Hi, I'm taking over this account! Leveraging social media takeovers in fostering consumer-brand relationships

Brands' communications on owned media commonly are managed by social media marketing teams, although some brands have embraced a practice known as social media takeover, in which they temporarily delegate the responsibility for communications to selected employees or consumers. The current research aims to define the roles of two communication approaches (traditional and social media takeover) and two message types (transactional and relational) for developing consumer-brand relationships on owned media. The research results show that brand messages shared through social media takeovers (cf. traditional brand communications) have a stronger positive impact on parasocial interaction. Improved openness and social presence, as sensed by consumers, drive this effect. The outcomes further indicate that the impacts of social media takeover on social presence and, consequently, parasocial interaction, are particularly strong when consumers encounter transactional (cf. relational) messages. For managers, this research offers practical recommendations for leveraging brand communications with consumers on owned media.