Brand-related content in social media: consumers as social media influencers

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly relying on social media to recommend brands to their peers. Consumers produce and upload brand-related content (BRC) to their social media profiles, acting as social media influencers (SMIs) when they recommend brands in their content. While consumers differ fundamentally in their motivations for producing and uploading BRC to their social media profiles, many marketing managers do not distinguish between different consumer types on social media, opting for a one-size-fits all approach. Hence, marketing managers lack an understanding of how to use these SMIs’ full potential. We develop a framework that shows that consumers are motivated either by intrinsic or extrinsic motivations to produce and upload brand-related content. Moreover, our framework shows that brand-related communication is either brand-focused or passion-focused. We propose that there are four brand-related consumer types on social media: (1) Brand Opportunists, (2) Brand Adventurers, (3) Brand Referees, and (4) Brand Emotionalists. Marketing managers can turn their consumers into SMIs by presenting their brands as (1) rewarding, (2) relevant, (3) easy, and (4) unique or correct to experience and interact with.