Factors driving young users' engagement with Facebook: Evidence from Brazil

Highlights

• This study extends an existing model of social media participation to study user engagement.

• We tested the model in a new yet important field context: young Facebook users in Brazil.

• Subjective norm, social identity, entertainment and maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity are significant factors.

• The impact of social presence was not significant.

Abstract

User engagement has recently been the focus of attention for marketing planners who want to capture the enormous opportunities provided by social media. In this study, we investigate the drivers of social media user engagement by extending an existing model of social media participation by Cheung, Chiu and Lee (2011). We included in the model three social influence factors, five uses and gratifications factors, and one social presence factor. Results from an online survey with a sample of young Facebook users in Brazil (n = 1126) reveal four significant factors, i.e. a) subjective norm b) social identity, c) entertainment value, and d) maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity. Our empirical results also show an improved model fit over the existing model of user participation used by Cheung et al. (2011). This research adds significance to the literature by extending an existing theoretical model to study a new phenomenon in a different cultural context. We also provide practical recommendations for managing brand fan pages on how to foster user engagement with social media.

Introduction

User engagement has been recognised as a prerequisite for the success of virtual environments including social media (Verhagen, Swen, Feldberg, & Merikivi, 2015), and recently there is growing body of research examining user engagement particularly among students and young people (e.g. Byun and Loh, 2015, Cruz-Benito et al.,, Habibi et al., 2014, Lim et al., 2015, Pellas, 2014, Wiebe et al., 2014). However, studies examining the drivers of user engagement with social media are still limited. One exception is Verhagen et al. (2015), who use the theory of uses and gratification to link the characteristics of virtual environments, and perceived benefits of using these environments with user engagement intentions. In contrast, prior studies on motivation of social media participation have employed a combination of various theories such as ‘social influence’, ‘uses and gratification’, and ‘social presence’ (e.g. Cheung et al., 2011, Dholakia et al., 2004).

There is evidence about the influence of sociocultural factors on the design of social networking site (SNS, K.-S. Shen, 2013). However, there is also a lack of studies about the use of SNSs in cultures other than Asia and North America (Cho & Park, 2013). Yet, cultural differences could have considerable influence on social media users' attitudes and communication style (Cho & Park, 2013), and possibly on motivations to engage with social media. For this reason, knowledge on the specificities regarding other cultures would be critical in explaining the participant's engagement in SNSs. In the scope of this research, focussing on users in Brazil would bring interesting reflections for theoretical development about factors affecting use of Facebook in different cultural contexts. The results reported by two separate studies we previously cited show contrasting results: Dholakia et al. (2004) report that their model explained 54% of the variance of its dependent variable using the data of user participation in virtual communities in the US. Cheung et al. (2011) included an additional construct (social presence) to the model using the data of a sample of Facebook users in Hong Kong, yet the explanatory power of their model fell considerably, explaining only 28% of the variance of the dependent variable. The difference in the models' explanatory powers may be attributed to two possible reasons: a) different characteristics related social media investigated in the two studies, i.e. between general virtual communities and Facebook; b) different cultural contexts of the two studies, one in the US and the other Hong Kong. According to The Hofstede Centre (2015), Brazil ranks higher in the scores of Uncertainty Avoidance (76), Indulgence (59) and Individualism (38) than Hong Kong (29, 17 and 25, respectively), but lower in the term of Long Term Orientation (44 versus 61). Brazil also ranks very differently from the US on all the dimensions of Hofstede's culture framework. Thus further research of the conceptual model in a new context such as Brazil is required to uncover interesting reflections for theoretical development about factors affecting user engagement with social media.

This research addresses the research gap by extending an existing conceptual model of social media participation (Cheung et al., 2011, Dholakia et al., 2004) to study social media engagement in a new and important cultural context. Our study makes three important contributions to the literature. First, our investigation provides empirical evidence of extending the research model first developed by Dholakia et al. (2004) and later modified by Cheung et al. (2011) to study a new construct (user engagement) in a new and important cultural context (Brazil). Our results show an improved model fit than that reported in the previous study (Cheung et al., 2011). Second, by integrating ‘social influence’, ‘uses and gratifications’, and ‘social presence’, we reveal the unique driving factors of social media engagement, thus improving the current understanding of the key drivers of social media user engagement, extending the study by Verhagen et al. (2015). Third, our research has practical implications for companies wishing to foster user engagement with their brands through social network sites.

We test our hypotheses using survey data collected from a sample of young Facebook users in Brazil. In addition to the cultural differences from the commonly researched contexts such as North America and Asia, Brazil is an especially appropriate and important field context for testing the conceptual model, because Brazil is a country strongly influenced by social networking (Mintel, 2014). Statistics in April 2014 show that the country has the third largest number of Facebook users in the world, just behind the US and India, and there are more than 86 million Facebook users in Brazil, a penetration of 84% amongst the country's Internet users (Mintel, 2014, Socialbakers, 2014). Facebook in Brazil is not just a social networking site, it is an instrumental tool for nearly every aspect of life in Brazil, including e-commerce transactions which are increasing rapidly (Mintel, 2014). Mintel's research suggests that about 15% of users who have clicked on Facebook advertisements have purchased at least once online in the past 12 months, compared to just 8% for the total population. For the consumers aged 16–24 years – the largest age group of Facebook users in Brazil (Socialbakers, 2014), the percentage reached a staggering 28% (Mintel, 2014). As argued in Mintel's report, Brazil is leading the way into the future of e-commerce on Facebook, and other countries could learn a lot from the Brazilian experience. Thus, understanding what drives young Brazilian users' engagement with Facebook is important not only for scholarship but also for social media marketing practice in Brazil and beyond.