Deciphering the matching effects: a novel analysis of the interplay between user engagement and post content in determining the sales

Purpose Owned social media (OSM) has emerged as a popular marketing strategy for companies in recent years. However, it remains unclear how sales are influenced by various OSM cues. To address this research void, this paper aims to explore the matching effect of OSM user engagement and OSM post content on sales, as well as the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on peer influence effects and information processing literature, the authors propose that OSM user engagement and OSM post content combine to produce a matching effect on sales. Design/methodology/approach Using secondary data (including actual sales statistics in Study 1) and experimental data (including investigation of the mediation effect in Study 2), this research confirms the existence of a matching effect between OSM user engagement and post content and identifies the underlying mediating mechanism. Findings Specifically, functional content match with high-processing user engagement while hedonic content match with low-processing user engagement. When OSM user engagement and post content are match, they have a positive effect on sales, with processing fluency functioning as a mediator. Originality/value This research categorizes OSM user engagement based on the level of user resource investment, reconciling conflicting research from the existing literature, and providing a coherent theoretical framework for social media marketing. The authors also explore the matching effect using the cognitive consistency theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), deepening the understanding of integrated marketing communications, and extend the information processing theory to social media, enriching theoretical research.