This study employed a content analysis of the creative strategies present in the social media content shared by a sample of top brands. The results reveal which social media channels are being used, which creative strategies/appeals are being used, and how these channels and strategies relate to consumer engagement in branded social media. Past research has suggested that brands should focus on maintaining a social presence across social channels with content that is fresh and frequent and includes incentives for consumer participation (Ling et al., 2004). This study confirmed the importance of frequent updates and incentives for participation. In addition, several creative strategies were associated with customer engagement, specifically experiential, image, and exclusivity messages. Despite the value of these creative approaches, most branded social content can be categorized as functional.

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In relation to the Five-Factor Model of Personality and need for cognition, the authors investtigated the relationship between personality and Internet usage. Of the five factors, openness to experience and neuroticism showed the greatest association to Internet usage. Openness to experience was positively related to using the Internet for entertainment and product information, while neuroticism was negatively related to Internet usage. Need for cognition was significantly and positively correlated with all Internet activities involving cognitive thought.

The adoption of social media marketing by organizations for branding, marketing communications, and customer relationship marketing creates a need for a new course in the marketing curriculum. For marketing faculty accepting the task of teaching a course on social media marketing, there is a learning curve based in part on the recency with which the field has developed. In this special session, a framework for teaching social media marketing will be presented along with resources and suggested activities by marketing faculty with experience teaching the course.Participants will learn a framework for understanding the types of social media marketing activities from which organizations draw. Introductions will be provided for primary forms of social media marketing channels including social networks, blogs and media-sharing sites, gaming, and commerce-enabled social sites. Panel members, each with several semesters experience in teaching the course, will share organizational strategies for developing a course in social media marketing, sample syllabi, favorite resources, and sample projects and activities. This session will be highly interactive and flexible to meet the needs of those attending.References available upon request 475

Contributes to a growing body of service recovery knowledge by examining the impact of service recovery as a relationship tool, in addition to its well‐accepted role as a means to enhance customer satisfaction at the transaction‐specific level. Begins by providing an overview of the evolving concept of service recovery and continues by explaining the important and unique role that recovery plays in the service sector. A comparison of the concept of service consistency and reliability with the concept of service recovery leads to a statement of hypotheses tested in an experimental setting. Specifically, results indicate that while service recovery results in encounter satisfaction, service recovery does not significantly influence overall satisfaction, quality, image and future expectations. Rather, consistency of service influences these constructs.