THE PERSUASIVE IMPACT OF EMOTICONS IN ONLINE WORD-OF-MOUTH COMMUNICATION

The present research proposes a conceptual framework to examine the effect of emoticons on online WOM persuasion. Using a laboratory experiment, we demonstrate that emoticons enhance recipients’ empathy for the communicator, and this effect is moderated by message valence. Enhanced empathy heightens perceived trustworthiness of the communicator and perceived quality of the message, both of which lead to an increase in the persuasiveness of the WOM message. We conclude by discussing the contributions of this research and identifying the directions for future research

The Influence of Type of Implicit EWOM on Purchase Intention

Electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM) helps shape consumers’ purchasing decisions and companies’ marketing choices. Researchers and practitioners have extensively studied textual or word-based eWOM in online reviews, blogs, e-mails, and product sites. The effect of implicit eWOM, eWOM using paralinguistic cues, on consumer behavior has been infrequently studied even though marketers often seek to use implicit eWOM to influence consumers. On Facebook, the most popular social networking platform in the world, three of the most frequently used forms of implicit eWOM are the emoticon, the emoji, and the GIF. A comparison of the effect of types of implicit eWOM on the purchase intention of eWOM receivers was made in two studies. Four theories, specifically, (Social Presence Theory, Short et al., 1976), Affect as Information Theory, (Clore & Storbeck, 2006), the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984) and the Foote, Cone, and Belding Grid Model (Vaughn, 1980, 1986), were used to frame the studies. In Study 1, four independent groups were shown product reviews that were text only, text plus emoticon, text plus emoji, or text plus GIF. Half of each group were shown a product review of candy and half were shown a product review of a computer. The products represent different levels of engagement and cognitive/affective processing. Study 2 included four independent groups shown product reviews that were text only or text followed by either an emoticon, an emoji, or a GIF. Each participant was shown reviews of three products (candy, a chair, or a computer), chosen to represent different levels of engagement and cognitive/affective processing. All pairs of groups were compared using an independent groups t-test. No significant increase in purchase intention due to implicit eWOM was found in either study. In two comparisons between text only and 1) text plus emoticon and 2) text plus emoji, purchase intention was higher for the text only review than for the review that included a paralinguistic cue

Undergraduates' interpretation on WhatsApp smiley emoji

Undergraduate students, who are digital native, are keen on using emoji (smileys and ideograms) frequently to express themselves emotionally in their digital communication such as WhatsApp Messenger. Nevertheless, sometimes, they got into misunderstanding due to the different emoji's interpretation between the sender and the recipient. Research investigating emoji is still relatively new and this study discusses the diverse interpretations of WhatsApp emoji specifically the smileys among Malaysian undergraduates in a public university. This study attempted to investigate 210 undergraduates' interpretations of 75 smiley (face-like) meanings in WhatsApp Messenger. The respondents were asked to give feedback in self-administrated survey questionnaire to gather information on their interpretation of the smileys used in WhatsApp. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the students' interpretations and the findings disclosed that although the students interpreted a few smileys correctly, they did not know the intended meaning of most of the smileys correctly. The results of this study suggested that the students should know the meaning of the smiley/ emoji used in their digital conversation to able to understand its intended use and to avoid miscommunication in their digital communication. For WhatsApp users, the findings will be beneficial to emphasize the need to understand the emoji's intended meaning for future tolerant and wiser use

Less Talking, More Empathy: How to use Emojis to Help People Feel Good

Text therapy is an affordable and convenient form of counselling that allows clients to text with a Therapist. It is quite common for therapists to use emojis while talking to their clients via texts. In this study, we examine how use of emojis in the context of text therapy impacts clients’ overall counselling experience. In two studies, we show that using emojis with concise messages (vs. long messages) lead to greater clients’ overall satisfaction, higher willingness to pay, and increased positive word of mouth

Word-of-mouth on financial products in online communities: an exploration into the why, what, and how?

This paper examines consumers' motivations to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) and its influences on the cognitive and affective aspects of the WOM message. A sample of 201 consumers was collected from an online survey. Regressions show that four motivations had significant relationships with cognitive and affective aspects of positive messages and two in the case of negative messages. Cognitive and affective aspects were both found to be positively related to message effectiveness, although the former had a greater influence. Findings suggest that consumers use both positive and negative WOM to achieve their objectives, but are more selective when engaging in negative WOM. Managers should encourage consumers to share more factual information about their consumption experience with others through WOM. Managers will gain a better understanding of WOM by analyzing individual messages for its content and delivery

Exploring emotional expressions in e-word-of-mouth from online communities

Electronic word-of-mouth communication (eWOM) is an important force in building a digital marketplace. The study of eWOM has implications for how to build an online community through social media design, web communication and knowledge exchange. Innovative use of eWOM has significant benefits, especially for start-up firms. We focus on how users on the web communicate value related to online products. It is the premise of this paper that generating emotional value (E-value) in social media and networking sites (SMNS) is critical for the survival of new e-service ventures. Hence, by introducing a formal value theory as a coding scheme, we report a study on E-value in SMNS by analyzing how a Swedish start-up industrial design company attempted to build a global presence by creating followers on the web. The aim of the study was to investigate how the company\u27s website design and communication can affect eWOM over time. This was done by capturing a series of “emoticon and value expressions” generated by community members from three different e-communication campaigns (2011–2012) with changing website content, hence giving different stimuli to viewers. Those members who expressed emotional value, often incorporating emoticons, displayed both shorter verbal expressions and reaction time. These value expressions, we suggest, are important aspects of eWOM and need to be actively taken into account. The study has implications for information management strategies through using eWOM. © 2016 Elsevier Lt

The gilded masks of digital rhetoric : social and pedagogical implications of evolving paralinguistic elements in web composition

Over the past few years it has become apparent to educators that the traditional focal points of composition are being necessarily shifted, outside of the classroom, because of the rhetorical spaces made available by the Internet. In the wake of the Web 2.0 revolution, when social networking and the production of web texts are flourishing, it’s more important than ever for educators to take note of the changes occurring in discursive habits and of the ability of students to respond to those changes in a way that will allow them to participate in and shape the dialogue. In undertaking a study of some of the most academically weak but rhetorically strong elements of online composition, emoticons, I argue that the use of these symbols as gestural representations are one indication of a collective attempt to remove composition from the institution of education. Furthermore, I believe that proficiency with content production and interpersonal communication on the web is a survival skill, emerging as a result of what economists and scholars call the “information economy,” and that using emoticons to augment linguistic communication is a subset of that development. As a result of the division between academic composition and web composition, the forms and styles of online writing are left to evolve unguided by education and have important implications, not just for pedagogy, but for the social constructs which govern the ways we use language to create and disseminate information. The manner in which educators succeed or fail to address changes in composition will have a direct bearing on how students identify themselves as writers, how they evaluate content, and with what authority they speak online

Handling positive evaluation in customer encounters on Twitter

Strategie odpowiedzi na akty pozytywnego wartościowania w interakcji z klientem na TwitterzePrzedmiotem analizy są wybrane strategie stosowane przez firmy w odpowiedzi na akty pozytywnego wartościowania produktów wyrażane przez konsumentów w interakcji indywidualnej na wybranych profilach marek na Twitterze. Twitter stanowi jeden z najpopularniejszych kanałów wykorzystywanych w komunikacji korporacyjnej zarówno przez firmy, jak i przez konsumentów. W oparciu o wcześniejsze badania strategii reagowania na akt komplementowania badanie pokazuje,jak firmy reagują na pozytywną ocenę ich produktów. Analiza wskazuje, iż firmy stosują różnorodne strategie odpowiedzi, np. przyjęcie komplementu, akt komplementowania konsumenta, podziękowanie, wyrażanie pozytywnych emocji. Strategie te mogą być interpretowane jako aktywności podejmowane w celu promocji produktów, tworzenia społeczności związanej z daną marką, a także wzmacniania pozytywnych relacji z konsumentem

Examining the Impact of Emojis on Disaster Communication: A Perspective from the Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Communication is a purposeful process, especially during disasters, when emergency management officials and citizen journalists attempt to disseminate relevant information to as many affected people as possible. X (previously Twitter), a popular computer-mediated communication (CMC) platform, has become an essential resource for disaster information given its ability to facilitate real-time communication. Past studies on disasters have mainly concentrated on the verbal-linguistic conventions of words and hashtags as the means to convey disaster-related information. Little attention has been given to non-verbal linguistic cues, such as emojis. In this study, we investigate the use of emojis in disaster communication on X by using uncertainty reduction theory as the theoretical framework. We measured information uncertainty in individual tweets and assessed whether information conveyed in external URLs mitigated such uncertainty. We also examined how emojis affect information uncertainty and information dissemination. The statistical results from analyzing tweets related to the 2018 California Camp Fire disaster show that information uncertainty has a negative impact on information dissemination, and the negative impact was amplified when emojis depicted items and objects instead of facial expressions. Conversely, external URLs reduced the negative impact. This study sheds light on the influence of emojis on the dissemination of disaster information on X and provides insights for both academia and emergency management practitioners in using CMC platforms

Online brand advocacy (OBA): The development of a multiple item scale

Purpose: Despite an increasing interest in online brand advocacy (OBA) and the importance of online brand conversations, OBA’s conceptualization, dimensionality and measurement are unclear, which has created confusion. This paper aims to answer calls from researchers and practitioners for a better understanding and measurement of OBA. The development and validation of a parsimonious and practical OBA scale is outlined in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-methods, multi-stage approach was followed to develop a parsimonious OBA scale. From an initial pool of 96 items obtained from qualitative research and from items used in prior general brand advocacy scales, a test-retest reliability study is followed. Academic judges were consulted to verify dimensionality, followed by two separate online surveys to further purify the scale and assess criterion-related validity. Programs including SPSS, AMOS and WarpPLS were used. Findings: This research extends the knowledge of OBA by developing and testing a parsimonious and practical 16-item, four-dimensional OBA scale. Unlike previous attempts to measure OBA, this study suggested OBA as a multidimensional construct with four dimensions (i.e. brand defense, brand information sharing, brand positivity and virtual positive expression). Further, this study showed that OBA is conceptually different from consumer–brand engagement and electronic word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications: Future research is encouraged to validate the OBA scale in various contexts and locations. Researchers can use the new OBA scale to examine potential brand-related antecedents and consequences of OBA. Practical implications: This study provides brand and marketing practitioners with a better understanding of brand advocacy occurring online. The OBA scale offers clear markers or trademarks that will be useful in assessing any brand’s health online and to track and better manage online brand communications and performance. Originality/value: This research provides the first empirical investigation of Wilk et al.’s (2018) exploratory insights into OBA. The resulting parsimonious scale has furthered OBA as a new area for academic enquiry and presented practitioners with a practical way of measuring OBA