Title: The level of involvement and consumer response to advertising through hashtags: a segmentation approach with self-organising maps

Authors: Manijeh Bahrainizad; Sepideh Aslami; Nosrat Jamshidi

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Economics School, Persian Gulf University, 7516913817, Bushehr, Iran ' Business and Economics School, Persian Gulf University, 7516913817, Bushehr, Iran ' Department of Foreign Languages, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr Branch, Bushehr, Iran

Abstract: Nowadays, using hashtags in advertising is becoming critical, but the audience's reaction to this type of advertising is not yet clear to advertisers. This study aims to identify different segments of consumers on social networks based on their level of involvement and response to advertising via hashtags as well as a demographic variable. Through an experiment, this study examined consumer responses to hashtags in social media-based advertising. The survey was conducted on an available sample of 545 Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn users. The results showed three distinctive segments of social network users: relatively rationally non-involved consumers rationally involved consumers and relatively emotionally involved consumers. The findings of this research are important for marketers who advertise via hashtags since little is known regarding social networks user segments according to consumers' responses and levels of involvement in advertising via hashtags. This research addresses this gap and has important implications for marketers.

Keywords: hashtag; involvement; consumer response; self-organising maps; segmentation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2024.139299

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2024 Vol.20 No.3/4, pp.386 - 409

Received: 21 Nov 2021
Accepted: 15 Sep 2022
Published online: 01 Jul 2024 *

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