Relationship cultivation and public engagement via social media during the covid-19 pandemic in China

Huang, Qiongyao; Jin, Jie; Lynn, Benjamin J.; Men, Linjuan Rita

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2021.102064

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(89 reference statements)

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“…Although the number of public-sector studies on social media is increasing (e.g., Lee and Kwak, 2012 ; Smith and Derville, 2015 ), there has been less evidence to date on the role of social media in fostering public engagement and, more specifically, on the two modes of public communication and public involvement ( Agostino and Arnaboldi, 2016 ). Public engagement is generally characterized as the participation of people in public relations ( Huang et al, 2021 ), and its role is to create a partnership between organizations and their people that goes beyond simply exchanging information.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Source Credibility and the Information Quality Matter in Public Engagement on Social Networking Sites During the COVID-19 Crisis

Shah

Lü

2022

Front. Psychol.

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During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, people use social networking sites (SNSs) to seek social support, ease the move toward the social distance, and communicate and engage with one another. However, there is growing evidence that trustworthiness and quality of information can affect individuals’ online engagement behaviors. This study proposes a theoretical model to test people’s online engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Through a questionnaire survey of 630 SNS users, the study examines whether and how source credibility and information quality affect people’s online engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. The findings show that source credibility and information quality have a significantly positive relationship with perceived benefit, while negative and significantly associated with perceived risk. Furthermore, perceived benefit is a stronger predictor of online public engagement than the perceived risk. To improve online public engagement as a crisis response strategy, careful source selection and careful generation of online crisis information should not be overlooked.

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Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Source Credibility and the Information Quality Matter in Public Engagement on Social Networking Sites During the COVID-19 Crisis

Shah

Lü

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…These indicators were not mutually exclusive categories and a single post may have contained several strategies. Following Huang et al (2021), companies' functional use of social media in disasters was assessed using an adaptation of Houston et al's (2015) functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research. In total, nine social media functions were identified that organizations might use during the disaster phase: sending information about help or assistance, raising public awareness, responding to criticisms and questions, etc.…”

Section: Weibo Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measures. Measures of the six relationship cultivation strategies were adopted from previous research (Huang et al, 2021;Ki & Hon, 2008). Each strategy was coded as absent (0) or present (1), then aggregated and reported on the post level.…”

Section: Weibo Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With organizations struggling to cultivate relationships with various stakeholders, relationship management became a more salient and pressing issue for academic research. Although recent research has begun examining organizational communication and relationship management practices during the pandemic ( Huang et al, 2021 ), few researchers have approached it from a comparative perspective between different countries. That matters because contextual factors might impact how companies communicate with their stakeholders and how stakeholders might react to, or interpret, their messages ( Ni et al, 2018 ; Rim & Ferguson, 2020 ; Xu & Wu, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study of crisis communication is focused primarily on examining strategies for organizations to repair their image during a crisis ( Reynolds & Seeger, 2005 ; Seeger, 2006 ). As such, the objectives of crisis communication do not address the driving research question that asks how organizations cultivate relationships when every organization faces the same challenge ( Huang et al, 2021 ). The scope of the pandemic, a global phenomenon that impacted most organizations, and exploring how organizations maintained relationships, not repairing their images, lends itself to defining it as a disaster and not a crisis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Relationship Cultivation via Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From China and the U.S

Huang

Lynn

Dong

et al. 2022

International Journal of Business Communication

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This study explored the relationship cultivation and social media strategies companies used to cultivate relationships with their publics in two culturally distinct markets of China and the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative content analysis of Weibo ( n = 756) and Twitter ( n = 645) posts from Fortune 500 companies in China ( n = 30) and the U.S. ( n = 30) respectively was conducted to examine the effects of their relational efforts on public engagement. Results showed that certain relationship cultivation strategies and use of social media functions effectively increased public engagement in both China and the U.S., although on different levels. Both Chinese and U.S. companies most frequently adopted the strategy of openness. While the openness strategy was most effective at raising engagement levels in the U.S., publics of Chinese companies became more engaged when companies used the access strategy. Also, publics of Chinese companies showed higher levels of engagement and more positive emotions toward companies’ social media messages than their U.S. counterparts. The findings advance our understanding of organization-public relationships in a worldwide disaster setting, with insights informing the global public relations theory and practices.

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“Chief engagement officers?” A comparative study between U.S. corporate and nonprofit executive Leaders' social media communication strategies

Yue

Men

Hart

2023

Nonprofit Mgmnt & Ldrshp

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Organizational leaders are increasingly expected to be visible and communicative on social media with organizations' public. Drawing theory and literature from dialogic communication and leadership communication, this study analyzed and compared how corporate and nonprofit executive leaders capitalized on various dialogic principles and social presence strategies for engagement purposes. We content-analyzed Twitter posts from leaders in corporate and nonprofit sectors.Findings revealed notable differences in how corporate and nonprofit executives communicated with publics on Twitter. While leaders from both sectors posted information valuable to their stakeholders and used affective strategies to project a personable image and nurture relationships, nonprofit leaders focused on social influence, whereas corporate executives emphasized information dissemination. This study also showed mixed findings regarding the relationships between leaders' communication strategies and publics' social media engagement.

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Relationship cultivation and public engagement via social media during the covid-19 pandemic in China

Cited by 21 publications

References 54 publications

Source Credibility and the Information Quality Matter in Public Engagement on Social Networking Sites During the COVID-19 Crisis

Source Credibility and the Information Quality Matter in Public Engagement on Social Networking Sites During the COVID-19 Crisis

Relationship Cultivation via Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From China and the U.S

“Chief engagement officers?” A comparative study between U.S. corporate and nonprofit executive Leaders' social media communication strategies

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