Consumer Engagement In Social Media Research Articles

Consumers’ Journey toward Brand Loyalty Using Social Media Brand Community Engagement: A Case of Fashion Brands

Social media brand communities engage consumers and build relationships. This research aims to empirically investigate how consumer engagement in social media brand communities can be used to achieve branding outcomes. Fashion brands are divided into three categories clothing, shoes and bags, and accessories. Data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling based on a survey of 475 people who belong to social media brand communities of fashion brands. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesis. The study reveals Social Media Brand Engagement of consumers of fashion brands positively influences brand experience, brand image, trust, and loyalty. Furthermore, product type moderates the relationship between Social Media Brand Community Engagement and Brand Experience.

The effect of image–text matching on consumer engagement in social media advertising

We empirically examined the impact on consumer engagement of the matching of images and text, a format that is commonly used in product information advertising, by analyzing 322 advertisements posted by Estée Lauder on Sina Weibo between January 2020 and January 2021. The results indicated that when the external product information conveyed in the images matched the internal product attributes described in the text, this created cognitive coherence for consumers and promoted their engagement. Our findings provide guidance for brand managers to skillfully combine images and text in advertising to increase the engaging effect of social media advertisements on consumers.

How Online Incivility Affects Consumer Engagement Behavior on Brands’ Social Media

Research on consumer engagement in social media is flourishing. However, online incivility is rampant and its effect on consumer engagement is unknown. The current work posits long-term consumer engagement with a brand is decreased when consumer-to-consumer uncivil interactions take place on brands’ social media channels. Using behavioral data from Facebook, the first study documents that a consumer’s incivility to another consumer increases the victim’s engagement in the short term but decreases their engagement over the long term. Further, a brand’s response mitigates these effects. Two follow-up studies using scenario-based experiments provide evidence that consumer injustice perceptions mediate a confrontation coping strategy, while ostracism perceptions mediate an avoidance coping strategy. The experiments also evidence that a brand response mitigates some of the effects of incivility. However, an uncivil interaction from a brand advocate can ostracize a victim despite a brand response. Together, our work furthers consumer engagement and consumer incivility theory while also suggesting that practitioners should manage incivility on brands’ social media pages.

Social Media Engagement in Shaping Green Energy Business Models

Recent years have seen an increase in the role of social media in the communication of energy sector companies (ESCs) with consumers. Currently, consumers look for information, create it themselves, and share it with other Internet users. eWOM communication means that energy companies, firstly, must be present in social media so that consumers can get to know them better, and secondly, they must consciously shape their image according to the expectations of their customers. One-way communication, such as customer satisfaction measurements, is no longer enough to know their preferences. Market trends indicate that for current buyers—both consumer and non-consumer products—the image of a “green product” or a “green company” is expected. Only a few companies report that they are harmful for environment. All companies report that they are generally community friendly. The consumer would like to know, in particular, about the harmfulness to the environment. Thus, there is a knowledge gap that the companies are not filling. In addition to the advertised satisfaction indicators, you can also test customers’ perceptions of environmental responsibility. That is, the research and results in the area of social responsibility must also be accompanied by environmental responsibility. Therefore, the article aims to indicate whether the level of consumer engagement in social media affects the perception of the green energy business model and how the attitude and pro-environmental behavior of social media users affects this perception. The paper also identifies factors related to social media that influence the perception of ESCs.

Understanding consumer engagement in social media: The role of product lifecycle

More than 4 billion unique users are now using different social media platforms. This provides firms with a new avenue to connect and converse with their targeted customers in a dialogue fashion and create better customer engagement. Although customer engagement has been studied, no study to date has focused on the concept of customer engagement in social media through the lens of users' participation in (co)creation of content on social media. To that end, this study strives to conceptualize and validate the concept of customer engagement with a social media post, proposing a research model which investigates the effects of popularity, discourse logic and argument frame on customer engagement with a social media post. This study also investigates to what extent those effects vary by the product lifecycle stage and social media platform type, using secondary data extracted from Instagram and Twitter on a group of products (i.e., vehicles) at different lifecycle stages to address its research objective. This study's findings would help firms make better decisions on enhancing their customer engagement on social media platforms.

Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships through social media brand communities

ABSTRACT Consumer-brand identification and consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBC) are two of the concepts most highlighted in recent studies, as brand benefit facilitators. This study addresses the importance of these two concepts and their interaction effect on brand loyalty in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category. The results of the quantitative study show that in FMCG, consumer engagement in SMBC is driven by information searching, brand passion, feelings of community connection, and self-expression in the community. Consumer engagement and consumer-brand identification have positive impacts on brand trust and loyalty. The moderating effect of consumer–brand identification on the relationship between consumer engagement in SMBC and brand loyalty is negative, revealing that consumer engagement in social media brand communities has a stronger impact on brand loyalty when consumer-brand identification is low. This study showed the role of SMBC as a powerful communication medium, where brands and consumers can meet, and reach a mutual understanding of common needs and aspirations.

Developing Brand Loyalty through Consumer Engagement with Brand Communities in Social Media

Despite the importance of consumer engagement in social media, the theoretical meaning and dimensionality remain unclear to date. This paper addressed this void by proposing consumer engagement as a multi-dimensional model consisting of cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions and testing the model along with its antecedents (brand and product involvement) and consequence (brand loyalty) in the context of brand-hosted social media communities in South Korea. This study used a web-based survey method for data collection (N = 364). Results of SEM provided empirical evidence that supports consumer engagement as a three-dimensional construct. Further, both brand involvement and product involvement were found to positively influence all three dimensions of consumer engagement which further contribute to brand loyalty. This study contributes to the social media marketing literature by validating the three-dimensional model of consumer engagement within brand social media communities. Additionally, the results guide marketers to take consumer differences in product and brand involvement into account in facilitating consumer engagement with brand communities on social media.

Exploring the optimized social advertising strategy that can generate consumer engagement with green messages on social media

PurposeGiven that many consumers are skeptical about environmentally based advertising campaigns, the purpose of this study is to propose an optimized message strategy to facilitate consumer engagement with green messages in social media contexts.Design/methodology/approachFour empirical studies are conducted using self-report questionnaires to test proposed hypotheses with a focus on the interplay between claim specificity and benefit appeals in green advertising on social media.FindingsThe current study examines the interaction effects of claim specificity and benefit appeals on consumer engagement in social media. Specifically, the results reveal that when the message claim is abstract, using other-benefit appeals produces more positive consumer engagement than using self-benefit appeals. Moreover, the results illustrate that self-enhancement motivates consumers to engage with green product advertising messages when the advertising appeal is abstract and the advertising message is associated with benefits for others. Finally, it is found that consumers’ self-construal level moderates the interaction effect of claim specificity and benefit appeals type on consumer engagement on social media.Practical implicationsThis paper has practical implications to both social media managers and advertisers in the green product industry: a match with advertising claim specificity and construal level (i.e. social distance: self-benefit vs other-benefit) should be ensured to increase consumer engagement on social media. In addition, self-enhancement and self-construal should be considered for a better message strategy in social media contexts.Originality/valueThe findings make important contributions to the literature in that we extend the applications of construal level theory to social media contexts as a valid theoretical tool to identify optimized green message strategies. As such, it provides future researchers and practitioners in the domain of green campaigns with useful guidelines to boost more consumption of green products.

The Role of Brand Page Experiences on Consumer Engagement in Social Media

This study develops and empirically tests a comprehensive model of consumers'' brand page experiences that illuminates dynamics among perceived values (practical value, stimulation, enjoyment, and social identification), brand page engagement dimensions (cognitive engagement, affective engagement, and behavioral engagement) and brand loyalty. An online survey was employed for data collection. We collected 358 usable responses for data analysis. Structural equation modeling results show that three dimensions of perceived values (practical value, perceived enjoyment, and social identification) positively affect brand engagement dimensions, while perceived stimulation affects affective engagement only. As for the roles of brand page engagement, affective and behavioral engagement positively influence brand loyalty. This study demonstrates how consumers'' perceived values of brand page experience influence each dimension of brand page engagement and how each dimension has a different impact on brand loyalty. The results of this study provide substantive contributions to the consumers'' brand page experience and engagement literature and brand page management on social media for developing brand loyalty.

Consumers' Decision-Making Process on Social Commerce Platforms: Online Trust, Perceived Risk, and Purchase Intentions.

This study enhances the existing literature on the role of trust and online perceived risk in shaping consumer purchase decision-making in social commerce. The aim of this article is to investigate consumers’ purchase decision-making process, the determinant components of social commerce purchase intentions and attitudes, the effect of perceived risk on intention to go shopping in online settings, and consumer trust and buying behavior on online retailing platforms. The insights obtained from our research extend current knowledge as regards determinants of consumer attitudes and intentions toward online purchases, consumers’ perceived shopping risk and repurchase behavior when buying products online, and perceived consumer online trust and purchase decisions. Limited research has considered consumers’ decision-making processes on social commerce platforms by investigating how their perceptual attitudes, behavioral intentions, and immediate gratifications affect the purchase of products and services online. Our study addresses this gap and extends prior research by focusing on the relationship between online consumer purchase intention, social commerce adoption behavior, and consumers’ trust together with risk factors affecting online buying decisions, in light of the characteristics of source credibility. Our findings point toward important avenues of research on psychological determinants of consumer engagement in social media, decision mechanisms lying behind evaluation of prices, the types of perceived risk incurred, and online repurchasing behavior and intention on social commerce platforms. Subsequent directions should clarify whether adoption of mobile payment services may shape online consumers’ impulsive buying behavior and decision-making, especially under the influence of online product reviews.

Impact of consumer engagement on firm performance

PurposeThe aim of this study is to determine the impact of different dimensions of consumer engagement in social media on firm performance in social media.Design/methodology/approachBeyond likes and comments, combined with the interactive behavior of consumer engagement with firms on social media, we proposed a set of metrics for consumer engagement on social media, namely personal engagement, user-interactive engagement, and fan-interactive engagement. We used the fixed-effect model and validated the impact of consumer engagement in different dimensions on firm performance.FindingsThe result shows that personal engagement and user-interactive engagement significantly correlate with firm performance; however, the same effect was not observed in fan-interactive engagement.Originality/valuePrior researches on consumer engagement in social media are mainly about consumer engagement in firm-initiated social media page. In this study, we consider the consumer engagement behavior in firm-initiated and consumer-initiated social media pages, then validate the impact of different dimensions of consumer engagement on firm performance.

Online Engagement Factors on Instagram Local Fashion Brand Accounts

Instagram is one of the most popular social media among young people. Indeed, Instagram not only used as social media but also a marketing tool for local fashion brands. There are various phenomena of Instagram marketing, yet there is still a lack of explanation of why the phenomena happened. Therefore, to propose an active social media marketing in Instagram for local fashion brands, identification of consumer engagement in social media is necessary. The objective of this research is to identify the forms of communication in which consumers most enthusiastically interact with local fashion brands on Instagram and explore the correlation between Instagram contents of fashion brands with the engagement of the consumers. The researcher surveyed through an online questionnaire as a tool to collect the data with Instagram active users as the requirement for respondents. The researcher found out that the content type of post characteristics influences boosting customer engagement. In this research, the content type classified into entertainment, informative, and remuneration posts. Each content type has different results in controlling customer engagement. Among the three classifications of content types, entertainment content type has the most substantial influence on customer engagement. Therefore, local fashion brands are recommended to utilize their marketing strategy by creating more entertainment content type, among other types on Instagram.
 Keywords: Instagram, social media marketing, content type, customer engagement.

Linking FOMO and Smartphone Use to Social Media Brand Communities

Social media brand communities provide firms with the necessary apparatus to develop and maintain relationships. This study explores the effect of fear of missing out (FOMO) and smartphone use on consumer engagement in social media brand communities, which the study hypothesizes to affect consumer loyalty. Data from 279 social media brand community (SMBC) participants were analyzed. Findings reveal that both fear of missing out and smartphone use influence consumer engagement, which in turn influences consumer loyalty in social media brand communities. Furthermore, smartphone use was found to mediate the impact of fear of missing out on consumer engagement.

Consumer engagement in social media: scale comparison analysis

PurposeEngagement is a construct that varies according to the subject, object and context; this has been used to justify the coexistence of a variety of construct definitions and scales. Instead of proposing a new scale, this paper aims to create a procedure for comparing scales and to use it to evaluate brand engagement measures in social media.Design/methodology/approachThis study first defines a procedure for the selection, standardization and comparison of scales; this procedure considers both the classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). The authors apply the procedure in a survey of 233 respondents to compare three scales for measuring consumer engagement with brands in social media.FindingsThe establishment of a procedure for scale comparison is useful in assisting researchers to choose specific measures. Results showed that the three scales have similar characteristics, but Vivek et al.’s (2014) scale is recommended when better discrimination between construct dimensions is required, Hollebeek et al.’s (2014) scale could be used as a one-dimensional scale and Dessart et al.’s (2016) reduced scale has better ability to capture information for the affective and cognitive dimensions. None of the scales were very efficient in discriminating weakly and strongly engaged individuals.Originality/valueThis study makes a substantive contribution by proposing a procedure for scale comparison that considers CTT and IRT and shows the advantages, limitations and recommendations for using three different scales of consumer engagement.

Brand engagement in self‐concept and consumer engagement in social media: The role of the source

AbstractThis three‐group between‐subjects experimental research investigates the extent to which consumer engagement with a social media branded post is directly affected by individuals’ tendency to incorporate brands as part of their self‐concept (BESC) and whether this relationship is moderated by individuals’ exposure to three different post source types. Participants were exposed to one of three Instagram social media posts of a luxury brand, where the only manipulated factor was the type of source. Findings show that there is a positive relationship between BESC and post engagement. The study also shows that content source plays a moderating role in the relationship between BESC and post engagement, such that individuals with high BESC will engage significantly more with content posted by other users, compared with branded sources (brand, influencer).

When will consumers be ready? A psychological perspective on consumer engagement in social media brand communities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain whether consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBCs) motivates consumer brand loyalty; and second, to explore the antecedents of consumer engagement by developing a model based on personal engagement theory. Design/methodology/approach Online survey data from 279 brand community members of Weibo (one of the most popular social media websites in China) were used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was performed to test both the measurement model and the structural model. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the interaction effects. Findings The findings show that three factors, namely, recognition, community identification and self-efficacy, had significant positive effects on consumer engagement in SMBCs, which consequently enhanced brand loyalty. Self-efficacy moderated the effects of both community identification and recognition on consumer engagement. The impacts of three factors on consumer engagement are contingent upon the type of SMBCs. Originality/value This study extends and advances the literature on consumer engagement by explaining consumer engagement in SMBCs from a new theoretical lens. This study also enriches personal engagement theory by investigating the effects of the interaction between different conditions of engagement. In addition, this study contributes to brand loyalty literature by providing empirical evidence of the impact of consumer engagement on brand loyalty. Finally, this study contributes to the online brand community study by introducing personal engagement theory into SMBC context, and examining the moderating role of SMBC types.

Football clubs’ social media use and user engagement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is threefold: to measure and compare the degree of social media use (SMU) by football clubs, to assess football fans’ engagement with content posted by football clubs (FCs) and to evaluate differences in user engagement with commercial social media advertisement targeting football fans, based on the advertisements’ appeal.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs three approaches. First, it uses the corporate social media use (CSMU) model to analyse 20,954 Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter postings from 78 European FCs. Second, it develops a categorisation for social media postings and uses ANOVA and Scheffè tests to conduct a pairwise comparison. Third, it uses a fictional hedonic low-involvement product (chocolate bar) to conduct an experiment by creating a Facebook advertising campaign with three advertisements that are manipulated regarding their general appeal.FindingsStudy 1 demonstrates that individual FCs show big differences between their degree of SMU. There are, however, no differences between European leagues, social media platforms, or more/less successful FCs. The results of Study 2 indicate that social media users like, comment and share postings by FCs independently of the content of the posting. Study 3 reveals that both user engagement and reach of advertisements can be substantially increased by employing football-related appeals.Originality/valueThis paper helps understanding consumer engagement in social media. The results presented are relevant and helpful for a multitude of actors, including FCs and other sports clubs, companies targeting football fans and researchers interested in social media and sports marketing.

Re-examining of consumers’ responses toward social media advertising and purchase intention toward luxury products from 2013 to 2018: A retrospective commentary

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this retrospective commentary is to re-examine what we know about consumers’ response toward social media advertising and purchase intention toward luxury products, as well as review how researchers have cited this article. This commentary is organized as follows. First, it discusses the unique contributions of our article that causes its high impact in the literature. Second, it examines the topic of social media and luxury brands from today’s perspective. Third, we offer our interpretation of the use in the literature of our study and categorize the literature into three areas: luxury brand marketing and consumer engagement in social media; beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral responses toward social media advertising; and the state of knowledge on luxury brands and fashion advertising. Lastly, this commentary offers ideas in luxury brand advertising and marketing research and new trends in luxury brand digital strategies through social media.

Antecedents and Consequences of Consumer Engagement in Social Media

This study investigates perceived social presence, perceived interactivity, perceived enjoyment, and perceived trust as antecedents of consumer engagement. We measured the attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty as consequences of consumer engagement in social media. Our findings suggest that perceptions of social presence, enjoyment, and trust are significantly related to consumer engagement. Conversely, perceived interactivity has no positive influence on consumer engagement. In addition, consumer engagement is found to have a significant impact on both attitudinal and behavioral brand loyalty. The study revealed that, in the modified model, covariance paths among the proposed antecedents of consumer engagement (namely the perceived social presence, interactivity, enjoyment, and trust) are statistically significant. In this paper, we also discuss limitations of the study and future research.

An experiential model of consumer engagement in social media

Purpose This study aims to propose an experiential model of consumer engagement focusing on Facebook brand pages. Building on the brand experience literature, the study synthesizes the experiential affordances of Facebook brand pages along perceptual, social, epistemic and embodied dimensions and tests their impact on consumer engagement. Design/methodology/approach The study operationalized key variables of the proposed model at the brand page level and assembled pertinent data, using systematic content analysis, on a sample of Facebook brand pages (n = 85). Poisson regression tested the proposed model. Findings The findings indicate that brands that facilitate greater number of experiential affordances on their Facebook brand pages generated higher levels of consumer engagement. For both brand post likes and brand post shares, the contributions of experiential affordances were significant and positive. Practical implications The findings offer actionable managerial insights for brands seeking to implement an experiential model of consumer engagement on their fan pages. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by proposing and testing an experiential model of consumer engagement in the context of Facebook brand pages. To date, the experiential value of Facebook brand pages has rarely, if at all, been tested in an empirical study.