Humor as a Social Media Strategy : A mixed-methods research on humor, its types, contingencies, and favorability

Abstract: Abstract Problem: The social media era has forced brands and businesses to adapt to their shifting role with consumers. The interactive nature of platforms and the new social language has presented businesses and brands with new capabilities. Humor as a marketing strategy has proven to be desirable and effective throughout several contexts of marketing, however, its favorability and use as a social media strategy is lacking. The exploration of whether brands and businesses should incorporate humor in their social media strategy is essential, and central to several aspects: consumer communication, engagement, content creation and the attention economy. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the favorability and appreciation of humor as a social media strategy. The aim is to additionally develop an understanding of the humor types as well as how, when and to whom the incorporation of humor in a social media strategy is appreciated and favorable. Method: This research adopted a mixed-method approach, a research design that involves more than one research method. A quantitative survey was constructed and completed by 373 individuals internationally, and eight qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. As a sequential mixed method research design was adopted, a qualitative dominant mixed method data analysis was deemed most appropriate. To interpret the empirical findings and answer the research questions, a thematic analysis was conducted for the qualitative research, and a multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyze the quantitative data, as well as several frequency tables. Results: The results identify that consumers appreciate a brand’s use of humor, and actively seek out humorous content on social media. Furthermore, personal characteristics such as age, gender, background, and experiences have been identified to aid in the question of to whom humorous content should be curated for. Moreover, seven contingencies to humor were found to influence consumers' appreciation towards humorous content on social media. Lastly, types of humor were not found significant with regards to perceived consumer appreciation. Keywords: humor, social media era, relatability, marketing, digital language, favorability