Katherine Campbell, Louisiana State University Manship School of Mass Communication, LSU Honors College, kcamp34@lsu.edu

4.89  5.28  

4.36  

3.87  

Source  credibility   Brand  a:tude   Purchase  intent   Word  of  mouth  

Corporate  Expert  Non-­‐Expert  

148   138  127  

96  

52   43  21   19  

7  Instagram   Facebook   Snapchat   Twi6er   YouTube   Pinterest   LinkedIn   Blogs   Other  

§ With the implementation of social networking sites, public relations practitioners must understand the most beneficial and effective way to communicate with online consumers.

§ This study identified what source of content (expert, non-expert and corporate) has the greatest effect on source credibility, brand attitude, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent.

Introduction

Source Credibility: When a message is communicated by a third-party, it is perceived as more trustworthy and objective (Yan, Ogle & Hyllegard, 2010).

Brand Attitude: Millennial focus group participants revealed that they are suspicious of corporations’ motives and feel like companies intrude into personal space (Vorvoreanu, 2009).

Purchase Intent: Participants who viewed a third-party video reported stronger purchase intentions than those who viewed a company ad (Yan et al., 2010).

Word-of-Mouth Intent: Consumers have negative attitudes toward promotional content on social media generated by corporations, therefore making the content less likely to get shared (Vorvoreanu, 2009).

Background

H1: Social media users from the millennial generation perceive messages posted by expert users to be more credible than those posted by corporations and non-expert users.

H2: Expert-generated content achieves a more positive brand attitude among millennial social media users than content shared by non-expert and corporate users. H3: The purchase intent of millennials exposed to expert-generated messages will be greater than those exposed to non-expert and corporate-generated content.

H4: The intentions of sharing online messages are greater for millennials exposed to expert-generated content when compared to non-expert and corporate-generated content.

Hypotheses

§  Between-subjects post-test only experimental design

§ Independent variable: type of source

§ Dependent variables: source credibility, brand attitude, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent

§ Millennial participants were recruited over a three-week period through the Louisiana State University Media Effects Lab Research Participation System.

Methods

Figure 2: Social Media Platforms Participants Indicated As Using Most Regularly

Figure 1: Means for Independent Variables

§ Expert-generated content on social networking sites has the greatest positive effect on a millennial’s perceived credibility of a source.

§ Expert sources have the most positive effect on a millennial’s attitude toward a brand.

§ Expert-generated content has the greatest positive effect on an individual’s intent to purchase a product.

§ Expert sources have the greatest effect on a millennial’s intent to share a message by word-of-mouth.

§ Findings support the use of social media influencers (SMIs) as key motivators on social media.

§ Public relations professionals should focus on building relationships with online experts in order to manipulate the online conversation regarding a brand or product.

Discussion and Conclusion

Results § A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine if the type of source has a significant effect on source credibility, brand attitude, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent.

§ Pairwise comparisons revealed a significant mean difference when expert sources were compared to corporate and non-expert sources.

§ Hypothesis testing revealed that millennials see expert users as having the highest level of credibility and the greatest effect on brand attitude, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent.

References

Acknowledgements

§ Vorvoreanu, M. (2009). Perceptions of Corporations on Facebook: An Analysis of Facebook Social Norms. Journal of New Communications Research, IV(1).

§ Yan, R., Ogle, J. P., & Hyllegard, K. H. (2010). The impact of message appeal and message source on Gen Y consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions toward American Apparel. Journal of Marketing Communications, 16(4), 203-224.

I would like to sincerely thank my thesis director, Dr. Hyojung Park, for her guidance, dedication and support throughout this study. Her patience and immense knowledge made this a very enjoyable experience and I could not have had a better advisor and mentor. I would also like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Dr. Jensen Moore and Dr. Thomas Karam, for their insightful comments and positivity.