| Abstract [eng] |
Social media and content marketing are increasing in popularity and making social networking sites the main channel where firms create content to communicate with their consumers. This communication is only effective when consumers engage in the firm-generated content in social networking sites – leave reactions or comments, share content, or create firm-related content themselves. While consumer engagement behaviour is caused by many factors, the firm-generated content in social networking sites is the easiest factor that can be controlled by the firm. Therefore, firms need to decide what kind of content is the most engaging for consumers. Many authors have tried to answer this question, but the results of studies often differ. Object of the study – firm-generated content in social networking sites and consumer engagement behaviour. Purpose – to evaluate the effect of firm-generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour. Objectives – to base the relevance of research focusing on the effect of firm-generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour; to overview the origins, nature, and types of firm-generated content in social networking sites; to define the nature and features of customer engagement behaviour in social networking sites; to identify the link between firm-generated content in social networking sites and customer engagement behaviour; to create conceptual model depicting the effect of firm-generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour; to prepare empirical research methodology for analyzing the effect of firm-generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour; based on the conceptual model to research the effect of firm-generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour and summarize the results. Main findings. The theoretical studies led to the creation of conceptual model presenting the effect of firm–generated content in social networking sites on consumer engagement behaviour. The model consists of two blocks: (1) firm-generated content in social networking sites, varying by its form, functional type, and transformational message strategy, and (2) consumer engagement behaviour, characterized by low, medium, and high consumer engagement, each expressed by reactions, comments, and shares accordingly; the geographical audience of firm page in the social networking site is used as a controlling factor. The conceptual model was used for the quantitative content analysis. 918 brand posts from 24 brand pages on Facebook were used for the research. All analysed brands were split into one of three categories based on their geographical audience – Lithuanian, Czech, or global. Findings imply that in order to enhance consumer engagement behaviour, it is best to use video content which is created to entertain and has an emotional appeal. |
