Less is More - en studie om utformningen av inlägg på sociala medier
Theory has concluded that consumers evaluate advertising not only based on what the advertiser's message aims to communicate, but also how the message is communicated. As the most popular activity on the world's largest social media channels is to upload and share photos, it has become crucial for advertisers to define strategies that maximize the reach of photo posts. Two observed variations of images used in posts are graphical images and digital photographs. The aim of this study is to investigate which of these two strategies that generate most positive impact on the sender and its brand. 230 users of the Chinese Facebook and Twitter counterpart, Sina Weibo, were exposed to manipulated Sina Weibo posts after which they answered a survey. The posts were identical except for the version of image used in the posts, where one was graphically designed and the other was a digital photograph. Results add to the research of signal theory that posts containing digital photographs signal less effort and greater authenticity, and has more positive impacts on brand attitude, post (ad) attitude, purchase intention and word-of-mouth-intention, than posts containing graphical images.