Understanding Consumer-to-Consumer Relationship Development in Facebook: When and how should brands engage with consumers?

Brands utilise social media with the aim of increasing consumer engagement, through direct interaction with consumers or by providing content for consumer-to-consumer interaction. However social media platforms such as... [ view full abstract ]

Brands utilise social media with the aim of increasing consumer engagement, through direct interaction with consumers or by providing content for consumer-to-consumer interaction. However social media platforms such as Facebook, are used primarily for consumer social interaction, and it is argued herein that interaction with brands is secondary to this primary motive. An exploratory approach based on Social Penetration Theory and Uncertainty Reduction Theory is taken to ascertain categories of social media consumer based on their relationship stages with other consumers. Within these categories, the type of content utilised organically in consumer social interaction in Facebook is identified. By doing so, we propose brands tailor their social media content to facilitate natural discussion between consumers at these different relationships and “piggy back” upon such conversations. Thus, increasing engagement with branded content more effectively.