scholarly journals Towards engagement: A comparison of fan groups in the context of a major South African football club

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick W. Stander ◽  
Leon T. De Beer

Orientation: The commercial growth of sport clubs is often a direct consequence of the level of engagement of its fans. However, limited research has been done to understand how the engagement experience of these fans could be enhanced.Research purpose: The objective of this research was to evaluate whether differences exist amongst groups of sport fans in terms of their levels of engagement. This is conducted on the basis of customer engagement – relationship marketing – and market segmentation theories,and in an effort to inform practical strategies that could be used to leverage engagement. By establishing that differences do exist between segments of sport fans, practical strategies could be developed based on such differences.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional, quantitative design was utilised in this study. A convenience sample of 430 adult fans of one of South Africa’s largest and best supported professional football clubs participated in the study. Two fan groupings were compared, namely fans who belonged to a formal supporters’ branch of the club versus fans who did not, and fans who frequented the social media platforms of such club versus fans who did not. Multi group confirmatory factor analysis and latent variable modelling were implemented to compare groups of fans in terms of sport fan engagement. Measurement invariance was reviewed to compare the equivalence of measurement between the groups.Main findings: Statistical analysis revealed greater levels of fan engagement amongst fans that form part of formal supporters’ branches as well as amongst fans who regularly visit the sport club’s social media platforms.Practical/managerial implications: By making use of supporters’ branches and social media,practical engagement strategies are available to professional sport clubs that seek to enhance the engagement experience of their fans. These strategies could assist clubs in developing customised intervention programmes specifically for this purpose.Contribution/value-add: The study puts forward practical suggestions with regards to engagement strategies that professional sport clubs can consider in their efforts to enhance the commercial performance of their teams through greater engagement.

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 833-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngsu Lee ◽  
Joonhwan In ◽  
Seung Jun Lee

Purpose As social media platforms become increasingly popular among service firms, many US hospitals have been using social media as a means to improve their patients’ experiences. However, little research has explored the implications of social media use within a hospital context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a hospital’s customer engagement through social media and its association with customers’ experiential quality. Also, this study examines the role of a hospital’s service characteristics, which could shape the nature of the interactions between patients and the hospital. Design/methodology/approach Data from 669 hospitals with complete experiential quality and demographic data were collected from multiple sources of secondary data, including the rankings of social media friendly hospitals, the Hospital Compare database, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) cost report, the CMS impact file, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Analytics database and the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. Specifically, the authors designed the instrumental variable estimate to address the endogeneity issue. Findings The empirical results suggest a positive association between a hospital’s social media engagement and experiential quality. For hospitals with a high level of service sophistication, the association between online engagement and experiential quality becomes more salient. For hospitals offering various services, offline engagement is a critical predictor of experiential quality. Research limitations/implications A hospital with more complex services should make efforts to engage customers through social media for better patient experiences. The sample is selected from databases in the US, and the databases are cross-sectional in nature. Practical implications Not all hospitals may be better off improving the patient experience by engaging customers through social media. Therefore, practitioners should exercise caution in applying the study’s results to other contexts and in making causal inferences. Originality/value The current study delineates customer engagement through social media into online and offline customer engagement. This study is based on the theory of customer engagement and reflects the development of mobile technology. Moreover, this research may be considered as pioneering in that it considers the key characteristics of a hospital’s service operations (i.e., service complexity) when discovering the link between customers’ engagement through a hospital’s social media and experiential quality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orpha de Lenne ◽  
Laura Vandenbosch

Purpose Using the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between different types of media and the intention to buy sustainable apparel and test whether attitudes, social norms, and self-efficacy beliefs may explain these relationships. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 681 young adults (18-26 years old). Findings Exposure to social media content of sustainable organizations, eco-activists, and sustainable apparel brands, and social media content of fashion bloggers and fast fashion brands predicted respondents’ attitudes, descriptive and subjective norms, and self-efficacy beliefs regarding buying sustainable apparel. In turn, attitudes, descriptive norms, and self-efficacy beliefs predicted the intention to buy sustainable apparel. Fashion magazines predicted the intention through self-efficacy. Specialized magazines did not predict the intention to buy sustainable apparel. Research limitations/implications Results should be generalized with caution as the current study relied on a convenience sample of young adults. The cross-sectional study design limits the ability to draw conclusions regarding causality. Actual behavior was not addressed and needs to be included in further research. Practical implications The present study hints at the importance of social media to affect young consumers’ intentions to buy sustainable apparel. Sustainable apparel brands should consider attracting more young social media users to their social media pages. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine the potential of different media to promote sustainable apparel buying intention.


Author(s):  
Ree C. Ho ◽  
Teck Choon Teo

Over the past two decades, social media has developed exponentially and significantly changed the customers' shopping behavior. Social media apps enable customers to interact with retailers and other customers closely, and influences their purchase decision. Hence, it is small wonder that businesses are investing time and resources to promote their products and brand image on social media applications. Instagram is best known for its enriched visual features in both image and footage and suitable for developing strong brand engagement. It is a viable platform for businesses to promote their products to customers. This chapter proposes a framework of product learning process with the use of Instagram. It contributes in effective management of social media marketing and provides marketers with the guidelines in using Instagram creatively to roll out customer engagement strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-69
Author(s):  
B URBAN ◽  
◽  
TL MAPHATHE ◽  

Social media platforms are increasingly used by SMEs who have fewer resources and need to rely on social media marketing to engage with their customers. This article investigates the extent to which social media platforms specifically Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter contribute to increased customer engagement. While past studies have concentrated on the adoption of social media in predominantly western contexts, this research is focused on SMEs in a relatively under-researched African market context, South Africa. The research design was a quantitative cross-sectional study relying on primary data collection, where hypotheses were tested using statistical analyses in terms of correlational and regression analyses. Results support the hypotheses where the use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter platforms show a significant and positive relationship with increased customer engagement. The findings have management implications where owner-managers should make use of social media by maintaining and growing an extensive network of ties to both collect information and identify resources, as well as to build a reputation and engage with their customers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Qazi Mohammed Ahmed ◽  
Iftikhar Hussain

The study explores how social media marketing activities build brand loyalty and how this relationship is mediated through brand consciousness. The empirical investigation involves a self-administered and a structured questionnaire, distributed through a convenience sample of 320 under-graduate and graduate students. Data analysis was conducted through SPSS 23.0 for demographic comparisons and SmartPLS 3 for evaluating the measurement and structural model of the study. The findings show that social media marketing has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty but this relationship is partially mediated by brand consciousness. In the same manner, social media marketing exerts a significant positive impact on brand consciousness and resultantly, brand consciousness also exerts a significant positive impact on brand loyalty.  The results provide valuable insights for marketers in integrating social media as a driving tool for developing brand engagement strategies that not only provide awareness about products/services but also generate a cult following for them. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-261
Author(s):  
Fabian Kautz ◽  
Michael Schaffrath ◽  
Alex C. Gang

The sport industry has long used social media as an effective instrument of communication. In the framework of the current study, a content analysis investigated how professional sport clubs in Germany use Facebook and Twitter. The study covers the entire 2015–16 season, which was illustrated via selectively choosing 2 weeks for data analysis; four clubs each from basketball, ice hockey, football, and handball were collected as a sample. All Facebook posts and Twitter tweets published by the 16 clubs during the 2 weeks, a total of 3,412 contributions (Facebook 717, Twitter 2,695), were included in the analysis. The codebook contained 57 variables, and this article presents the results on the identified topics of the published contents on the two social media platforms. On both platforms, the clubs under examination primarily issued statements regarding themselves and their sport-related activities. Twitter is predominantly used as a live medium during games, whereas Facebook allows for significantly greater reach. However, no sport-related differences were found between the two social media platforms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 102648
Author(s):  
Balamurugan Annamalai ◽  
Masayuki Yoshida ◽  
Sanjeev Varshney ◽  
Atul Arun Pathak ◽  
Pingali Venugopal

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Anne Brown

Since the emergence in the 1970s of the ABC Afterschool Special series, networks have sought to distance themselves from the what critics saw as the crass, shallow spectacle of mainstream television. Indeed, contemporary teen programming increasingly rejects black-and-white messages and didacticism in favor of provoking discussion both within the text and online. How, then, do "very special episodes" play out in an age of social TV, online fan discussion, and culturally edgy teen programming? By exploring a 2015 sexual assault story arc on ABC Family's teen drama, <em>Switched at Birth</em> (2011–17), and the network's accompanying social media fan engagement, I argue that fan conversations on social media about divisive or sensitive topics have the potential to disrupt the educational messages within teen programming. ABC Family's #SwitchedAfterChat exemplifies the ways in which fan engagement strategies that fail to adequately support online conversations surrounding sensitive or controversial topics have the potential to thwart educational messaging and to shut down lines of conversation opened by the television text itself, not only in teen programming but in television storytelling more generally.


Author(s):  
Mohammed Matar Alotaibi ◽  
Abdul Bari Mohd

Introduction: Social media and acceptance of the information related to health is becoming acceptable to an extent for the public. The use of social media is rapidly growing and it is being used both by healthcare professionals and patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of social networking applications for experience and behaviour towards health information among diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross sectional study, conducted in spring of 2020 (April to May). The distribution of the survey questionnaire was done online through various social media platforms with a convenience sample of people with diabetes (n=569), Eligibility criteria were aged 18 and above, Saudis with diagnosis of diabetes and willing to give consent were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were less than 18 years old and non-Saudis and non-diabetic. Results: Analysis of online survey data indicated that WhatsApp (89.1%) was the most commonly used social network followed by Snapchat (66.3%), Instagram (40.6%), Twitter (35%), Telegram (19.5%), Tiktok (12.5%) and Facebook (10%). About 25 (4.4%) participants strongly agreed that health information from social media impact life positively. More than half 290(51%) participants agreed to apply information only from the trusted websites. Near about half 275(48.3%) disagreed that social media could invent treatment for diabetes more than believing in health institution and medicinal industries. Nearly one-fourth 141(24.8%) of participants agreed that all health information from social media is right. Almost 264 (46.4%) said that they sometimes face health information in social media. Nearly 265(46.6%) patients mentioned that they never applied themselves any information claiming treating diabetes. Conclusion: This study shows the effect of social media on diabetic patients and various responses of diabetic patients in regard of their beliefs and experience towards health information from social media. Most of the respondents agreed that they apply information obtained from social network and the same could lead to some deleterious effects on health.


Author(s):  
Bader Khalid Alghaith ◽  
Abdullah Saleh Alnughaymishi ◽  
Dr. Muslet AlHarbi

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate how many medical students depends on YouTube medical videos as resources of their medical knowledge. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample and validated questionnaires were distributed to medical students anonymously from the students on the medical college of Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. The study includes all male medical students and excludes the females medical students and staff members. The total number of medical students is 191 students. Results: Up to 95.3% (n= 182) of the total sample use YouTube in their education. The majority of them believe that the medical videos more understandable compared to the written lectures. Also, many students usually sharing medical videos with their colleagues. In addition, around 70% of students think that YouTube medical videos help in relating basic and clinical sciences together. Conclusion: Today social media have very important role in learning and YouTube one of the most important and effective websites in learning especially in medical field. But still the students need a specific website for medical videos under the organization of specialized tutors. In addition, medical colleges need to encourage social media usage in education.


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