From stuff to stories: how serial sharing of material versus experiential content shapes personal brand evaluation

Xiaoyang Zhang, Chenhan Ruan, Zhihuang Lu and Xia Wei

Nankai Business Review International, 2026, 1-24

Abstract: PurposeIn social media, the cultivation of personal brands often relies on serial content sharing practices, among which material and experiential content constitute two primary categories. This study aims to examine how serial sharing of material versus experiential content influences consumers’ perception of para-social interaction and personal brand evaluation.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted. Study 1 employed a scenario experiment to manipulate serial sharing of material versus experiential content. Study 2 and Study 3 adopt a between-subjects experimental design to examine the moderating roles of theme consistency and identity relevance, respectively.FindingsThe results indicate that sharing serial experiential content leads to higher personal brand evaluation than sharing serial material content. Besides, para-social interaction plays a mediating role in the above relationship (Study 1–2). Moreover, low theme consistency among serial posts dampens the superiority effect of serial experiential content (Study 2), as the disjointed content impedes para-social interaction. In addition, strong identity relevance undermines the relative advantage of serial experiential content (Study 3), since it aligns material content with self-concept to drive greater para-social interaction.Originality/valueFirst, this study reconciles inconsistent findings on experiential versus material content efficacy by demonstrating that experiential content dominates in serial content contexts, a scenario overlooked in prior research focusing on single-piece content exposure. Second, it extends para-social interaction theory to explain how serial content sharing shapes personal brand evaluation, whereas prior research relied primarily on identity signal to account for such effects in nonsequential setttings. Moreover, this study identifies theme consistency and identity relevance as two critical boundary conditions to show the variation effects for the above relationship. Finally, it offers actionable insights for information sharing and personal branding.

Keywords: Material content; Experiential content; Personal brand evaluation; Para-social interaction; Theme consistency; Identity relevance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:nbripp:nbri-08-2025-0108

DOI: 10.1108/NBRI-08-2025-0108

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