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3-28-2022
In7uence of Social Media Posts on Service Performance In7uence of Social Media Posts on Service Performance
Carol L. Esmark Jones
University of Alabama
Stacie F. Waites
Marquette University
, [email protected]
Jennifer Stevens
University of Toledo
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Esmark Jones, Carol L.; Waites, Stacie F.; and Stevens, Jennifer, "In7uence of Social Media Posts on
Service Performance" (2022).
Marketing Faculty Research and Publications
. 302.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/market_fac/302
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Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2022): 283-296. DOI. This article is © Emerald Publishing
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Influence of Social Media Posts on Service
Performance
Carol Esmark Jones
Department of Marketing, University of Alabama, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Stacie Waites
Department of Marketing, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jennifer Stevens
Department of Marketing and International Business, University of Toledo, Ohio
Abstract
Purpose
Much research regarding social media posts and relevancy has resulted in mixed findings. Furthermore,
the mediating role of relevancy has not previously been examined. This paper aims to examine the
correlating relationship between types of posts made by hotels and the resulting occupancy rates.
Then, the mediating role of relevancy is examined and ways that posts can increase/decrease
relevancy of the post to potential hotel users.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the context of the hotel industry, three studies were conducted – one including hotel
occupancy data from a corporate chain – to examine the impact of social media posts on relevancy and
intentions to stay at the hotel. Experimental studies were conducted to explain the results of the real-
world hotel data.
Findings
The findings show that relevancy is an important mediator in linking social media posts to service
performance. A locally (vs nationally) themed post can decrease both the relevancy of a post and the
viewer’s intentions to stay at a hotel. This relationship, however, can be weakened if a picture is
included with the post, as a visual may increase self-identification with a post.
Originality/value
These results have important theoretical and practical implications as social media managers attempt
to find the best ways to communicate to their customers and followers. Specifically, there are lower
and upper limits to how many times a hotel should be posting to social media. The data also show
many hotels post about local events, such as school fundraisers or a job fair, that can be harmful to
stay intentions, likely due to the irrelevant nature of local posts to customers who are likely to stay in a
hotel. National posts are seen as more relevant and likely to increase stay intentions, and the inclusion
of a picture can help local posts seem more relevant.
Keywords
Social media, Hospitality, Customer experience, Experimental design, Service strategy, Relevancy,
Social impact theory, Social identity theory, Service performance
Introduction
Businesses are increasingly using social media for marketing purposes; however, many are failing to do
so successfully. Over 90% of medium and large companies use social media marketing but cannot
accurately calculate the return on investment (Quesenberry, 2018). Additionally, over two-thirds of
companies are concerned about their ability to assess the success of their social media accounts
(Guttmann, 2019). One reason many companies are struggling to demonstrate social media’s impact is
their lack of a specific social media strategy. Many companies believe posting more frequently to social
media will increase performance since social media posting is often stated in popular press to directly
influence purchase intentions (Better Business Bureau, 2019). In this research, however, we highlight
how performance ultimately depends on the quality of social media posts, not quantity.
Quality of posts can refer to how viewers perceive the relevancy of the information (Carlson et al.,
2018). Social media should communicate relevant information about a company as it is more likely to
be shared. This might mean posting less often to deliver more valuable content (Quesenberry,
2018). Previous literature has confirmed the significance of post relevance in relation to perceptions of
quality (Carlson et al., 2018), engagement (Lee et al., 2020), privacy risk (Rehman et al.,
2020), information overload and social fatigue (Zhang et al., 2014).
While literature has established that relevancy is important, how to increase perceived relevancy is still
unclear. Many professional tips for what to post to social media suggest posts be relevant (Barnhart,
2020; Quesenberry, 2018) but do not offer guidelines on how to ensure the content is relevant to
users. Current research also has contradictory findings in offering suggestions of how often to post,
further increasing the need for social media guidelines in services marketing. Some studies have
suggested that less than once a day is best (Mariani et al., 2016), while other studies have suggested
posting four times a day (Mariani et al., 2018).
Therefore, this paper addresses these gaps by using social impact theory in a hotel service context,
which produces several unique managerial contributions. First, this research examines the number of
social media posts and actual hotel occupancy to show how often a company should post to see the
best behavioral results. Second, this research explores the content of actual social media posts to show
which content categories that are typically posted (e.g. restaurant menu versus general holiday posts)
are most effective in increasing hotel occupancy. These first two managerial contributions clarify
previous contradictory findings on how often to post and what general topics garner more hotel stays
and contribute clear directions for social media managers in service contexts. Next, we are among the
first to provide guidelines on how to increase relevancy of social media posts through national content
and picture inclusion.
From a theoretical perspective, the results contribute to social impact theory by illustrating that a
company’s social media posts can have social influence over an individual’s consumption behavior (i.e.
hotel stays). Social impact theory states that too many targets of influence can diminish strength
influence from one source (Latané, 1981). However, the findings presented here show that too much
information from one source can also dilute influence. For hotel social media, too much posting can
spread influence too thin and lead to a drop in performance. Additionally, while social impact theory
recognizes source strength, immediacy and number of sources as factors in creating influence, our
research shows that social influence is more impactful when it is relevant to the influenced party.
Relevancy of information is an important theoretical contribution to social impact theory’s tenet of
influence strength; this provides an important foundation for future work to further examine relevancy
as principle of social impact theory. The findings presented suggest practical ways social media
managers can increase relevancy through post content and how often to post to optimally influence
users. Overall, the results of this paper provide a foundation for service marketers to develop more
successful social media strategies.
Conceptual development and hypotheses
Social media and service performance
Research considering firm- and consumer-generated content has shown that social media can
influence how consumers respond to firms (Hutter et al., 2013; Gurrieri and Drenten, 2019). Hennig-
Thurau et al. (2015) examined the “Twitter effect,” which suggests microblogging word of mouth
(MWOM) shared through Twitter positively impacts early product adoption by immediately
disseminating consumers’ post-purchase quality evaluations. Social media activities have been shown
to positively impact consumer willingness to pay a premium price (Torres et al., 2018) and retail sales
(Kumar et al., 2016). Although social media posts are often unidirectional communication, the
frequency of messages can reduce uncertainty and increase credibility (Berger and Calabrese,
1975; Ledbetter and Redd, 2016).
Research on hotel-specific social media has examined how motivation and opportunity increase a
user’s involvement with hotel social media that will increase their likelihood to revisit the page (Leung
and Bai, 2013). Research has also examined the positive prediction of hotel performance ratings and
the impact of responses to negative comments (Kim et al., 2015), as well as similar effectiveness across
platforms (Leung et al., 2015). Research indicates that satisfaction with a hotel’s social media presence
positively influences intentions to stay at the hotel (Choi et al., 2016). See Table 1 for a literature
review regarding how social media has been investigated within service contexts.
Social impact, social identity theories and relevancy
Research on social media strategy emphasizes the importance of frequent postings to maintain
engagement from consumers (Ashley and Tuten, 2015). However, researchers have yet to find a clear
answer regarding how often a company should post on social media. Some research suggests that
engagement is strongest for the initial post, while the impact of subsequent posts negatively impacts
engagement (Mariani et al., 2016) before beginning to increase again around four posts (Mariani et al.,
2018). These findings indicate the relationship between post frequency and consumer response is non-
linear. Social impact theory provides an explanation for this non-linear relationship.
Social impact theory (Latané, 1981) has been used to explain social media usage by firms (Torres et al.,
2018; Perez-Vega et al., 2016). This theory is uniquely suited to explain consumer responses to social
media via the effect of social influences on changes in consumers’ behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes
(Cialdini and Goldstein, 2004). A social influence is a direct or indirect influence at the interpersonal,
group or socio-cultural level and involves effects that can impact consumers’ thoughts, judgments and
behaviors (Turner, 1991). Thus, social media posts from a company (such as a hotel) represent a type
of social influence that impacts consumers’ behaviors and attitudes. Social impact theory states that
the difference in influence from 0 sources to 1 source is greater than the difference between 1 and 2
sources. Moreover, the number of targets changes the impact. The more targets receiving social
influence, the less any one target feels the influence (Latané, 1981; Esmark Jones et al., 2018). Recent
research has found that the more often educational institutions post, the less users engage with each
post (Peruta and Shields, 2017). The same could hold for other effects in that a threshold exists
wherein too much posting dilutes influence and reduces behavioral outcomes.
Traditionally, social influences are perceived in linear terms, whereby the frequency of social influence
directly diminishes or enhances behavior. As social impact theory outlines, we suggest that social
influence (social media posts) will impact behavior (hotel stays). However, the impact of such social
influences need not be linear, suggesting the presence of threshold effects (Stacy et al., 1992). Some
research has found that after an initial social influence, the impact of each additional social influence
declines before eventually beginning to accelerate again and vice versa (e.g. U-shaped and inverted-U
trending; Stacy et al., 1992; Zhang et al., 2014). In terms of social media posting for hotels, we predict
that the first post will be the most influential as it initiates awareness; the first post should generate
more hotel stays than the second post. However, as social media posts accumulate, the
inconsequential amounts of influence will continue to combine, crossing a threshold of significance to
again make the posts impactful on behavior.
H1. The relationship between post frequency and hotel stays is non-linear: after a certain number of
posts, hotel stays decrease to a minimum, at which point the relationship between posts and
stays becomes positive again.
The content of the posts must also be relevant to the audience for it to be effective (Ellis-Chadwick and
Doherty, 2012; Henninger et al., 2017). Relevancy has been shown to aid in higher evaluations of a
brand’s message (Chang, 2018) and advertising (Campbell and Wright, 2008). Relevant ads get more
attention (Jung, 2017) and increase the likelihood viewers will accept the advertising message (Zeng et
al., 2009). Research on relevancy typically looks at how the message is relevant to the brand (De
Keyzer et al., 2021), website or task (Resnick and Albert, 2016). Less research has focused on how the
personal relevancy of social media communications could impact behavior.
Social impact theory suggests immediacy impacts influence. The closer an influence is (either physically
or psychologically), the greater the influence (Latané, 1981). According to this tenet of social impact
theory, a social media post that is specific to a locale that the viewer is not in could decrease
immediacy and influence (hotel stays). Influence is also stronger when coming from a person’s group
(Latané, 1981) and local posts limit the number of people who would be considered in-group.
Combined with social identity theory, we propose that this reduction in influence from posting about a
local event can be explained by decreased relevancy to the viewer. Social identity theory (Tajfel,
1979) suggests that people act according to their identity, explaining how similar others (in-group)
tend to be looked upon more favorably than dissimilar others (out-group). Considering research on in-
group and out-group messaging evaluation, information associated with one’s in-group is typically
positively evaluated, while out-group information is discounted (Leach and Liu, 1998).
In the context of social media posts and hotel stays, viewers of a post will likely see posts aimed at the
local community as “them” (out-group) posts and nationally directed posts as “us” (in-group) posts.
Because an object or activity (i.e. social media post) is personally relevant when it is perceived to be
self-related or influential in motivating or achieving personal goals (i.e. choosing a hotel; Broderick,
2007; Xia and Bechwati, 2008), in-group posts should be more relevant to the customer (Huang,
2006; Carlson et al., 2016). Thus, posts about national events will be relevant as more individuals
associate national posts with their in-group compared to posts about local events, which are
associated with the hotel user’s out-group.
H2. A social media post about a local event will be perceived as less relevant than a post about a
national event.
We expect relevancy to be positively related with intentions to stay at a hotel. Social identity theory
suggests that individuals will act in ways consistent with their identity and group (Tajfel, 1979), such as
increased likelihood to stay in a hotel that posts relevant information. Research on relevancy confirms
its role in cognitive, affective and behavioral responses (Howard and Kerin, 2004). Perceptions of
message relevancy can increase persuasion (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), attention to advertisements
(Jung, 2017), favorable attitudes (Trampe et al., 2010) and influence intentions to purchase (Alalwan,
2018). Research using social identity theory has shown the use of certain social media features
depends on interaction with relevant groups (Pan et al., 2017). Therefore, we predict that perceptions
of relevancy will positively impact intentions to stay at a hotel.
H3. Relevancy will have a positive relationship with intentions to stay at a hotel.
Social identity posits that identity salience will increase the likelihood of behaving in accordance with
one’s identity. Research has shown that images on social media can help create an identity (Lindahl
and Öhlund, 2013), increase engagement (Peruta and Shields, 2017), increase perceptions of social
presence, decrease loneliness and offer increased intimacy by better simulating real-life interactions
(Pittman and Reich, 2016). When compared to text only, text combined with an image increases the
impact of a product’s message (Yoon, 2018). Further, images are trusted more than text due to their
perception of being more “real.” The viewer of an image is therefore more likely to feel the same
emotions as the poster felt and intended (Pittman and Reich, 2016), increasing the relevancy and
influence of the post to the viewer. Adding a visual may make an identity more salient by increasing
the probability that the viewer will identify with the post and lessen the negative impact of a local post
on relevancy.
H4. Including an image will moderate the relationship between post type and relevancy such that the
negative relationship between a local post and relevancy will be weakened when a picture
accompanies the post.
Methods
The conceptual framework is presented in Figure 1. To test the hypotheses, three studies were
conducted. The first study uses actual social media posts and hotel occupancy to determine the
optimal number of times a company should post to social media. This study also examines the content
of posts to determine what types of topics have the most beneficial impact on hotel occupancy rates.
An experiment is used for the second study showing the impact of a locally versus nationally themed
post on hotel stay intentions as explained through the relevancy of the post. Lastly, a third study shows
the moderating influence of a visual included in a post.
As social media metrics may be context-specific and differ by industry, a small pilot study was
conducted using secondary data. Data were gathered from a 12-year period (2008–2019) that included
annual rates of US adult social media users (Clement, 2020; Perrin, 2020) and the average US hotel
RevPAR (revenue per available room = average daily room rate x occupancy rate; Lock, 2020). The
results show a strong and significant correlation (r = 0.96, p < 0.001) between social media use and
hotel RevPAR. The results highlight the importance of understanding how social media and RevPAR
operate together.
Study 1 A: number of posts per week and occupancy
Procedure.
Study 1a tests H1, examining the relationship between the frequency of social media posts and hotel
stays. Data were obtained containing average occupancy (average number of rooms filled out of 100
per night for the week) rates over two one-week periods (April 8–14, 2018 and June 17–23, 2018) for
44 hotels in the eastern USA, all owned by the same parent company. The hotels consisted of multiple
hotel brands ranging from 71 to 343 rooms (M = 128) and an average daily rate of approximately $75–
325 (M= $140). Additional data were then collected for each hotel about their social media presence,
including the average number of tweets per week (total number of tweets divided by the number of
weeks since the hotel joined Twitter), the average number of Instagram posts per week (total number
of Instagram posts divided by the number of weeks since the hotel joined Instagram) and the average
number of Facebook posts (average number of posts per week for the four weeks of March 10 to April
7, 2018 and the four weeks of May 20 to June 16, 2018; Facebook does not have an exact user start
date or total number of posts feature). The three averages for each social media platform were then
combined to obtain a total average of how often each hotel posts per week. An average occupancy
score was created for the two weeks of occupancy data for the hotels.
Results.
A sequential polynomial regression analysis was conducted on the average occupancy rate for average
social media posts. A linear model was first examined, which resulted in an insignificant regression,
followed by additional steps involving the next higher power of social media posts. As shown in Table
2, the quadratic component addition to the model produced a significant increase in fit, as did the
cubic addition. The cubic model added 7% r
2
to the 13% reflected in the quadratic model,
supporting H1, and the cubic model was adopted, F(3,40) = 3.336, p < 0.05, r
2
= 0.20; Y′ = 82.42 + 0.75X
− 0.13X
2
+ 0.004X
3
(Figure 2). The critical points for the cubic regression are at the local maxima of 3.43
posts at an occupancy rate of 83.62 and local minima of 18.24 posts, lowering the occupancy rate to
77.12, or 6.5 fewer rooms filled on average per night. Once hotels posted over three messages to social
media, occupancy rates tended to decline until they posted more than 18 messages [1], at which point
occupancy rates increased again.
Discussion
The results suggest that the relationship between social media posts and hotel occupancy rates is non-
linear, providing support for H1. Hotels should stay at or below two social media posts per week or
increase to above 20. Examining the nature of the data shows that those hotels posting greater
amounts to social media did so across multiple platforms (i.e. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook). Similarly,
those hotels posting once or twice a week were typically doing so from one platform. Those posting
between 2 and 20 posts per week across multiple platforms (most typically two) saw a negative effect
on occupancy rates. Next, the content of social media posts was analyzed to determine what kind of
social media posts are best for acquiring hotel customers.
Study 1B: content of posts analysis on occupancy
Procedure
Study 1B builds upon Study 1 A by examining the content of social media posts. A total of 332 social
media posts from the hotels in Study 1 A were examined over a five-week period prior to the average
occupancy rates across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The captured text and images of each social
media post were then moved into a file for coding on several variables: original content or shared from
another platform, image presence, mentioning of an event, how many replies, whether it contained
the hotel responses to a reply, generic (e.g. Happy Easter) or personalized (e.g. the hotel bistro’s menu)
content, the number of words and how many times the post was shared.
Coding instructions were created and given to a coder not associated with the research project. All
variables with no/yes responses, as well as the generic/personalized variable, were coded as 0/1. All
other responses were considered summation variables with the total number entered as the value (i.e.
number of replies on a post). After initial coding, the researchers reviewed the coding for accuracy and
agreement. Given that almost every variable was either no/yes or a summation (i.e. counting), there
was almost perfect agreement. Any discrepancies were discussed until an IRR of 100% was reached for
each variable.
Results
First, an ANOVA was conducted to assess the impact of a post’s originality (vs shared from another
source) on occupancy rates. The results show that a hotel has a higher average weekly occupancy
when it does not share posts from another source (i.e. the post is native to that platform and not
shared from another) (F(1,330) = 11.96, p < 0.001; M
original
= 82.06, M
shared
= 77.94). Additionally, posts
with an image were related to significantly higher occupancy rates than posts without an image
(F(1,330) = 9.71, p < 0.01; M
photo
= 81.70, M
none
= 75.85). There was also a significant interaction
between originality and photo presence (F(3,328) = 16.78, p < 0.001). When a post was not shared, the
main effect of having an image included in the post was not significant (F(1,271) = 0.004, p = 0.95;
M
photo
= 82.07, M
nophoto
= 81.92). However, when the post was shared to other platforms (F(1,57) =
25.03, p < 0.001), a significantly higher occupancy rate was evident when a photo was included (M =
79.86) than when no picture was included (M = 63.71). These results suggest that hotels should include
an image when sharing content across multiple platforms, lending support to H4.
Next, the mention of an event was examined and found to be negatively related to occupancy rates
(F(1,330) = 4.12, p < 0.05) M
noevent
= 82.51, M
event
= 80.59). To further examine this variable, events
were broken down to see whether the type of event mattered. There were nine categories of events:
no event, food/drink, hotel sponsored event, national sports team event, concert/festival, city-related
(e.g. a parade), major university-related (e.g. sporting events), holiday, and small local events (e.g. job
fair, fundraiser). The ANOVA for the type of event was also significant (F(8,323) = 4.92, p < 0.001),
where the type of event mentioned had an impact on occupancy rates. The highest occupancy rate was
related to the mention of a concert or festival (M = 84.41), which resulted in higher occupancy
compared to a food/drink post (M = 74.56, p < 0.001), national sports game (M = 70.52, p < 0.001) or
city-related event (M = 78.89, p < 0.05). The second-highest occupancy was related to holiday postings
(M = 83.53), which were also higher than food/drink (p < 0.001), national sports game (p < 0.001) and
city-related event (p < 0.05). The lowest occupancy was for posts related to a national sports game,
which was lower than all other posts except food/drink. Posting about no event (M = 81.67) had higher
occupancy than food/drink (p < 0.001) or national sports game (p < 0.001). Ultimately, if a hotel posts
about an event, it should post about a concert/festival or a holiday and should stay clear of posting
about a national sports game.
Several other analyses garnered insignificant results. Specifically, the relationship between responding
to a reply and occupancy rates was not significant (F(1,330) = 0.86, p = 0.35). Neither was a
personalized versus generic post (F(1,330) = 1.13, p = 0.29). Regressions were conducted for the total
number of words (F(1,330) = 0.08, β = −0.01, t = −0.29, p = 0.78), how many replies a post received
(F(1,330) = 0.03, β = −0.07, t = −0.18, p = 0.86), and how many times a post was shared (F(1,330) =
0.86, β = −0.14, t = −0.93, p = 0.35).
Discussion.
The results indicate posts should be original content not been previously shared on another platform
unless a photo is included. Additionally, posts should include an image about either non-events (e.g.
happy summer), a holiday or concerts and festivals. Hotels should avoid posting about food and drink
specials or events around the city (e.g. restaurant week), national sporting events or city events like
parades. The following two experimental studies explore the content of social media posts in more
detail.
Study 2: the mediating effect of relevancy
To further examine social media content and hotel stays, an experiment was conducted in Study 2 to
increase the level of control and understand how social media can impact occupancy through an
explanatory variable of relevancy (H2-H3).
Procedure 2
A total of 160 participants (56.3% female; 60% between 21 and 40 years old) completed the main
survey on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (set to US only, HIT approval of 95% or greater, and number of
HITs approved greater than 1,000) for payment. Each participant was told they would be shown a
social media page and to answer the questions that followed about that page. Participants were
randomly shown a social media page for a fictional hotel (The Cozy Inn) that either had a post related
to a national event (“Happy National Independence Day!”) or a local event (“Happy City Founder’s
Day!”). Neither post included an image. Participants were not told what city the hotel was in but were
told it was a city they did not live in but needed to stay in.
Participants were then asked survey questions regarding the relevancy of the post (α =
0.96; Miyazaki et al., 2005) (all constructs, items and reliabilities available in Table 3; descriptive
statistics and correlations available in Appendix 1) and their intent to stay at that hotel (α = 0.95;
adapted from Oliver and Swan, 1989).
Discriminant validity was assessed among the constructs using Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) criterion
and was not problematic (see Appendix 1 for correlations between constructs and AVEs). Two
manipulation check questions (“The post was very specific to that city” and “This post seemed to be
only for people who live in the local area”) were asked on a seven-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly
disagree, 7 = strongly agree) and combined (r = 0.59, p < 0.01) to create a composite score. Participants
who saw the local post (M = 4.84) found it to be much more local in nature than those who saw the
national post (M = 3.14, F(1, 158) = 46.32, p < 0.001). Lastly, a question asked how realistic participants
found the social media page (1–7 on a Likert-type scale) and showed that participants found the
manipulations to be mostly realistic (M = 5.02) without differences between the two scenarios
(F(1,159) = 0.003, p = 0.96).
Results.
H2 predicts that a social media post about a national topic (compared to a local topic) will have a
positive relationship with relevancy. A significant ANOVA (F(1,158) = 90.93, power > 0.96, p < 0.001)
lends support to this hypothesis. Viewers found the post about a national event to be significantly
more relevant (M = 5.18) than a local event (M = 2.79). H3 was supported as more relevant posts led to
a greater likelihood to stay at that hotel (B = 0.20, t = 0.31, power > 0.82, p < 0.001). PROCESS (Hayes,
2018) model 4 was run for mediation analysis. The indirect effect (ab = 0.73, 95% CI: [0.44, 1.07]) was
significant, showing that a national social media post can lead to an increase in intentions to stay at a
hotel as explained through the relevancy of the post.
Another possible explanation, however, could be that a local post makes viewers feel either like they
are intruding or that they do not belong. An alternative model was tested with intrusiveness (α =
0.97; Li et al., 2002) and sense of belonging (α = 0.87; Pechmann et al., 2003) as explanatory
mechanisms. The relationship between post type and intrusiveness was not significant (F(1,158) =
3.14, p = 0.08); neither was the relationship between intrusiveness and stay intentions (B = 0.09, t =
1.41, p = 0.16). The post type did not have a significant relationship with sense of belonging (F(1,158) =
2.92, p = 0.09), but a sense of belonging did have a positive and significant relationship with stay
intentions (B = 0.69, t = 9.69, p < 0.001). However, as the relationship between post type and belonging
was not significant, the mediation analysis was also not significant (ab = 0.21, 95% CI: [−0.04, 0.46]).
Therefore, relevancy is the best-suited mediator to explain how the content of a post can impact stay
intentions.
Discussion.
As hypothesized, a more inclusive, national post was perceived as more relevant than a post about a
local event, and relevancy led to greater stay intentions. Additionally, relevancy acted as a mediator
between post type and stay intentions. The post type did not have a significant impact on either
intrusiveness or sense of belonging. However, belonging did have a positive relationship with stay
intentions, suggesting a possible avenue for future research on social media post content. The results
suggest that relevancy is the best mediator variable when trying to predict hotel stays from social
media posts, supporting H2 and H3.
Study 3: the moderating effect of visual inclusion
Study 3 was conducted to test the generalizability of Study 2 by examining relevancy of posts in a
different context and confirming support for H2-3. Additionally, Study 3 was designed to
assess H4 directly by investigating the moderating impact of including an image within a post.
Procedure [3
A total of 253 participants (55.7% female; 55.7 between 21 and 40 years old) completed the survey,
with a similar setup to Study 2. Each participant was told they would be shown a social media page and
to answer the questions that followed about the page. They were then randomly shown a social media
page for a fictional hotel (The Modern Hotel) that either had a post related to a national or local
football game. The post was either accompanied by an image (a close up of a football and white
helmet on a non-identifiable field) or not. Participants were not told what city the hotel was in, only
that it was a city they did not live in but needed to stay in.
Participants were then asked survey questions regarding the relevancy of the post (α = 0.97) (all
constructs, items and reliabilities available in Table 3) and their intent to stay at that hotel (α = 0.96).
Discriminant validity was assessed as in Study 2 and was not problematic (see Appendix 1 for the
correlations between constructs and AVEs). Two manipulation check questions were asked as outlined
in Study 2 and combined (r = 0.68, p < 0.01) to create a composite score. Participants who saw the local
football post (M = 5.21) found it to be much more local in nature than those who saw the national post
(M = 3.47, F(1,251) = 77.54, p < 0.001). Participants also answered a realism question (1–7 on a Likert-
type scale) and found the scenarios to be realistic overall (M = 4.94). No differences were found to
exist between groups (F(3, 249) = 0.50, p = 0.68).
Results
H2 predicts that a social media post about a local event will have lower relevancy than a post about a
national event. A significant main effect (F(1, 249) = 12.01, power > 0.99, p < 0.001) supports this as
people who saw the national football post (M = 4.16) felt it was more relevant than those who saw the
local football post (M = 3.35). H3 predicts that relevancy has a positive relationship with intentions to
stay at the hotel (B = 0.31, t = 8.50, power > 0.99, p < 0.001) and is also supported by a significant and
positive effect. These results support H2 and H3 and replicate findings from Study 2.
H4 examines the interaction between post type, the presence of an image and relevancy. The presence
of an image did not have a significant main effect (F(1, 249) = 1.49, p = 0.22) on relevancy, but the
interaction of post type and image was significant (F(1, 249) = 4.03, power > 0.95, p < 0.05; see Figure
3). When there is no picture alongside the text in the post, there is a significant effect of national
versus local content (F(1, 123) = 15.23, power > 0.99, p < 0.001). When a picture was absent, the post
about a local event (M = 2.97) was found to be significantly less relevant than a post about a national
event (M = 4.26). However, this effect was not evident when a picture was present (F(1, 126) =
1.06, p = 0.31; M
national
=4.07, M
local
= 3.73).
PROCESS (Hayes, 2018) model 7 tested the moderated mediation of relevancy. The index of moderated
mediation was significant (0.31, 95% CI: [−0.63, −0.01]), indicating differences between the indirect
effects at the moderator level. When a picture was absent, a national post led to greater stay
intentions as explained through relevancy (ab = 0.42, 95% CI: [0.20, 0.67]) but not when a picture was
present (ab = 0.11, 95% Ci: [−0.10, 0.36]).
Discussion
Study 3 replicates our findings from Study 2 and supports H4 by examining a moderator of image
presence. The impact of a local or national event on relevancy can be negated when the post is
accompanied by an image. Including an image with a post about a local event can help the post seem
more relevant, increasing the likelihood of staying at the hotel.
General discussion
Consumers are increasingly using traditional social media platforms to research services in their
decision-making process (Beer, 2018) and stay informed. For example, 90% of social media users follow
a brand on Instagram to stay up to date with the company (Zote, 2020). Despite the importance of
social media, the majority of companies are unsure whether they have implemented successful social
media strategies (Guttmann, 2019). Our findings indicate that a purposeful social media strategy
influences intentions to stay at the focal hotel, highlighting the role of the quantity and content of
social media posts.
The results contribute to social impact theory by illustrating that a company’s social media posts can
generate social influence on an individual’s consumption behavior. First, the relationship between the
number of posts and occupancy is non-linear. Specifically, the number of posts has a positive
relationship with occupancy until 3.43 posts per week, at which point the relationship turns negative.
This is in line with social impact theory’s premise that the number of influencers becomes less
impactful as frequency increases (Latané, 1981) and with research suggesting that social influences do
not have to be linear (Stacy et al., 1992). An overabundance of posts spreads influence too thin for any
one post, leading to a drop in performance as indicated by fewer hotel stays. Yet, as the number of
posts exceeded 18.24 per week, posts started to positively influence hotel occupancy again. Consistent
with social impact theory, there should be a re-strengthening of influence as the number of sources
starts to increase and the immediacy of the effect starts to become more frequent (Latané,
1981). Additionally, the content of posts was examined, indicating that original posts about a concert,
festival, holiday or non-event that include an image are the most beneficial to occupancy. Posts that
are about food/drink specials, national sports games or local events resulted in the lowest occupancy
rates.
Previous research has shown that information relevancy can impact perceptions of quality (Carlson et
al., 2018) and increase engagement (Lee et al., 2020). The findings presented here add to relevancy
literature and social impact theory (Latané, 1981) by showing that social impact theory can be used in
social media contexts to explain how relevancy increases the strength of influence. Social influence is
most impactful when it is relevant to the influenced party, which can be accomplished by posting
about a broader geographical topic rather than specific locations. Posting locally themed content
places the viewer into an out-group (Tajfel, 1979), which lessens their identification with the hotel.
Posting about a local matter caused the viewer to feel the post was less relevant, thus reducing the
likelihood to stay. Social impact theory (Latané, 1981) posits that influence is determined by strength,
immediacy and number of sources. Combined with elements of social identity theory, the results show
that relevancy of information from a source can significantly impact influence, adding to the tenets of
social impact theory.
Lastly, we contribute to social impact theory by showing that influence can be altered by the inclusion
of a picture. Previous research has shown that text with an image is more influential than text alone
(Yoon, 2018). The findings here indicate that when an image is included with a text post, relevancy was
increased for a local post and the relationship between local/national post and relevancy was no
longer significant. This is likely due to the image helping the viewer create an identity (Lindahl and
Öhlund, 2013) that is more in line with the identity of the poster (Pittman and Reich, 2016). With 90%
of US companies being involved with social media as a marketing tool (Guttmann, 2019), it is important
to know the best means to influence social targets.
Managerial implications
These findings also have important practical implications for social media marketers. Prior research has
produced conflicting findings when recommending how often a brand should be posting (Mariani et
al., 2016; Mariani et al., 2018). Social media managers should ensure their accounts post between 1
and 3 times per week (either three times on one platform or one time on three platforms) or more
than 19 times per week across multiple platforms. These posts should be original (i.e. not shared from
another platform) about a concert, festival, holiday or national event and include a picture.
Furthermore, posts should not be about food/drink specials or local stories. As with other advertising
messages, communications seen via social media should be relevant to the brand (Alalwan,
2018), website and task (Resnick and Albert, 2016).
The findings show that the communications should also be relevant to the social media viewers.
Increasing relevancy can increase product/service usage intent. Social media managers should be
careful not to exclude viewers by making posts too specific and exclusive. Users tested here felt that
national geographical content was more relevant than location-specific posts. Including a picture with
a post can help a viewer find more relevancy in the post, even if the post’s text alone would be seen as
exclusionary.
Limitations and future research
The current research has its limitations and presents viable opportunities for future research. The data
were limited by the hotels in the dataset collected. Future research could look at whether the guests
who stayed at the hotels used social media in making their decision. Since the data were collected in
the spring, future research could examine the possibility of a time-of-year effect. Additionally, because
this research only examines the hotel industry, future research could expand to other service industries
to see whether the results hold.
There are also many other variables of interest, such as sound or animation, that could be used in
isolation or in combination with the variables examined here to determine their effectiveness and
impact on relevancy and stay intentions. The images used in Study 3 did not include people, which
could impact in-group feelings (Brown et al., 2006).
For most companies with a social media presence, it is important to determine best practices of
communication with consumers. More than two-thirds of companies, however, are concerned about
their ability to assess the effectiveness of their social media efforts (Guttmann, 2019). The research
presented here shows the direct effects of social media posts on hotel occupancy rates while outlining
several practical ways to increase the relevancy of such posts.
Figures
Figure 1 Conceptual model
Figure 2 Cubic estimation of weekly social media posts on occupancy rate
Figure 3 Interaction of post type and picture in Study 3
Table 1 Review of relevant literature – services and social media
Authors
Theoretical foundations
Focus
Medium
Findings
Paulin et
al. (2014)
Self-determination
theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook
There is a positive association between
support for social causes and efficient social
media use. It is better to appeal to the
benefits to others than benefits to the self
when gaining support for social causes
through social media
Kim et
al. (2015)
Online
Reviews
TripAdvisor,
Priceline,
Hotels.com,
Expedia, & Yelp
Overall ratings are the most salient predictor
of hotel performance, followed by response
to negative comments
Leung et
al. (2015)
Attitude-Toward-the-Ad
Model; Attitude-Toward-
the-Website/Social-
Media-Page Model
Traditional
SN
Facebook &
Twitter
Hotel customers’ social media experiences
influence their attitudes-toward-social-
media-site, which in turn influences their
attitudes-toward-hotel-brand, affecting
booking intentions and intentions to spread
eWOM
Choi et
al. (2016)
Uses and Gratification
Theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook
Information, convenience, and self-
expression are antecedents for user
satisfaction with the hotel’s Facebook page,
where satisfaction positively influences
intentions to stay at the hotel in the future
Leung and
Tanford
(2016)
Social Identity Theory;
Social Influence Model;
Uses and Gratification
Model
Traditional
SN
Facebook
Social influence factors (i.e., compliance,
internalization, and identification) had
different effects on attitudes toward and
behavioral intentions to like hotel Facebook
pages
Viglia et
al. (2016)
Dual Process Theory
Travel SN/
Online
Reviews
Booking.com,
TripAdvisor, &
Venere.com
Review score and number of reviews has a
positive impact on hotel occupancy rates.
The number of reviews has decreasing
returns, where the higher the number of
reviews, the lower the beneficial effect on
occupancy rate
Xie et
al. (2016)
Managerial response
Travel SN
TripAdvisor
Managerial response increases stars in
Tripadvisor ratings for sampled hotels and
increases the volume of subsequent
consumer eWOM. Managerial response
moderates the influence of ratings and
volume of consumer eWOM on hotel
performance
Garrigos-
Simon et
al. (2017)
Crowdsourcing
Travel SN
Booking.com
Direct and positive opinions of the crowd on
the amount of hotel sales do not depend on
physical intermediaries, nor on the impact
that this has on the performance dimensions
of hotels
Kim and Park
(2017)
Regulatory Focus Theory
Travel SN/
Online
Reviews
TripAdvisor
Social media review ratings are more
significant predictors than traditional
customer satisfaction for explaining hotel
performance metrics
Abney et
al. (2017)
Justice Theory
Traditional
SN
Twitter
Customized social media recovery responses
positively impact consumers’ evaluations of
service recovery satisfaction, leading to
greater consumer behavioral intentions
Sorensen et
al. (2017)
Customer Engagement
Theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook;
Twitter; YouTube
Characteristics of social media posts need to
be member-centric. The tone and language
of posts can be leveraged to engage
members effectively
Huang et
al. (2018)
Narrative Transportation
Theory; Transportation-
Imagery Model
Traditional
SN
Instagram
Within the luxury hotel industry,
comprehension fluency, imagery fluency, and
transportability positively affect narrative
transportation. Narrative transportation
leads to positive affect, brand social network
attitudes, and visit intentions
Kim and Chae
(2018)
Resource and
Capabilities-Based
Perspective
Traditional
SN
Twitter
There is a positive association between a
hotel’s resources and Twitter use, and a
positive association between Twitter use by
hotels and their RevPAR
Torres et
al. (2018)
Social Identity Theory;
Complexity Theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook
Social media activities increase consumers’
willingness to pay a premium price in the
banking industry. This effect is fully mediated
by the role of consumer-brand identification
Carlson et
al. (2018)
Consumption Values
Theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook
Online service design characteristics in social
media posts encourage an identified set of
customer value perceptions that influence
customer feedback and collaboration
intentions
Bigné et
al. (2019)
Information Processing
Approach; Consumer
Socialization Theory
Traditional
SN
Twitter
The number of retweets and replies by users
and the number of event tweets, tourist
attraction tweets, and retweets by direct
marketing organizations can predict the hotel
occupancy rate for a given destination
Diffley and
McCole
(2019)
Service-Dominant Logic
Traditional
SN; Travel
SN
Networked interactions facilitated by social
networks influence the marketing activities
of hotels (i.e., deeper connections and co-
creating value with customers to enhance
the market offerings and promotional
activities of the firm)
Moon et
al. (2019)
False Information Bias
Travel SN/
Online
Reviews
TripAdvisor,
Priceline,
Hotels.com,
Expedia, & Yelp
Open- versus closed-review posting policies
play different roles in creating social media
bias. Using the hotel industry, a trust
measure was found to serve as a correction
factor that reduces social media bias
Tsiotsou
(2019)
Hofstede’s Framework
Travel SN/
Online
Reviews
TripAdvisor
Cultural differences in overall service
evaluations and attributes (value, location,
sleeping quality, rooms, cleanliness, and
service) were found among tourists from
various European regions
Moon et
al. (2020)
Reality Monitoring
Theory
Online
reviews
Real-world hotel reviews were analyzed to
detect fake reviews and identify the hotel
and review characteristics influencing review
fakery (e.g. star rating, franchise hotel, hotel
size, room price, review timing, and review
rating)
Lee et
al. (2020)
Theory of Customer
Engagement
Traditional
SN
Facebook; Twitter
There is a positive association between a
hospital’s social media engagement and
experiential quality
Bacile (2020)
Customer Compatibility
Management Theory
Traditional
SN
Facebook
Perceptions of a firm’s service climate are
negatively affected by online incivility but
only when incivility produces perceptions of
customer-to-customer injustice
Notes: SN = Social Network; Traditional SN = Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or MySpace; Travel SN = Travel-related websites that allow for
users to post reviews and ratings
Table 2 Predicting occupancy from number of social media posts
Step
R
2
F for R
2
df
p
1: Linear
0.004
0.15
1, 42
0.70
2: Quadratic
0.13
2.99
2, 41
0.06
3: Cubic
0.20
3.36
3, 40
0.03
Table 3 Constructs, items and reliabilities
Construct and definition
Items
Reliability Study 2/ 3
Relevance
Miyazaki et al. (2005)
Very relevant
Very useful
Very important
0.96/ 0.97
Belonging
Pechmann et al. (2003)
I really fit in there
People would accept me there
What I offer is valued there
It made me feel like I have a place in this world
I would feel a part of mainstream society there
0.87/ na
Intrusiveness
Li et al. (2002)
I felt like I was interfering
0.97/ na
I felt like I was intruding
I felt like I was being invasive
I felt like I was being obtrusive
Stay Intentions
The likelihood of the customer staying at the hotel
Oliver and Swan (1989)
Not at all likely/very likely
Non-existent/existent
Improbable/probable
Impossible/possible
Uncertain/certain
Probably not/probably
0.95/ 0.96
Table A1. Study 2: Mediation
AVE
Correlations
Construct
M
SD
1
2
3
Relevance (1)
3.95
1.98
0.86
Belonging (2)
4.43
1.13
0.47
0.43
**
Intrusiveness (3)
2.38
1.63
0.82
0.29
**
0.30
**
Stay intentions (4)
4.94
1.27
0.65
0.31
**
0.61
**
0.11
Notes: AVE = average variance extracted
**p < 0.01
Table A2. Study 3: Local × Picture
AVE
Correlation
Construct
M
SD
1
Relevance (1)
3.77
1.92
0.81
Stay intentions (2)
5.28
1.25
0.64
0.47**
Note: AVE = average variance extracted
** p <0.01
Notes
1 Similar results were seen when analyzing the weeks individually or when stacking the data to have 88
hotel-to-occupancy dyads.
2 A pretest was conducted with similar results to the main study.
3 A pretest was conducted with similar results to the main study.
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Further reading
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study”, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 76 No. 2, pp. 341-353.