At Face(book) Value: The Effects of Social Media on Consumer Interest and Company Perception

Abstract

Facebook is a massive platform with a massive audience. Many companies have already employed social media marketing strategies by establishing their presences on the network. The present experiment examined how a company’s popularity on Facebook influenced consumer interest and perception of the company’s personality along the Big-Five personality dimensions. 140 Princeton undergraduates completed an online survey after seeing either a company Facebook page or a print advertisement. Results revealed that Facebook popularity did not significantly influence consumer interest in comparison with a print media control. Social media did influence the extent to which participants were willing to imbue the company with humanlike characteristics, as a popular company was perceived as having a different personality than an unpopular one. Implications for companies and future research are discussed.