Developing UGC social brand engagement model: Insights from diverse consumers

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding the social influence of user‐generated content (UGC) to create social brand engagement (SBE) through social media has become a topic of major interest for both academics and marketers since the birth of online social networking. This study explores the social interaction of social media users (SMUs) involving brand‐related UGC, and the outcomes of this study show how SMUs' social interaction through UGC generates SBE in a fashion retail context. There is inadequate understanding regarding what the social motivational contexts of social actors are; these social motivational contexts can play a role in the social generation, exchange, and consumption of fashion brand‐related UGC. The present study intends to develop a UGC SBE model using the diverse insights of the customers of fashion brands. The present study opted for a social constructionist epistemological position using a qualitative research method. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in the UK with 32 customers of fashion brands. Findings highlighted that social responsibility, sharing experience, staying connected and updated, and reward sharing are the major motivational factors that lead to the generation, exchange, and consumption of UGC that would create SBE. Also, the findings revealed the SMUs, as social actors, who played a significant role in generating SBE through their social interaction with UGC in everyday life: frequent SMUs, celebrities, opinion leaders, and product users. Most importantly, it was found that expert opinion influence as identification and crowd opinion were recognised as internalisation social influencing factors that generate SBE. This study proposes a holistic conceptualisation in a “UGC SBE model” by considering: (a) the identification and (b) the internalisation types of social influence of UGC with respect to fashion brand engagement. NOMENCLATURE/ACRONYMS SMUs social media users UGC user‐generated content UK United Kingdom NVivo navigating viewpoints, images, and value observed SBE social brand engagement