Abstract
The rapid increase of social commerce has significantly transformed the strategies of businesses to reach and engage with their consumers on social media platforms such as TikTok. This study aimed to examine how scheduling content influences user engagement on TikTok, with attention, pleasure, and motivation as mediating factors within the setting of social commerce. The study utilized a quantitative-correlational research design involving TikTok users within Toledo City, Cebu, who had prior experience engaging in social commerce through TikTok features, specifically the TikTok shop. A total of 384 respondents were selected by utilizing purposive sampling. Data collection was performed through a structured survey questionnaire, and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and Spearman’s rank-order correlation to examine the relationship among scheduling content, psychological responses, and user engagement. The findings based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model revealed that browsing time served as the primary stimulus, while attention, pleasure, and motivation acted as mediating organism variables that resulted in influence user engagement on TikTok. These psychological responses expressed users’ engagement with scheduled content into user engagement behaviors such as liking, commenting, and sharing. Meanwhile, content type such as videos, text/information, and photos did not show a significant effect on users’ psychological responses (attention, pleasure, and motivation). As a result, content type did not influence user engagement. The study found that the timing and scheduling of content on TikTok posted during peak hours, specifically on Fridays for weekdays and Sundays for weekends, evening from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM, has greater significance than the content format itself (videos) in driving higher user engagement on TikTok. The results emphasize the importance of aligning scheduling content with periods of high user activity in terms of maximizing and enhancing social media content posting strategies.
Keywords: TikTok, Scheduling Content, Social Commerce. User Engagement, Stimulus–
Organism–Response (S-O-R) model
