The Value of Creating a Brand Community in Social Media with an Emphasis on the Role of System Suggestions

The purpose of this research is to provide a model for the influence of the brand community on brand performance, considering the role of the mediator of the system of suggestions, for media organizations to produce, expand and interact with the brand community. This research is a survey type. The statistical population of the study consists of two groups: the community of Sony's customers and fans, and the second group of Sony's brand managers, marketers and vendors. The sample size of the research for both users and managers, marketers and sellers due to lack of accurate statistics, according to the Cochran formula, was selected by 384 people. The questionnaire was distributed online by simple random sampling. The first group filled out the questionnaire of the brand community and the second group completed the questionnaire of brand performance and the system of suggestions. To validate the measurements, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with Lisrel software and then for reliability was examined by Cronbach's alpha. The hypotheses was tested using the PALS structural software. The results showed that the system of mediation suggests the effects of brand community on the four elements of brand performance. Brand community in social media can enhance brand performance by improving communications and interactions between members. Also, the existence and establishment of the system suggestions as a bridge and feedback can affect the relationship between the brand community and brand performance.