Abstract

Previous word-of-mouth (WOM) research has shown that consumers exhibit a positivity bias when talking about themselves. When sharing personal details, versus talking about others, consumers tend to talk about the positive experiences they have with brands in order to self- enhance amongst friends. At the same time, consumers have been known to vent and take vengeance on brands in public venues. Turning to electronic worth-of-mouth (eWOM) and different social network sites (SNSs) little is known as to the extent to which either is dominant. Moreover, existing eWOM is channel agnostic and has yet to examine eWOM across various new technology-driven settings. To address these gaps, we consider two different SNSs for the same set of users. Facebook and Twitter messages are analyzed for a static group of 783 active U.S. consumers. Computational methods are used to extract historical eWOM messages (n = 47,907). Self-enhancement is found on Facebook and Twitter. Consumers generate eWOM that is more positive when they mention personal experiences (vs. non). While previous research has shown that consumers are more likely to believe and be persuaded by eWOM that contains personal experiences, our research shows that this eWOM also tends to be more positive. By comparison, vengeance and venting was rare, occurring in only 10.3% of eWOM across both SNSs. Moreover, eWOM appears to mirror consumer’s broader, non-eWOM sentiment valence across SNSs. We also suggest that SNS affordances alter eWOM creation. Facebook, has substantial privacy expectations and limits direct brand interactions. Twitter is a more public platform with less privacy expectations and a larger customer service component. As a result, for the static group of consumers studied here eWOM is more prevalent on Twitter, but contrary to our expectations is also more positive. Here we add to the eWOM literature by showing that channel affordances do alter the amount and valence of eWOM generation. 2 EWOM ACROSS CHANNELS

How to Cite

Vargo, C., Gangadharbatla, H., & Hopp, T. (2019). eWOM across channels: Comparing the impact of self–enhancement, positivity bias and vengeance on Facebook and Twitter. International Journal Advertising, 38(8), 1153–1172. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2019.1593720

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Version and Rights

This is the author preprint. For the final published version, see the DOI above.