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Chart 5-2 E/R Score and SS/SA Score four-cell chart for better performance posts
After data judgment and descriptive statistics analysis, our hypothesis seems to be confirmed. We now proceed with a two-sample t-test to support our hypothesis.
5.2 Independent Two-sample T-test
We use an independent two-sample t-test to confirm whether females will have a higher E/R Score than males and whether males will have a higher SS/SA Score than females.
The independent two-sample t-test is used to test whether the population means are
significantly different from each other using the means from randomly drawn samples. We consider gender as two groups, and we test whether females will have a significantly higher mean E/R Score than males and whether males will have significantly higher mean SS/SA Score than females. We calculate the two-sample t-test for males’ and females’ E/R Scores for each posts and the SS/SA Scores for each tourist product in SPSS. The results are shown in Table 5-5.
Sensation seeking
Sensation avoiding
Emotional
Rational
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Table 5-5 E/R Score and SS/SA Score Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means
t Sig. (1-tailed)
E/R Score -1.647 *.05
SS/SA Score 1.821 *.00355
In Table 5-5, we can confirm that our first hypothesis, H1: males will prefer rational appeals advertisements on Facebook fan pages, and females will prefer emotional appeals advertisements, is true and has statistical significance to support it.
We also can confirm that our second hypothesis, H2: males will prefer sensation-seeking tourist attractions, and females will prefer sensation-avoiding tourist attractions, is be true and has statistical significance to support it.
After these two hypotheses were proven, we used each post’s E/R Score and SS/SA Score to determine whether the post belongs to Emotional or Rational and Sensation-seeking or Sensation-avoiding. Then, we confirmed which posts fit the gender preferences regarding whether males prefer rational appeals advertisements and sensation-seeking tourist attractions, whereas females prefer emotional appeals advertisements and sensation-avoiding tourist attractions. We then compared these post fit performance data with the not-fitting post performance data and calculated the two-sample t-test to support our hypotheses. The results are shown in Tables 5-6 and 5-6.
Table 5-6 Group Statistics for Posts’ Performance
Fit Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
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Table 5-7 Independent Samples Test for Posts’ Performance t-test for Equality of Means
t Sig. (1-tailed)
Lifetime post total reach (BA) 1.766 *.039
Comment (BE) 2.931 *.002
Like (BE) 3.604 *.000
Share (WOM) 1.990 *.0235
In Tables 5-6 and 5-7, we can confirm our third and fourth hypotheses, H3: If we promote sensation-seeking tourist attractions through rational appeals advertisements, the performance on Facebook fan pages improve, and H4: If we promote sensation-avoiding tourist attractions through emotional appeals advertisements, the performance on Facebook fan pages will improve. These hypotheses prove to be true and have statistical significance to support them.
5.3 Findings
In summary, we proposed a framework that assumes genders will have different preferences in advertisement appeals and tourist attractions, and if we promote the matching of advertisements to gender preferences, the performance on Facebook fan pages will improve. We confirmed all of our hypotheses in our data set using a two-sample t-test. The empirical results can be summarized as three findings.
Finding 1
Males will prefer rational appeals advertisements on Facebook fan pages, whereas females will prefer emotional appeals advertisements.
The statistical results in Table 5-2 show that females have a higher mean E/R Score, which indicates that females prefer emotional appeals advertisements compared with males.
In other words, males prefer rational appeals advertisements compared with females. The
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statistical results in Table 5-5 further confirm that the difference in preferences between males and females in our findings have statistical significance.
Finding 2
Males will prefer sensation-seeking tourist attractions on Facebook fan pages, whereas females will prefer sensation-avoiding tourist attractions.
The statistical results in Table 5-4 show that males have a higher mean SS/SA Score, which shows males prefer sensation-seeking tourist attractions compared with females. In other words, females will prefer sensation-avoiding tourist attractions compared with males.
The statistical results in Table 5-5 further confirm that the preference different between males and females in our findings have statistical significance.
Finding 3
If we promote sensation-seeking tourist attractions through rational appeals advertisements and sensation-avoiding tourist attractions through emotional appeals advertisements on Facebook fan pages, we can obtain better Facebook fan page performances.
The statistical results in Table 5-6 show that if we match gender preferences, the performance on Facebook fan pages will improve. We defined Facebook fan pages
performance according to brand awareness, brand engagement and word of mouth. All the gender-fitting post measurement means are higher than those of the non-gender-fitting posts.
The statistical results in Table 5-7 further confirm that the performance difference between gender-fitting posts and non-gender-fitting posts in our findings have statistical significance.
This finding gives us guidance regarding how to manage Facebook fan pages in the tourism industry. If we follow the different gender preferences by promoting sensation-seeking tourist attractions through rational appeals advertisements and sensation-avoiding tourist attractions through emotional appeals advertisements on Facebook fan pages, the performance of pages will improve.
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5-4 Discussion
We can summarize our findings according two implications: theoretical and managerial.
Theoretical implications
Previous literature has indicated that customers expect two types of value from Web advertising (Ducoffe 1996): informativeness and entertainment. These two value types correlate with rational and emotional appeals, respectively. Kim et al. (2007) found gender differences in attitudes toward information channels. Zuckerman et al. (1964) developed the sensation-seeking concept. Holland et al. (1994) and Gilchrist et al. (1995) found that the sensation-seeking concept also exhibits gender differences. However, these studies were established on traditional Web 1.0 web ads and web pages; we are the first to examine these theories on Facebook. Additionally, we are the first to combine the rational appeals,
emotional appeals, sensation seeking, and sensation avoiding concepts according to gender.
Moreover, we proved that by combining these two concepts and applying them to manage Facebook fan pages, the performance of these pages will improve.
Managerial implications
For Tourism Facebook fan pages managers, our research provides valuable guidance regarding posts.
Guide 1: Managers should promote sensation-seeking tourist attractions through rational appeals on Facebook fan page posts.
Guide 2: Managers should promote sensation-avoiding tourist attractions through emotional appeals on Facebook fan page posts.
If managers follow these guidelines to manage Facebook fan pages, the performance of Facebook fan pages will improve.
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Facebook fan pages have become a very important channel for companies to
communicate with their customer. However, most Facebook fan page managers do not have a winning formula or suitable posting rules when managing Facebook fan pages. They are also unsure how to measure their performance. Thus, we propose a framework that takes into account that genders may show different preferences in advertisement appeals and tourist attractions: males will prefer rational appeals advertisements and sensation-seeking tourist attractions, whereas females will prefer emotional appeals advertisement and sensation-avoiding tourist attractions. Moreover, gender fit will improve the performance, as measured by brand awareness, brand engagement and word of mouth, of Facebook fan pages. In our framework, we propose a rule that Facebook fan page managers can follow to measure the performance of their pages.
To further test the framework, we collected data from Company A’s Facebook fan pages and hired coders to analyze these data. After checking for the coders’ consistency in their analysis by Cohen's kappa coefficient, we validated the differences in gender
preferences in advertisement appeals and tourist attractions. By matching gender preferences, we examined whether the performance on Facebook fan pages would improve using a two-sample t-test. The results show that males prefer rational appeals advertisements and sensation-seeking tourist attractions, whereas females prefer emotional appeals
advertisements and sensation-avoiding tourist attractions. Moreover, if we match gender preferences in advertisement appeals and tourist attractions to promote suitable tourism products, the performance on Facebook fan pages, brand awareness, brand engagement and word of mouth will be improved.
6.2 Contributions
The findings of our research make both industrial and academic contributions. From the industrial perspective, our framework provides a rule for Facebook fan pages managers:
when promoting tourism products, they should consider different gender preferences in advertisement appeals and tourist attractions. If managers can promote suitable tourism attractions in suitable advertisement appeals, the performance of Facebook fan pages will improve.