. It is claimed to provide “the new way to connect” and create “a way of life”. It is free to download, install and register, and support all kinds of smart phone platforms with multiple language versions, such as Chinese, English, Japanese, French, and Spanish. WeChat provides its users different ways to communicate and interact with friends innovatively through instant text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, group messaging, lively video sharing, location sharing, money transferring, and contact information sharing. Among all the WeChat users, Millennials is the majority. With the growing-up of Millennials, they are becoming more and more powerful and important to the society and will be the next target segmentation for most of the industries in the very near future. Especially for the hotel industry, the industry that urges to attract Millennials patrons for further substantial development, how to attract Millennials is becoming a critical issue for those hotel operators

eWOM & Referrals in Social Network Services

If a few decades ago the development of the Internet was instrumental in the interconnection between markets, nowadays the services provided by Web 2.0, such as social network sites (SNS) are the cutting edge. A proof of this trend is the exponential growth of social network users. The main objective of this work is to explore the mechanisms that promote the transmission and reception (WOM and referrals) of online opinions, in the context of the SNS, by buyers of travel services. The research includes some research lines: technology acceptance model (TAM), Social Identification Theory and Word-of-Mouth communication in virtual environment (eWOM). Based on these theories an explicative model has been proposed applying SEM analysis to a sample of SNS users’ of tourist service buyers. The results support the majority of the hypotheses and some relevant practical and theoretical implications have been pointed out for tourist managers

The Influence of eWOM Credibility on Visit Intention: An Integrative Moderated Mediation Model

Purpose: This study examines the process by which eWOM susceptibility moderates the strength of indirect links between the perceived credibility of eWOM messages and the intention to visit a destination via the destination image and the perceived usefulness of these messages. Methods: The research hypotheses were tested according to structural equations modelling and Hayes procedure, which made it possible to study simultaneously and rigorously the mediating and moderating effects, and to have a clear view on the model fittness. Results: The results indicate that the mediation links of the destination image on the relationship between perceived credibility and intention to visit a destination, are moderated by the susceptibility of the eWOM (the comments generated by Internet users or the sharing of tourists' experiences on Facebook). This study also indicates that the relationship between the perceived credibility of the eWOM and the intentions to visit a destination is mediated by the usefulness of the eWOM messages and the destination image. Implications: Tourism practitioners seeking to attract tourists can use the eWOM as a communication technique for product and/or service recommendations. Given the powerful influence of the eWOM, it should not be ignored or misused, but managed to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies in hospitality, tourism and travel

The impacts of electronic word of mouth in social media on consumers` purchase intentions

The influence of Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) on consumers` purchase intentions has been known for a long time. However, eWOM has gained a new dimension with the advent of social media. Before this new phenomenon, people were able to talk with anonymous people on the Internet. Social media enable people to talk with friends and acquaintances, on the Internet. This new way of eWOM might be more powerful in terms of triggering purchase intention. This study discusses the electronic word of mouth within the context of social media. Particularly, this study examines the influence of eWOM in social media on consumers` purchase intentions. The research consists of two phases. First, survey will be conducted to understand the effect of eWOM in social media on purchase intention. Then interviews will be made to reveal that how eWOM in social media affects consumers` purchase intentions. The results should contribute to both researchers and practitioners

The effects of travelling reasons on social media resources and tourist expectations

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo examinar la relación de las fuentes del contenido generado por el usuario (UGC) en las redes sociales, que proviene generalmente de fuentes de lazos fuertes y fuentes de lazos débiles, en la generación de expectativas turísticas sobre los recursos básicos y los recursos o factores de apoyo de los destinos. También se analiza el efecto moderador de las razones para viajar en la relación de las fuentes UGC y las expectativas turísticas. Para esta investigación, se recogieron 375 encuestas. Los resultados señalan que las razones o motivos del viaje son un factor importante a considerar en la generación de las expectativas turísticas, y en nuestro caso, el UGC que provenía de las fuentes de lazos débiles influyen de manera significativa en la generación de expectativas del turista cuando viaja por motivos de trabajo.This research aims to examine the relationship of user generated content (UGC) sources in social media which is provided by strong-tie sources and weak-tie sources on tourist expectations on core resources and factor supporting of the destinations, and also analyze the moderate effect of the reasons of travelling on the relationship of UGC sources and tourist expectations. 375 samples were collected. The results demonstrate that travelling reasons is an important factor to consider about the origin of tourist expectations. The UGC that was provided by weak-tie source has influence on tourist expectations when they travel with business reason