Pederson, Joseph Arthur (2016-08). It's Not What You Tweet but How You Tweet It: An Experiment of Orientation, Interactivity, and Valence in Twitter. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
This study examines the effects of message orientation, interactivity, and valence in Twitter on the attitudes and behaviors of sport consumers. Social media have become an integral component of strategic brand communication. Since sport properties have become increasingly interested in fostering customer engagement on social media, the purpose of this research is to examine the effects of message orientation, interactivity, and valence in Twitter on customer engagement, relationship quality, and purchase-related outcomes in the context of a live sports broadcast. Specifically, it is hypothesized that interactive messages with positive valence and socioemotional orientation would have a positive influence on sport consumers' engagement behaviors, perceptions of relationship quality, and purchase intentions. A quantitative research design employing a quasi-experiment is utilized in this study. Study participants (N=255) are randomly assigned to different viewing scenarios in which tweets using eight different communication strategies are seen. The viewing scenarios employed in this research involve a simulated live sports broadcast where tweets from an official team account accompanied the broadcast. After completing the viewing task, participants are asked to complete a questionnaire via Qualtrics online survey software. Univariate analysis of covariance is employed to investigate a series of testable hypotheses. Evaluation of the results reveal participants exposed to positive, highly interactive, and socioemotional communication in tweets are more willing to engage with the brand on Twitter. Additionally, participants exposed to highly interactive messages expressed a significantly higher willingness to pay for officially licensed team merchandise. A detailed review of this study, as well as its limitations, implications, and future directions, are included.
