Who’s the Winner? A Comparative Study of Like, Comment and Share Functions in Consumers’ Purchase Intention between Facebook and Instagram
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Abstract
In the past few years, there has been a significant focus on investigating the
impact of social media engagement. Although previous studies recognize the importance
of social media engagement, there is still a lack of in-depth analysis regarding the specific
influences of likes, comments, and shares on consumer behaviour, especially concerning
how these engagements affect different platforms. This study aims to examine the
relationship between social media engagement metrics (likes, comments, and shares) and
consumer purchase intention on two prominent platforms, Facebook and Instagram. By
adopting a cross-sectional design, this study employed purposive sampling to gather data
from Malaysian university students who have engaged in purchasing activities on social
media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The analysis was conducted using
Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) based on 265 completed
responses, comprising 131 from Facebook users and 134 from Instagram users. The
results reveal a significant positive relationship between likes and shares with consumer
purchase intention on both Facebook and Instagram. However, comments were not found to be associated with consumer purchase intention on either platform. Furthermore, the
study conducted a comparative analysis between Facebook and Instagram and found no
significant differences in the relationships between engagement metrics and purchase
intention. These findings have practical implications for marketers, emphasizing
the importance of fostering engagement through likes and shares to drive consumer
purchasing behaviour on social media platforms.
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