This research combines machine learning and human intelligence to analyze 2654 Facebook messages initiated by 26 hospitality companies to develop the taxonomy of Facebook messages in business-to-consumer (B2C) communications. Facebook messages can be classified into two broad message types: Sales/Marketing messages, with five sub-categories of Social Responsibility, Direct Boasting, Indirect Boasting, Product Highlight, and Campaign/Sales, and Conversational messages, with four sub-categories of Call for Action, Provoke Feedback, Advice/Suggestions, and Updates. By comparison, Conversational messages received more “Likes” and comments than Sales/Marketing messages. Direct Boasting, Product Highlight, Call for Action, Provoke Feedback, Advice/Suggestions, and Updates received more “Likes” than other types; Provoke Feedback and Call for Action received more comments. As compared to current literature, the results allow managers to advance more specific strategies to better engage with Facebook users and provide a more thorough taxonomy for additional analysis on companies’ B2C messages on other social media websites.
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