Eudaimonic Effects of Social Media Use

Business managers acknowledge that social media has revolutionised the way brands engage with
their followers. Prior studies have focused on the different types of social media content:
informational (Nisar et al., 2019), promotional (Raji et al., 2019), entertaining (Stollfuß, 2020), and
community/social responsibility-related content (Dutot et al., 2016). Our paper presents a conceptual
framework built around the concept of eudaimonia. Drawing on the well-established theories of
eudaimonia and the broaden-and-build hypothesis, our model proposes that eudaimonic content —
content that is inspirational and meaningful to brand followers — may lead to positive outcomes for
both the brand and the broader community. This paper describes how eudaimonic content may
generate brand-related and prosocial behavioural intentions by triggering moral elevation in
audiences.
This paper makes a theoretical contribution by introducing the concept of eudaimonia and moral
elevation to a social media context. Moreover, our model has managerial implications. It highlights
the need to move beyond the well-established metrics commonly used in social media marketing. As
suggested by the model, the impact of a brand’s eudaimonic content on society is far-reaching. It
would be strategic for a brand manager to take it into account.