Experimenting with dialogue on Twitter: An examination of the influence of the dialogic principles on engagement, interaction, and attitude

- Employed experimental design to determine the effectiveness of social media for relationship building.
- The usefulness of information principle was found to have a significant influence on engagement and attitude.
- A positive attitude toward the source of the message can have a significant, positive correlation with engagement and parasocial interaction.
- Respondents tended to react positively overall to seeing useful information on Twitter.

Much of the public relations research on online relationship building has examined social media content for the use of the dialogic principles outlined by Kent and Taylor (1998). These studies, using content analysis as the primary methodology, have found that the dialogic capabilities of social media are under-utilized. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these methods. Therefore, the goal of this study is to examine the influence of social media content utilizing these principles on engagement, interactivity, and attitude. Results of this study indicate that usefulness of information can have a significant influence on engagement and attitude.