Understanding Consumer Engagement on Social Networking Sites in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social media is one of the reasons that has led to globalization through effective communication by reducing the distance between countries. Its presentation of information and provoking engagement has attracted many multinational companies to utilize it to create awareness of their brand. This research was conducted to identify the influence of brand and brand-related content shared online targeting the Sri Lankan youth population. This study was built based on two objectives, which are Sri Lankan consumer engagement towards a brand and brand-related content shared in social networking sites and the techniques that could be used to get better outcomes from it. The study of 150 questionnaires indicates that brand content-related cues, such as perceived uniqueness, perceived vividness, and perceived interactivity, have remarkable effects on consumers’ affective and cognitive involvement that leads to consumer engagement. Advertising effectiveness models and Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) framework were used to analyse consumer’s psychological and behavioural responses to brand-related content shared via SNS. Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse and interpret responses received. According to the findings, it is important to consider the target market of the brand, demographical factors, consumer’s psychological and behavioural responses to the content shared online for any social networking marketing campaigns. This study contributes to a better understanding of the influence of brand content to improve consumer engagement, which could be further analysed to increase customer conversion and retention.