Consumer Engagement with Brand Posts on Social Media in Consecutive Stages of the Customer Journey

ABSTRACT

Brands use social media to engage consumers in all stages of the customer journey. Prior work on consumer engagement with brand-generated content on social networking sites has not taken into account the different needs and gratifications sought by consumers during consecutive stages of customer journeys over time. We propose that what drives consumer engagement with brand posts on social networking sites is contingent on the stage of the customer journey. We test our hypotheses by analyzing over 24,000 brand posts by event organizers on Facebook. Adopting a multilevel approach, we find that informative posts generate more Likes, shares, and comments in the preconsumption stage, whereas entertaining posts generate more consumer engagement in the postconsumption stage. A higher degree of activation in brand posts is associated with higher engagement in the pre- and postconsumption stage but not in the consumption stage. Finally, we find support for an optimal level of vividness during all stages of the customer journey. These findings suggest that brands can benefit from adapting their content on social networking sites to the stage of the customer journey over time. On a theoretical level, this study deepens the understanding of how brands’ activities on social networking sites drive consumer engagement throughout the customer journey and offers an empirical link between the domains of customer journeys and consumer engagement.

KEYWORDS AND PHRASES:

• Brand posts
• customer journey online
• online branding
• online engagement
• online retail
• social networking sites

Appendix 1. Multilevel Negative Binomial Regression of Post and Event Characteristics on Engagement Including Interaction Effects.

Notes

1. In the model development stage, we considered and tested further interactions between predictor variables. These interactions were not included in the final model, as we did not formulate any a priori hypotheses, nor did the interaction terms yield any significant results.

2. As the postlevel predictor variables are categorical, resulting in 12 interaction terms with customer journey stage, in Table 4 we report the lowest significance level of all interaction terms for a specific predictor variable. The full model, including specific results for all interaction terms, is presented in the appendix.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joris Demmers

Joris Demmers ([email protected]; corresponding author) is a lecturer at Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia. His research interests include social interactions in digital environments, online customer engagement, online consumer privacy, and contextual influences on consumer behavior. His work has been published in International Journal of Electronic Commerce and Journal of Consumer Psychology. He carried out a part of the present research while employed at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Jesse W. J. Weltevreden

Jesse W. J. Weltevreden ([email protected]) is a professor of digital commerce at Centre for Applied Research on Business and Economics, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. His research interests include electronic commerce, online marketing, social media, and retail marketing. His work has been published in International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Transport Geography, and other journals.

Willemijn M. van Dolen

Willemijn M. van Dolen ([email protected]) is a professor of marketing at Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her research interests include social media, social interactions in virtual environments, corporate social responsibility & marketing, and social services to children. Her work has been published in Information & Management, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Retailing, and other journals.