Features of Marketer-Generated Content Tweets For Electronic Word of Mouth in Banking Context

Abstract

This study aims to identify the features of Market-Generated Content (MGC) tweets that are posted with a purpose of initiating electronic word of mouth (known as eWOM). A successful tweet is a tweet that earns active participation from the customers, e.g. getting Retweeted (RT) or Favorited (FAV). The phenomenon of eWOM effectively helps to propagate marketing agendas in both short-term marketing campaigns and long-term brand awareness. In the analysis process, logistic regression and Association rule methods were applied to mine the significant features on the MGC posts which were collected from four selected banks in Thailand during a specific period of time. For results, logistic regression indicated a set of features that causes a substantial number of RT and FAV. Additionally, the Apriori algorithm of the Association rule further specified two key features for effective RT and FAV, and it also suggested how to combine other features with those two key features to enhance the gain of RT and FAV.

Thai Commercial Banks on Twitter

“…The majority of banks use Twitter to offer customer services, customer supports, and financial education and services (Bohlin et al, 2018;Chikandiwa et al, 2013;Mucan & Özeltürkay, 2014;Senadheera et al, 2011). Marketers of banks can use Twitter to publicize news, product/service information, promotions, and so on (Alotaibi, 2013;Weerawatnodom et al, 2017). There should be some MGC characteristics that play a crucial role in getting more reactions in terms of FAVs and RTs (Alboqami et al, 2015).…”

“…Characteristics of MGC posted on Twitter could be classified as contextual, entertainment, informational, and brand (Alboqami et al, 2015;Weerawatnodom et al, 2017). These characteristics are proposed to affect RTs and FAVs afterward.…”

“…Retweeting is forwarding a message to others, while replying is an interaction with a tweet sender. Favorite shows users' impression of a tweet (Abunadi, 2015;Boyd et al, 2010;Farina et al, 2014;Icha, 2015;Mosley, 2012;Mucan & Özeltürkay, 2014;Purohit et al, 2013;Rantanen et al, 2019;Weerawatnodom et al, 2017).…”

“…Users can also simply post by retweeting others' tweets, encouraging them to post more often (Alboqami et al, 2015;Mosley, 2012). So, it is suggested to be focused to create e-WOM (Alboqami et al, 2015;Bohlin et al, 2018;Fitri et al, 2019;Mucan & Özeltürkay, 2014;Weerawatnodom et al, 2017). Brand-focused e-WOM on Twitter also becomes an important source of marketing information, which deserves researchers' and practitioners' attention (Chu & Sung, 2015).…”

“…Banks in different countries have different approaches or levels of SM use (Kirakosyan, 2014). Understanding the key characteristics of MGC posts (e.g., Twitter tweets) affecting e-WOM success (e.g., RT and FAV) is an interesting issue (Alboqami et al, 2015;Fitri et al, 2019;Weerawatnodom et al, 2017). A tweet's characteristics, such as the fluency of messages, content type, the existence of a link, and the existence of a call-to-action, significantly influence its engagement rate (Surucu-Balci et al, 2020).…”