Exploring the social marketing impacts of virtual brand community engagement

Abstract

The number of people using online communities is rising. The study found that more consumers find and evaluate goods through social media networks. At the same time, marketers continue to promote brand recognition, but more importantly, to increase user engagement. However, the link between the brand community and social media has become the focus of the marketing staff and the public. But the academic research of the brand community and the social media in the past focused on brand loyalty. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore how virtual brand communities could create social impacts on their customers. This study will use a web survey from customers from Insightxplorer's Cyber Panel who intend to adopt a social network service. Factor analysis will be conducted to confirm the induced factors from literature review. Furthermore, PLS will be used to determine the variation in social networking sites' quality, brand communities' engagement, virtual community and equity. Finally, in-depth discussions and conclusions will be provided to inform research and practice.