從社會影響理論探討社群平台之廣告成效

Abstract

社群媒體中的朋友圈廣告“friendvertising＂概念已越發顯而易見，當朋友對某個特定活動或廣告按讚、留言時，朋友圈的人基本上都可能會看到。本研究藉由社會影響理論來探討社群媒體廣告中的影響力，並以連結強度、專業性兩項主要構面來釐清對社群媒體廣告成效之影響。本研究採用實驗室實驗法，在平台中設計一個小程式，藉此協助模擬社群廣告的真實情境，驗證享樂／實用產品的社群廣告與不同特徵之社群廣告（高／低連結強度朋友、高／低專業性朋友）對受試者廣告效果的影響。研究結果顯示，在享樂產品的廣告情境下強連結朋友比弱連結朋友能產生更正面的廣告態度與購買意願。對於實用性產品的廣告情境而言，高專業性朋友確實會顯著影響廣告態度與購買意願。透過此議題的釐清，研究結果能有效協助了解社群廣告成效之理論與實務意涵，進而調整或篩選廣告的應用模式與方向。

Purpose-The objective of this study is to examine the influence of friends as endorsers on social media, and used social influence theory to examine the effects of social tie, expertise on social media advertising. Design/methodology/approach-The laboratory experiment method was used to carry out the experiment. This study simulated the real social media scenarios and different characteristics of social advertising (hedonic/functional products; high/low tie strength; high/low expertise), and then measure the subject`s browsing behavior, advertising attitude and purchase intention after they saw the social advertising. Findings-The results of this study showed that in the advertising context of hedonic products, the friend with strong tie may produce more positive advertising attitude and willingness to purchase than the friend with weak tie. For the advertising context of functional products, high expertise friends are significantly affecting the attitude of advertising and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications-This study examined the hypotheses by actual FB platform and their friendships. Therefore, the results showed that participants have more positive attitude to the advertising attitude and the purchase intention no matter their tie strength and expertise are high or low, which may result in deviation. Practical implications-Our finding shown that marketers should increase the persuasive effects of interactivity and identify the most important attributes to promote such products within their social network. The results may help marketers developing novel advertising strategies and selecting the type of endorser on social media. Moreover, brand managers are increasingly using application to track consumers` activities on social media, but the measurements remain uncertainty. This study demonstrates that engagement and interaction can be collected unnoticeable by analyzing Facebook accounts. Originality/value-This study attempts to address this gap by adopting the perspective of social influence to examine its effectiveness in social media advertising. Understanding these dimensions can help predicting behavior more accurately and improve ways to disseminate advertising in social media.