Social Media Content Multimodality and the Level of User Interactions from the Perspective of Facebook and Instagram

The article aimed to establish a simple methodology for examining the impact of message modality on user interactions. Using communication theory and content analysis methodology, 1,172 entries of selected recreational entities on Facebook (N=579) and Instagram (N=593) were analysed. The results suggest that higher modality levels positively influence user interactions, with a weak positive effect observed on Facebook and a moderate positive effect observed on Instagram. Practical implications include content marketing on social channels and the development of a theory of memetic content propagation. An innovative aspect of the research is an approach that consolidates the different levels of modality into one simple Post Modality Value (PMV). Research limitations include focusing only on two social media platforms, analysing fanpages associated with specific service industry entities, and disregarding the size of follower groups.