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The Role of Online Social Media in Brand-Consumer Engagement:
An Exploratory Study

Abstract Submitted to the Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit Proceedings

August 31, 2012

Andrew J. Rohm
Associate Professor, Marketing Department, College of Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, arohm1@lmu.edu

George R. Milne
Professor, Marketing Department, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, milne@isenberg.umass.edu

Velitchka Kaltcheva
Associate Professor, Marketing Department, College of Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, velitchka.kaltcheva@lmu.edu

Researchers have noted the importance of generating more …show more content…

2011). At the same time, companies are seeking to better understand the extent to which social media can and should play a role in customer engagement (Parent, Plangger, and Bal 2011).
Our knowledge regarding social media-driven brand-consumer engagement and what constitutes effective social media strategy is only now developing. Although both industry and academic research has begun to examine the role of social media within firm-customer interactions, there is a continued need for empirical investigation of usage characteristics and behaviors with respect to social media and online brand engagement, particularly among younger consumers. Accordingly, our study investigates the role of social media among younger consumers as they actively engage online with brands spanning the product, service, and media sectors. We administered a written diary to fifty-eight individuals over a one-week period in late Fall 2011. Diary data captured background information on social media usage and recorded 406 discrete company-respondent interactions across two primary social media platforms—Facebook and Twitter—as well as email. Email interactions were included in the study because this form of contact is part of the electronic ecosystem connecting consumers and businesses and is complementary to social media usage.
Our study makes two contributions to the growing body of social media marketing research. First, we uncover several themes characterizing online brand-consumer

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