TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Dost, Florian T1 - Attention please! How attention drives social media engagement T2 - Proceedings International Marketing Trends Conference 2024, Venice N2 - Social media has become an integral part of Internet usage, with billions of users worldwide. Therefore, it is increasingly important for marketers to understand how to optimize one of the most important variables for success: Engagement. This study examines the relationship between user attention and engagement on social media, considering the effect of caption text length and emojis. Using an eye-tracking experiment, we measure user attention and engagement (likes, clicks, comments) for 161 social media posts. Our results confirm that attention affects engagement. Furthermore, we show that text length and emojis moderate this relationship. This study makes an important contribution to understanding one of the most important mechanisms for driving engagement. KW - Eye-Tracking KW - Social Media KW - Engagement Y1 - 2024 UR - https://archives.marketing-trends-congress.com/2024/pages/PDF/37.pdf SN - 978-2-490372-18-8 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Brusch, Ines A1 - Dost, Florian A1 - Brusch, Michael ED - Cross, Samantha ED - Saboo, Alok T1 - Captivate Your Audience: Suggestions for Enhancing Social Media Engagement Through Captions T2 - AMA Winter Academic Conference Proceedings, St. Pete Beach, Florida, on February 23-25, 2024 N2 - Engagement is important for the success of social media offers. Accordingly, the goal of responsible social media managers is to generate the maximum engagement with their content. Extant research has already addressed the factors that are related to the creation of compelling content. However, very little attention has been paid to the caption, and thus to a part of the social media post that can be easily changed. Our aim is to measure the impact of caption characteristics on engagement. We use, text length, number of emojis, and hashtags as caption variables, as well as comments, likes, and shares as engagement variables. In two different datasets, one from a merchandise online store (Facebook, Study 1) and another from a travel influencer (Instagram, Study 2) we find a similar robust result: the analyses reveal s a non-linear relationship between caption text length and engagement that follows an inverted U-shape. It follows that, contrary to previous assumptions, longer captions of around 600 characters should be used to in¬crease engagement. Estimations show that an increase in engagement of about 20% is possible. Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.ama.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-Winter-AMA-Proceedings_Feb-28-2024.pdf SN - 978-0-87757-018-9 SP - 570 EP - 572 PB - American Marketing Association CY - Chicago, IL ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Brusch, Ines A1 - Dost, Florian A1 - Brusch, Michael T1 - Maximizing Engagement Through Caption Optimization: Insights from Social Media Field Data T2 - 2023 ISMS Marketing Science Conference Proceedings N2 - Social media managers are constantly seeking ways to maximize engagement with their content. While prior research has shed light on strategies for creating engaging content, the impact of captions on engagement has been under-explored. Our study focuses specifically on the relationship between caption length and engagement in social media posts. Contrary to previous literature, we find that the relationship between caption length and engagement follows an inverted U-shape. Using field data from an omnichannel retailer (Facebook) and a travel influencer (Instagram), we determine the optimal caption length for maximizing engagement and present surprising results. Our results are robust for different model and identification specifications, indicating that captions are often too short, rather than too long, and that optimizing caption length in our case can increase engagement by up to 25%. These findings have important implications for social media managers and influencers seeking to enhance the impact of their posts. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379237977 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Dost, Florian A1 - Galle, Clara T1 - May I have your attention, please! Social Media Engagement does not always reflect user attention N2 - User engagement with social media content is the primary currency for social media marketers. An implicit assumption is that high engagement reflects high user attention to content. Surprisingly, this assumption has not been tested, and many users may only habitually engage with content without paying much attention to it. Using an eye-tracking experiment to examine subjects' gaze trajectories across 161 social media posts, we show that attention is indeed a strong predictor of engagement. However, the strength of the prediction is moderated by text length and emojis, with surprising results. Thus, the implicit assumption that engagement reflects attention is often misplaced. KW - Eye-Tracking KW - Social Media Engagement Y1 - 2024 UR - https://proceedings.emac-online.org/pdfs/A2024-119852.pdf ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Brusch, Ines A1 - Dost, Florian A1 - Brusch, Michael T1 - How To Optimize Your Social Media Caption To Generate More Engagement :) #Captionize #SocialMedia T2 - Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, EMAC 2023 Annual, Odense, Denmark, May 24, 2023 N2 - Maximizing engagement is an important issue for social media managers. Science has already provided guidance on how to make content more engaging. However, one easy-to-edit part of the social media post has received little attention: The caption. We show that the caption has an underestimated impact on engagement and we specifically address text length. The relationship between text length and engagement is not linear as described in previous literature but follows an inverted U-shape. Using field data, we estimate the optimal length of captions and provide surprising results. We show that captions are mostly too short instead of too long and that an optimal length can increase the engagement rate by up to 17%. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://proceedings.emac-online.org/index.cfm?abstractid=A2023-114288&How%20To%20Optimize%20Your%20Social%20Media%20Caption%20To%20Gener PB - European Marketing Academy ER - TY - GEN A1 - Reichstein, Thomas A1 - Dost, Florian T1 - How video length shapes engagement T2 - Proceedings of the International Conference Marketing Trends N2 - This study investigates the relationship between video length and user engagement on socialmedia. Building on previous research that has primarily examined a linear relationship, we hypothesize that the effect of video length follows an inverted U-shape, with moderate lengths maximizing engagement. We also examine the moderating effects of music and advertising. A survey experiment was conducted in which subjects were asked to rate two different videos. The videos were varied in length, music presence and advertisement presence, resulting in 48 different variations. In total, 310 data points were generated. The results confirm a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between video length and engagement, with an optimal length of 34.69 seconds. Music has a positive moderating effect on the relationship, while advertising has a negative moderating effect. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights for optimizing video content to increase social media engagement. Future research should investigate further moderating factors and test longer video formats. KW - Social Media KW - Video Length KW - Engagement KW - Music KW - Social Media Advertising Y1 - 2025 UR - https://archives.marketing-trends-congress.com/2025/pages/PDF/060.pdf SN - 978-2-490372-20-1 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - International Marketing Trends Conference ER - TY - GEN A1 - Galle, Clara A1 - Dost, Florian A1 - Reichstein, Thomas T1 - Influence of entertaining content in social media marketing for a health service provider T1 - Einfluss von unterhaltenden Inhalten im Social Media Marketing eines Gesundheitsanbieters T2 - Proceedings of the International Marketing Trends Conference N2 - Health providers struggle to find the right tone in their social media appearance. While informational and sometimes emotional content appears appropriate, this study suggests and tests using entertaining content. Nine real Facebook posts from a hospital in Germany are classified into three content categories: informational, emotional, and entertaining. A survey on post perception and satisfaction with the health provider finds notable differences between the three types of posts. Interestingly, while entertaining posts themselves are perceived less satisfactorily than informational or emotional posts, they lead to the highest incremental increase in satisfaction with the health care provider. The study emphasizes the relevance of integrating entertainment in social media marketing, even for serious service providers. N2 - Gesundheitsdienstleister haben Schwierigkeiten, die richtige Ausgestaltung ihrer Social Media Präsenz zu finden. Während informierende und teilweise auch emotionale Inhalte angemessen erscheinen, wird in dieser Studie die Verwendung unterhaltsamer Inhalte vorgeschlagen und getestet. Neun reale Facebook-Posts eines Krankenhauses in Deutschland werden in die drei Inhaltskategorien Information, Emotionale Berührung und Unterhaltung eingeteilt. Eine Umfrage über die Wahrnehmung der Posts und die Zufriedenheit mit dem Gesundheitsdienstleister zeigt bemerkenswerte Unterschiede zwischen den drei Arten von Beiträgen. Interessanterweise werden unterhaltsame Beiträge zwar weniger zufriedenstellend wahrgenommen als informative oder emotionale, führen jedoch zu der höchsten Steigerung an Zufriedenheit mit dem Gesundheitsdienstleister. Die Studie betont die Relevanz der Integration von Unterhaltung in das Social Media Marketing, auch für seriöse Dienstleister. KW - Social Media KW - Hospitals KW - Entertainment KW - Satisfaction KW - Facebook Y1 - 2024 UR - https://archives.marketing-trends-congress.com/2024/pages/PDF/123.pdf SN - 978-2-490372-18-8 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - International Marketing Trends Conference ER -