Developing a model for customer brand engagement on social media in the banking industry

The rapid growth of the Internet and the increasing penetration of social media in the society have provided a good opportunity to reinforce the relations of organizations with customers. By applying these media, organizations can increase their interactions with customers and create more value for both the customers and themselves through engaging them with the brand. Accordingly, this study seeks to identify the antecedents, dimensions and consequences of customer brand engagement in social media in the banking industry.  In order to achieve the purpose of the research, the mixed method was used, and the data were collected from the customers who followed one or more banks in social media. The data collection tools were in-depth interviews (in the qualitative section) and questionnaires (in the quantitative section). The data were processed through content analysis and structural equation modeling with a partial least squares approach and the Smart PLS software. The results of the study are presented in the framework of a customer brand engagement model in social media in the banking industry. The model has three sub-categories including the antecedents, dimensions and consequences of customer engagement. The antecedents address individual factors including reward (social media provide an easy and comfortable way to receive brand-related campaigns and/or special offers), entertainment (i.e., one of the main motivations concerning the consumers’ use of social media such as playing games, listening to music, and viewing videos), information acquisition (consumers rely and more often use social media to conduct their search for information and to decide what to purchase), curiosity (The user's willingness to interact on social media to access the opinions of others about the bank provides easy access to bank information and what is happening in the bank), brand involvement (the perceived relevance of the brand based on inherent needs, values, and interests), and social advantage (ability to establish and obtain social identity among other users and facilitate and expand social interactions with other users). The organizational factors include brand reputation (it refers to factors such as having a large audience, well-known and positive image of the bank in society), brand popularity (it is related to the acceptance and popularity of the bank among the people of the community), service experience (subjective, internal consumer and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments), advertising (good information and advertisements of the bank channel and the proper promotion of social media bank plans by employees cause the acquaintance and following of it on social media), reliability (people assume companies’ social media as a more trustworthy source of information concerning products and services), and content quality (useful and up-to-date content on a bank page or channel on social media can be an important motivating factor for following it on social media and consequently engaging with it). The media-related factors include user-friendliness (the desirability of the bank's page or channel, its visual appeal, and even the features of the social media application in which the bank operates, such as ease of installation and use, can play important roles in engaging the customer with the brand on social media), security (this refers to protecting the security and privacy of individuals and preventing the misuse of customers' personal information by the social media in which the bank operates), quality (the features of the bank's social media application, such as the speed and convenience of updating, are in this section), capabilities (the ability to store and preserve previous customer information, compatibility with all mobile devices and having good facilities such as chatting and sending photos and videos are considered as effective media capabilities for customer engagement), and media popularity (the popularity of social media and the large number of their audience will play effective roles in choosing the users of those media to denigrate the bank and conflict with it.).Customer engagement has three dimensions: cognitive (brand-related activities include the individual’s level of concentration and/or engrossment in the brand), emotional (customer’s level of brand-related inspiration and/or pride) and behavioral (the customer’s level of energy exerted in interacting with a focal brand).Finally, the consequences of engagement for the bank and social participation include awareness (such as increasing the customer's banking information, awareness of its plans and services and answering questions), perceived ease (such as easier access to bank information and facilitated banking activities), economic benefit of customers (such as discounts or prizes), loyalty (repeated purchases prompted by a strong internal disposition), feedback (delivery of immediate feedback to other users), and trust (consumer-perceived security and reliability in brand interactions, and the belief that the brand acts in the consumer’s best interests). The results of the data analysis confirmed the hypotheses and showed that all the three categories of individual, organizational and media factors can lead to customers' brand engagement through which certain outcomes are achieved for the customers, banks and society. Finally, some suggestions have been proposed to engage customers in social media.