Riding the social media wave: How Brand Topic Salience impacts engagement with direct marketing communication
(A2024-119498)

AUTHORS

Madhav Arora, ESSEC Business School; Arnaud De Bruyn, ESSEC Business School; Marc Mazodier, ESSEC Business School; Sumon Chaudhuri, ESSEC Business School

ABSTRACT

Marketing scholars have widely studied the idea that social media conversations impact consumer behavior. This study examines the impact of social media conversations on engagement with a brand's communication by introducing a novel measure, Brand Topic Salience (BTS), which quantifies the extent to which a specific topic discussed by a brand is present in social media conversations. Analyzing data from a non-profit organization, we find an inverted U-shaped effect of BTS on campaign engagement, suggesting an optimal level for maximum engagement. Brand Affect moderates this relationship, with positive Brand Affect amplifying the positive effect of BTS. These findings provide insights for marketing managers to better time their campaigns by incorporating the impact of social media conversations.