Are provocative social media posts an effective way for new businesses to engage audiences online?

In the highly competitive world of online social media, engaging an audience is a significant challenge for new businesses. One effective strategy, utilized by renowned “superstar entrepreneurs” like Elon Musk, involves posting provocative comments on Twitter.

However, the success of this strategy for start-ups depends on various factors, according to research conducted by Macquarie University Business School.

The study analyzed 369,142 Twitter posts generated by 268 US-based technology start-ups using data from the Crunchbase website. The researchers focused on the social media behavior of founders before and after they secured venture capital funding.

Associate Professor Erik Lundmark, the director of research, explains, “We discovered that if ‘low status’ start-ups, which had not received venture funding, posted provocative tweets, they experienced a decrease in audience engagement. On the other hand, start-ups that had received venture funding saw an increase in engagement when their provocative tweets contained specific language.”

Securing venture capital funding is considered a significant event, indicating the quality and status of a venture. Lundmark notes, “Given the intense competition for VC funding, the endorsement received through securing funding elevates a venture’s status, making provocative language more effective in attracting audience engagement.” The research findings are published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

In general, provocation is believed to drive engagement online, particularly on social media platforms. However, previous research has primarily focused on well-established organizations, high-status actors like politicians, and established brands. The researchers aimed to understand if new ventures could replicate the success of these high-status actors by using provocative language.

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is known for his frequent use of provocative language on social media. His tweets, even those where he calls people names like “pedophiles” or “idiots”, generate attention and drive audience interaction, retweets, and responses. Musk currently has 149 million followers on Twitter, having acquired the company for $44 billion in 2022.

In this study, provocative language was defined as language that breaks rules, expresses aggression or violence, involves law-breaking, includes swear words, or is antagonistic. While using such language can generate audience reaction, it also carries the risk of attracting negative responses.

When start-ups received funding and achieved “high status”, their provocative comments tended to increase audience engagement in terms of likes and retweets.

Prior research has established the value of new ventures engaging with their audience to gain support, promote their business and products, and attract investment. However, limited research has been conducted on how to effectively engage with social media platforms.

Warning for “edgelords”

The researchers emphasize that their study focused on provocative language because it represents a prominent and widely discussed phenomenon on social media.

They caution individuals who adopt a deliberately provocative persona, referred to as “edgelords”, that recurring provocations aimed at generating engagement may have long-term detrimental effects. However, since the study focused solely on new ventures and Twitter, one should be cautious when applying these findings to other contexts.

Further research could explore how people react to provocation based on the perceived status of the actor, considering factors such as gender or ethnicity. Additionally, it would be interesting to investigate the impact of negative comments compared to positive comments and whether negative attention is more advantageous than no attention at all.

It’s worth noting that Lundmark’s study only considered tweets, and future research could examine how different social media platforms, such as Threads, affect audience engagement.

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