Facebook Brand Pages Research Articles

Testing a conceptual model of Facebook brand page communities

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate consumer participation in Facebook brand page communities from the perspectives of uses and gratification theory and mass media dependency theory. Design/methodology/approach – Data collection via an online survey resulted in 450 valid surveys where consumers indicated to what extent their motivations for Facebook use were socializing, entertainment, status seeking and information seeking. The sample included 358 respondents who had previously liked a brand on Facebook. These respondents were asked to provide the name of a brand they had liked on Facebook and answered questions regarding their experiences with the Facebook brand page for their self-identified brand. Findings – Results indicate that motivation dimensions have differential effects at three different stages of consumer interaction with a Facebook brand page community. Socializing and information seeking are the primary reasons for initially joining a Facebook brand page community. After becoming a member of a Facebook brand page community, consumers require entertainment to keep them engaged. However, as consumers become more sophisticated, their involvement with a Facebook brand page and their frequency of posting on that page are dependent on their need for information. Originality/value – Insight is gained into the role of social media, specifically Facebook, in brand building. As theoretical frameworks that can guide branding practices using the social media channel are still in their infancy, this research makes an important contribution to the ongoing theoretical discussion. Additionally, the findings add to the online brand community literature by demonstrating the key drivers of consumer willingness to join and participate in a Facebook brand page community.

Influence of Facebook brand-page posts on online engagement

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how various characteristics of brand posts influence online engagement on Facebook brand pages.Design/methodology/approach– The data used for this study were obtained from the posts of ten popular official brand pages. For the selected period between March 1 and May 1, 2014, a total of 1,030 posts were obtained and manually processed on September 1, 2014. To assign post categories to the posts created by page administrators, the authors performed manual coding, following the coding development strategy.Findings– The results demonstrated that the media and content type of posts exert a significant effect on user online engagement. This study used liking, commenting and sharing behavior as a measure of users’ online engagement to specify the new phenomena.Originality/value– The findings are relevant for the theory of information dissemination and provide valuable and directly applicable implications for the social media marketing of companies.

Consumer – brand engagement on Facebook: liking and commenting behaviors

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to study factors affecting consumers’ liking and commenting behavior on Facebook brand pages, and to analyze the mediating role of mode of interaction on relationships between personality traits and liking/commenting behavior.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected using an online national survey from 269 respondents, ages between 18 and 32. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.Findings– Results support nine of ten hypotheses with significant relationships between analyzed constructs. It was found that two different modes of interaction acted as mediators between three personality traits and liking/commenting behavior on Facebook.Research limitations/implications– This study only included liking and commenting behavior on Facebook. Future studies could extend the conceptual model by including sharing behavior and other personality traits that were not included in this conceptual model.Practical implications– The findings have several implications for brand managers with respect to their social media strategies and give them guidance in achieving better customer engagement on Facebook. This research is an important step in understanding the factors affecting consumers’ Facebook behavior and useful for practitioners intending to use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy.Originality/value– The study provides a comprehensive framework to understand consumer engagement on Facebook by including specific types of Facebook behavior, three personality traits and two modes of interaction that consumers have in social media.

Explicating the ‘like’ on Facebook brand pages: The effect of intensity of Facebook use, number of overall ‘likes’, and number of friends' ‘likes’ on consumers' brand outcomes

This study examined the relationship between the number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ on Facebook brand pages in influencing consumers' brand attitude, brand trust, brand involvement, and purchase intention, drawing upon theoretical concepts including diffusion of innovations, social capital theory, strength of weak ties, sociometric versus perceptual popularity, and prior research in online impression formation. Results of a 2 × 2 experiment revealed significant main effects of number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ on key dependent measures. A significant interaction effect was also found between overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’. Additionally, intensity of Facebook use also mediated the relationships between number of overall ‘likes’ and friends' ‘likes’ with brand attitude, brand trust, and purchase intention.

Examining the drivers and brand performance implications of customer engagement with brands in the social media environment

A key issue for marketers resulting from the dramatic rise of social media is how brand pages can be leveraged to engage customers and enhance relationships with brands. The article examines the role of gratifications consumers derive from brand pages together with customer-brand relationship characteristics influencing customer engagement (CE) with Facebook brand pages. Data was gathered via a survey of 404 consumers of brand pages and analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings show that co-creation value, social value, usage intensity and brand strength influence CE with brand pages. CE was also found to influence brand performance outcomes of CE behaviours directed at the brand page and brand loyalty. The findings are of value to brand managers of social media sites and focus on how managing critical user gratifications together with customer-brand relationship variables acts as a mechanism for unlocking CE with brand pages. In addition, the study examines CE effects on both behaviours central to the brand page and brand loyalty outcomes in the research framework.

We Look for Social, Not Promotion: Brand Post Strategy, Consumer Emotions, and Engagement - A Case Study of the Facebook Brand Pages

This study examines the relationships between brand post type and consumer emotions, and between consumer emotions and the behavioral consequences including engagement and WOM on Facebook. A total of 120 sample brand posts were categorized through a content analysis; pleasure and arousal were used to conceptualize emotion as its two dimensions; engagement was measured by the number of “Likes”, and WOM was measured by the number of “Comments” and the number of “Shares”. The results show that consumers are more pleased and aroused by social-type posts than promotion-type ones, and consumers who are more pleased and aroused by brand posts are more likely to be engaged. The research findings have both theoretical and managerial implications.

The impact of Facebook presence on brand image

Although the study does not indicate a significant relationship between the brand use of Facebook pages and consumer purchase intention, it seems there is an impact of Facebook presence on brand image which is an important factor relating to increased sales and brand survival in a competitive international environment. The study investigated the impact that social networks have on developing and maintaining company brands. Two similar questionnaires were developed, one for consumers (269 respondents) and another administered to companies (42 respondents) to study a firm’s social network site from their and the consumer’s perspective. It was interesting to note that both consumers and companies responded that the content of the Facebook brand page is the most valuable feature indicating that companies recognise the importance of content and are responding to consumer’s needs in the network.

Evaluation framework for social media brand presence

Social media have transformed the traditional marketing communication, resulting in companies evolving their customer approach and integrating social media into their marketing strategies. Although numerous examples of using social media platforms for marketing purposes exist, and despite the various efforts from the companies and the general popularity of the medium, measuring the effectiveness is elusive. An approach towards overcoming these challenges is examination of the activities undertaken by the companies and the consumers’ responses to them in the form of measurements and use of analysis tools. To contribute in this direction, we propose an evaluation framework that allows companies to perform social media analytics through continuous monitoring of the content and activities on their social media marketing channels, and to measure the effectiveness of social media utilization for marketing purposes. We describe the specific methods and illustrate the application of the proposed approach using a Facebook brand page case study. Finally, we discuss the benefits it brings to the companies.

Motivations and Antecedents of Consumer Engagement With Brand Pages on Social Networking Sites

Brand pages on social networking sites (SNSs) have become the key platform where consumers interact with brands. This study explored the types of consumer engagement with brand pages on Facebook as well as the motivations and antecedents that drive such engagement. Given the participatory and communal nature of SNSs, this study focused on the effects of social media dependency and three social relationship factors, including parasocial interaction, perceived source credibility, and community identification on consumer engagement with Facebook brand pages. A web survey was conducted to understand the motivations and antecedents of consumer engagement. The results confirm that, with the exception of perceived credibility, relationship-oriented factors played a significant role in inducing consumer engagement on SNSs.

Online engagement factors on Facebook brand pages

Social networks have become an additional marketing channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a part of the marketing mix. The change in the dynamics of the marketing interchange between companies and consumers as introduced by social networks has placed a focus on the non-transactional customer behavior. In this new marketing era, the terms engagement and participation became the central non-transactional constructs, used to describe the nature of participants’ specific interactions and/or interactive experiences. These changes imposed challenges to the traditional one-way marketing, resulting in companies experimenting with many different approaches, thus shaping a successful social media approach based on the trial-and-error experiences. To provide insights to practitioners willing to utilize social networks for marketing purposes, our study analyzes the influencing factors in terms of characteristics of the content communicated by the company, such as media type, content type, posting day and time, over the level of online customer engagement measured by number of likes, comments and shares, and interaction duration for the domain of a Facebook brand page. Our results show that there is a different effect of the analyzed factors over individual engagement measures. We discuss the implications of our findings for social media marketing.

Understanding the user generated content and interactions on a Facebook brand page

Social networks provide the technological platform for individuals to connect, produce and share content online. As such, they are becoming an additional marketing channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a part of the marketing mix. In order to contribute to the companies’ understanding of utilisation of social networks as a marketing platform, our study approaches the problem from the perspective of understanding the user generated content and the interactions. First we analyse the topics, intentions for participation and emotions shared by the users on a Facebook brand page. Second, we analyse the activities and interactions, in terms of their evolution over time and dependency on the community size. Finally, we discuss the implications of the obtained results for social media marketing.

PS44 What is the Nature and Extent of Alcohol Advertising on Facebook?

BackgroundThere is a growing evidence base that alcohol advertising increases consumption, particularly amongst young people. Alcohol companies are increasingly using social media, such as Facebook, as a critical part of...

The Power of Popularity

This pioneering study explores the convergence of social economic behavior in our new, hyperconnected world. In statistical tests, the correlation of Facebook brand page fan counts of the 30 most popular consumer brands and their respective brand company stock prices were found to be statistically significant, despite the general upward trend for fan counts and radically different stock price performances over a 12-month period. The results suggest that the social media popularity itself, as a construct for consumer following or public interest, may serve as some type of behavioral indicator of brand affinity, customer loyalty, or brand performance.