Effect of the use of figurative language in social media messages on consumer engagement: an empirical investigation on airline brands in Türki̇ye

In today's competitive market environment, one of the problems faced by brands that use social media effectively is how to increase consumer engagement. Although many studies have proven that brand content types play an important role in engagement, the importance and impact of figurative language elements in the content has not been addressed yet. The aim of this study is to determine the possible effects of the use of figurative language elements by Turkish airline Instagram and Facebook official pages, on the consumer engagement. Using the brand-consumer communication within the framework of the Encoding/decoding Model and Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study examines 1230 airline Instagram and 1687 Facebook posts with the Multiple Linear Regression Model. As a result of the research, idioms and personifications used in Instagram posts and idioms, personifications and similes in Facebook posts were found to affect consumer engagement at various levels. T-Test method was also used to find an answer to the question of whether the reactions of consumers to figurative language content within the Uses and Gratifications Framework varies across social media platform. In this respect, the result show that consumer engagement differs according to the social medi aplatform. The findings provide clues as to how metaphorical language elements to be used in the online environment affect engagement, as well as practical benefits and tips on how to design content in social media marketing communication.