Does visual sustainability communication result in higher social media engagement? An Instagram-based investigation.
ISSN
978-0-87757-018-9
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2024-02-24
Author(s)
Abstract
Research Question
This study examines the effectiveness of corporate marketing strategies for disclosing of sustainability initiatives through sustainability communication (SC) in visual-centric social media platforms. More specifically, our aims are threefold: 1) Characterizing social media visual SC across industry sectors, 2) examining the effectiveness of visual SC in terms of user engagement, and 3) investigating the role of sustainability topic consistency in generating higher social media engagement.
SC, also known as green marketing communication (GMC), is defined as an instrument to outwardly and strategically demonstrate businesses’ concern and contributions toward environmental protection and restoration (Fischer et al. 2016; Godemann and Michelsen 2011). The burgeoning significance of social media for marketing communication and advertising has elevated them to crucial tools for corporate SC. Consequently, businesses are progressively marketing their sustainability initiatives via social media for legitimacy gains (Crapa, Latino, and Roma 2023; Ju, Dong, and Zhang 2021). However, research exploring the effectiveness of SC in visual-centric social media platforms is still nascent.
Methods and Data
Instagram provides an optimal and realistic backdrop to study visual SC. Using a custom Phyton code to access Instagram API, we extracted 39,400 corporate posts representing 394 brands listed in the Brandwatch Index (2019). We content-analyzed images (and video frames) in each post by relating them to eight United Nations’ (2015) sustainability development goals (SDGs) and examined corresponding Instagram audience engagement data – number of likes, comments, and users’ sentiment as expressed in comments. Users’ sentiment classification was conducted using a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) algorithm (Loureiro et al. 2022), which represents a cutting-edge class of machine-learning algorithms for sentiment classification (Alaparthi and Mishra 2021).
Summary of Findings
Our research shows that despite widespread low visual SC frequency, there is considerable between-industry variability on Instagram regarding SC volume and sustainability topics prioritization. Additionally, our results uniquely demonstrate that visual SC’s impact on social media engagement is industry-dependent and that when reacting to visual SC, social media users lean more heavily towards the ‘heart’ button (likes) on Instagram instead of expressing their thoughts via commenting – a finding we explain through the lens of modality congruence and perceptual fluency (Fransen, Fennis, and Pruyn 2010; Lanska, Olds, and Westerman 2013; Leigh 1992). Moreover, organizations concentrating their communication efforts on a few selected SDGs (topic consistency) can more easily create social media engagement – thus emphasizing that topic consistency is critical for visual SC effectiveness.
Key Contributions
From an academic perspective, this research contributes to the emerging literature on GMC by focusing on the underinvestigated domain of visual communication and providing novel findings concerning the influence of industry sectors in generating an interpretative frame guiding consumers’ perceptions and online behaviors toward SC. From a practical standpoint, our study supplies brand managers and public relations professionals with original insights concerning the importance of maintaining a consistent message to drive favorable social media engagement.
This study examines the effectiveness of corporate marketing strategies for disclosing of sustainability initiatives through sustainability communication (SC) in visual-centric social media platforms. More specifically, our aims are threefold: 1) Characterizing social media visual SC across industry sectors, 2) examining the effectiveness of visual SC in terms of user engagement, and 3) investigating the role of sustainability topic consistency in generating higher social media engagement.
SC, also known as green marketing communication (GMC), is defined as an instrument to outwardly and strategically demonstrate businesses’ concern and contributions toward environmental protection and restoration (Fischer et al. 2016; Godemann and Michelsen 2011). The burgeoning significance of social media for marketing communication and advertising has elevated them to crucial tools for corporate SC. Consequently, businesses are progressively marketing their sustainability initiatives via social media for legitimacy gains (Crapa, Latino, and Roma 2023; Ju, Dong, and Zhang 2021). However, research exploring the effectiveness of SC in visual-centric social media platforms is still nascent.
Methods and Data
Instagram provides an optimal and realistic backdrop to study visual SC. Using a custom Phyton code to access Instagram API, we extracted 39,400 corporate posts representing 394 brands listed in the Brandwatch Index (2019). We content-analyzed images (and video frames) in each post by relating them to eight United Nations’ (2015) sustainability development goals (SDGs) and examined corresponding Instagram audience engagement data – number of likes, comments, and users’ sentiment as expressed in comments. Users’ sentiment classification was conducted using a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) algorithm (Loureiro et al. 2022), which represents a cutting-edge class of machine-learning algorithms for sentiment classification (Alaparthi and Mishra 2021).
Summary of Findings
Our research shows that despite widespread low visual SC frequency, there is considerable between-industry variability on Instagram regarding SC volume and sustainability topics prioritization. Additionally, our results uniquely demonstrate that visual SC’s impact on social media engagement is industry-dependent and that when reacting to visual SC, social media users lean more heavily towards the ‘heart’ button (likes) on Instagram instead of expressing their thoughts via commenting – a finding we explain through the lens of modality congruence and perceptual fluency (Fransen, Fennis, and Pruyn 2010; Lanska, Olds, and Westerman 2013; Leigh 1992). Moreover, organizations concentrating their communication efforts on a few selected SDGs (topic consistency) can more easily create social media engagement – thus emphasizing that topic consistency is critical for visual SC effectiveness.
Key Contributions
From an academic perspective, this research contributes to the emerging literature on GMC by focusing on the underinvestigated domain of visual communication and providing novel findings concerning the influence of industry sectors in generating an interpretative frame guiding consumers’ perceptions and online behaviors toward SC. From a practical standpoint, our study supplies brand managers and public relations professionals with original insights concerning the importance of maintaining a consistent message to drive favorable social media engagement.
Language
English (United States)
Keywords
visual communication
social media
green marketing
sustainability communication
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Publisher
American Marketing Association
Publisher place
United States of America
Volume
35
Start page
584
End page
586
Pages
2
Event Title
2024 American Marketing Association (AMA) Winter Academic Conference
Event Location
St. Pete's Beach, Florida, USA
Event Date
February 23-25, 2024
Subject(s)
Division(s)