When brands share images on social media, they often pair these visuals with textual captions. How can brands craft image captions that effectively engage consumers? This research introduces the construct of caption extension—defined as the extent to which a caption goes beyond directly describing the visible elements of its paired image (e.g., by adding new perspectives, interpretation, or imagination)—and investigates its impact on consumer engagement on social media. An empirical analysis of 95,155 single-image social media posts from 402 brands across 33 industry sectors, combined with an online experiment (N = 1,200), reveals that greater caption extension increases consumer interest, which in turn enhances engagement. However, this positive effect weakens as the brand’s psychological distance (i.e., the extent to which the brand feels remote or unrelatable to consumers) increases and may even reverse when the distance is especially high. These findings highlight two critical factors for driving engagement on social media: (1) the relationship between different content formats (e.g., visual and textual) and (2) the alignment of content with the brand’s unique characteristics.
AbellAnnikaBiswasDipayan (2023), “Digital Engagement on Social Media: How Food Image Content Influences Social Media and Influencer Marketing Outcomes,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 58 (1), 1–15.
2.
AinleyMaryHidiSuzanneBerndorffDagmar (2002), “Interest, Learning, and the Psychological Processes That Mediate their Relationship,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 94 (3), 545–61.
3.
AlterAdam L.OppenheimerDaniel M. (2009), “Uniting the Tribes of Fluency to Form a Metacognitive Nation,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13 (3), 219–35.
4.
AppelGilGrewalLaurenHadiRhondaStephenAndrew T. (2020), “The Future of Social Media in Marketing,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48 (1), 79–95.
5.
Babić RosarioAnaSotgiuFrancescaDe ValckKristineBijmoltTammo H.A. (2016), “The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth on Sales: A Meta-Analytic Review of Platform, Product, and Metric Factors,” Journal of Marketing Research, 53 (3), 297–318.
6.
BanduraAlbert (1997), Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. W.H. Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co.
7.
BaumeisterRoy F.LearyMark R. (1995), “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation,” Psychological Bulletin, 117 (3), 497–529.
8.
BergerJonah (2011), “Arousal Increases Social Transmission of Information,” Psychological Science, 22 (7), 891–93.
9.
BergerJonah (2014), “Word of Mouth and Interpersonal Communication: A Review and Directions for Future Research,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (4), 586–607.
10.
BergerJonahMilkmanKatherine L. (2012), “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (2), 192–205.
11.
BerlyneD.E. (1963), “Complexity and Incongruity Variables as Determinants of Exploratory Choice and Evaluative Ratings,” Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie, 17 (3), 274–90.
BrysbaertMarcWarrinerAmy BethKupermanVictor (2014), “Concreteness Ratings for 40 Thousand Generally Known English Word Lemmas,” Behavior Research Methods, 46 (3), 904–11.
14.
CeylanGizemDiehlKristinProserpioDavide (2023), “Words Meet Photos: When and Why Photos Increase Review Helpfulness,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (1), 5–26.
15.
ChevalierJudith A.MayzlinDina (2006), “The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews,” Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (3), 345–54.
16.
ChoiWoo JinWinterichKaren Page (2013), “Can Brands Move in from the Outside? How Moral Identity Enhances Out-Group Brand Attitudes,” Journal of Marketing, 77 (2), 96–111.
17.
ColicevAnatoliKumarAshishO’ConnorPeter (2019), “Modeling the Relationship Between Firm and User Generated Content and the Stages of the Marketing Funnel,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (1), 100–16.
18.
ConnorsScottKhamitovMansurThomsonMatthewPerkinsAndrew (2021), “They’re Just Not That into You: How to Leverage Existing Consumer–Brand Relationships through Social Psychological Distance,” Journal of Marketing, 85 (5), 92–108.
19.
CruzRyan E.LeonhardtJames M.PezzutiTodd (2017), “Second Person Pronouns Enhance Consumer Involvement and Brand Attitude,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39 (1), 104–16.
20.
De VriesLisetteGenslerSonjaLeeflangPeter (2012), “Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26, 83–91.
21.
DolanRebeccaConduitJodieFahyJohnGoodmanSteve (2016), “Social Media Engagement Behaviour: A Uses and Gratifications Perspective,” Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24 (3–4), 261–77.
22.
DucoffeRobert H. (1995), “How Consumers Assess the Value of Advertising,” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 17 (1), 1–18.
23.
EigenraamAnniek W.EelenJiskaVerleghPeeter W.J. (2021), “Let Me Entertain You? The Importance of Authenticity in Online Customer Engagement,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 54 (1), 53–68.
24.
ElpersJosephine L.C.M. WoltmanWedelMichelPietersRik G.M. (2003), “Why Do Consumers Stop Viewing Television Commercials? Two Experiments on the Influence of Moment-to-Moment Entertainment and Information Value,” Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (4), 437–53.
25.
ErdemTülinSwaitJoffre (1998), “Brand Equity as a Signaling Phenomenon,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7 (2), 131–57.
26.
EvansDaveBrattonSusanMcKeeJake (2010), Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. Sybex.
27.
FredricksonBarbara L. (1998), “What Good Are Positive Emotions?” Review of General Psychology, 2 (3), 300–319.
28.
GenslerSonjaVölcknerFranziskaLiu-ThompkinsYupingWiertzCaroline (2013), “Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27 (4), 242–56.
29.
GrafLaura K.M.MayerStefanLandwehrJan R. (2018), “Measuring Processing Fluency: One Versus Five Items,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 28 (3), 393–411.
30.
HartmannJochenHeitmannMarkSchampChristinaNetzerOded (2021), “The Power of Brand Selfies,” Journal of Marketing Research, 58 (6), 1159–77.
31.
HayesAndrew F. (2017), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. Guilford Publications.
32.
HecklerSusan E.ChildersTerry L. (1992), “The Role of Expectancy and Relevancy in Memory for Verbal and Visual Information: What is Incongruency?” Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (4), 475–92.
33.
Hernández-OrtegaBlanca I.StankoMichael A.RishikaRishikaMolina-CastilloFrancisco-JoseFrancoJosé (2022), “Brand-Generated Social Media Content and Its Differential Impact on Loyalty Program Members,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50 (5), 1071–90.
34.
HofstetterRetoDahlDarren W.AryobseiSuleimanHerrmannAndreas (2021), “Constraining Ideas: How Seeing Ideas of Others Harms Creativity in Open Innovation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 58 (1), 95–114.
35.
HolidayStevenHayesJameson L.ParkHaseonLyuYuanweiZhouYang (2023), “A Multimodal Emotion Perspective on Social Media Influencer Marketing: The Effectiveness of Influencer Emotions, Network Size, and Branding on Consumer Brand Engagement Using Facial Expression and Linguistic Analysis,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 58 (4), 414–39.
36.
HollebeekLinda D.GlynnMark S.BrodieRoderick J. (2014), “Consumer Brand Engagement in Social Media: Conceptualization, Scale Development and Validation,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28 (2), 149–65.
37.
HollebeekLinda D.MackyKeith (2019), “Digital Content Marketing’s Role in Fostering Consumer Engagement, Trust, and Value: Framework, Fundamental Propositions, and Implications,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 45, 27–41.
38.
HoustonMichael J.ChildersTerry L.HecklerSusan E. (1987), “Picture-Word Consistency and the Elaborative Processing of Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing Research, 24 (4), 359.
39.
HughesChristianSwaminathanVanithaBrooksGillian (2019), “Driving Brand Engagement Through Online Social Influencers: An Empirical Investigation of Sponsored Blogging Campaigns,” Journal of Marketing, 83 (5), 78–96.
40.
JaudDavid A.MelnykValentyna (2020), “The Effect of Text-Only Versus Text-and-Image Wine Labels on Liking, Taste and Purchase Intentions. The Mediating Role of Affective Fluency,” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, 101964.
41.
KanuriVamsi K.HughesChristianHodgesBrady T. (2024), “Standing Out from the Crowd: When and Why Color Complexity in Social Media Images Increases User Engagement,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 41 (2), 174–93.
42.
KimDong HooSongDoori (2019), “Can Brand Experience Shorten Consumers’ Psychological Distance Toward the Brand? The Effect of Brand Experience on Consumers’ Construal Level,” Journal of Brand Management, 26 (3), 255–67.
43.
KumarAshishBezawadaRamRishikaRishikaJanakiramanRamkumarKannanP.K. (2016), “From Social to Sale: The Effects of Firm-Generated Content in Social Media on Customer Behavior,” Journal of Marketing, 80 (1), 7–25.
44.
LabrecqueLauren I.SwaniKunalStephenAndrew T. (2020), “The Impact of Pronoun Choices on Consumer Engagement Actions: Exploring top Global Brands’ Social Media Communications,” Psychology & Marketing, 37 (6), 796–814.
45.
LazarusRichard S. (1991), Emotion and Adaptation, Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford University Press.
46.
LearyMark R.KowalskiRobin M. (1990), “Impression Management: A Literature Review and Two-Component Model,” Psychological Bulletin, 107 (1), 34–47.
47.
LeeAngela Y.LabrooAparna A. (2004), “The Effect of Conceptual and Perceptual Fluency on Brand Evaluation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 41 (2), 151–65.
48.
LeeDokyunHosanagarKartikNairHarikesh S. (2018), “Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook,” Management Science, 64 (11), 5105–31.
49.
LeeJeffrey K. (2021), “Emotional Expressions and Brand Status,” Journal of Marketing Research, 58 (6), 1178–96.
50.
LeeKiljaeChoiJungsil (2019), “Image-Text Inconsistency Effect on Product Evaluation in Online Retailing,” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 49, 279–88.
51.
LeeYih HwaiMasonCharlotte (1999), “Responses to Information Incongruency in Advertising: The Role of Expectancy, Relevancy, and Humor,” Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (2), 156–69.
52.
LiYiyiXieYing (2020), “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? An Empirical Study of Image Content and Social Media Engagement,” Journal of Marketing Research, 57 (1), 1–19.
53.
LibbyW.L.LaceyB.C.LaceyJ.I. (1973), “Pupillary and Cardiac Activity During Visual Attention,” Psychophysiology, 10 (3), 270–94.
54.
ListerMary (2024), “33 Mind-Boggling Instagram Stats & Facts for 2024,” WordStream (accessed June 9, 2024).
55.
LuShijieDinnerIsaacGrewalRajdeep (2022), “The Ripple Effect of Firm-Generated Content on New Movie Releases,” Journal of Marketing Research, 60 (5), 908–31.
56.
MacKenzieScott B.LutzRichard J. (1989), “An Empirical Examination of the Structural Antecedents of Attitude Toward the Ad in an Advertising Pretesting Context,” Journal of Marketing, 53 (2), 48–65.
57.
MazloomMasoudRietveldRobertRudinacStevanWorringMarcelvan DolenWillemijn (2016), “Multimodal Popularity Prediction of Brand-Related Social Media Posts,” in Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, MM ‘16. Association for Computing Machinery, 197–201.
58.
McShaneLindsayPancerEthanPooleMaxwellDengQi (2021), “Emoji, Playfulness, and Brand Engagement on Twitter,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53 (1), 96–110.
59.
MikolovTomasChenKaiCorradoGregDeanJeffrey (2013), “Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space,” arXiv, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1301.3781.
60.
MontagutiElisaValentiniSaraVecchioniFederica (2023), “Content That Engages Your Customers: The Role of Brand Congruity and Promotions in Social Media,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 58 (1), 16–33.
61.
OrdenesFrancisco VillarroelGrewalDhruvLudwigStephanDe RuyterKoMahrDominikWetzelsMartin (2019), “Cutting Through Content Clutter: How Speech and Image Acts Drive Consumer Sharing of Social Media Brand Messages,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (5), 988–1012.
62.
OvergoorGijsRandWilliamvan DolenWillemijnMazloomMasoud (2022), “Simplicity Is Not Key: Understanding Firm-Generated Social Media Images and Consumer Liking,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 39 (3), 639–55.
63.
PancerEthanChandlerVincentPooleMaxwellNoseworthyTheodore J. (2019), “How Readability Shapes Social Media Engagement,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29 (2), 262–70.
64.
PezzutiToddLeonhardtJames M.WarrenCaleb (2021), “Certainty in Language Increases Consumer Engagement on Social Media,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53 (1), 32–46.
65.
RietveldRobertVan DolenWillemijnMazloomMasoudWorringMarcel (2020), “What You Feel, Is What You Like Influence of Message Appeals on Customer Engagement on Instagram,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 49 (1), 20–53.
66.
RooderkerkRobert P.PauwelsKoen H. (2016), “No Comment?! The Drivers of Reactions to Online Posts in Professional Groups,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 35, 1–15.
67.
RosengrenSaraEisendMartinKoslowScottDahlenMicael (2020), “A Meta-Analysis of When and How Advertising Creativity Works,” Journal of Marketing, 84 (6), 39–56.
68.
SchererKlaus R. (2001), “Appraisal Considered as a Process of Multilevel Sequential Checking,” in Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research, Series in Affective Science. Oxford University Press, 92–120.
69.
SchiefeleUlrich (1999), “Interest and Learning From Text,” Scientific Studies of Reading, 3 (3), 257–79.
70.
ShahbaznezhadHamidrezaDolanRebeccaRashidiradMona (2021), “The Role of Social Media Content Format and Platform in Users’ Engagement Behavior,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 53 (1), 47–65.
71.
SilayoiPinyaSpeeceMark (2007), “The Importance of Packaging Attributes: A Conjoint Analysis Approach,” European Journal of Marketing, 41 (11/12), 1495–517.
72.
SilviaPaul J. (2001), “Interest and Interests: The Psychology of Constructive Capriciousness,” Review of General Psychology, 5 (3), 270–90.
73.
SilviaPaul (2005), “What Is Interesting? Exploring the Appraisal Structure of Interest,” Emotion, 5, 89–102.
74.
SmithRobert E.YangXiaojing (2004), “Toward a General Theory of Creativity in Advertising: Examining the Role of Divergence,” Marketing Theory, 4 (1–2), 31–58.
StuppyAnikaLandwehrJan R.McGrawA. Peter (2024), “The Art of Slowness: Slow Motion Enhances Consumer Evaluations by Increasing Processing Fluency,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (2), 185–203.
77.
TropeYaacovLibermanNira (2010), “Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance,” Psychological Review, 117, 440–63.
78.
TropeYaacovLibermanNiraWakslakCheryl (2007), “Construal Levels and Psychological Distance: Effects on Representation, Prediction, Evaluation, and Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17 (2), 83–95.
79.
VakratsasDemetriosAmblerTim (1999), “How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?” Journal of Marketing, 63 (1), 26–43.
80.
Van RompayThomas J.L.De VriesPeter W.Van VenrooijXaviera G. (2010), “More Than Words: On the Importance of Picture–Text Congruence in the Online Environment,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24 (1), 22–30.
WeidmanAaron C.TracyJessica L. (2020), “Picking Up Good Vibrations: Uncovering the Content of Distinct Positive Emotion Subjective Experience,” Emotion, 20 (8), 1311–31.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
