Effective social media communication for startups in China: Antecedents and outcomes of organization–public dialogic communication

Abstract

This study examines startups’ social media communication practice in China through the theoretical lens of dialogic communication. Drawing interdisciplinary insights from public relations and computer-mediated communication, this study explored conversational human voice and social presence as antecedents of startups’ dialogic communication with publics on social media and explored publics’ trust and positive word-of-mouth as potential outcomes of this process. Results from an online survey with 1061 social media users in China who had followed at least one startup organization revealed that startups’ conversational human voice and social presence on social media helped drive organization–public dialogic communication, which in turn fostered publics’ trust and positive word-of-mouth toward startups. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.