The Role of Marketer-Generated Content in Customer Engagement Marketing

Abstract

Despite the demonstrated importance of customer sentiment in social media for outcomes such as purchase behavior and of firms’ increasing use of customer engagement initiatives, surprisingly few studies have investigated firms’ ability to influence the sentiment of customers’ digital engagement. Many firms track buyers’ offline interactions, design online content to coincide with customers’ experiences, and face varied performance during events, enabling the modification of marketer-generated content to correspond to the event outcomes. This study examines the role of firms’ social media engagement initiatives surrounding customers’ experiential interaction events in influencing the sentiment of customers’ digital engagement. Results indicate that marketers can influence the sentiment of customers’ digital engagement beyond their performance during customers’ interactions, and for unfavorable event outcomes, informational marketer-generated content, more so than emotional content, can enhance customer sentiment. This study also highlights sentiment’s role as a leading indicator for customer lifetime value.

How Social Media Impacts Brand Value: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

“…This finding provides some explanation for why many brands heavily moderate, or in some cases even prohibit, UGC on their official Facebook presence. In contrast, some studies argue that brands, rather than moderating the UGC, should develop good Finally, we find that UGC dominates the effects of MGC on customer satisfaction and brand value, echoing the research on the increasing importance of consumer voice (Borah et al, 2020;Colicev et al, 2019;Meire et al, 2019). However, based on media credibility theory, we show that brands with a good corporate reputation have more leverage on social media.…”

“…Thus, by being active on social media platforms, marketers can increase the perceived value and quality of their brand as well as set correct customer expectations, which ultimately affects customer satisfaction (Fornell & Johnson, 1996;Szymanski & Henard, 2001). We expect UGC to impact customer satisfaction because it also delivers information (informative effect) about how many other people have experienced or used the product and how popular the product is in the market (Kübler, Colicev, & Pauwels, 2019;Meire et al 2019), thus reducing cognitive dissonance after the purchase (Borah et al, 2020;Festinger, 1957). For example, UGC can reduce brand-related information asymmetry through relevant communication aimed at increasing the perceived value of the brand (Kirmani & Rao, 2000).…”

“…Curiosamente, encontramos que los efectos del contenido generado por el Introduction U.S. brands now spend an average 17% of their marketing budgets on social media (The CMO Survey, 2020). A large part of these investments are dedicated to the creation of Marketer Generated Content (MGC) (Colicev, Kumar, & O'Connor 2019;Meire, Hewett, Ballings, Kumar, & Van Den Poel, 2019), which is aimed at informing and persuading the consumer base; building trust; and developing customer engagement (Borah, Banerjee, Yu-Ting, Jain, & Eisingerich, 2020;Hewett, Rand, Rust, & Van Heerde, 2016;Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). For instance, marketers regularly post informative content such as tweets containing information on new product features and persuasive posts on Facebook aimed at attracting consumer attention.…”

“…However, social media also enables the creation of User Generated Content (UGC) (e.g. by 'tweeting' or "retweeting" on Twitter), which is beyond marketers' direct control (Meire et al, 2019). While UGC is more credible, objective, and persuasive with respect to MGC (Borah et al, 2020;Zhang, Trusov, Stephen, & Jamal, 2017), it can also backfire if it contains negative brand evaluations.…”

“…While UGC is more credible, objective, and persuasive with respect to MGC (Borah et al, 2020;Zhang, Trusov, Stephen, & Jamal, 2017), it can also backfire if it contains negative brand evaluations. Thus, balancing MGC and UGC and their effect on brand performance has become a key managerial priority which has attracted a wealth of research over the past decade (Borah et al 2020;Hanssens & Pauwels, 2016;Meire et al, 2019). For instance, previous research has documented the impact of social media on sales (Stephen & Galak, 2012), cash flows (Nam & Kannan, 2014), and stock returns (Colicev, Malshe, & Pauwels, 2018a).…”