Businesses and marketers have long pursued users’ “likes” on Facebook, but some have doubts about the effect of the presence of Facebook reactions such as “like” and “love.” This study addresses the long-overdue question of whether the presence of social media reactions (e.g., “likes” and “loves”) influences consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions towards nonprofits after being exposed to nonprofit organizations’ (NPOs’) social media posts. This study, drawing on signaling theory, investigated the impact of social media reactions on individuals’ engagement behavior intentions toward nonprofits. The results show that a higher number of reactions is not always good. The higher number of Facebook reactions positively influence individuals’ trust, but that number showed either a negative or no effect on engagement behaviors toward nonprofits. This study has important implications for marketing practitioners, particularly in the nonprofit sector, such as being careful how they approach pursuing “likes” on social media. Facebook marketing could be used more effectively to improve social media users’ attitudes towards a nonprofit organization than to influence their engagement behavior, such as making a donation.

企业和营销人员长期以来一直在Facebook上追随用户的“喜欢”，但是一些人怀疑Facebook的反应（如“喜欢”和“爱”）的存在会带来影响。这项研究解决了一个姗姗来迟的问题，即社交媒体反应（例如“喜欢”和“爱”）的存在是否会在接触非营利组织（NPO）的社交媒体帖子后影响消费者对非营利组织的态度和行为意图。这项研究基于信号理论，研究了社交媒体反应对个人对非营利组织的参与行为意图的影响。结果表明，更高数量的反应并不总是好的。Facebook反应的数量越高，对个人信任的影响越大，但这一数字显示对非营利组织的参与行为有负面影响或没有影响。这项研究对市场营销从业人员，特别是非营利部门的市场营销从业人员具有重要意义，例如，谨慎对待他们在社交媒体上追求“喜欢”的方式。Facebook营销可以更有效地用于改善社交媒体用户对非营利组织的态度，而不是影响其参与行为（例如捐赠）的态度。