In the past decade, the social media platform has dramatically changed individuals’ daily activities in real life and on the Internet, including shopping, socialization, entertainment, study, and even health and fitness. In the era of COVID-19, particularly, consumers tend to rely more on digital attributes of social media platforms for their decision-making process by reducing the physical touchpoint. Responding to this ongoing trend, this study investigates how fitness YouTube channel attributes and fitness YouTuber attributes influence flow experience, satisfaction, and behavioral intention of YouTubers who work out at home via a fitness YouTube channel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the social media literature and the cognitive appraisal theory, this research formulates a research model that specifies the influence of three dimensions of fitness YouTube channel attributes (i.e., social interaction, information quality, and visual content) and three dimensions of fitness YouTuber attributes (i.e., social attractiveness, physical attractiveness, and attitude homophily) on flow experience, YouTube channel satisfaction, and behavioral intention in the context of YouTube. This study recruited participants in the United States who currently work out via a fitness YouTube channel through three waves of data collection during the COVID-19 era. The empirical results revealed that flow experience was significantly affected by information quality, visual content, and physical attractiveness. Also, YouTube channel satisfaction was significantly affected by social interaction, information quality, and visual content. Lastly, behavioral intention was significantly affected by flow experience and YouTube channel satisfaction. Based on the findings, this study proposes meaningful implications for the extant literature and social media industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

在过去十年中，社交媒体平台极大地改变了人们在现实生活和互联网上的日常活动，包括购物、社交、娱乐、学习，甚至健康和健身。特别是在 COVID-19 时代，消费者倾向于通过减少物理接触点来更多地依赖社交媒体平台的数字属性来进行决策。针对这一持续趋势，本研究调查了健身 YouTube 频道属性和健身 YouTuber 属性如何影响在 COVID-19 大流行期间通过健身 YouTube 频道在家锻炼的 YouTube 用户的心流体验、满意度和行为意图。基于社交媒体文献和认知评价理论，本研究制定了一个研究模型，该模型指定了健身 YouTube 频道属性的三个维度（即社交互动、信息质量和视觉内容）和健身 YouTuber 属性的三个维度（即社交吸引力、身体吸引力和态度同质性）的影响) 在 YouTube 背景下的流量体验、YouTube 频道满意度和行为意图。这项研究在美国招募了参与者，这些参与者目前在 COVID-19 时代通过三波数据收集通过健身 YouTube 频道进行锻炼。实证结果表明，心流体验受信息质量、视觉内容和身体吸引力的显着影响。此外，YouTube 频道满意度受到社交互动、信息质量、和视觉内容。最后，行为意向受心流体验和 YouTube 频道满意度的显着影响。基于这些发现，本研究对 COVID-19 大流行期间现存的文学和社交媒体行业提出了有意义的影响。