“Posts are my own”: effects of social media disclaimers on perceptions of employees and their organizations from tweets and retweets

Abstract

PurposeThis study empirically assesses the perceptions the public has of employees and their organization following a [re]tweet, and the additional potential ameliorating effect of a disclaimer distancing the organization from the individual employee's social media presence.Design/methodology/approachA fully crossed 2 (disclaimer vs. no disclaimer) × 2 (positive vs. negative valence post) × 2 (post vs. retweet) experiment exposed participants (N = 173) to an employee's personal tweet. Resultant perceptions of both the poster (i.e., goodwill) and the poster's organization (i.e., organizational reputation) were analyzed using planned contrast analyses.FindingsFindings reveal audiences form impressions of individuals based on both tweeted and retweeted content. Perceptions of both the poster's goodwill and the poster's organization were commensurate with the valence of the poster's tweets, stronger when posts were original tweets rather than retweets, and there was a significant interaction effect between valence and [re]tweet. Disclaimers did not significantly affect perceptions, suggesting employers may be better served by asking employees to omit reference to their employer on their personal social media accounts.Originality/valueThis research contributes to understanding how employee and organizational reputation are affected by employees' personal social media content. Results suggest that even when a disclaimer explicitly seeks to distance an employee from the organization, audiences still see the employee as an informal brand ambassadors of their organization.