Social media has changed the way corporations communicate and engage with consumers and connect consumers with brands, leading to essential changes in the advertising process. Despite the growing importance of social media as a corporate communication channel, little is known about how consumers respond to them and what factors influence following corporate Twitter accounts in the Japanese context. This study explores what motivates consumers to follow corporate Twitter accounts and what kinds of personality and parasocial relationships consumers perceive with these accounts. Furthermore, the study looks at the relationship between the perceived personality of corporate Twitter accounts, the parasocial relationship with the account, and the outcomes of the account following, such as brand liking and information sharing. The study conducted an online survey of Japanese followers of the corporate Twitter account. The findings revealed a set of perceived account personalities, including cheerfulness, competence, sophistication, reservedness, and sincerity, as well as two dimensions of parasocial relationships, such as identification and affective relationship. The mediation analysis revealed that the parasocial relationship mediated the relationship between the perceived account personality and the outcomes of the account following.

Article