We have got company – bystanders’ evaluations of organizational responses to user posts on social media

Abstract

Social media has changed our lives in many ways. The way we communicate is probably affected the most, since social media platforms turn audiences into communicators. By facing these new challenges, organizations have to make sure, not only to satisfy the primary target audience, as it was with mass media before the rise of social media, but also satisfy the online community who observes marketing relevant interactions. The so called by-standers outnumber a single customer with whom the organization interacts with, and therefore they are an important target group. Thus, when organizations are interacting with online users, it is even more critical to determine how the by-stander evaluates the organizational behavior than the actual interaction partner. Altogether, the present dissertation aims to address these new developments by deepening the understanding of by-standers’ evaluation of organizational responses on social media. Two empirical research papers respectively address one of the two discussed major challenges for marketers. Paper 1 aims to investigate how companies should reply to complaints on social media to achieve favorable outcomes of by-standers. Paper 2 examines if the post type of information is crucial for users to determine credibility.