User Engagement on Facebook
Examining the Role of Visual and Verbal Politeness Cues
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12748965 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fabienne Bünzli (0000-0002-7953-1423, University of St.Gallen, corresponding author), Omid Alizadeh Afrouzi (0000-0002-2073-1308, University of St.Gallen) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 581-604 |
| Publication date | 2024-02-08 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mass Communication & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1520-5436 • E-ISSN: 1532-7825 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15205436.2024.2311230 |
| OpenAlex | W4391655772 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Nonprofit organizations have eagerly embraced Facebook as a strategic tool to reach large audiences and promote their advocacy. While there are numerous means to motivate users to engage with Facebook posts, previous studies have indicated that the use of politeness strategies may be particularly effective in increasing the number of likes, comments, and shares. A great deal of research has focused on the role of verbal politeness cues (e.g. indirect requests); however, little is known about visual politeness cues. To address this gap, we identify a set of features through which images convey politeness: i.e. direct gaze, frontal angles, eye- and high-level angles, and close-up shots. The results of a content analysis of 1,379 Facebook posts by U.S. health charities support the relevance of politeness cues, suggesting that user engagement is significantly higher when posts include indirect verbal requests and photos depicting people who gaze into the camera, who are positioned parallel to the viewer, and who are portrayed from above or at eye level. Unexpected findings are obtained for close-up shots. The paper concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications for organizational social media communication
Cognitive psychology · Linguistics · Politeness · Communication · Digital Communication and Language · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
Analyzing Media Messages
Reading Images
Like, comment, and share on Facebook
Tweeting Social Change
What do Stakeholders Like on Facebook? Examining Public Reactions to Nonprofit Organizations’ Informational, Promotional, and Community-Building Messages
A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory
Politeness in Language
Dialogic communication on social media
Choosing the Right Media for Mobilization
Interacting with the Multimodal Text
Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations
Information, Community, and Action
Politeness
Politeness in Human–Robot Interaction
Constructing female identities through feminine hygiene TV commercials
A multimodal analysis of facework strategies in a corpus of charity ads on British television
Politeness theory and Shakespeare's four major tragedies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|