Lecture 1
Social Media Marketing: Research Question
- The first question this course addresses is: WHAT are the factors that influence Social Media
Engagement (SME)?
- Before we can answer this, we need to define Social Media and Social Media Engagement
(SME)
- We also need to identify WHY it’s important to study Social Media and Social Media
Engagement in the first place
Social Media: Definition
In a marketing context, social media are considered platforms on which people build networks and
share information and/or sentiments … their distinctive nature of being “dynamic, interconnected,
egalitarian, and interactive organisms”
Marketing: Definition
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering,
and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Social Media: Media Types
- Owned Social: what your brand says and what people say about you (on your branded pages)
- 90% of the people discussing brands online do not follow those brand’s owned pages
- Paid Social: what brands pay for people to see (off your branded pages)
- 80% of social media today is paid
- Earned Social: what people say about you (off your branded pages)
- 70% of the social conversations about your brand take place on earned media
channels
Brand Engagement: Definition
Consumers’ positive and negative behavioural interactions with a brand and all its constituent
elements (brand content, other consumers, etc.), beyond simple transactions, that result from their
interest in and commitment to the brand.
Social Media Engagement: Definition
- Social Media Engagement (SME) is the principle of brand engagement within the social
media environment
- In this course we are looking at SME from the perspective of the consumer/customer and their
engagement with a brand’s content/presence on different social media platforms
- We are interested in consumers (B2C) and customers (B2B)
Article 1 - Measuring Consumers’ Engagement with brand related Social-Media Content
Muntinga, Norman, & Smit (2011) introduced the theoretical Consumer’s Online Brand-Related
Activities (COBRA’s) Framework, which identified three levels of consumer engagement
- Consumption
, - Represents a minimum level of engagement and refers to consumers who passively
consume brand-related media without participating. Source could be brand or peer.
Most frequent type of engagement
- Contribution
- Includes both peer-to-peer-content interactions about brand
- reflects consumers’ contribution to brand-related content through participation in
media previously created by either a company or another individual
- Creation
- Involves consumers’ creation and online publication of brand-related content. Often
referred to as UGC
- Represents the strongest level of online brand related engagement
Note:
- The same person may act as a consumer, contributor, and creator of content for the same
brand concurrently or successively, depending on situational factors
- Likewise, the same consumer may choose to contribute for one brand but only consume
content for another brand
RQ1: What types of online brand-related activities do individual consumers engage in, and how can
these activities be categorized?
RQ2: Does the Consumers’ Engagement with BRand-Related Social-Media content (CEBSC) scale
demonstrate factorial validity when applied to consumer data?
RQ3: Is there evidence of a hierarchical relationship among the dimensions of the COBRAs
framework?
RQ4: Does the CEBSC scale show reliable results when compared with related concepts?
Main Conclusion
There is a hierarchical relationship between the 3 types of engagement:
1. Consumers move from consumption to contribution to creation by way of learning process
2. Contribution is included in the model as a mediator
Marketing & Sales Implications
- CEBSC scale gives managers the instrument to audit and track the effectiveness of SMM
strategies
- Consumption → Contribution → Creation
Social Media Marketing: Research Question
- So now that we have defined Social Media, defines SME, have a framework of SME, and an
idea of the activities related to SME
- We come back to our original question: What are the factors that influence social media
engagement (SME)
- Or in other words, what are factors that influence different ‘social media activities’ we
discovered.
Social Media Engagement: Influencing Factors
, Factors that influence social media engagement (SME)
- WHAT - definition of SME and how to measure it
- WHY - motivational factors
- BRAND - existing brand relationships
- HOW - how individual personality and culture
- WHO - how source (who created the content?)
- HOW - content and messaging factors
- WHEN - scheduling factors
- WHERE - distribution factors
Article 2 - Here's Why Customer Engagement on Social Media Is Important to Your Brand
Benefits to a Brand in Customer Engagement on Social Media
1. Increased brand awareness
2. Improved customer satisfaction
3. Cost-effective marketing
4. Competitive advantage
5. Valuable feedback
6. Increased website traffic
7. Improved customer insights
8. Stronger customer relationships
9. Enhanced brand reputation
10. Opportunity for customer advocacy
Social Media Marketing: Research Question
- The first question this course addresses is: WHAT are the factors that influence Social Media
Engagement (SME)?
- Before we can answer this, we need to define Social Media and Social Media Engagement
(SME)
- We also need to identify WHY it’s important to study Social Media and Social Media
Engagement in the first place
Social Media: Definition
In a marketing context, social media are considered platforms on which people build networks and
share information and/or sentiments … their distinctive nature of being “dynamic, interconnected,
egalitarian, and interactive organisms”
Marketing: Definition
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering,
and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Social Media: Media Types
- Owned Social: what your brand says and what people say about you (on your branded pages)
- 90% of the people discussing brands online do not follow those brand’s owned pages
- Paid Social: what brands pay for people to see (off your branded pages)
- 80% of social media today is paid
- Earned Social: what people say about you (off your branded pages)
- 70% of the social conversations about your brand take place on earned media
channels
Brand Engagement: Definition
Consumers’ positive and negative behavioural interactions with a brand and all its constituent
elements (brand content, other consumers, etc.), beyond simple transactions, that result from their
interest in and commitment to the brand.
Social Media Engagement: Definition
- Social Media Engagement (SME) is the principle of brand engagement within the social
media environment
- In this course we are looking at SME from the perspective of the consumer/customer and their
engagement with a brand’s content/presence on different social media platforms
- We are interested in consumers (B2C) and customers (B2B)
Article 1 - Measuring Consumers’ Engagement with brand related Social-Media Content
Muntinga, Norman, & Smit (2011) introduced the theoretical Consumer’s Online Brand-Related
Activities (COBRA’s) Framework, which identified three levels of consumer engagement
- Consumption
, - Represents a minimum level of engagement and refers to consumers who passively
consume brand-related media without participating. Source could be brand or peer.
Most frequent type of engagement
- Contribution
- Includes both peer-to-peer-content interactions about brand
- reflects consumers’ contribution to brand-related content through participation in
media previously created by either a company or another individual
- Creation
- Involves consumers’ creation and online publication of brand-related content. Often
referred to as UGC
- Represents the strongest level of online brand related engagement
Note:
- The same person may act as a consumer, contributor, and creator of content for the same
brand concurrently or successively, depending on situational factors
- Likewise, the same consumer may choose to contribute for one brand but only consume
content for another brand
RQ1: What types of online brand-related activities do individual consumers engage in, and how can
these activities be categorized?
RQ2: Does the Consumers’ Engagement with BRand-Related Social-Media content (CEBSC) scale
demonstrate factorial validity when applied to consumer data?
RQ3: Is there evidence of a hierarchical relationship among the dimensions of the COBRAs
framework?
RQ4: Does the CEBSC scale show reliable results when compared with related concepts?
Main Conclusion
There is a hierarchical relationship between the 3 types of engagement:
1. Consumers move from consumption to contribution to creation by way of learning process
2. Contribution is included in the model as a mediator
Marketing & Sales Implications
- CEBSC scale gives managers the instrument to audit and track the effectiveness of SMM
strategies
- Consumption → Contribution → Creation
Social Media Marketing: Research Question
- So now that we have defined Social Media, defines SME, have a framework of SME, and an
idea of the activities related to SME
- We come back to our original question: What are the factors that influence social media
engagement (SME)
- Or in other words, what are factors that influence different ‘social media activities’ we
discovered.
Social Media Engagement: Influencing Factors
, Factors that influence social media engagement (SME)
- WHAT - definition of SME and how to measure it
- WHY - motivational factors
- BRAND - existing brand relationships
- HOW - how individual personality and culture
- WHO - how source (who created the content?)
- HOW - content and messaging factors
- WHEN - scheduling factors
- WHERE - distribution factors
Article 2 - Here's Why Customer Engagement on Social Media Is Important to Your Brand
Benefits to a Brand in Customer Engagement on Social Media
1. Increased brand awareness
2. Improved customer satisfaction
3. Cost-effective marketing
4. Competitive advantage
5. Valuable feedback
6. Increased website traffic
7. Improved customer insights
8. Stronger customer relationships
9. Enhanced brand reputation
10. Opportunity for customer advocacy
