Consumer engagement on social media: an analysis of brand post characteristic combinations

ABSTRACT

Given the increasing importance of using social media to maintain consumer engagement, brands design posts using different characteristics that interact with each other to generate combination, which jointly influence consumer engagement. A methodological innovation is presented in which rough set theory is employed to analyse single and combined effects of brand post characteristics on consumer engagement on the Sina Weibo platform. Diverse characteristic combinations are shown to affect consumer engagement at varying intensities. The method is complementary in confirming single and combined effects of post characteristics. The research strengthens the understanding of consumer engagement based on characteristic combination perspective and helps to provide more effective reference to formulate social media marketing strategies owing to being closer to the real-world situation faced by brands.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• consumer engagement
• brand post
• characteristic combination
• relationship mode
• industry difference

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge a grant (20GLB115) in support of this study from the Research and Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Heilongjiang Province.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research and Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Heilongjiang Province under Grant [20GLB115].

Notes on contributors

Yang Liu

Yang Liu received a Ph.D. degree from the School of Computer and Information Engineering, Harbin University of Commerce, in 2023. He is currently a lecturer at Quzhou University Her research interests include the cross-application of big data technology in the fields of e-commerce, consumer engagement behavior, and social media.

Zhijie Zhao

Zhijie Zhao received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Harbin University of Science and Technology, China, in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree from the Harbin Institute of Technology, in 2008. He is currently a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Engineering at Harbin University of Commerce and Director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Commerce and Information Processing. His research interests include image processing and intelligence information processing. E-mail: [email protected]

Jiaying Wang

Jiaying Wang received a Ph.D. degree from the School of Computer and Information Engineering, Harbin University of Commerce, in 2021. He is currently a lecturer at Zaozhuang University. His research interests include consumer behavior, electronic word-of-mouth and social media. E-mail: [email protected]

Zeguo Qiu

Zeguo Qiu received a Ph.D. degree from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics and is a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Engineering at Harbin University of Commerce. His research interests include e-commerce, management decision and information system. E-mail: [email protected]