My Friend, the Content Creator: Consequences of Parasocial Relationships for Engagement in Emerging Social Media
by Johann Nikolai Giertz
Date of Examination:2022-04-28
Date of issue:2022-07-12
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Welf Weiger
Referee:Prof. Dr. Welf Weiger
Referee:Prof. Dr. Simon Trang
Referee:Prof. Dr. Yasemin Boztuğ
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Abstract
English
Emerging social media, denoted by the proliferation and commodification of user-generated content, continue to play a vital role in shaping firm and consumer behavior. In this context, consumer engagement depicts the core construct for explaining the value co-creation for stakeholders such as content creators, brands, and social media users. Content creation depicts a lucrative occupation through sophisticated monetization structures in social media (e.g., consumers’ premium memberships and donations), resulting in a competitive market for creators. In addition, due to the decreased relevance of marketer-generated communication, marketers struggle to evoke consumer engagement. To compensate for this issue, brands incentivize creators to incorporate promotions in their content (i.e., influencer marketing). Due to the scarce insights of extant literature, this dissertation aims at identifying what theoretical frameworks and concepts help examine emerging social media and how content creators and brands can drive consumer engagement. The articles contained in this dissertation comprise conceptual and empirical analyses, which examine extant literature on the commodification of emerging content creation, communication foci of content creators (i.e., content-focused and community-focused), potential detrimental effects of influencer marketing, and the relationships consumers form with content creators (i.e., parasocial relationships). The findings reveal that emerging social media foster value co-creation and parasocial relationships, which are key frameworks to explain beneficial or potentially adverse effects on consumer engagement. Further, content creators should be cautious of their employed communication, as examined communication foci show countervailing effects on different engagement metrics. Finally, brands should carefully design influencer campaigns to minimize and monitor potential detrimental consequences.
Keywords: Consumer Engagement; Parasocial Relationships; Synchronous Social media; Influencer Marketing; Content Creation; Social Live Streaming; Human Brands