Exploring Enablers of Contagious Content for Dining Blogs: An Integrated Approach by Using Content Analysis and Interpretive Structural Modeling

Abstract

Blogs remain a popular and reliable form of online communication. As the number of dining blogs continues to rise, competition is increasingly fierce. Thus, it is important to not only draw the attention of users but to also secure followers. To increase reader loyalty, bloggers must consider blog marketing from a blog reader’s perspective. Although previous studies have explored how blog narratives influence consumer behaviors, few studies have focused on exploring the enablers of contagious content for dining blogs from a blog reader’s perspective. Creating contagious content helps to achieve the maximum benefits from blog marketing. Therefore, this study identifies the enablers of contagious blogs and models their interrelationships to aid dining bloggers in framing a consistently popular blog. Based on Berger’s six principles—social currency (S), triggers (T), emotion (E), public (P), practical value (P), and stories (S) (STEPPS)—13 main factors were first compiled through a literature review. Qualitative content analysis was then applied to extract the 31 enablers related to the main factors within the context of dining blogs. In order to identify the hierarchical relationships among the extracted enablers, this study applied interpretive structural modeling (ISM). Based on the results of ISM, cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) describes the driving and dependence behaviors of the enablers. The results of ISM and MICMAC show areas of priority on which dining bloggers should focus to create contagious content. The most important areas include emotional stimulation, storytelling, and gamification. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings were provided.