To Err is Human? How to Establish a Human Voice in Organizational Responses to Online Criticism

• In Event: Social Media Communications in Critical Situations

Abstract

Organizations increasingly respond to online criticism to counter its detrimental effects on other consumers, a practice that is referred to as webcare. The success of webcare is found to hinge upon an organization’s ability to demonstrate a conversational human voice. Hence, for organizations it is important to gain insight into the antecedents of conversational human voice. This research examined two message characteristics that can potentially enhance an organization's conversational human voice: message personalization and message formality. The results show that message personalization, but not message formality, can directly enhance an organization's conversational human voice. An interaction effect was also found, such that personalization can enhance the conversational human voice of formal messages, and informality can enhance the conversational human voice of unpersonalized messages. However, a combination of personalized informal messages does not result in an even higher degree of conversational human voice, thereby indicating a ceiling effect. For brand evaluations, a combination even resulted in negative effects.

Author

• Lotte Michaela Willemsen, U of Amsterdam