Exploring the effect of user engagement in online brand communities: Evidence from Twitter

Noor Farizah Ibrahim, Xiaojun Wang, Humphrey Bourne

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

124 Citations (Scopus)
1499 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Social media such as forums, blogs and microblogs has been increasingly used for public information sharing and opinions exchange nowadays. It has changed the way how online community interacts and somehow has led to a new trend of engagement for online retailers especially on microblogging websites such as Twitter. In this study, we investigated the impact of online retailers’ engagement with the online brand communities on users’ perception of brand image and service. Firstly, we analysed the overall sentiment trends of different brands and the patterns of engagement between companies and customers using the
collected tweets posted on a popular social media platform, Twitter. Then, we studied how different types of engagements affect customer sentiments. Our analysis shows that engagement has an effect on sentiments that associate with brand image, perception and customer service of the online retailers. Our findings indicate that the level, length, type and attitude of retailers’ engagement with social media users have a significant impact on their
sentiments. Based on our results, we derived several important managerial and practical implications.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)321–338
Number of pages18
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume72
Early online date3 Mar 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2017

Research Groups and Themes

  • Smart Networks for Sustainable Futures

Keywords

  • Social media
  • Microblogging
  • Engagement
  • Online community
  • Online retailing

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