Can TikTok Sound Enhance Tourism SMEs' Engagement?

This study explores the role of sound and its interaction with marketer-generated content (MGC) (i.e., emotional, informational, transactional) in influencing customer engagement (CE) (i.e., views and shares) in the context of tourism SMEs and TikTok. Content analysis was conducted to analyze data from 7 travel guide services in Indonesia. The final dataset comprised 660 TikTok videos, 4,092,289 views, and 10,920 shares. The results confirm that cover sound has no direct effect either on views or shares. Also, cover sound has no interaction effects with any MGC in impacting CE (i.e., views and shares). Individually, the MGC of emotional content has significant and positive effects on views, while informational and transactional posts have no significant effects on views. Further, transactional social media posts have significant and positive effects on shares, while informational and emotional posts have no significant effects on shares. Theoretically, this study expands content marketing and tourism CE literature by investigating factors driving CE in the context of tourism SMEs and TikTok. Practically, findings from this research can assist tourism SMEs in optimizing their content marketing strategies on TikTok.