Understanding Social Media Peer Communication and Organization–Public Relationships

This study proposed and tested a social media peer communication model that links tie strength, social media dependency, and public–organization social media engagement to the peer communication process as well as organization–public relationship (OPR) outcomes. Through an online survey of 328 American and 304 Chinese social media users, results showed that tie strength and public–organization social engagement are positive predictors of peer communication about companies on social media, which further leads to quality OPRs.