A Leader’s Social Media Voice can Greatly Influence the Engagement Level of Users

O'Brien, H. L., & Toms, E. G. (2008). What is user engagement? A conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(6), 938-955. doi:10.1002/asi.20801

In this journal article, O'Brien and Toms focused on the key components that constitute user engagement with technology to develop an elaborate definition of the term engagement. As per their findings, the authors conceptualize user engagement as the quality of user experience described by various attributes such as sensory appeal, attention, feedback, interactivity, and positive affect. The authors theorize engagement as a continuous process characterized by relational aspects about a specific user. It means that what might be appealing to one user may not necessarily get the attention of another. From this perspective, it is clear that a leader's social media voice can significantly influence users' engagement levels within a particular online platform. For example, since Donald Trump has the habit of tweeting insults and offensive jokes, some of his opponents have become disengaged with Twitter to avoid the endless dramas of the leader. However, his followers and some foes wouldn't want to miss any of his latest tweets.  

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