Engaging fans and the community in social media: interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook

Although many universities use social media to interact with stakeholders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on theories of self-presentation and community engagement, we develop a theoretical model to explain these crucial outcome factors. We then test the model based on seco...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marketing for higher education 2017-01, Vol.27 (1), p.112-130
Main Authors: Brech, Felicitas M., Messer, Uwe, Vander Schee, Brian A., Rauschnabel, Philipp A., Ivens, Bjoern S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classification
community engagement
Effect Size
Higher Education
Institutional Advancement
Interaction
Mass Media Effects
Mass Media Use
Multiple Regression Analysis
Performance Factors
Predictor Variables
Public Relations
Reputation
School Community Relationship
Social Media
Social media marketing
Stakeholders
Transcripts (Written Records)
Web 2.0 Technologies
Web Sites
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Summary:Although many universities use social media to interact with stakeholders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on theories of self-presentation and community engagement, we develop a theoretical model to explain these crucial outcome factors. We then test the model based on secondary data from 159 universities. Our findings reveal the double-edged nature of community size: universities with a strong reputation tend to have more Facebook fans, but having many Facebook fans has detrimental effects on individual fan engagement. Furthermore, the frequency of updates is a crucial factor, as too frequent and too infrequent updates lead to lower levels of fan engagement. We discuss theoretical implications for online communities and derive implications for social media managers.
ISSN:0884-1241
1540-7144
DOI:10.1080/08841241.2016.1219803