Sharing brands on social media: The roles of behavioural commitment and modality in identity shift

People who publicly exhibit behaviours on social media adjust their sense of self accordingly, a process known as identity shift. This manuscript reports on two experiments that extend identity shift research, applying it to consumer engagement with media brands on social media. In the first study (N = 150), participants liked or shared brands' social media posts using their own Facebook accounts. We tested actual behavioural commitment against merely thinking about sharing or liking the post, to provide a rigorous test of identity shift theory. Contrary to expectations, results showed no significant differences between behaviour and thought. Findings did show that users were more cautious in sharing (vs. liking) posts and were more likely to be influenced by their own sharing if they were relatively infrequent social media sharers. The second study (N = 338) extended this design to include Twitter and account for the roles of social media users' personality traits, perceptions of different social media platforms, and user choice and autonomy. Results revealed that liking on Twitter or sharing on Facebook produced more positive brand attitudes. Contrary to expectations, extroverts and those who perceived their online performance as more public reported less positive attitudes after actually sharing.