Methodology

The most important part of creating a survey is ensuring that it is capable of answering the research questions it was designed to study. As previously mentioned, the research questions for this study all relate directly to the opinions and behaviors of consumers. While another method, such as content analysis or interview, may have been able to look objectively at how consumers will behave after exposure to humorous branded content on Twitter or their thoughts and emotions after viewing independently, no other method has the ability to measure both, and in a way that can be quantified into clear data sets and generalized to the greater population. Throughout the survey, there are real examples of branded Twitter content that utilize the four most popular types of humor- surprise, comparison, personification, and sarcasm, as well as representing the two different humor presentation formats- meme and non-meme. Each example comes with the same set of questions designed to measure potential behavior of consumers, emotional reactions, and brand attitudes.

Procedures and Participants

As important to the study as the creation of the survey is the distribution and collection methods. The first step in this process is deciding what media samples were to be included in the survey. For this study, the media samples that are embedded in the survey were taken from consumer product and fast-food/fast-casual restaurant brand Twitter accounts. They were chosen to fit into the four most-popular categories of humor- surprise, comparison, personification and sarcasm. Each of the four types of humor has two selected media examples- one that is presented in a meme format and one that is presented in a non-meme format. The two matching examples were taken from similar brands when possible to stay consistent and lower the risk of varying brands impacting responses. In this survey, the media samples are as follows:

After finding media examples to fit into the survey design, the next step is to procure respondents. In this study, respondents were found using a social media snowball effect. The link to the survey, along with a brief description of what it entailed, was shared to a primary Facebook and LinkedIn account, and then from that post, was shared by other secondary accounts to their personal pages and networks. This snowball sampling method was effective in collecting a large amount of responses, though demographically many of the respondents were similar in nature.

Research Instrument

In this study, there are several variables that are being tested. Firstly, the independent variables being looked at in this study are the type of humor- personification, sarcasm, surprise, and comparison, and the format of the humor- meme and non-meme. The survey includes two examples for each type of humor, one for each of the two formats. With these independent variables being studied, the dependent variables include Digital Behavior, Emotional Reactions, and Brand Attitude. For Digital Behavior, the response options include favoriting the tweet, retweeting the tweet, commenting on the tweet, following the brand, sharing the tweet, and engaging with the brand in any of these behaviors moving forward. To understand Emotional Reactions, the respondent, when asked how the example tweet makes them feel, is given the options of happy, neutral, unhappy, or other. And lastly, in looking at Brand Attitude, participants are asked if after this viewing this tweet, they like the brand more, dislike the brand more, or had no change in opinion. These response options are consistent across all of the eight example tweets, and serve to examine the proposed variables of the study.