Why people share event information on social media: A uses and gratification approach

As social media is considered a highly influential and cost-effective marketing channel, events and festivals are actively utilizing various social media platforms to provide potential attendees with relevant information. Building on the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) and the commitmenttrust theory, this study identifies various gratification factors of eventfocused social media content and investigates their influence on information sharing and information trust, ultimately affecting the intention to attend an event. The moderating effect of a non-content factor (visual design) is also examined. For the empirical analysis, data was collected from 401 U.S. Facebook users who followed the Facebook event page and was analyzed by PLS-SEM to validate a proposed conceptual framework. The findings suggest that the gratification factors (i.e., informational, entertaining, remunerative, and relational content) of event-focused social media content are significant in influencing potential event attendees' intention to share information and perceived information trust, subsequently affecting intention to attend an event. The results also indicate that the level of visual design can act as a critical moderator altering the effects of the gratification factors on intention to share and information trust. The findings of the study offer theoretical and managerial implications for future research.