Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Microblogs: A Cross-cultural Content Analysis of Twitter and Weibo

This research studies microblogging as word-of-mouth communication from a cross-cultural perspective. It compares microblogging contents on Twitter in the US and Weibo in China. After coding microblogs on four smart-phone brands in a month period for their content categories, the author computed the relation between the proportional occurrence of each category and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The results indicate, across cultures, consumers mostly use microblogs to share brandcentral information and entertaining messages. However, cultural values, in significant ways, moderate specific types of contents consumers share on microblogs. Implications for application of microblogging in marketing communication and future research into eWOM content are discussed.