Building relationships within corporate SNS accounts through social presence formation

• We provide a deeper understanding of how corporate SNS accounts can effectively engage SNS users by focusing on social presence.
• Through an experiment with 809 Twitter users, we find the antecedents of social presence formation in the form and content characteristics of SNS.
• The findings suggest that social presence is formed through machine interactivity, person interactivity, and self-disclosure.
• The findings also suggest that social presence contributes to SNS users’ engagement by increasing the usefulness of information and their trust.

Although many companies have attempted to use SNS to attract and communicate with current and potential customers, these efforts have not always been fruitful. To provide a deeper understanding of how corporate SNS accounts can effectively engage SNS users, this study examines the social aspects of the corporate SNS context by focusing on social presence. More specifically, we investigate how social presence is formed within corporate SNS accounts by establishing its antecedents in the form and content characteristics of SNS and how it increases utilitarian values and facilitates relationships between SNS users and companies. Through an experiment with 809 Twitter users, the study finds that social presence is formed through machine interactivity, person interactivity, and self-disclosure; that greater social presence increases users’ perception of the usefulness of information and their trust in the company; and that increases in those utilitarian values contribute to SNS users’ positive engagement in relationships with corporate SNS accounts.