Ivana Bilic
Online social networks were in the beginning used for private purposes, and over time were adopted by academic and business users. Thus, they have become an irreplaceable part of life in the modern 21st, 2.0 societies, particularly for the modern consumers. Their comprehensiveness has also been noticed by marketing experts who has led them to an extensive usage of online social networks as a very popular and widely used effective marketing tool. Following those trends, the main research question is: whether users of social networks look for information about the product with the intention of buying it or them some other motives. Every contact with the brand via social networks does not necessarily mean that the user is also an actual buyer or a potential buyer of the product or services. Therefore, traders, marketers, and community managers should focus on better understanding the motives of different groups of social networks users for standing along with their brands in virtual cosmos. In this paper, we present the results of research aimed at determining the primary motives driving the users of social networks to be connected with the brand. According to the research results, the respondents most frequently connected to the brand in order to have real time information about products and events related to the product. In addition, some study observations showed that the respondents were highly motivated to be connected with the brand to obtain certain benefits, while some respondents used social networks for self-presentation. This research has also confirmed that the respondents’ engagement in social networks positively affects self-esteem. However, some respondents are associated with brands because they want to participate in designing and improving products. The survey was undertaken in Croatia 2014 as a part of a research for a bachelor’s degree thesis.
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