An Empirical Study of Brand Fan Page Engagement Behaviors

Abstract

Nowadays, numerous companies present themselves on social networking sites (SNSs) by establishing brand communities to maintain continuous interaction with existing and potential customers to influence their brand choices, promote the products and services, and cultivate brand loyalty. However, the research into online brand communities is mainly centered on that utilizing the platforms of websites instead of using social media platforms. Thus, it calls for more studies to investigate consumer brand fan page engagement behavior to increase their fan base and further induce a fan’s purchase behavior. By adopting the perspectives of co-production and social identity theory, this study endeavors to investigate the impact of customer perceived value derived from engaging in brand fan pages on their identification with and stickiness to an online brand community in the SNS-based context. The target population of this study is consumers who have ever participated in an online brand community. Data was collected through a web-based survey. After deleting 36 incomplete responses, 524 usable responses remained for further analysis, with an effective sample rate of 93.57%. The results revealed that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and monetary value separately exerted a significantly positive effect on community identification. Utilitarian value and hedonic value also had significantly positive effects on community stickiness. Moreover, community identification was positively related to community stickiness. Community identification was found to have significantly positive influences on both word-of-mouth and repurchase intention. Furthermore, community stickiness exerted a significantly positive effect on word-of-mouth and repurchase intention. This study confirms the importance of perceived value on enhancing consumers’ identification with and their stickiness to online brand communities. Therefore, businesses should provide consumers with the value they desired to cultivate customer loyalty to their brand fan pages.

Evidence of Climate Change Engagement Behaviour on a Facebook Fan-Based Page

“…Therefore, fan-based pages form a vital virtual platform that facilitates engagement behaviour, which social media managers employ to engage with the audiences [44]. Chen and Tsai [45] also demonstrate strong connections between community identification and brand fan-based engagement behaviours. Regardless of the community type, the fans or members participate in several types of behaviours that may range from commenting, sharing information, liking posts, providing feedback or reviews to providing useful information and contents to fellow users and even to social media managers.…”

The Role of Online Brand Community Engagement on the Consumer–Brand Relationship

“…The identification of users with a brand and its OBC, as well as their trust in these brands and OBCs, remain key variables to capitalize on the benefits of the use of OBCs from a brand perspective. These variables require further research with regard to their role in influencing consumer behavior in the context of OBCs [14,16,17].…”

Fundamental Power of Social Media Interactions for Building a Brand and Customer Relations

“…Regarding brand image, because they are critical for the choice of communication strategies and, thus influence the communication behavior of social media managers, it can be assumed that brand pages are also relevant for guiding a company's dialogue with their consumers. Other authors have also considered brand pages to be a possible point of contact for further research to investigate why organizations cannot fully exploit the potential for dialogue orientation [5,61,62]. Consequently, a company that is perceived as competent and experienced in its field of activity, and that implements communication oriented toward dialogue with customers on social media, ultimately determines the establishment of a psychological link that contributes to increasing the level of attractiveness for customers.…”