How brand post content contributes to user's Facebook brand-page engagement. The experiential route of active participation

Abstract

Creating and developing a firm-hosted virtual brand community forms part of a rela-tionship marketing strategy; therefore, it makes sense to evaluate its effectiveness in termsof relational outcomes. In an attempt to know how marketers can foster the relationship withthe brand through virtual communities, we posit and estimate a model of relational efficacyfor a firm-managed Facebook brand page (FBP) in which the brand posts created by the firminfluence the behavioural engagement of individual users through the utilitarian and hedonicvalues derived from their interactive experiences within the FBP. The findings highlight thatinformation posts stimulate user behavioural engagement through the utilitarian experientialroute. Aside from any experiential route and adopting a more direct path, interaction posts arethe main drivers of engagement behaviour. Image posts contribute towards the perception ofutility, but in no way affect engagement. Finally, in order to gain a deeper insight, we explorethe moderating effect of user brand purchase intensity on the relations posited in the model.