ABSTRACT

Purpose: Social media is increasingly drawing the attention and interest of business-to-business (B to B) organizations. Yet, B to B organizations remain cautious in their social media pursuits, in part based on a stated lack of understanding for best practices. The purpose of the current work is to take initial steps to address this challenge by identifying specific social media message features that influence online users’ engagement with B to B organizations.

Methodology/Approach: This work examines the Twitter feeds of the top 50 social B to B brands (as reported by Brandwatch in 2015) to examine the effects of message features (hashtags, text difficulty, embedded media, and message timing) on user engagement, captured in terms of Twitter likes and retweets.

Findings: We argue that message features that enhance fluency (e.g., images) should enhance engagement. In contrast, those that disrupt fluency (e.g., hasthags) should result in lower levels of engagement. Consistent with these predictions, we find that hashtags and text difficulty correlate to lower levels of engagement whereas embedded media in the form of images and video correlate to higher levels of engagement. Also consistent with the proposed fluency framework, we find that tweets from B to B organizations generate greater engagement on evenings and weekends.

Research Implications: This research applies a fluency lens to identify specific message features that influence online engagement. In doing so, it highlights fluency as a powerful construct for understanding the drivers of B to B social media brand engagement. More generally, this work suggests fluency as a valuable conceptual lens for developing effective B to B social media strategies. This research also speaks to the complexity of B to B social media strategies – organizations must go beyond content and platform decisions, to also consider the specific features of the message.

Practical Implications: Social media is becoming more and more important to B to B organizations and is as yet an underutilized engagement tool. The current work offers initial strategies regarding message features that business practitioners can incorporate into their content development strategies to strengthen engagement. Specifically, efforts should be made to attain high levels of fluency in B to B social media content development.

Originality/Value/Contribution of the Paper: The current work offers initial insights as to the importance of understanding not only how social media topics/content influence engagement, but also the influence of message features (e.g., hashtags, embedded media). In doing so, it highlights fluency as a novel conceptual lens for developing more effective B to B social media strategies. Finally, it draws on actual tweets from leading B to B brands to examine the proposed influence of message features on engagement.

摘要

目的：社交媒体越来越吸引企业对企业（B to B）组织的关注和兴趣。但是，B对B的组织在社交媒体追求方面仍保持谨慎，部分原因是据称缺乏对最佳实践的理解。当前工作的目的是通过识别影响在线用户与B对B组织互动的特定社交媒体消息功能，采取初始步骤来应对这一挑战。

方法论/方法：这项工作研究了前50个B对B品牌社交品牌的Twitter提要（如Brandwatch在2015年所报道），以检查消息功能（标签，文本困难，嵌入式媒体和消息计时）对用户参与度的影响，根据Twitter的点赞和转推记录。

调查结果：我们认为增强流利性的消息功能（例如图像）应增强参与度。相反，那些破坏流利度的因素（例如，hasthags）应导致较低的参与度。与这些预测一致，我们发现主题标签和文本难度与参与度较低相关，而以图像和视频形式出现的嵌入式媒体与参与度较高相关。与提议的流利框架一致，我们发现B到B组织的推文在晚上和周末产生了更大的参与度。

研究意义：这项研究运用流利的视角来识别影响在线参与度的特定消息功能。通过这样做，它突显了流利度是理解B2B社交媒体品牌参与动机的有力工具。更广泛地说，这项工作表明流利度是发展有效的B2B社交媒体策略的宝贵概念镜头。这项研究还谈到了B对B社交媒体策略的复杂性–组织必须超越内容和平台决策，还必须考虑消息的特定功能。

实际意义：社交媒体对B对B组织越来越重要，并且仍然是未得到充分利用的参与工具。当前的工作提供了有关消息功能的初步策略，业务从业人员可以将其纳入其内容开发策略中以增强参与度。具体而言，应努力实现B对B社交媒体内容开发的高流利程度。

论文的原创性/价值/贡献：当前的工作提供了初步的见解，即不仅要了解社交媒体主题/内容如何影响参与度，而且要了解消息功能（例如，标签，嵌入式媒体）的影响的重要性。通过这样做，它突出了流利性，将其作为开发更有效的B2B社交媒体策略的新颖概念镜头。最后，它利用领先的B品牌到B品牌的实际推文来研究消息功能对参与度的建议影响。