Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern

Objective With the growing popularity of social media, corporate marketers are increasingly launching hashtag campaigns to encourage consumers to create branded user-generated content on their behalves. If successful, these campaigns may expand the reach of harmful marketing messages and capitalize...

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Main Authors: Linnea I Laestadius, Megan M Wahl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-05-01
Series:Digital Health
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207617710802
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author Linnea I Laestadius
Megan M Wahl
author_facet Linnea I Laestadius
Megan M Wahl
author_sort Linnea I Laestadius
collection DOAJ
description Objective With the growing popularity of social media, corporate marketers are increasingly launching hashtag campaigns to encourage consumers to create branded user-generated content on their behalves. If successful, these campaigns may expand the reach of harmful marketing messages and capitalize on peer-effects among adolescents. To shed light on these novel corporate campaigns, we performed a case study of the user-generated Instagram content created in response to a hashtag campaign promoting the quick-service restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Methods We performed a content analysis of one week’s worth of user-generated Instagram posts created with the hashtag #HowDoYouKFC between 24 April 2015–1 May 2015. Posts were coded to discern: (a) relevance to KFC as a brand and/or food; (b) themes in the post, (c) the content of images/videos, and (d) overall sentiment toward KFC. Posts that were deleted or made private during the study period were removed. Descriptive statistics were calculated to discern trends in post content. Results Instagram users created 196 posts with #HowDoYouKFC during the study period. After removing irrelevant and deleted/private posts, analysis of the 128 remaining user-generated posts revealed that 45% of posts were explicitly positive toward KFC and 39% lacked a specific stance or emotion related to KFC. Of the posts, 55% depicted KFC chicken and 65% included depictions of the brand hashtag on food packaging. Conclusions Findings indicate that corporations are successfully converting individual social media users into positive advertisers for harmful products. Novel efforts are needed to counter corporate user-generated content campaigns.
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spelling doaj.art-310f81dd547a40da9a310f7fcdb7f8f12022-12-21T18:40:24ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762017-05-01310.1177/2055207617710802Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concernLinnea I LaestadiusMegan M WahlObjective With the growing popularity of social media, corporate marketers are increasingly launching hashtag campaigns to encourage consumers to create branded user-generated content on their behalves. If successful, these campaigns may expand the reach of harmful marketing messages and capitalize on peer-effects among adolescents. To shed light on these novel corporate campaigns, we performed a case study of the user-generated Instagram content created in response to a hashtag campaign promoting the quick-service restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Methods We performed a content analysis of one week’s worth of user-generated Instagram posts created with the hashtag #HowDoYouKFC between 24 April 2015–1 May 2015. Posts were coded to discern: (a) relevance to KFC as a brand and/or food; (b) themes in the post, (c) the content of images/videos, and (d) overall sentiment toward KFC. Posts that were deleted or made private during the study period were removed. Descriptive statistics were calculated to discern trends in post content. Results Instagram users created 196 posts with #HowDoYouKFC during the study period. After removing irrelevant and deleted/private posts, analysis of the 128 remaining user-generated posts revealed that 45% of posts were explicitly positive toward KFC and 39% lacked a specific stance or emotion related to KFC. Of the posts, 55% depicted KFC chicken and 65% included depictions of the brand hashtag on food packaging. Conclusions Findings indicate that corporations are successfully converting individual social media users into positive advertisers for harmful products. Novel efforts are needed to counter corporate user-generated content campaigns.https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207617710802
spellingShingle Linnea I Laestadius
Megan M Wahl
Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
Digital Health
title Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
title_full Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
title_fullStr Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
title_full_unstemmed Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
title_short Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
title_sort mobilizing social media users to become advertisers corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern
url https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207617710802
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