The Role of Trust in Understanding the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

In this era, social media platform is integrated into the marketing strategy. This new technology sets out new mechanisms and communication tools that companies can rely on to interact and engage with actual and potential customers. This study aimed at exploring the impact of social media marketing activities (SMM) on brand loyalty via brand trust and brand equity. Based on an online survey of 287 users who follow telecommunications companies on social media located in Egypt, data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that SMM activities comprise only three dimensions; trendiness, customization and word-of-mouth. These attributes of social media marketing directly influence brand loyalty and indirectly influence brand equity mediated by brand trust. The study emphasis the role of trust and provide guidance toward measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing.     

eWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors impacting consumer behavior, yet traditional models were constructed oblivious to the potential of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and social media. In particular, very little is known about the dynamics affecting consumer attention within two-way many-to-many mediated environments even though attention constitutes a critical step. Thus, we construct a conceptual framework that grounds consumer attention within a larger progression of behavioral responses to eWOM. We then conduct an experiment (n = 28) that isolates contextual antecedents of attention to positive, negative, and neutral WOM for both luxury and non-luxury brands within a social media platform. Using behavioral eye-tracking, we find that WOM message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Implications of these findings for facilitating eWOM are discussed with future research directions suggested.     

A Proposed Model for Consumer-Based Brand Equity Analysis on Social Media Using Data Mining and Social Network Analysis

Online social networks have expanded their “virtual borders,” making the Internet more like an environment of social interaction than a business tool. However, even before the emergence and expansion of social media, marketing professionals were interested in identifying consumers' perceptions about brands. Thus, operational models have been proposed to facilitate such a task. Those models, however, can be expensive and inconvenient, since the models use questionnaires for data collection. To help overcome this problem, this article proposes a model for brand equity analysis from the consumer perspective expressed in social networks using opinion mining techniques and social network analysis. The application of the proposed model on data collected from Twitter made it possible to analyze five brand equity dimensions: brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived sentiment, perceived quality, and brand associations. The results reached by the application of the model show that brand equity can be analyzed from data retrieved from virtual social networks, disclosing how consumers perceive brands in such an environment, without using questionnaires, enabling different brands in different contexts. Those data can be analyzed under both objective and replicable criteria for each of the brand equity elements that make up the model.     

Consumers’ Social Media Brand Behaviors: Uncovering Underlying Motivators and Deriving Meaningful Consumer Segments

The current research identifies the range of social media brand behaviors (i.e., brand touch points) that consumers can exhibit on social media, and subsequently queries a representative sample of consumers with regard to such behaviors. The analysis reveals four underlying motivators for consumers’ social media behaviors, including brand tacit engagement, brand exhibiting, brand patronizing, and brand deal seeking. These motivators are used to derive meaningful consumer segments identified as content seekers, observers, deal hunters, hard‐core fans, posers and, respectively, patronizers, and described through co‐variates including brand loyalty, brand attachment, and social media usage. The findings are critically discussed in the light of literature on the needs that consumers meet through brand consumption and on the types of relationships consumers build with brands. Not least, the managerial implications of the current findings are debated.     

Social media engagement: a model of antecedents and relational outcomes

This article investigates individual-level antecedents and relational outcomes of social media engagement. Social media engagement approached in this study is a three-dimensional construct composed of affective, cognitive and behavioural dimensions. Surveying more than 48 Facebook pages, spanning nine product categories and 448 consumers, the results show that product involvement, attitude towards the community and online interaction propensity all impact social media engagement. The study also reveals that high social media engagement increases brand relationships significantly, particularly affecting brand trust, commitment and loyalty. Additionally, community engagement appears as a precursor of brand engagement. These findings provide insight into antecedents and outcomes of engagement for academic research and bring value to online brand and community management.     

Drivers of eWOM engagement on social media for luxury consumers: Analysis,implications, and future research directions

The rapid industrialization and growth across the world have fostered the consumption of luxury fashion brands. Electronic word-of- mouth on social media (eWOM) is fast becoming an effective and germane strategy to engage luxury consumers through posting pictures, sharing reviews, and communicating information on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Extant research has not examined the antecedents and drivers that lead to eWOM behavior. We leverage self-congruity theory and through its focal lens, our study addresses this research gap through a survey conducted with 453 consumers in Mexico, Latin America's fastest growing market. Our results indicate that need for status, susceptibility to normative influence, and luxury brand involvement, moderated by authentic pride and social media influencers lead to eWOM behavior on social media. We also demonstrate that luxury brand involvement and susceptibility to normative influence mediate the relationship between need for status and eWOM behavior on social media. The study provides important implications to managers and researchers by suggesting long-term actionable strategies for growth that can help luxury firms develop a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals and competitors.     

Does Being Social Matter? Effects of Enabled Commenting on Credibility and Brand Attitude in Social Media

Public relations practitioners are actively building relationships with bloggers to obtain high-credibility brand mentions and reviews. Practitioners may request bloggers limit comments to maintain control over messages and constrain dissonant perspectives; however, the impact of limiting social features of blogs is unknown. Utilizing source credibility and warranting theory, this article examines the relationship between enabled comments on blogs and brand attitudes, with the moderating variables of credibility and expertise, from both a public relations and consumer behavior perspective. Using an online experiment (N = 527) we found that socialness increases perceptions of blogger expertise, brand attitudes, and purchase intention, but not credibility.     

Social Media,Social Me: A Content Analysis of Beauty Companies’ Use of Facebook in Marketing and Branding

This paper initiated an investigation on how beauty brands employ social media, particularly Facebook, to increase brand awareness and reinforce brand loyalty. It is no doubt that changes in the consumptive patterns of media have led companies to shift their focus from products to people and from information delivery to information exchange. Few studies, to our knowledge, exist that examine beauty brands and/or beauty companies’ use of social media as a means of engaging with or interacting with their current and potential consumers. Thus, the present study represented findings from a content analysis of Facebook posts from Estée Lauder, MAC cosmetics, Clinique, L’Oreal, Maybelline, and CoverGirl to see what types of social media tools were used more frequently by these brands to connect with their fans and users. Specifically, the study focused on the theoretical and practical implications of viral marketing in the branding strategies of the six beauty and/or makeup brands. Additionally, the study examined the way “high-end” brands used Facebook compared to the department store counterparts. These and other findings are discussed.     

Loyalty to Social Ventures in Social Media: The Role of Social Cause Involvement,Identification, and Commitment

Recently, more social organizations are engaging in market transactions to achieve financial self-reliance. In today’s highly competitive market, it is imperative for such social ventures to bolster long-term support from their consumers through every possible point of access, such as social media. Given the importance of social media in enhancing customer relationships, this study examines factors that promote consumers’ loyalty toward social ventures, focusing on intentions to participate in cause-related activities and opinion-sharing behavior via social media. Data obtained from 304 US consumers confirmed that consumer involvement, identification, and commitment were key determinants of consumer loyalty in social media. The results also showed that the effect of involvement was mediated by identification and commitment. The findings suggest that social ventures should not only attract interested segments through social media, but also engage and enhance their sense of belonging and commitment.     

The impact of university brand identification and eWOM behaviour on students’ psychological well-being: a multi-group analysis among active and passive social media users

ABSTRACT

Encouraging students to share positive online reviews should not be regarded only as a marketing tool. This study aims to examine (i) the relationship between positive online reviews behaviour for university and students’ well-being; and (ii) the impact of eWOM behaviour on students’ psychological well-being among active (those who share and read information) and passive (those who only read information) social media users. An online survey was conducted to examine the interplay of university brand identification, positive eWOM behaviour, and university life satisfaction on students’ psychological well-being. Results found that students who share positive reviews about university on social media tend to have better psychological health. This study also revealed that active social media users benefit more in terms of well-being through sharing positive online reviews about their universities. Implications for theory and practice of social media marketing in the higher education context are discussed.     

Social media adoption: A process-based approach

This research conceptualizes and measures social media adoption (SMA) of companies with a process-based approach and explains its antecedents of micro- and macro-environment, size, and ownership, as well as its consequence of intention to increase resources dedicated to social media. Based on data from 310 Turkish small and medium enterprises, the study first develops a conceptual framework on the pillars of internal and external stakeholder focus as well as relationship and information oriented implementation. Based on these two dimensions, it discusses the novel concepts of social customer relations, social stakeholder communication, social intelligence, and social responsiveness related to SMA. The study further indicates that ownership type and micro environment play a role in SMA and that path dependence exists in the interplay of current adoption and future intentions.     

Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships in Social Media Environments: The Role of Parasocial Interaction

As brands solidify their place in social media environments, consumers' expectations have amplified, thus spurring the development of technologies to assist with the engagement process. Understanding the ways in which brands can preserve the one-to-one characteristics and intimate relationship qualities offered by social media while still meeting consumer expectations amidst the escalating volume of interactions has become essential. Drawing on the communications literature, this research proposes that parasocial interaction (PSI) theory may be used as a theoretical lens for designing successful social media strategies. Three studies, using a multi-method approach, provide evidence of PSI's role in the development of positive relationship outcomes. Mediation analysis reveals that this sense of feeling connected with the brand goes beyond the interaction itself and drives increased feelings of loyalty intentions and willingness to provide information to the brand. Evidence from this research suggests that these effects may not hold when consumers are aware of the possibility that the brand's social media response may be automated. These findings offer marketers theoretical guidance for fostering relationships in social media environments.     

An Explorative Study of Korean Consumer Participation in Virtual Brand Communities in Social Network Sites

ABSTRACT

The importance of virtual brand communities in social network sites has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. In surveying a sample of 333 virtual brand community members in Korean social network sites, the current study provides a baseline understanding of the antecedents and consequences of virtual brand communities. The findings here suggest that members of brand communities have six primary social and psychological motives for engaging in virtual community activities: interpersonal utility, brand loyalty, entertainment seeking, information seeking, incentive seeking, and convenience seeking. Our findings also indicate that members of consumer versus marketer-generated brand communities show both similarities and differences in terms of the extent of community participation and the levels of community commitment, satisfaction, and future intention. Our findings provide useful managerial implications for marketers who want to tap into the huge communication potential of this new marketing communication tool and medium, as they offer insight into the proactive role of consumers in today's marketplace.     

Exploring the Effect of Store Characteristics and Interpersonal Trust on Purchase Intention in the Context of Online Social Media Marketing

This article explores the effect of store characteristics and interpersonal trust on formation of attitude and intention to purchase from online stores in the context of online social media marketing. Store Brand Knowledge, Store Reputation, Perceived Store Size, and Perceived Store Risk have been considered as antecedents of trust. Based on existing literature, a conceptual model is proposed and empirically tested with a sample (n = 424) of online social media users with the help of partial least square path modeling. This study is among the very few empirical investigations done in the context of trust in online social media marketing and focuses only on consumer-perceived store-controlled factors as antecedents of trust.     

Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media

The current research is concerned with identifying and testing the role of three main predictors: consumer involvement, consumer participation, and self-expressive brand on the customer brand engagement (CBE). The customer brand engagement is treated in the current study as multidimensional constructs comprising three main aspects: cognitive processing (CP), affection (AF), and activation (AC). It was also proposed a direct influence for these three aspects of CBE on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE). Using online surveys, we gathered data from fans/followers of mobile phone service providers, via Facebook fan pages in Jordan. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Based on structural equation modelling analyses (SEM), it was supported that CBE aspects were largely predicted by the role of consumer involvement (INV), consumer participation (COP), and self-expressive brand (SEB). However, we find that activation impact one dimension of the CBBE dimensions, namely, brand loyalty. Further, we find that brand awareness/associations affect perceived quality but not brand loyalty. To validate the CBE scale, future studies could investigate the impact of the scale using other social media platforms for different brands. The limited amount of empirical research on CBE was the motivation behind this research. In particular, there is no study that has investigated the main predictors of CBE and its consequences over developing context by proposing and testing the association between the antecedents of CBE with the dimensions of CBE, which in turn affect the dimensions of CBBE.     

Consumer brand engagement and its social side on brand-hosted social media: how do they contribute to brand loyalty?

ABSTRACT

Social media offer brands new opportunities to interact with their customers. This paper focuses on consumer brand engagement (CBE) and its social facet in the context of brand-hosted social media. It highlights that CBE (consumer–brand interactions encompassing cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions) and brand-based consumer–consumer interactions (social brand engagement (SBE)) lead to brand loyalty intentions. Brand customers were surveyed about their favourite brands on Facebook. Results indicate that self-brand connections and SBE are two drivers of CBE, and that CBE is the key element in inducing brand loyalty. In addition, configural analysis shows that high brand loyalty can be achieved through several combinations of social and CBE with various levels of cognitive, affective and behavioural engagement.     

Engaging Customers through Social Media to Improve Industrial Product Development: The Role of Customer Co-Creation Value

This study aims to investigate the effect of social media on customer loyalty with the mediation of customer co-creation value and to build a customer engagement model through co-creation value, which is supported by product improvement perceived in increasing customer loyalty. The data collection employed a survey method with structured questionnaires which were distributed to 150 respondents who were the members of social media product communities in Indonesia. The findings showed that interactions through social media are able to increase customer engagement, facilitaitng collaboration in co-creation value, allowing the company to improve and develop products based on customers' needs and desires, which will eventually increase customer loyalty.     

Gender and Hedonic Usage Motive Differences in Social Media Site Usage Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how the user's gender and hedonic usage motive differences influence evaluation and usage of social media sites. This study develops and tests a conceptual model that captures the relationship among four social media site usage determining factors, social media involvement, satisfaction, and usage intention. The moderating role of two user characteristics on the social media site usage behavior is also empirically tested. Structural equation analysis results show significant moderating effects of gender and the hedonic usage motive of users on the evaluation and usage behavior of social media sites. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The Influence of B to B Social Media Message Features on Brand Engagement: A Fluency Perspective

Purpose: Social media is increasingly drawing the attention and interest of business-to-business (B to B) organizations. Yet, B to B organizations remain cautious in their social media pursuits, in part based on a stated lack of understanding for best practices. The purpose of the current work is to take initial steps to address this challenge by identifying specific social media message features that influence online users’ engagement with B to B organizations.

Methodology/Approach: This work examines the Twitter feeds of the top 50 social B to B brands (as reported by Brandwatch in 2015) to examine the effects of message features (hashtags, text difficulty, embedded media, and message timing) on user engagement, captured in terms of Twitter likes and retweets.

Findings: We argue that message features that enhance fluency (e.g., images) should enhance engagement. In contrast, those that disrupt fluency (e.g., hasthags) should result in lower levels of engagement. Consistent with these predictions, we find that hashtags and text difficulty correlate to lower levels of engagement whereas embedded media in the form of images and video correlate to higher levels of engagement. Also consistent with the proposed fluency framework, we find that tweets from B to B organizations generate greater engagement on evenings and weekends.

Research Implications: This research applies a fluency lens to identify specific message features that influence online engagement. In doing so, it highlights fluency as a powerful construct for understanding the drivers of B to B social media brand engagement. More generally, this work suggests fluency as a valuable conceptual lens for developing effective B to B social media strategies. This research also speaks to the complexity of B to B social media strategies – organizations must go beyond content and platform decisions, to also consider the specific features of the message.

Practical Implications: Social media is becoming more and more important to B to B organizations and is as yet an underutilized engagement tool. The current work offers initial strategies regarding message features that business practitioners can incorporate into their content development strategies to strengthen engagement. Specifically, efforts should be made to attain high levels of fluency in B to B social media content development.

Originality/Value/Contribution of the Paper: The current work offers initial insights as to the importance of understanding not only how social media topics/content influence engagement, but also the influence of message features (e.g., hashtags, embedded media). In doing so, it highlights fluency as a novel conceptual lens for developing more effective B to B social media strategies. Finally, it draws on actual tweets from leading B to B brands to examine the proposed influence of message features on engagement.     

Brand trust and engagement in social commerce

With the surge in social media (SM) users around the world, the scope of social commerce (SC) in brand engagement is a prominent area of discussion. The present study empirically investigates the effect of social commerce construct (SCC), multi-dimensional constructs of social presence theory (SPT) and consumer generated content (CGC) on brand trust and brand engagement in SC platforms. An online survey was conducted among 625 Indian consumers who had made more than one purchase using SC platforms in the previous 6 months. Structural equation modelling technique was employed for testing the hypotheses and conceptual model. The results suggest that each element of SCC, SPT and CGC positively contributes to brand trust and engagement. Further, the study provides insight into brand trust and brand engagement in SM, which prompts brand usage intention of the consumers. The insights can be used by managers to create long-term customer relationship management action plans that emphasize brand trust and engagement.