Facebook Brand Pages Research Articles

Social Recommendations for Facebook Brand Pages

The objective of this research is to bridge the gap by proposing a content-based framework that is specifically designed to operate in social media environment. This study proposed a recommendation framework that integrated the features of brand pages and information on user behavior on brand pages. Data were obtained from 2,076 official brand pages in Taiwan, and a total of 500,000 interaction data were obtained and processed. Decision trees were used to classify brand pages and detect features that facilitate distinguishing among brand pages. Our method involved a simple training procedure with no restriction to a particular classifier learning algorithm and yields improved results on data sets extracted from a considerable number of Facebook brand pages. The results represented the diversity of social media user criteria in evaluating whether an activity is interesting to users. Moreover, these prevalent features indicate that brand pages distinguish themselves from others through their willingness to engage and interact with users. These findings not only enabled using brand page recommendation models for facilitating the selection of the most suitable brand page, but also useful for researchers seeking to develop a recommendation system for social media.

The effect of corporate social responsibility content on consumer engagement behaviours on Facebook brand pages in Egypt

The purpose of this paper is to study how companies communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on their Facebook pages, and it also investigates the impact of this content type on consumer engagement behaviours. Based on content analysis of the biggest twenty corporate Facebook pages in Egypt, it was found that these companies focus on non-CSR posts more than CSR posts. However, the findings showed that the CSR posts received the highest number of likes, comments and shares if compared to other content types. This article provides social media managers with some guidelines for effective posting strategies when adopting Facebook marketing. Specifically, it recommends that corporations use this social network to communicate CSR practices to consumers. Since the adoption of Facebook in CSR activities by many corporations is a relatively new practice, this article provides practitioners with some guidelines to follow.

The Motivation, Strategies, and Barriers for Adopting Social Media Marketing in the Flower Retailing Business

Florists have been adopting social media as a new marketing instrument to promote their business. However, academic research has rarely looked into the existing state of that adoption. Consequently, several fundamental problems remain unknown regarding the application of social media marketing (SMM) among florists, which may limit the development of the flower retailing business in the current social media era. In seeking to address this deficiency, this study aimed to investigate florists’ motivations, strategies, and perceived performance in relation to the application of SMM, as well as to explore the barriers faced by florists regarding the adoption of SMM. The authors implemented these objectives by interviewing 35 flower shop owners who each had established a brand page on Facebook. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using a grounded hermeneutic editing approach. The study’s results revealed that even though there were different motivations for florists to adopt social media marketing, including increasing brand exposure, improving customer relationship, and reducing the cost of advertising, showing expertise in floral design to attract consumers was the most common motivation stressed by the interviewees. The strategies mostly used by florists in managing their Facebook brand pages included providing high quality posts, cross-industry advertising, and switching consumers from online questions to a physical store visit. The most significant benefit perceived by florists regarding the use of a Facebook brand page was the development of new customers. Although the interviewees recognized the benefits of adopting SMM, some of them faced great incompatibility in labor source for that adoption. In addition, most interviewees focused on achieving general marketing goals rather than more advanced functions, such as business intelligence, in the application of SMM. The study results implied that the interviews mostly saw Facebook brand pages as a social network platform for increasing current sales volume, rather than for reaching a long-term quality customer relationship, which has deviated from the essence of social media marketing, and thus, limiting the synergy of the application of SMM in the flower retail sector.

Thematic analysis of destination images for social media engagement marketing

PurposeThis study assessed the effect of photo themes to facilitate social media user engagement in Facebook brand pages and emphasized the important role of designing images for developing destination marketing strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzed 8,900 posts that were published by official tourism destination marketers for each destination (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea). Text mining analysis, image thematic coding analysis and two-way ANOVA were applied to examine the significant differences across proposed determinants for the following engagements: the numbers of likes, comments and shares.FindingsThe results indicated that photographs on social media of three tourism destinations can be explored based on 11 categories of image themes. The themes' significant and distinct effects on three indicators of social media engagement were verified.Originality/valueThis research presented methodological insights by integrating thematic and statistical analyses with social media analytics. The findings of this study provided theoretical evidence of the importance of image themes in the context of social media engagement marketing. Based on the implications of this study, practitioners would enhance the effectiveness of social media marketing.

Brand and consumer engagement behaviors on Facebook brand pages: Let's have a (positive) conversation

This paper examines consumer-brand engagement on social media, focusing on the dynamic interplay between brands and consumers as well as among consumers themselves. In addition to liking and sharing behaviors, we look at what influences consumers to provide feedback to brands by commenting on brand posts, connect with other consumers by replying to their comments and agree with other consumers by liking their comments and replies. Drawing on a large longitudinal dataset from 2740 Facebook brand pages across 25 industries, a multilevel multivariate autoregressive zero-inflated negative binomial model is used to examine how brand post and response behaviors are related to specific consumer engagement behaviors. Results show that the amount of brand posts indirectly affects consumer comments through increased liking and sharing, but with diminishing returns. Liking is key as it increases positive and attenuates negative feedback, whereas sharing is associated with both positive and negative consumer-brand comments. Posting photos and videos encourages liking, with photos having increasing returns. Videos are the only format with a direct positive influence on consumer-brand comments, though with decreasing effect. Brand replies to consumer comments, even delayed ones, have little effect on negative conversations but prompt replies would be more beneficial as they bolster positive consumer comments. Moreover, our findings provide evidence for both a “positivity spiral” and “negativity spiral”, with the negativity spiral stronger than the positivity one. Taken together, these findings shed light on how marketers can stimulate positive conversations between brands and consumers on social media.

Managing marketing communications

PurposeThis study aims to focus on customer-initiated contact (CIC) discourse on Facebook brand pages. It concentrates on how brands manage CIC on Facebook when customers are more concerned with brand communications than product-related issues, price or distribution. A research framework from the perspective of consumer-initiated touch-point communication model is proposed.Design/methodology/approachTwo case studies of Israeli TV ads are examined. Discourse between customers and brands on the Facebook pages of the latter are analyzed. Research was conducted in three phases: data collection, quantitative content analysis and thematic analysis.FindingsIt was demonstrated that customers use Facebook as a discourse platform for TV commercial brand advertising. However, brands are not always prepared to engage in online CIC involving advertising issues. The reply rate is moderate and the reply manner is not consistent, tending to be characterized as “official and dismissive.”Research limitations/implicationsData collection used a sample of two case studies. However, they generated rich findings, enough to support the purpose of the study.Originality/valueThis paper expands the contemporary CIC point of view and adds an integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective. It extends the perception of CIC from product-level customer service to brand-level discourse. Finally, it fills the research gap by using a research tool based on consumer-initiated touch-point communication model. Theoretical and practical implications are presented.

Consumer engagement behaviour over time on Fitness tracker Facebook brand pages: Effect of post characteristics, message appeals and marketing promotions

Consumer engagement behaviour over time on Fitness tracker Facebook brand pages: Effect of post characteristics, message appeals and marketing promotions

Building relationships through customer engagement in Facebook brand pages

Purpose Social media brand pages have emerged as an influential relationship-building tool and continue to grow in popularity as an integral part of the marketing strategy across diverse industries. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for building relationships through customer engagement in Facebook brand pages (FBPs). Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 327 undergraduate Facebook users in Sri Lanka, the conceptual model of the study depicting relationships between eight latent constructs, is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS 21 statistical software. Findings The data analysis reveals that customer engagement with FBPs is positively influenced by customer motivations; information, remuneration, social interaction and personal identity in apparel/fashion, FMCG and hotel/restaurant FBPs. However, the relationship between entertainment motive and customer engagement is found to be insignificant. Additionally, customer engagement is found to be positively related to FBP trust and FBP commitment. Further, the study highlights that the different types of FBPs are guided by different relationship principles. Hence, the strength of the relationships between customer motivations and customer engagement, and, further, the relationships between customer engagement and FBP-specific relationship outcomes are dependent upon the type of the FBP. Moreover, customer engagement is found to be mediating the relationships between motivations (information, remuneration, social interaction and personal identity) and FBP trust. Practical implications The study provides strategies for FBP marketers. It emphasizes the value of FBPs as an effective marketing tool to build up relationships with customers. Marketers are advised to identify and address what customers expect from the FBPs to engage them on FBPs and strengthening their relationship with the FBP itself. Originality/value The study provides insights into the nature of engagement in FBPs by incorporating the motivations and FBP-specific relationship outcomes of customer engagement in a single framework. The study focuses on the development of a framework explaining the role of customer engagement in building customer relationships with the FBP itself, rather than with the brand.

Do We Know What Contents Work for Social Commerce? A Case of Customer Engagement in Facebook Brand Pages

Social commerce is e-commerce empowered by social media. Good content strategy that takes into account what customers value is important to success, but very little is known about proper content types. The goal of this study was thus to understand the role of post quantity and content types in customer engagement on Facebook pages using content analysis to collect qualitative data and quantitative data. Content types were categorized into two categories and nine sub-categories according to the 4Ps theory along with uses and gratifications theory. More than 1,500 posts from 183 brand pages were analyzed to examine the relationships between overall posts per page in a week, the page’s engagement, and popularity. The results represent the first attempts to explore content types with various established theories. The findings of this study could reflect the post types of brand pages by industries and guide brand page administrators toward effective content strategy. To cite this document: Mathupayas Thongmak, Do We Know What Contents Work for Social Commerce? A Case of Customer Engagement in Facebook Brand Pages, International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, Vol.10, No.2, pp.141-174, 2019. Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.7903/ijecs.1602

What You Post is What You Get: The Mediator Role of Reached Individuals in the Causal Relationship among Posted Content Types and Follower Counts on Facebook

Abstract This paper discusses the causal relationships among posted content types, the number of reached individuals and follower counts of a Facebook brand page by investigating the communication forms of a Hungarian Twitch.tv live streamer. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for the analyses’ distributional properties is followed by the Kruskal-Wallis H test, which determines significant differences in content types in terms of their total reach, reaction, comment and share counts. The Kendall’s tau-b tests are performed for the examination of interrelationships among the retrieved Facebook metrics. Furthermore, mediation analysis is conducted, wherein the antecedent role is taken by post type, the follower count appears as a consequent variable and the total reach count takes the mediator role in the proposed model. The results of the analysis conclude that the analysed Facebook metrics display statistically significant, strong and positive correlations with one another; additionally, post type has a strong, significant and direct influence on reached individuals and although they do not show a significant, direct influence on follower count, they display a significant, total effect on it. The paper thereby contributes to the existing online brand personality and gaming research, offering value to the research domain of online marketing and communication as well.

Influence of Content Type Over Online Engagement on Facebook Brand Pages of SMEs

The purpose of this study is to analyse how various dimensions brand post characteristics, such as vividness, novelty and content type, influence the online engagement on Facebook brand pages managed by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. A sample of 162 brand posts published by 10 brand pages managed by SMEs in India for a selected time period between 1 April and 1 June 2019. Poisson regression models were deployed to analyse the collected data and assess the effect of these brand post characteristics on online engagement. The findings of this study not only contribute to the existing literature but also will help the SMEs to craft their content strategy for social media marketing in Indian context.

Users’ Participation in Facebook Brand Pages and Its Influence on Word-of-Mouth: The Role of Brand Knowledge and Brand Relationship

Due to developments in social media, brands have integrated social networking sites (SNSs) as an important part of their communication mix. This change calls for studies that help to understand the role of SNS in the communication mix through further investigating their effects on brands and acknowledging their influencing triggers. Concerning that, previous studies have associated the use of SNS to effects on word-of-mouth (WoM), with SNS contributing as a tool skilled for generating conversations about the brand. The current study focusses on investigating the triggers of these effects. In previous research, WoM was accepted as being triggered by constructs related to the effects of SNS on increasing users’ knowledge of the brand and improving perceived relationship value. Despite their relevance, studies in SNS so far have not yet explored these approaches in an integrative manner. So researchers and managers could better understand how these dimensions behave in relation to each other in triggering WoM. The current study addresses this research gap, proposing an integrative perspective that combines brand knowledge and brand relationship constructs while investigating the effects of SNS on WoM. Direct and indirect effects are proposed with mediating relations being supported by the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and social exchange theory (SET). Two surveys were implemented, with 203 and 550 valid responses obtained. Results were analyzed using structural equation modelling. Findings support the relevance of brand relationship variables (trust and affective commitment) in influencing WoM, with trust assuming a pivotal role. Moreover, triggers related to brand knowledge also influence WoM, with brand awareness and attitude driving significant effects. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Role of Skepticism and Message Elaboration in Determining Consumers’ Response to Cause-Related Marketing Claims on Facebook Brand Pages

This study explores whether the negative effects of consumer skepticism toward cause-related marketing communications can be lessened through emotional messaging and heuristic cues such as the number of likes and followers on a Facebook brand page. Results of an eye-tracking experiment (N = 197) indicated that although skepticism prohibited consumers’ message elaboration, (i.e., the extent to which a person carefully considers a message), highly skeptical consumers still considered the message credible through close attention to the heuristic cues. This study is among the first to validate consumers’ defense mechanisms by demonstrating how consumer skepticism prohibits their attention and cognitive elaboration.

The Vicious Cycle of Responding to Negative Comments on Social Media Brand Pages: A Quasi-Experiment with Facebook Policy Change and Machine Learning

In the offline world, firms often benefit from responding to consumer complaints. However, the effect of responding to negative comments on social media in the online environment is unclear. A direct firm response may address the negative experience and reduce similar complaints, but such responses are also observable to others engaging with the brand on social media and thus may fuel them to imitate the negative sentiment and complain even more. The authors explore this vicious cycle by analyzing the exogenous Facebook policy change that facilitates firms and users to directly respond to negative comments posted on brand pages. The results indicate that in the wake of Facebook’s revised policy, firms’ responses to negative comments on social media brand pages increase the volume of negative posts and intensify the negative tone directed at firms in the airline, automotive, and hotel industries. This vicious cycle manifests through an “economic” mechanism such that the adverse impact becomes more severe when firms offer financial compensation in their response content on Facebook brand pages. This study contributes to the literature by assessing the impact of firm response to complaints on one of the largest social media platforms, Facebook. Our findings help account for the mixed findings in previous research with respect to the effect of managerial response. In addition, this study introduces a machine learning technique to account for emoticons, linguistic rules, and sentence contexts for unstructured social media data analytics. The findings caution managers against traditional complaint-handling tactics in the new era of social media marketing.

The effect of greenwashing on online consumer engagement: A comparative study in France, Germany, Turkey, and the United Kingdom

AbstractThe effect of the Volkswagen emission crisis in 2015, the biggest greenwashing event in recent years, on the online consumer engagement of Facebook brand pages was investigated in France, Germany, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These countries have been selected for the reason that Volkswagen sales and diesel‐engine cars and the use of social media are quite common. For 6 years in these four countries, the likes, comments, and shares made by consumers on the Facebook brand page of Volkswagen have been examined. The monthly dataset covers January 2012 to December 2017. The obtained data were analyzed with autoregressive–moving average models. Despite a globally positive approach to green products, countries' attitudes toward greenwashing have been significantly different. The findings showed that online consumer engagement was negative in the United Kingdom and Turkey and in a positive direction in Germany, whereas there was no change in France in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Evaluating marketer generated content popularity on brand fan pages – A multilevel modelling approach

Facebook fan page of brands acts as a potential brand promotion platform, and it is critical for marketers to understand the subtleties of the users’ interaction. The study examines the effect of marketer generated content—content type and media type—and the associated user sentiments on user interaction using sentiment mining technique and multi-level modelling. For this study, approximately 3000 marketer content and 26 million user impressions taken from the Facebook brand pages of the top 25 mobile phone brands of India were analyzed. The analysis reveals that the comments expressing user sentiments positively and recursively influence the likes and shares related to the marketers’ content. Entertainment, remuneration, and information based content garnered maximum likes, comments, and shares, respectively. The influence of media type on user interaction had a varied effect. The findings will facilitate the marketers of mobile phones in formulating an effective Facebook content strategy.

Sparking conversations on Facebook brand pages: Investigating fans' reactions to rhetorical brand posts

On Facebook brands create pages to facilitate interaction with their (potential) customers, or fans. Brands publish content on these pages which often contain rhetorical figures. Facebook's technological affordances allow fans to respond to these posts leading to multiple participation framework levels that were initiated and can be seen by the brand, but may – at some point – no longer involve the brand. In this study, we uncovered how brands initiate interaction by posting content in an artfully divergent way by collecting 62 Dutch Facebook posts from 12 brands and fans' reactions they evoked. Using a mixed-methods approach, the posts' rhetorical figures and how fans responded to them were analyzed. The results showed that brands' posts often contain a deviation in meaning which enabled fans to respond in various ways: they responded to the actions posts generated, such as answering questions, but also responded by evaluating the brands. Despite the post's rhetorical type (trope or scheme), format (visual, verbal, or verbo-pictorial), or relevant next action projected, rhetorical posts on brand pages secure responses and thus participation from fans.

When do customers engage in brand pages? Effects of social presence

PurposeDrawing upon the social presence theory, this paper aims to propose three social presence variables in the brand page context (the brand page as a medium, the presence of other customers and interaction with the brand page manager) and to test their effects on customer engagement behavior (CEB) and customer-brand identification (CBI).Design/methodology/approachA total of 340 responses were collected via an online research platform and analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that both the social presence of the brand page and the interaction with the brand page manager are positively associated with CEB, whereas that of other customers negatively influences CEB, which in turn, positively affects CBI.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents the underlying process of driving customers’ engagement activities and building psychological closeness between customers and brands by applying social presence theory and social identity theory to Facebook brand pages.Practical implicationsTo enhance customers’ experiences on Facebook brand pages, practitioners should visualize brand page managers through diverse types of postings. Brand page managers need to balance the presence of others, as well as bring a sense of human-likeness on the pages using storytelling strategies.Originality/valueThis research sheds light on the human side of a non-human world. The results suggest that the sense of a human presence in virtual brand communities is essential to engage customers with online activities toward brands while also building a closer customer–brand relationship.

The Influence of Facebook Brand Page on Consumer Purchase Intention with Reference to Fashion Retailing Industry

The competition in the fashion retail industry of Sri Lanka is reaching new heights due to various demands of the fashion consumers in Sri Lanka. As per the significant growth in the fashion retailing sector in Sri Lanka the marketers need to define the strategies to address their customer intentions. Especially with the rapid growth of the social networking sites especially Facebook in Sri Lanka, fashion retailers have to align their social media strategies with the online behavior of the consumers. This is study; mainly focused to understand the influence of Facebook fashion retailers’ brand page and purchase intention among the Sri Lankan Face book users. Objectives of this research were to understand the influence of engaging on Facebook brand page on purchase intention for fashion retail in Sri Lanka, therefore the researcher has investigated main construct of Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of the Facebook brand page and their relationship with both Attitude towards Brand (ATB) and Purchase Intention respectively. Finally, to see whether there is a mediating effect of Attitude towards Brand on the relationship between PU and Purchase Intention and PEOU and Purchase Intension respectively. The review is based on the theoretical rationale and supportive empirical findings. A descriptive statistical review is presented to reasoning why fashion industry is considered as a context to be examined whilst empirical evidences are presented to support the arguments. The paper concludes with research propositions to examine how Facebook Brand Page make an influence on Consumer Purchase Intention.

Why do consumers use Facebook brand pages? A case study of a leading fast-food brand fan page in Egypt

ABSTRACTThis paper identifies the reasons that make consumers actively engage on Facebook brand pages. By adopting the Uses and Gratification Theory, this article presents a number of uses for these online brand communities. A qualitative study was conducted to collect data from the Facebook page of a leading fast-food brand in Egypt. A content analysis for the comments that were posted by consumers on the brand page over the period of three months was conducted. The findings showed that consumers actively contribute to the content of the brand page for eight reasons which are: search for information, complaining, socializing, obtaining incentives, entertainment seeking, expression of emotions, brand advocacy and enhancing social image. Prior research has focused on consumer participation in offline brand communities. Given the rapid adoption of social media based brand communities in marketing, this article expands the research focus to the social media domains, which have largely replaced traditional marketing methods. The article provides some useful guidelines for companies to follow when adopting marketing on Facebook brand pages. By understanding why consumers use these pages, companies can execute more effective social media marketing strategies that allow them to fully grasp the potentials of these new media.