The Role of the Fit between the Brand Fan Page and the Post in Determining Re-broadcasting Activity

In recent years, firms are increasingly designing their digital communication to be rebroadcast by consumers in order to increase the share of earned media vs. paid media. This paper examines how the design of these campaigns (for instance run via Facebook posts or Tweets) affects rebroadcasting activity, by focusing on the fit between the post and the brand fan page. Our data concern 2080 posts from five Facebook pages and the related rebroadcasting (post sharing) generated by Facebook users. We model the rebroadcasting that each post commanded in each page as a count process. Our results show that, first, rebroadcasting activity varies with the fit between the post and the brand fan page and second, rebroadcasting activity decreases when a post includes a financial offer but only when the price promotion is not congruent with the brand fan page.