The Effect of Promoting Brands through the Facebook Network

Abstract

Facebook is becoming a popular tool for public relations and advertising professionals to reach mass audiences. Facebook fan pages allow brands to create an online community of brand users on the social networking site. By pressing Facebook's "like" button, a Facebook user can become a fan of the page and can interact with the brand and other consumers. This research aimed to examine whether liking and interacting with a Facebook fan page has an effect on brand loyalty and purchase intentions, and if Facebook fan pages create an online brand community. Brands use this network to improve their overall image, promote themselves much easier, much faster, access to information being very easy, in a very short time and wherever it is in the world.This article highlights the reason why users access the Facebook page of a brand. An analysis of 104 online survey responses indicates that interaction with fan pages is not a strong indicator of consumer brand loyalty or purchase intentions, suggesting that brand communities are not formed on the basis of liking a page. The study may be a useful orientation for managerial involvement in marketing practice. With over 900 million users, Facebook is currently the largest social networking site. Facebook allows users to connect and interact with others, express themselves, and maintain social relationships.