Tweeting as a Marketing Tool: A Field Experiment in the TV Industry

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Suggests testing informative content and distribution source separately: a company's own posts may drive direct response while third-party sharing may grow the audience. Evaluate both with downstream outcomes.

Reported result

What the study found

Company tweets directly increased viewing. Influencer retweets increased viewing when the original tweet was informative and were more effective at gaining new followers, which indirectly supported viewing.

Research question

What the authors investigated

Do firm tweets and influential-user retweets affect TV show viewing and audience growth?

Design

Randomized field experiment on Sina Weibo with a major media company, testing company tweets and recruited influencers' retweets.

Sample and setting

Tweets promoting TV shows on a Chinese social network; the abstract does not state the number of users or shows.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

TV programming and Sina Weibo are context-specific; the abstract gives no sample size. Attention and viewing outcomes do not map directly to SaaS demand or pipeline.

Research sources

SAGE publisher abstract retrieved with Firecrawl; study design and reported effects were visible on the page.