Motivated endeavor in catching attention: The impact of conversion tool on sponsored post engagement

Social media influencer marketing has grown substantially in the last decade and is a major advertising channel for many brands. Nowadays, social media platforms are taking embedded interactive traffic conversion tools (e.g., product tags in Instagram) to reduce the steps between sponsored posts and final purchases to improve conversion rates. However, given the simultaneous potential for increased conversion rates and user aversion to advertisements, it is unclear how the adoption of the novel tool affects sponsored post engagement. In this study, we explore an exogenous comment component launch on a popular social media platform in China (i.e., Xiaohongshu). Our empirical results suggest that the adoption of the comment component increases sponsored post engagement, which is reflected in the increment of likes, favorites, and comments. We further explore the potential mechanism from the theoretical perspective of the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework and find that influencers get motivated endeavor to their posts with longer text and more positive emotions to catch attention. Our findings have novel and important implications for stakeholders of social e-commerce.