Title: Understanding the user generated content and interactions on a Facebook brand page

Authors: Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj; Florian Michahelles

Addresses: Information Management, ETH Zurich, Scheuchzerstrasse 7, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland ' Information Management, ETH Zurich, Scheuchzerstrasse 7, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract: Social networks provide the technological platform for individuals to connect, produce and share content online. As such, they are becoming an additional marketing channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a part of the marketing mix. In order to contribute to the companies' understanding of utilisation of social networks as a marketing platform, our study approaches the problem from the perspective of understanding the user generated content and the interactions. First we analyse the topics, intentions for participation and emotions shared by the users on a Facebook brand page. Second, we analyse the activities and interactions, in terms of their evolution over time and dependency on the community size. Finally, we discuss the implications of the obtained results for social media marketing.

Keywords: social networks; Facebook; social media marketing; SMM; content analysis; social network analysis; SNA; user generated content; brand pages; marketing mix; social interactions; topics; participation intention; emotions; community size; web based communities; online communities; virtual communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSHC.2013.053270

International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing, 2013 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.118 - 140

Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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