Employees’ work-related social media posts can serve as persuasive sources of organizational information. Limited research has shown, however, how such posts shape consumers’ evaluations of organizations. Across two experiments, we examine the impact of employees’ social media posts on consumers’ evaluations of the corporate reputation and their behavioral intentions toward the organization. The first experiment studies the role of work-related posts’ valence (positive vs. neutral vs. negative) and context (crisis vs. no crisis). A follow-up experiment exclusively considers positive posts, examining whether the external impact of employee ambassadorship differs depending on employees’ motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) to serve as organizational advocates. Results from the first experiment show that both negative and positive work-related posts substantially influence consumer attitudes and behaviors toward organizations, both under routine and crisis circumstances. The second experiment’s findings show that positive work-related posts are equally effective in intrinsically motivated (i.e., spontaneous) and extrinsically motivated (i.e., paid) circumstances. Organizations can therefore, both in routine and crisis situations, consider ways to stimulate employee ambassadorship on social media.

员工与工作相关的社交媒体帖子可以作为有说服力的组织信息来源。然而，有限的研究表明，此类帖子如何影响消费者对组织的评价。通过两项实验，我们研究了员工社交媒体帖子对消费者对公司声誉的评估及其对组织的行为意图的影响。第一个实验研究了与工作相关的职位的效价（积极、中立、消极）和背景（危机与无危机）的作用。后续实验专门考虑积极的职位，检查员工大使的外部影响是否因员工担任组织倡导者的动机（内在与外在）而不同。第一个实验的结果表明，无论是在日常情况还是危机情况下，与工作相关的消极和积极的职位都会极大地影响消费者对组织的态度和行为。第二个实验的结果表明，积极的与工作相关的职位在内在动机（即自发的）和外在动机（即付费）的情况下同样有效。因此，无论是在日常情况还是危机情况下，组织都可以考虑如何激发员工在社交媒体上的形象大使。