Social Media Marketing: How Design Features Influence Interactions with Brand Postings on Facebook

Abstract

The use of social networks is becoming more and more popular among consumers (Fox et al., 2010). Facebook, for instance, the predominant network online, has more than 700 Mio. members who often visit the platform several times a week (Poynter, 2008). Thus, social networks offer interesting perspectives for marketers (Eisend and Küster-Rohde, 2008; Zhang, 2010), and it is not surpris- ing that several marketers already use Facebook as a marketing tool (e.g., Coca Cola, Red Bull, Audi, and many others) or plan to be present in social networks in the future (e.g., Busby et al., 2010; CFMR, 2009). For marketers, Facebook offers several opportunities to promote their brands: Facebook ads (similar to usual online banners), Apps (applications, e.g., games like FarmVille), and fan pages. Fan pages are websites within Facebook which are created by marketers. Interested Facebook users may become a “fan” of a fan page by linking their personal profile with the fan page. Fan pages can contain several features, for example integrated apps, discussion boards, or even Face- book shops (Ivens and Rauschnabel, 2011). Every fan page also contains a so called “wall” where a brand (and often also fans) can publish postings (e.g., text, videos, votes and/or pictures). Fans can react to those postings by clicking the “I like” button or by writing a comment (for an example, see Figure 1). Many mar- keters use this function daily (or even several times a day) to keep consumers active and interested in the fan page. An average Facebook user is a fan of about nine brands (DDB, 2010). As several studies reveal, fan pages can be a very effective marketing tool (e.g., Dholakia and Durham, 2010; Fox et al., 2010).