Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective

Qiping Wang; Raymond Yiu Keung Lau; Xiong Zhang

doi:10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548

Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective

Qiping Wang
, Raymond Yiu Keung Lau
, Xiong Zhang

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

26 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Purpose – This study investigates the impact of social media usage on the career outcomes of senior executives at S&P 1500 firms.
Design/methodology/approach – This study integrates signaling, social capital and human capital theories, and adopts a difference-in-differences analysis, enhanced by a novel deep learning-based method. It examines how senior executives' impression management (IM) activities on social media influence their career outcomes.
Findings – Empirical results reveal that senior executives' IM in the form of establishing a Twitter account and engaging in visibility-enhancing activities (i.e. frequent work-related tweeting, hashtagging, mentioning and receiving a high number of likes and retweets) can significantly improve their career outcomes. In addition, as a type of visual IM, the strategic use of visual IM through profile photos also plays a critical role in attracting employers' attention.
Practical implications – Senior executives, especially those with low public visibility, can leverage social media to build a personal brand and use IM strategies to boost career prospects. Employers and executive recruiters may incorporate social media content into candidate evaluations.
Originality/value – This work contributes to the literature by systematically examining how senior executives utilize both textual and visual IM strategies on social media to influence career prospects.

© Emerald Publishing Limited

Original language	English
Number of pages	23
Journal	Internet Research
Online published	16 Dec 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548
Publication status	Online published - 16 Dec 2025

Funding

This paper is based on research presented at International Conference on Information Systems 2024; ICIS 2024) (Wang, Q., Lau, R. and Zhang, X. (2024) Navigating the Corporate Ladder: The Impact of Social Media Engagement on Senior Executives’ Promotions, https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2024/socmedia_ digcollab/socmedia_digcollab/4/). Wang’s work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project: 72201100) and the Shanghai Pujiang Program (Project: 22PJC036). Lau’s work was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR (Project No.: CityU 11507323). Zhang’s work was supported by grants from the Beijing Social Science Foundation (Grant 23GLB012). Emerald does not grant permission for this paper to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Publishing Limited.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Research Keywords

Difference-in-differences
Facial attractiveness
Impression management
Managerial labor market
Social media

Publisher's Copyright Statement

COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: © Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher. Wang, Q., Lau, R. Y. K., & Zhang, X. (2025). Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective. Internet Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

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10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548

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title = "Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective",

abstract = "Purpose – This study investigates the impact of social media usage on the career outcomes of senior executives at S\&P 1500 firms. Design/methodology/approach – This study integrates signaling, social capital and human capital theories, and adopts a difference-in-differences analysis, enhanced by a novel deep learning-based method. It examines how senior executives' impression management (IM) activities on social media influence their career outcomes. Findings – Empirical results reveal that senior executives' IM in the form of establishing a Twitter account and engaging in visibility-enhancing activities (i.e. frequent work-related tweeting, hashtagging, mentioning and receiving a high number of likes and retweets) can significantly improve their career outcomes. In addition, as a type of visual IM, the strategic use of visual IM through profile photos also plays a critical role in attracting employers' attention. Practical implications – Senior executives, especially those with low public visibility, can leverage social media to build a personal brand and use IM strategies to boost career prospects. Employers and executive recruiters may incorporate social media content into candidate evaluations. Originality/value – This work contributes to the literature by systematically examining how senior executives utilize both textual and visual IM strategies on social media to influence career prospects. {\textcopyright} Emerald Publishing Limited",

keywords = "Difference-in-differences, Facial attractiveness, Impression management, Managerial labor market, Social media",

author = "Qiping Wang and Lau, \{Raymond Yiu Keung\} and Xiong Zhang",

year = "2025",

month = dec,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548",

language = "English",

journal = "Internet Research",

issn = "1066-2243",

publisher = "Emerald Publishing Limited",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media

T2 - an impression management perspective

AU - Wang, Qiping

AU - Lau, Raymond Yiu Keung

AU - Zhang, Xiong

PY - 2025/12/16

Y1 - 2025/12/16

N2 - Purpose – This study investigates the impact of social media usage on the career outcomes of senior executives at S&P 1500 firms. Design/methodology/approach – This study integrates signaling, social capital and human capital theories, and adopts a difference-in-differences analysis, enhanced by a novel deep learning-based method. It examines how senior executives' impression management (IM) activities on social media influence their career outcomes. Findings – Empirical results reveal that senior executives' IM in the form of establishing a Twitter account and engaging in visibility-enhancing activities (i.e. frequent work-related tweeting, hashtagging, mentioning and receiving a high number of likes and retweets) can significantly improve their career outcomes. In addition, as a type of visual IM, the strategic use of visual IM through profile photos also plays a critical role in attracting employers' attention. Practical implications – Senior executives, especially those with low public visibility, can leverage social media to build a personal brand and use IM strategies to boost career prospects. Employers and executive recruiters may incorporate social media content into candidate evaluations. Originality/value – This work contributes to the literature by systematically examining how senior executives utilize both textual and visual IM strategies on social media to influence career prospects. © Emerald Publishing Limited

AB - Purpose – This study investigates the impact of social media usage on the career outcomes of senior executives at S&P 1500 firms. Design/methodology/approach – This study integrates signaling, social capital and human capital theories, and adopts a difference-in-differences analysis, enhanced by a novel deep learning-based method. It examines how senior executives' impression management (IM) activities on social media influence their career outcomes. Findings – Empirical results reveal that senior executives' IM in the form of establishing a Twitter account and engaging in visibility-enhancing activities (i.e. frequent work-related tweeting, hashtagging, mentioning and receiving a high number of likes and retweets) can significantly improve their career outcomes. In addition, as a type of visual IM, the strategic use of visual IM through profile photos also plays a critical role in attracting employers' attention. Practical implications – Senior executives, especially those with low public visibility, can leverage social media to build a personal brand and use IM strategies to boost career prospects. Employers and executive recruiters may incorporate social media content into candidate evaluations. Originality/value – This work contributes to the literature by systematically examining how senior executives utilize both textual and visual IM strategies on social media to influence career prospects. © Emerald Publishing Limited

KW - Difference-in-differences

KW - Facial attractiveness

KW - Impression management

KW - Managerial labor market

KW - Social media

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U2 - 10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548

DO - 10.1108/INTR-10-2024-1548

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 1066-2243

JO - Internet Research

JF - Internet Research

ER -

Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

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GRF: Multimodal Data Augmentation-enhanced Deep Learning Framework for Corporate Credit Risk Assessment

Cite this

Empowering senior executives' career outcomes through social media: an impression management perspective

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Projects

GRF: Multimodal Data Augmentation-enhanced Deep Learning Framework for Corporate Credit Risk Assessment

Cite this