Exploring how customer online brand experience affects social media engagement behavior in the social media brand communities of Islamic banking

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of customer online brand experience (COBE) on social media engagement behaviors (SMEB) in the context of Islamic banking social media brand communities. A total of 415 responses were collected through an online survey conducted among bank customers, who are members of at least of one online brand community (OBC) on Facebook. The data set has been analyzed and processed by means of structural equation modeling. The results reveal that a high level of COBE drives customers’ engagement with social media in the context of brand-related content consumption (e.g. reading), interacting with brand-related content (e.g. liking) and creating brand-related content (e.g. comments). It is also found that OBC engagement plays a vital role in engaging and interacting processes. First, the results are difficult to generalize since the sample focused on measuring COBE for customers of the Islamic banking sector on the Facebook social media platform. The findings of this research provide a number of practical implications for managers in the Islamic online banking industry. The results support the positive influence of COBE on passive and active SMEB. This finding leads to the conclusion that managers should focus continuously on customers’ experiences with online banking brands aiming at creating unique online brand experiences as well as increasing the active and high level of SMEB (leaving positive comments, liking and sharing brand-related content). This study also enables managers, marketers and decision-makers in the banking sector or other fields to focus on content types such as entertainment and informational content that enhance the experience while improving social media engagement (Dolan et al., 2019). The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of literature by providing a better understanding of COBE and its influence on SMEB in terms of consuming, contributing and creating brand-related content within the context of social media brand community fan pages. The results of this study provide managers and professionals in this field of expertise with guidelines and opportunities for the strategic development of customers’ experiences with online banking brands to build unique online brand experiences and promote active SMEB in terms of the number of positive comments, likes and shares of brand-related contents. This study contributes to fill this research gap by assessing the effect of COBE on SMEB in term of consuming, contributing and creating of brand – related contents.