1

PROJECT REPORT

ON

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER BRAND ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Brand Engagement MBA

DEPARTMENT – MBA project report

megamind1636@gmail.com

SUBMITTED BY –

PREETI RANI DAS, ROLL NO.

CHINMOY DAS, ROLL NO. 584/16

SABREEN AHMED, ROLL NO. 607/16

ALAKESH PHUKAN, ROLL NO. 624/16

SUSMITA DAS, ROLL NO. 623/16

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ABSTRACT

Consumer brand engagement (CBE) is indisputably an emerging topic in the marketing

literature, yet the amount of research on its antecedents and outcomes is limited. Besides
academics, it has also gained traction among practitioners who have started to experiment
with new methods to engage consumers with their brands. Brands constitute an important
intangible asset for the firms. Simultaneously, with the advent of internet, IT services and
social media network information services, consumers are turning away from traditional
sources of communication such as press, radio, television as used by various companies in
past, and are choosing online product reviews posted by users on social media as basis of
their purchase decision making. Nielsen (2012) reported that 46% of online users use social
media when making purchase decisions online.

In general, the ways a brand connects to its consumer is via a range of "touch points"—that
is, a sequence or list of potential ways the brand makes contact with the individual is called
Brand Engagement. Examples include retail environments, advertising, word of mouth,
online, and the product/service itself.

In business practice, the term ‗‗engagement‘‘ was first introduced by Appelbaum in the year
2001. During the last two decades, the concept of ‗‗engagement‘‘ has been used in various
fields including marketing, psychology, sociology, political science, and organizational.
Hence, major companies like Starbucks, have made customer engagement central to their
customer.

Customer engagement is defined as active interactions with the fim, with prospects and with
other customers. We focus on consumers‘ interactions with brands are now more similar to a
multi-party conversation than to a brand-dictated monologue. Social media platforms
including Facebook and Twitter have become integral elements for companies and brands
seeking to develop intimate online customer relationships; conversely, they provide
consumers an online ―soapbox‖ with which to publish and disseminate personal evaluations
of products and services.
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Nowadays, consumers take their decisions largely based on their trust on friends, family and
online product reviews, and all of these are found in the social media network environment.
Most of these marketing efforts have started to take place in social media, as the number of
consumers who can be reached with services such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or
YouTube is increasing exponentially.

While the corporate investments in social media are increasing, many marketing practitioners
have trouble reaching the positive outcomes of consumer brand engagement suggested by the
academics, such as increase in brand usage intent or spreading of word of mouth between
consumers. The results of the study demonstrate that consumer involvement precedes CBE,
which consists of cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions. On the other hand, CBE
positively affects brand usage intent and word of mouth in social media context.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PROJECT TITLE: A STUDY OF CUSTOMER BRAND ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL

MEDIA

NAME OF THE INSTITUTE: GAUHATI UNIVERSITY

GUIDE: Dr. Samir Sarkar, Gauhati University.

NEED OF THE STUDY:

 This research study aims to analyse the relationship between social media use and
consumer brand engagement.
 The study is undertaken to analyze various parameters, and drivers associated with
Customer brand engagement.
 This study helps to analyse the means of communication adopted, in order to build
solid relationships with customers, its employees and the stakeholders with the given
brand.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

 This study will help businesses use social media more effectively and increase
participation by consumers, and also to increase the organization efficiency.
 This study will also find the different motivating factors, from a consumer
standpoint, on why they would engage with your given brand on a variety of
different social media platforms.
 It aims to describe the meaning, conceptual boundaries and dimensions of
consumer engagement within the context of online brand communities in terms of
the engagement with the brand and its process.
 This study helps us to ascertain the impacts of social influence, brand
involvement, social media usage, economic and entertain benefits on customer
brand engagement.
 This study will also help us to analyse the best practises, means of communication
(message), and marketing efforts to be adopted, in order to enhance customer
brand engagement via social media.
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SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

Hence the scope of the study is –

 Understanding the stakeholder (audiences) wants and expectations

 Knowing what messages and information is appropriate for each audience
 Ensuring that there is a feedback mechanism in place so communication is a dialogue
 Measuring effectiveness
 Enhancing participation and collaboration.
 To assess employee engagement, with the measurement of "engagement drivers"—
that is, what are the factors or combinations of factors which affect productivity and
commitment of the employees, which will in turn help serve its customers.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The methodology followed for conducting the study includes the specification of
research design, sample design, data collection, questionnaire design, and statistical tools
used for analyzing the collected data.

The data obtained is analyzed using descriptive analysis. Data is collected from primary
sources and other data has been collected from secondary sources such as such as journal
articles, media reports, government documents, etc. The survey is conducted in accordance to
the convenience of the consumers. So the sample type is convenience sampling. This study
was carried out based on a survey.

STUDY POPULATION:

This specifies who makes up the study population are the social media users, including
characteristics like Age, Gender, etc. The population of my research are the social media
users (consumers)

SAMPLE SIZE:

The items selected out from the total population is technically called a sample. Here the
sample size is of 100 including both male and female

DATA COLLECTION:

The data source: Primary and Secondary

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The research approach: Survey Method

SURVEY INSTRUMENT:

Questionnaires were used for conducting the survey. It consists of 9 questions. Each question
utilizes a set of responses. Once the data was collected, tables and pie charts are created,
using spss software and MS Excel in order to reflect results and findings. Data are collected
through semi-structured interviews with people of different age groups covering a variety of
brand categories and social media platforms.

DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES:

The data is analyzed through simple analysis technique. The data tool is percentage method.

This method is used to describe the relationship :

Percentage of Respondents= No. of Respondents/Total no. of Respondents x 100%

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

 Return on investment for social media marketing efforts is difficult to measure, and
brand engagement is a metrics that doesn't describe how many users end up
purchasing.
 Social Media Sites Discourage External Links- Social media sites dislike external
links because it takes people away from the platform which disrupts the advertising
business model.
 Further research should aim at comparing consumer engagement on different social
media and across brand categories, as this study takes a holistic approach and does not
focus on any particular category of brands or social media. Consumers‘ views should
also be evaluated against and compared with marketing managers‘ understanding of
consumer engagement.
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INTRODUCTION

Customer Brand Engagement between a brand and its consumers/potential consumers is a

key objective of a brand marketing effort.

Brand Engagement measures the extent to which a consumer has a meaningful brand
experience when exposed to commercial advertising, sponsorship, television contact, or other
experience. In March 2006 the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) defined Engagement
as "turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context". The ARF has
depicted whereby engagement impacts a brand :

There are two broad areas where brand engagement is relevant within an organization
(employees and close stakeholders such as franchise staff, call centres, suppliers or
intermediaries).

1. Ensuring that the employer brand promised to employees is delivered upon once
employees join the firm. If the employee experience is not what is promised, this
could result in increased employee turnover and/or decreased performance.
2. Ensuring employees and close stakeholders of an organization completely understand
the organization's brand, and what it stands for—and to make sure that their activities
on a day-to-day basis are contributing to expressing that brand through the customer
experience.

In general, this requires an ongoing effort on the part of the organization to ensure that its
employees and close stakeholders understand what the brand is promising to its customers,
and to help all employees clearly understand how their actions and behaviours, on a day-to-
day basis, either support or undermine the effort.
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ENGAGEMENT MARKETING

Engagement marketing, sometimes called "experiential marketing", "event

marketing", "on-ground marketing", "live marketing", "participation marketing", or "special
events" is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages
them to participate in the evolution of a brand or a brand experience. Rather than looking at
consumers as passive receivers of messages, engagement marketers believe that consumers
should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs,
developing a relationship with the brand.

Consumer Engagement is when a brand and a consumer connect. According to Brad

Nierenberg, experiential marketing is the live, one-on-one interactions that allow consumers
to create connections with brands or Consumers will continue to seek and demand one-on-
one, shareable interaction with a brand.

Engagement/Experiential marketing is a growing trend which involves marketing a product

or a service through experiences that engage the customers and create emotional attachment
to the product/service. Physical and interactive experiences are used to reinforce the offer of a
product and make customers feel as if they are part of them. Experiences are positively
related to customer's attitudes, mood and behaviours. They also represent a means through
which a company can gain competitive advantage by differentiating itself from competitors.
To achieve success, an experience should be engaging, compelling and able to touch the
customer's senses and capture his/her loyalty.

Traditional top-down marketing results, largely, in the production and communication of

white noise. Whereas engagement marketing assumes a different approach:

Think of a salesperson who walks up to you in a store. You tell him thanks, you are okay, you
are just looking. But he hovers and looms, finds ways to insert himself into your activity, and
is a general annoyance. That's what typical marketing feels like: intrusive and disruptive.
Engagement Marketing is the opposite. It's a salesperson who hangs back and engages you
if/when you need help. Who can sense what you want to do, and help you arrive at that
decision. Who will contact you directly with exclusive sales information, if—and only if—
you request it.

There are many aspects which differentiate traditional marketing from the
engagement/experiential marketing-
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 Engagement marketing focuses on providing sensory, emotional, cognitive and

rational values to the consumers.
 It aims to create synergies among meaning, perception, consumption and brand
loyalty.

Furthermore, experiential marketing requires a more diverse range of research methods in

order to understand consumers. The wide spread of the Internet and the increasing
competition among online retailers has led to the rise of virtual experiential marketing
(VEM). VEM uses the Internet and its various channels to create an enriched and engaging
experience by using visual and audio tools.

SOCIAL MEDIA CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Social media engagement measures the public shares, likes and comments for an
online business' social media efforts. Engagement has historically been a common metric for
evaluating social media performance but doesn't necessarily translate to sales.

The four most popular social media sites today are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and
Twitter. Each platform has its own mechanisms for users to express appreciation for
individual posts and posters, which are measured differently across each platform:

Twitter: Re-tweets and followers

Facebook: Shares, likes and followers

Instagram: Likes and followers

YouTube: Likes, Subscribers.

While shares and likes tell us about the popularity of a given post, followers/subscribers
indicate a higher level of investment, meaning users want to see more of the content on a
regular basis. Posts can be shared for many reasons, however, not all of them good. Social
media engagement is only as positive as the reputation it generates: going viral over a poorly
thought-out tweet can cause a tsunami of bad publicity that proves to be unshakeable.

With over 1.5 billion monthly users, a Facebook presence has become a necessity for both
online and offline businesses. Therefore we can sum up that, Social media‘s reach is
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undeniable. The opportunity presented to businesses to increase audience interaction is

limitless. But, with every opportunity there are challenges.

These challenges include finding out what motivates people, what‘s the best method to
communicate with the audience and what messages resonate with consumers. However, the
strategies and tools used to increase engagement through social media have evolved beyond
Facebook likes, Google +1s and tweets on Twitter. Social media marketing has become a
specialized discipline that includes ad platforms, community management and data analysis.

To find out the right strategy and tactics that will increase audience involvement with the
business, we need to –

Have the right social media marketing partner., proper use of new digital platforms to create
content, participate in discussions, engage in conversations, collaborate as communities and
share information, opinions and knowledge using social web.
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COMMON (SOCIAL MEDIA) ONLINE ENGAGEMENT MARKETING TOOLS-

 Blogs: companies can share content on their own blogs and participate as a
commenter or content provider on relevant external blogs. Hosting a campaign that
gives prizes to the readers of external blogs for their participation in some kind of
contest is an example of an engagement marketing campaign aimed at external blogs.

 Social networking sites: Social networking sites (such as Facebook, LinkedIn,

Instagram, Twitter) are ideal for engagement marketing because they provide a way
for people to interact with brands and create a two-way dialogue between customers
and companies. Most companies maintain a presence on several of these sites. Some
of these platforms have also created specific types of online presences for companies.
For example, Facebook introduced Fan pages in 2007. Engagement outcomes such as
sharing behaviours include motivations such as enjoyment, self-efficacy, learning,
personal gain, altruism, empathy, social engagement, community interest, reciprocity,
and reputation[27] as well as social response to fan page cues such as social interactive
value, visual appearance and identity attractiveness of the branded object.

 Webcasts: Differing from internal webcast meetings with a small, specific invitation
list, engagement marketing online events are aimed at a much larger and public
audience. They are typically available live or on-demand, which allows viewers to
view content on their own schedule. Similar to conferences, audience members can
ask the speakers questions and participate in polls during live webcasts.

 Email campaigns: One of the earliest online engagement marketing tools, email
marketing requires target audiences to opt-in to directly receive a marketer's emails.
Companies can also encourage individuals to share their messages virally, via the
forwarding of emails to colleagues, friends and family.
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 Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing sites offer engagement marketing opportunities

through their open media contests. By first engaging fans and consumers in the act of
shaping the brand identity itself, there is increased brand awareness and development
of brand relationships well before launching any official media campaign.

RATIONALE BEHIND THE STUDY

Every business wants to find the sweet spot between new and returning customers.
Understanding brand engagement and audience participation is a critical task.

Therefore, a Brand is more than a company name and the products or services it offers. A
brand also includes the particular marketing approach and communication method that
sets a company apart from the other competitors. If its a successful campaign, a brand has
an enduring impact on the minds of your customers. This means that a brand must engage
audiences in a tangible way. Brand engagement is successful when a person forms an
emotional attachment to a brand. One key aspect to building brand engagement is
audience participation.

Whether the business is repairing cars or providing insurance, the more the audience
plugs into the brand the more likely they are to come back to the organization(brand)
again and again when the need arises, and hence they are also more likely to be referred
to their friends and family about the brand or (organization).

The marketing space where brand engagement and audience participation is changing the
fortunes of companies, big and small, is basically the Social media strategy.

A recently published study affirmed that engagement with a brand increased

exponentially if key audiences were active on social media. The study indicated that for the
average customer, median age of 20.6, their personal identification and enjoyment with a
brand grew the more they interacted with others and the business itself on social media
(specifically Facebook). This data tells us that the first step that businesses must take to
 13

increase audience involvement is to leverage their social media profiles. When doing so,
brands must direct their social media marketing to where their target audiences are already
gathered. If they spend most of their time socializing with friends on Facebook, that‘s where
the brand should be visible. If the target audience for the products or services is more of
corporate nature, then the engagement efforts should be focused on LinkedIn. Putting the
efforts into the right social media space makes it easier for current and potential customers to
associate themselves with the brand.

SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT PROCESS

The process requires of understanding the need of online medium and choosing the
engagement strategy. Adopting the right tools to listen, monitor and measure the brand
engagement goals.

STEPS-

1. Listen
2. Strategize
3. Monitor & Measure
4. Understand & Refine
5. Engage & Empower

1. Listen - What people are talking about your brand? How conversations are taking place
around your brand? What is your online consumer perspective towards the brand? Do you see
a need for brand engagement in customers and prospects conversations?

2. Social Media Strategy - The Planning: Identify the engagement need for your brand
before you plan using Social Media – Just don‘t use. Strategy: is to focus on understand why,
where and how? to engage with target group. Social Media: it does not matter whether its a
big or small company but it is for those who want to be close to customers.

3. Monitor and Measure - Everyday people talk lot of stuff online – is your brand part of
those conversations? Who are the key influencers talking about your brand? What is the
online reputation of your (competitors) brand? Define the metrics you like to measure based
 14

on the brand engagement goals. Active participation of customers, submitting forms, sending
reviews / feedbacks, enquiring about the products/service and making purchases, are some
means to measure customer brand enagagement.

4. Understand and Refine - Is your brand engagement in social-sphere working? – are

results aligned towards the engagement need? Do you see positive buzz and better customer
or prospect engagement results? Don‘t be rigid, to be social add the change you need so to be
an interesting brand don‘t bore people with messages.

5. Engage and Empower - Engage with people interested in your brand related
conversations. Identify the key influencers of your brand conversations and focus on building
brand loyalists. Be a catalyst to empower your brand consumers or prospects when they need
help.

KEY TACTICS/PRACTISES FOR ENGAGING CUSTOMERS (USERS) OVER

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE-

 Post daily — Keep your brand at the top of people's newsfeeds with witty, engaging
and entertaining content. Frequent posting keeps your brand visible for customers,
reminding them that you exist and have something interesting to say. Don't go
overboard, however. Too many posts per day begins to look like spam to users. At
best, posts get ignored; at worst, your brand gains a reputation as a disreputable ad
spammer. One to three posts per day is a consistently safe range to aim for.
 Use images — Images greatly increase interaction rates for all social media
platforms. Research has shown that Facebook posts with images have an 85 percent
interaction rate, compared with just 4 percent for other post types. Images also
increase re-tweets on Twitter by 35 percent.
 Be personal — Avoid appearing like a press release; show the audience that there are
real people behind the brand.
 Listen — Engagement is a two-way street. Hear what people are saying about your
brand and respond to critiques in a constructive and positive way. If users have valid
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complaints, don't just acknowledge them, address them. Then make sure everyone
sees how responsive and generous your brand can be via follow-up posts.
 Monitor — There are several free social media marketing apps which track shares,
re-tweets, likes and keywords associated with your brand. Sites like HootSuite, Social
Mention and Addictomatic use various crawlers and algorithms to determine who is
seeing your social media posts and how they're responding.
 Contests — Contests and giveaways are a great way to increase interest in your
brand. After all, everyone likes free stuff.
 Partnerships — Share links and produce original content with other popular brands,
brand advocates and tastemakers.
 Cover all the social media bases — Produce content for the top social media sites
and cross-pollinate your content among them. For instance, link the more dynamic,
image-oriented Instagram posts to Facebook and Twitter.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Few of the earlier and most popular case studies and examples are cited below-

 The most compelling example of this is the service-profit chain. The first real case
study of this appeared in "The Service Profit Chain" (the so-called Sears Model,
Harvard Business Review, 1997). This statistical model tracks increases in employee
―engagement drivers‖ to correlated increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty, and
then correlates this to increases in total shareholder return (TSR), revenue and other
financial performance measures. Since the service-profit chain emerged, it‘s been
developed, and criticized, but the general consensus is that employee engagement can
contribute roughly 20% to an organization‘s TSR.

 An example of experiential marketing using immersive technology is where Mouse

Marketing Inc created a Sustainable Dance Floor activation for the Molson Red Leaf
Project. People were inspired to dance on the illuminated Sustainable Floor, every
step generated 24watts of electricity. Participants could see their contributions by
viewing the energy meters, crowds were rewarded for hitting energy targets.
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 Another example of engagement marketing is seen in the marketing strategy of Jones

Soda. At the company's website, regular customers are allowed to send in photos that
will then be printed on bottles of the soda. These photos can be put on a small order of
custom-made soda, or, if the photos are interesting enough, they can be put into
production and used as labels for a whole production run.This strategy is effective at
getting customers to co-create the product, and engaging customers with the brand.

 Another similar example of engagement marketing is seen in the marketing strategy

of Coca Cola. Where the regular customers can print their names and customize the
bottles of the soda, or they can even send their favourite quotes or logos in the
company‘s website to get it printed on the bottles. This strategy is effective at getting
customers to co-create the product, and engaging customers with the brand.

NEEDS, OBJECTIVES, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

NEED OF THE STUDY:

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 This research study aims to analyse the relationship between social media use and
consumer brand engagement.
 The study is undertaken to analyze various parameters, and drivers associated with
Customer brand engagement.
 This study helps to analyse the means of communication adopted, in order to build
solid relationships with customers, its employees and the stakeholders with the given
brand.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

 This study will help businesses use social media more effectively and increase
participation by consumers, and also to increase the organization efficiency.
 This study will also find the different motivating factors, from a consumer
standpoint, on why they would engage with your given brand on a variety of
different social media platforms.
 It aims to describe the meaning, conceptual boundaries and dimensions of
consumer engagement within the context of online brand communities in terms of
the engagement with the brand and its process.
 This study helps us to ascertain the impacts of social influence, brand
involvement, social media usage, economic and entertain benefits on customer
brand engagement.
 This study will also help us to analyse the best practises, means of communication
(message), and marketing efforts to be adopted, in order to enhance customer
brand engagement via social media.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

Hence the scope of the study is –

 Understanding the stakeholder (audiences) wants and expectations

 Knowing what messages and information is appropriate for each audience
 Ensuring that there is a feedback mechanism in place so communication is a dialogue
 18

 Measuring effectiveness
 Enhancing participation and collaboration.

To assess employee engagement, with the measurement of "engagement drivers"—that is,

what are the factors or combinations of factors which affect productivity and commitment of
the employees, which will in turn help serve its customers.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

 Return on investment for social media marketing efforts is difficult to measure, and
brand engagement is a metrics that doesn't describe how many users end up
purchasing.
 Social Media Sites Discourage External Links- Social media sites dislike external
links because it takes people away from the platform which disrupts the advertising
business model.
 Further research should aim at comparing consumer engagement on different social
media and across brand categories, as this study takes a holistic approach and does not
focus on any particular category of brands or social media. Consumers‘ views should
also be evaluated against and compared with marketing managers‘ understanding of
consumer engagement.
 19

RESEARCH METHODOLGY

INTRODUCTION:

Research is the process of systematic and in-depth study or search for any particular topic,
subject, area of investigation, backed by collection, completion, presentation and
interpretation of relevant details or data. This chapter mainly analyze the methodology of the
study where it further describe the population of the study, sample selected, sampling
techniques used in selecting the sample, data collection methods used and strategies in which
the collected data is being analyzed.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

The research design used for this study is of the Descriptive in nature. Descriptive research
describes the characteristics of relevant groups, such as consumers, users. It estimates the
percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain behaviour.

POPULATION:

The population used for this study are the general population (consumers), the social media
users.

SAMPLE SIZE:

100 sample size (including both Male and Female).

TYPES OF DATA:

Primary and Secondary Data are used. Primary Data is the information collected specifically
for the purpose of the research needs. Data observed or collected directly from first-hand
experience. Secondary Data refers to the data that was already collected, stored, and are
readily available. Primary Data are the raw data and information whereas Secondary Data are
fabricated or tailored data.
 20

SOURCES OF DATA:

Primary data source: Sample Respondents. The responses or information collected from the
users through survey questionnaires(Google forms)

Secondary data source: Magazines, Journals, Websites, Books.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD:

Survey and Observation Method. Survey involves a direct questioning of respondents and
Observation entails recording responded behaviour. Survey method involves the
administration of a questionnaire, Google forms and may be classified based on the method
such as interviews, etc. and Observation involves personal observation, audit, etc.

TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION:

Structured and Unstructured interview through well defined Questionnaire. A Questionnaire

is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering
information from respondents. It is a method generally employed to collect statistically useful
standardised data from large group of people..

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN:

Questions are framed in such a way that the answers reflect the views and thoughts of the
respondents with regard to level of job satisfaction based on various factors. There are all
total 9 questions. Each question is characterized by a number of answers/options. The
questions are based on the consumer‘s personal information and the brand engagement
measurements, frequency parameters. The survey questions consists of Dichotomous type,
Multiple Choice type, Rank order Scaling type, Likert Scale type and Open Ended question
type.

TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS AND DATA REPRESENTATION:

The collected data has been analyzed and are represented through Tables, Pie Diagrams and
Bar Diagrams.
 21

PIE DIAGRAMS AND BAR DIAGRAMS

These diagrams basically compares different data samples, categorizes data, and distributes
the data values across a sample. Bar Diagrams represents each element of data sample as one
bar. Bars are distributed along the horizontal or vertical axis with each data elements at a
different location along the axis. Pie Diagrams represents the portion or percentage that each
element of a data sample contributes to the total number of elements.

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Q1: What is your age?

1.1 Table showing responses of age group

Age Frequency
20-25 20
26-30 28
31-35 20
53 and above 22

1.1.Figure showing responses of age group

20-25
26-30
31-35
53 and above
 22

Analysis:

The sample size taken was 100. The responses of the various age groups are shown on table
1.1. It can be inferred that the maximum number of age group belonged to the age range of
26-30. The division of the age group is shown in the pie chart.

Q2: Are you male or female?

1.2 Table showing responses of gender

Gender Frequency
Female 49
Male 50
Prefer not to say 1
Other 0

1.2.Figure showing responses of gender

Female
Male
Prefer not to say
Other

Analysis:

The responses of gender wise analysis is shown in table 1.2 which covers 49 Females and 50
Males and the rest preferred not to say. However the analysis doesn‘t seem to be gender
biased as almost equal number of samples were selected both covering male and female.
 23

Q3: Do you use Social Media?

1.3 Table showing usage of social media

Usage of Social Media Frequency

Yes 87
No 3
May be 10

1.2.Figure showing usage of social media

Yes
No
May be

Analysis:

When asked about the usage of social media usage, the responses for yes were more than
50% in comparison to the ones who doesn‘t use. This can be inferred that out of the sample
size of 100, maximum people uses social media.

Q4:Which social media platforms are you familiar with?

1.4 Table showing social media familier with

Social Media Name Frequency

Facebook 62
Google Plus 20
Twitter 31
Instagram 57
Tumblr 5
Linked In 25
Other 11
 24

1.4.Figure showing social media familier with

70
60
50
40
30
20 Frequency
10
0

Analysis:

On being asked about the various social media familiar with, the responses are shown in table
1.3. It can be seen that the social media which is most familiar is Facebook followed by
Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and so on. However only 5 people were familiar with
Tumblr which shows this social media platform is yet to make its mark in most cases.

Q5: Which Social Media platform are you most loyal to?

1.5 Table showing Social Media Platforms most loyal to

Social Media Name Frequency

Facebook 35
Google Plus 0
Twitter 25
Instagram 30
Tumblr 0
Linked In 10
Other 0

1.5 Figure showing social media most loyal to

40
30
20
10
0
Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn
 25

Q6: Please rank what makes you most loyal to a brand?

1.6 Table showing Reason for Loyalty to a brand

Reason for Loyalty to a brand Rank

I like the contents 23
My friend uses this social media platform 13
Celebrities are active in this social media 18
Provide quick updates 9
Popular 37
Other 0

1.6 Figure showing Reason for Loyalty to a brand

40
35
30
25
20
15
10 Rank
5
0
I like the My friend Celebrities Provide Popular Other
contents uses this are active quick
social in this updates
media social
platform media

Analysis:

The reason for loyalty to a brand includes mainly due to its popularity and other factors like
the contents and celebraties using them. 13 people also use due to Word of Mouth i.e
because their friends uses it.
 26

Q7: Please rank where you obtain information on brand activity of this social medias.

1.7 Table showing Reason for obtaining information about the brand

Obtaining information about the brand Rank

Online news sites 23
online ads 32
word of Mouth 20
Newspaper or any form of print media 25
Other 0

1.7 Figure showing Reason for obtaining information about the brand

35
30
25
20
15
10 Rank
5
0
Online online ads word of Newspaper Other
news sites Mouth or any form
of print
media

Analysis:

On being asked about where form they obtain the information, the maximum response was
from inline ads followed by newspapers and other print media and so on. This shows that
people are more active in the internet. This can be used as an active tool by the marketers for
brand building.
 27

Q8: Where do you see the above image?

1.7 Table showing respondent where they saw the image

Where do you see the above image Frequency

Facebook 56
Instagram 42
Others 2
I don’t know 0

1.7 Figure showing respondent where they saw the image

60

50

40

30
Frequency
20

10

0
Facebook Instagram Others I don’t know

Analysis:

An image was being shown to the given sample. Most of the people were aware about the
image through facebook and followed by instagram. This can be due to maximum number of
people in the given sample are familier with facebook and instagram more than the other
websites
 28

Q9: How do you think the media platform with which you are loyal handles the negative
press ?

1.9 Table showing how do the media platforms handles negative press

How do the media platforms handles negative press Frequency

They don’t respond 34
Acknowledged wrong doing but not apologetic 44
Acknowledged wrong doing and was apologetic 12
Never heard of any wrongdongs 10

1.9 Figure showing how do the media platforms handles negative press

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15 Frequency
10
5
0
They don’t Acknowledged Acknowledged Never heard of
respond wrongdoing wrongdoing any
but not and was wrongdongs
apologetic apologetic

Analysis:

On being asked about how do the social media response to the negative press 34 out of 100
said that they don‘t respond however 44 said that they acknowledged wrong doing but not
apologetic whereas according to 12 of them it acknowledged wrong doing and was apologetic.
 29

FINDINGS

This study suggests that individuals are engaging in online communities in social network
platforms both with other individuals and with brands. The study also identifies three key
engagement dimensions (cognition, affect and behaviours). Their meaning and sub-
dimensions are investigated. The study further suggests key drivers, one outcome and objects
of consumer engagement in online brand communities. These findings are integrated in a
conceptual framework.
 30

RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS TO ENHANCE BRAND ENGAGEMENT

1. We recommend the businesses to get an Insight on What to Publish and Share

 Adjacent Content
The fact that you have a large following means your followers are interested in what
you are offering. Instead of boring your audience with promotional content, consider
sharing tangentially relevant content or content that involves common interests of
your audience. Companies in the fashion industry, for example, can post about
upcoming fashion trends or news.

 Tips and Tricks

Making the lives of your followers easier is much appreciated and you can do so by
posting tips and tricks. Offer tips and tricks that could help your audience use your
products/services.

 Responses
So long as you do not just copy-and-paste content from other people, bouncing off
ideas from other social media users can help generate fresh content for your network.
Alternatively, you can search for posts that are relevant to your products or services
and contribute to the conversations. This is one of the best ways you can make your
brand and account more visible.

 Post Non-Promotional Company Information

If your company was recently engaged in or will be engaged in volunteer work, do not
be shy to share that information. Any information that gives a sneak into the
company‘s community and culture will help build solid relationships. It helps
humanize your brand.

 Job Openings
Do you have job openings? If yes, social channels offer a great way to find talent and
also advertise job openings. This will not only help you get the right talent but also
keep your social profile alive and interactive.
 31

 Jokes
If you post humour/jokes, make sure your jokes are clean and actually funny.

2. We recommend the business to Learn how to Share and Publish

 Frequency
The question that most people have is on how often they need to share. Your
frequency of sharing will depend on your audience, their appetite and what you wish
to share. The frequency of sharing will also depend on the platform you are using. For
example, the half-life of a tweet is determined to be around 18 minutes but this does
not mean you post every 20 minutes.You have to ensure you update your profiles
frequently enough to keep your audience engaged. You should also not post just for
the sake of posting.

 Engagement
Engaging your audience is the most important part of social media marketing. You
can do this by responding to user questions, mentions, commentary and so on.
Another way of fostering engagement is creating data-driven content that addresses
the unique needs of your audience. Learn more about your audience before sharing
content with them.

 Cross Promote
To make it easy for your users to find your content, cross-promote. Link your blog to
your social properties and keep all your profile names the same. Cross-promoting
your accounts will further increase visibility.

3. We recommend to have a Consistent Voice and Branding

 32

Your promise to your customers must remain the same in all your marketing strategies. You
need to define what you want your products to fulfil and stick with that.To guarantee
consistency , you have to start by focusing on using the same:

• Profile names

• Logo

• Fonts and colours

• Full brand description and what it stands for

• Situation in which your brand can and cannot be use

To effectively promote your brand and have a consistent voice, you will have to know your
audience first. You should then be human in that you don‘t post like a robot. Integrating your
campaigns in all your social profiles will further help solidify your brand as well as amplify
your marketing efforts.

4. We recommend to Learn how to Earn Familiarity, Trust and Likeability

The key to success in online marketing is earning familiarity, trust and likeability in your
community. But how exactly do you do this?

 Be Present
To give your audience a reason to invest in you, you have to show up and keep
showing up. If you don‘t demonstrate that you will stick around, they will not have
any reason to stick with you.

 Go Off-Topic
If every post you add is about you and your business, your followers will get bored.
Posting something that is relevant to your audience but not to you can help boost trust
and likeability.

 Be Human
You have to be empathetic, real, kind, funny and respectful. People do not relate to
bland personalities. If you feel automated, you will lose following.
 33

 Add value
Your posts should add value to your audience. This makes you authoritative and a
wanted part of the community. Offer answers to questions, offer assistance and go out
of your way to help someone.

5. We recommend the business to adopt Muster Crisis Management

From time to time, we will have to deal with bitter clients who might easily tarnish the online
reputation if not handled properly. Considering how much social media can amplify an
incident, it has become imperative to learn how to handle crisis. A lot more can be done to
boost social engagement. However, one may use the aforementioned tips as guides to direct
the actions. One should keep learning and keep engaging the audience.
 34

CONCLUSION

The initial goal of this research project was to find the connection(s) (relationship) between
Social Media Use in consumers and how likely they are to engage with any given brand on
these social media platforms. It became quickly apparent that human beings, in this day and
age, want something tangible in return for an interaction with an entity like a brand. This was
a great finding as it further confirmed that a variety of different businesses could find success
in promotional tools such as; coupon codes and loyalty cards.
It is important that brands employ social media platforms for outcomes beyond actual
purchase, including communicating product information, staying on top of and addressing
customer service issues, engaging consumers with fun and entertaining content relevant to
their brand(s), providing timely and relevant information regarding discounts, sales and other
events, and promoting new product launches. Further, brands must view social media as a
platform with which to quickly react to customer service issues and customer feedback in a
proactive manner.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engagement_marketing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_engagement

https://blueprintdigital.com/social-media-influences-brand-engagement/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing

https://www.slideshare.net/happymarketer/40-inspiring-social-media-case-studies/35-
Measuring_engagementTraditional_mediaBrands_can_tell

https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JPBM-06-2014-0635?journalCode=jpbm

Brodie, Roderick, Linda D. Hollebeek, Biljana Juric, and Ana Ilic (2011), ―Customer
Engagement: Conceptual Domain, Fundamental Propositions, and Implications for Research,
Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 252-71.

55-Rohm-Milne-Kaltcheva Pdf file.

The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Consumer Brand Engagement Pdf file.

Vivek, S. D., Beatty, S. E. & Morgan, R. M. 2012. Customer engagement: Exploring

customer relationships beyond purchase. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practise 20 (2),
127-145.