Research Insight | How Firms Can Steer Social Media Conversations to Boost Sentiment
Consumers interact with brands on social media for a variety of reasons—offering advice, sharing compliments, venting frustrations, or filing complaints. This study investigates how firms can use their responses to shape and enhance user sentiment in these conversations. Based on the social media activity of four large U.S. banks over 10 years, the findings reveal the power of topic matching and linguistic style matching as tools for improving sentiment, particularly when addressing negative user posts.
When faced with negative sentiment, firms should stay on topic, display empathy, and move the conversation to private channels through direct messaging. These techniques are crucial for moving negative sentiment in a positive direction.
However, firms often overlook the opportunity to build on neutral or positive sentiment, which makes up the majority of social media posts. For these scenarios, firms should use authentic and personal responses to deepen user engagement. Authenticity, characterized by the use of genuine, transparent, and personal language, is especially effective in amplifying positive sentiment. For example, signing posts with a first name (rather than initials or nothing) adds a personal touch that lifts user sentiment further.
By aligning responses with user sentiment and incorporating empathy, authenticity, and personalization, firms can build stronger, more positive relationships with their audience.
For more Research Insights, click here.
What You Need to Know
- Mirror the user: Matching users’ topics and linguistic style significantly improves sentiment in social media conversations.
- Handle negativity strategically: Use empathetic, on-topic responses and move conversations to direct messaging for private resolution.
- Amplify positivity: Respond to positive posts with authentic, personal, and positive content to deepen user goodwill.
Abstract
Many firms struggle with how to craft their messages in conversations with customers on social media. The problem is compounded by the fact that these conversations take place in multiple simultaneous threads, each of which potentially requires a different approach depending on the conversation. This article studies how firms can adapt their responses in individual social media conversations such that the sentiment in different conversations becomes more favorable. The authors examine a comprehensive set of firm-generated content elements inspired by the theory of dialogic listening that emphasizes that a conversation partner should offer (1) empathetic understanding, (2) unconditional positive regard, a spirit of mutual understanding expressed through (3) topic matching and (4) linguistic style matching, (5) presentness, and (6) genuineness. They augment this set by also considering (7) whether the agent takes the conversation to a one-on-one channel and (8) whether agent signs their response with their own name, indicating a personal connection. The authors furthermore test whether these elements’ effectiveness depends on preceding user sentiment. Based on an analysis of nearly 1 million tweets capturing over 206,000 threads involving four major U.S. banks across ten years, this article provides concrete managerial guidance on responding effectively on social media to maximize the positive impact on the sentiment of subsequent user-generated content and shows that this guidance depends on preceding user sentiment.
Mohammad “Mike” Saljoughian, Kelly Hewett, Harald J. van Heerde, and William Rand, “How Firms Can Steer Social Media Conversations,” Journal of Marketing Research. doi:10.1177/00222437251329816.