An investigation on consumer sociability behaviour on facebook

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate nuanced characteristics of messages (i.e., vividness, interactivity, emotionality) that foster consumer sociability behaviour in terms of likes, comments and shares on a company Facebook page. The data were obtained from an international hotel Facebook page between 14 January 2015 and 14 January 2016. The company messages (144) have been investigated analysing content and text using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Software (LIWC). The results reveal that messages with a low or medium level of vividness exhibit higher levels of liking, commenting, and sharing. Messages with a medium level of interactivity also generate more comments and shares. Finally, emotionality is strongly related to consumer sociability behaviour increasing likes, comments and shares. Concerning vividness and interactivity the study presents counterintuitive results respect to mainstream literature and offers insights while recommending that additional research should be carried out. These new insights help companies to understand how to develop relationships with consumers on their official Facebook pages.