Relationship Cultivation via Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-cultural Comparison between China and the U.S.

The study explored the relationship cultivation and social media strategies companies used to maintain relationships with their publics in two culturally distinct markets of China and the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative content analysis of Weibo and Twitter posts from Fortune 500 companies in China and the U.S. respectively was conducted to examine the effects of these relational efforts on public engagement. Results showed that relationship cultivation strategies and use of social media functions effectively increased public engagement in both China and the U.S., although on different levels. Both Chinese and U.S. companies most frequently adopted the strategy of openness. However, it worked not as well as access in China, but was very effective in the U.S. Chinese publics also showed higher levels of engagement and more positive emotions to companies’ social media messages than their U.S. counterparts. The findings advance our understanding of organization-public relationships in a worldwide disaster setting, with insights informing the global public relations theory and practices.