ABSTRACT
The interactive properties of social media have transformed consumers from passive observers of content to active participants, who create vast quantities of user generated content through their conversations, interactions and behaviours online. This chapter focuses on the work of Muntinga and Dolan to empirically investigate the effects of social media content posted by brands on the social media engagement behaviours of consumers. It investigates how different types of content affect the intensity of a user's engagement behaviour. Engagement behaviour of low intensity is defined as consuming behaviour, of moderate intensity as contributing behaviour and of high intensity as creating behaviour. The chapter develops interesting results as to how these engagement behaviours are altered by the presence of various affective and rational message appeals. It addresses one of the challenges in the delivery and design of social media content, and focuses on a Marketing Science Institute key topic of interest; to understand how social media marketing activities create customer engagement.
