The influence of perceived brand personality of social media on users' attitude motivations and behaviour

Abstract

The study examines the effect of the users’ perceived brand personality (PBP) of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube) on attitude, motivation, behavioural intent, and behaviour. The study applies Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale (BPS) to social media brands to test the extent to which it is applicable to social media brands, to examine the underlying structure of the PBP of social media brands and tests the hypothesised model for the interrelationship between the PBP of social media and attitude, motivation, behavioural intent, and behaviour. A quantitative approach was employed, where data was collected using an online survey. A sample of 380 respondents per platform was used, giving a total of 1140 respondents for the study. Exploratory factor analyses were done to examine the underlying structure of the PBP of social media brands. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the fit of the hypothesised model and subsequent relationships between the constructs. A two-factor solution for the brand personality of social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube) was extracted. The brand personality of Facebook is represented by two traits: excitement and sincerity. The Facebook model fit indices are as follows: __2 = 1298.658; d.__ = 510; p = .000; NFI = .846; IFI = .901; TLI = .890; CFI = 900, RMSEA = 0.066 PCLOSE (.000) The brand personality of LinkedIn is represented by two traits: competence and sincerity. The LinkedIn model fit indices were attained at: at: __2 = 1124.7067; d.__ = 478; p = .000; RMSEA = 0.0601; NFI = .872; IFI = .922; TLI = .914; CFI = 922; RMSEA = 0.0601 PCLOSE (.000). The brand personality of YouTube is represented by two traits: excitement and sincerity. The YouTube model fit indices were attained at: __2 = 1133.485, d.__ = 510; p-value = .000, NFI = .844, IFI = .908, TLI = .898, CFI = .907, and RMSEA = .060 (PCLOSE = 0.000). The results of the hypothesis tests revealed that H1: which states that there is a significant positive relationship between PBP of social media and users’ attitude and H2: which indicates a significant positive relationship between PBP of social media and motivation were partially supported for the three social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube). H3: which states that there is a significant positive relationship between users’ attitude and behavioural intent was supported for Facebook and LinkedIn and was not supported for YouTube. H4: which states that there is a significant positive relationship between users’ attitude and behaviour was not supported for the three social media platforms. H5: which states that there is a significant relationship between users’ motivation and behaviour was partially supported for Facebook and was supported for LinkedIn and YouTube. H6: which states that there is a significant positive relationship between users’ motivation and behaviour was partially supported for Facebook and not supported for LinkedIn and YouTube. The last hypothesis H7: which states that there is a significant positive relationship between behavioural intent and behaviour was not supported for the three platforms.