Branding Practices in The New(Er) Media: A Comparison of Retailer Twitter and Web-Based Images

To date, there has been little empirical focus on how different online mediums affect the branding practices of retailers. In this working paper, I compare how specialty coffee retailers of different sizes use webpages and Twitter. I examine over 2800 unique images from 86 retailers using a quantitative content analysis that enumerates visual elements within pictures. I find that there are significant differences in the use of these two mediums in terms of retailer scale, and that based on their size, retailers display different types of images at much different proportions.