"Click on the Following Link to Join Our Channel”: Persuasion Techniques Deployed in “Channel Advertising” in Telegram and Eitaa Messengers

Social Networking Sites are playing a significant role in advertising. Besides the conventional commercial ads, a new type of advertising, called “channel ads” or “link exchange” is growing in Telegram and Eitaa messengers. Deploying a variety of persuasion techniques, these ads aim at persuading users to clink on the hyperlink and join the advertised channels. Given the novelty of the issue, the present study aimed at identifying the persuasion techniques deployed in “channel advertising”. The corpus consisted of 100 advertising posts in five popular Telegram and Eitaa channels. Content analysis of the posts revealed a variety of persuasion techniques including “Narratives”, “Promised land”, “Anchors’, “Attracting Titles”, “+18”, “Scarcity”, “ Fear Appeal”, and “ Special Target Group”. The findings of the study reveal that channel advertisers, like commercial advertisers, use or misuse target groups' needs, wants, desires as well as religious beliefs and values. The complexity of the virtual world definitely demands heightened attention to cultivating media literacy.