Using Brand Pages: Why and How Multinational Stakeholders Engage with Corporations on Facebook

• In Event: Public Relations: Engaging via Social Media

Abstract

This study investigates multi-cultural stakeholders’ motivations to use the brand pages of interna-tional corporations. We build on the socio-cognitive approach to uses and gratifications research (LaRose & Eastin, 2004) to study the incentives why individuals turn to brand pages, what moti-vates them to “like” such a page, as well as the reasons which lead them to publicly express them-selves on a corporate brand page. Three models of user engagement with brand pages ranging from low to high interaction are tested on the basis of extensive survey data (N=1294). Results suggest that most people look at the information available on a page, whereas participation and production numbers are lower. Novel and self-reactive motivations provide key drivers for users to turn to brand pages overall, with further unique incentive dimensions applying with increasing user en-gagement. In addition, cultural differences between two user groups were found with special regard to monetary incentives.

Authors

• Christopher Hendrik Ruehl, U of Fribourg (CH)

• Diana Ingenhoff, University of Fribourg