An Extended Abstract: What Drives Consumer Behaviors Expressed on Social Media? An Examination of Engagement and Source Credibility

With 74 % of online adults using social networking sites (SNSs) (Duggan et al. 2015) and the average American spending over 22 h per week on these platforms (Ipsos 2013), marketers have become acutely aware of the opportunity that social media offers as a promotional tool. Social media allow organizations to engage in timely and direct end-consumer contact at a relatively low cost, making the new promotional tool not only relevant for large multinational companies, but for virtually all organizations, including small- and medium-sized companies (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Indeed, an estimated 97 % of marketers are using social media marketing, and 92 % indicate social media is important to their business (Stelzner 2014).