Social media engagement : what does it mean for consumers, influencers, and brands?

Social media is no longer just a place for social interaction, it is now a storefront where consumers start their purchase journey. Consumers go to social media to learn about businesses and make informed decisions when buying products and services. In this process, consumers expect to “engage” with businesses through various sources, contents, and platforms. The purpose of this paper is to help businesses understand the concept of engagement from the perspective of consumers, and its effect on social media advertising outcomes measured by engagement metrics and click-through-rates (CTR). The findings of this paper are threefold. First, influencers are suggested as effective source of persuasive messages for generating CTR in comparison to brand-promoted messages. Second, social media engagement metrics can strengthen the relationship between ad frequency and CTR. Third, for Facebook advertising, ad spend and frequency can have significant influence on CTR overtime, whereas for Instagram, only ad frequency is a significant predictor of CTR overtime. This study contributes to our knowledge of social media advertising effectiveness, as well as the role of influencers as message source, by examining behavioral trace data generated by consumers engaging with social media advertising campaigns. By examining real-time engagement patterns, this research provides immediate managerial implications that can be employed by businesses as they develop social media marketing plans for the future.Advertisin