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This study aims to conceptualize and test the effect of consumers’ perceptions of complaint handling quality (PCHQ) in both traditional and social media channels.

Study 1 systematically reviews the relevant literature and then carries out a consumer and manager survey. This approach aims to conceptualize the dimensionality of PCHQ. Study 2 tests the effect of PCHQ on key marketing outcomes. Using survey data from a German telecommunications company, the study provides an explanation for the differences in outcomes across traditional (hotline) and social media channels.

Study 1 reveals that PCHQ is best conceptualized as a five-dimensional construct with 15 facets. There are significant differences between customers and managers in terms of the importance attached to the various dimensions. The construct shows strong psychometric properties with high reliability and validity, thereby opening up opportunities to treat these facets as measurement indicators for the construct. Study 2 indicates that the effect of PCHQ on consumer loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) communication is stronger in social media than in traditional channels. Procedural justice and the overall quality of service solutions emerge as general dimensions of PCHQ because they are equally important in both channels. In contrast, interactional justice, distributive justice and customer effort have varying effects across the two channels.

This study contributes to the understanding of a firm’s channel selection for complaint handling in two ways. First, it evaluates and conceptualizes the PCHQ construct. Second, it compares the effects of different dimensions of PCHQ on key marketing outcomes across traditional and social media channels.

This study enables managers to understand the difference in efficacy attached to different dimensions of PCHQ. It further highlights such differences across traditional and social media service channels. For example, the effect of complaint handling on social media is of particular importance when generating WOM communication.

This study offers a comprehensive conceptualization of the PCHQ construct and reveals the general and channel contingent effects of its different dimensions on key marketing outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of brand’s social media marketing efforts and individual’s online social interaction propensity on various levels of consumers’ engagement with brand-related social media content. Additionally, the subsequent effects of consumers’ engagement with brand-related social media content on overall brand equity and purchase intention have also been examined.

Preliminary studies were conducted to identify brands for the main study. Data for the main study were collected using an online survey administered at the identified brands’ Facebook fan pages. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model.

The results found the uniform effect of the social media marketing efforts and individual’s online social interaction propensity on two levels of consumers’ social media engagement, but the effect on third level has been found only from the individual’s online social interaction propensity. Subsequent effects on brand equity and purchase intention were also found varying across the engagement levels.

This study extends previous research by examining the effect of brand’s social media marketing efforts and online social interaction propensity on all the three levels of consumers’ engagement with brand-related content on social media. Also, this study enriches the existing literature by investigating the impact of these three levels of consumers’ engagement on brand’s equity and purchase intention.

Previous research has no evidence of evaluating the effectiveness of social media marketing efforts on the consumers’ engagement with brand-related social media content. Although the effect of general online social interaction propensity on effort and social engagement has been examined in previous research but the effect on consumption, contribution and creation brand-related social media content had not been measured. Additionally, the effect of consumption, contribution and creation on brand equity and purchase intention had not been evaluated.

In all projections for 2011, ROI has become of the great challenges of social media marketing for the business environment. However in the case of non‐profit organizations, there is no need for such calculations. It is not as necessary to know how the effort made in these media compares to the benefits that can be obtained. This paper aims to compare the parameters governing social media ROI at an enterprise level and at the level of non‐profit institutions. Additionally, the use of social media tools in a strategic plan and to save costs in the institution is discussed.

Where ROI is defined as a mere indicator of return on investment, it involves the direct costs and revenues of each transaction. Combining the world of social media marketing, which is full of intangibles, with the current crisis makes knowing “real” return one of the greatest current needs. When demanding returns from institutions that have never been analyzed from this standpoint, it is important to understand how a tool like this can be used to justify an entity's visibility, brand improvement and ultimately, an increase in the institution's quality and use by users. Also, it should be taken into account that while in 2010 branding was the primary goal of communication in social media, this year in view of the increasingly endemic crisis, a ROI analysis can help an institution to evidence how the cost savings inherent in using these as opposed to former marketing tools substantiate their use. However, this interest involves a great risk of simplification.

The analysis used to measure ROI can follow these lines: The consumption by previous users can be compared with that of current arrivals on the network. Comparisons can be made between the behavior of a user prior to following the library on social media and after doing so. The extent to which the success of new developments, events etc. has improved after being communicated in social networks can be measured. The influence of brand perception on users' consumption and the extent to which the new media have changed this perception can be measured.

Conducting a ROI analysis of a library's social media marketing campaign can help it evaluate various aspects in the library. Social media can be considered as an interesting information dissemination tool requiring only minimal effort which can be used by the library to promote reading and publicize its informational and cultural efforts. Social media can also be used as dynamic, provision of service and marketing resources with a clear reduction in costs compared to other more traditional types of advertising and publicizing. Given that in the management of these tools, it is the contents and ideas that are essential rather than the economic resources available, social media are particularly useful for small and medium libraries as they provide the possibility of increasing the visibility of the institution and improving its service and its users' experience. Opening a new channel of communication with users on the internet is a challenge for libraries that can be optimized with the development of a strategy for the use of social media. The library should make an effort to manage these resources efficiently and obtain the largest possible return on their use.

The purpose of this study is to examine how social media facilitates the process of customer engagement in quick service restaurants (QSRs). Customers characterized as transactional customers, loyal customers, delighted customers or fans, based on the degree of relational exchange and emotional bonds, are expected to vary in their propensity to engage in advocacy and co-create value.

Hypotheses linking the antecedents of customer engagement to advocacy are empirically investigated with data from the Twitter social media network for the top 50 US QSRs. Multiple regression analysis is carried out with proxies for advocacy as the dependent variable and connection effort, interaction effort, satisfaction, retention effort, calculative commitment and affective commitment as independent variables.

The results indicate that retention effort and calculative commitment of customers are the most important factors influencing advocacy. Efforts to retain customers using social media communication increase advocacy. Greater calculative commitment also increases advocacy. Affective commitment mediates the relationship between calculative commitment and advocacy.

Fostering retention and calculative commitment by using social media communication engenders loyalty and customers become advocates. Calculative commitment fosters affective commitment, turning customers into fans who are delighted as well as loyal, enhancing advocacy.

This study uniquely investigates the relationship between the antecedents of customer engagement and advocacy. It develops the theory and conducts an empirical analysis with actual social media network data for a specific industry where usage of the network is widely prevalent. It confirms that calculative commitment influences advocacy. Calculative commitment not only has a direct effect but also has an indirect effect through affective commitment on advocacy in the QSR context. Further, social media efforts by QSRs to retain customers encourage advocacy. Other customer engagement antecedents do not directly influence advocacy.

Through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of autonomous and controlled motivational regulations in driving consumer participation in social brand engagement (SBE) practices. In addition, the moderating effects of cognitive effort and consumer demographic variables (age and gender) are examined.

The proposed model is tested by employing a quantitative survey design consisting of 832 consumers with prior experience in engaging with brands on social media. The respondents were conveniently interviewed using online questionnaire. The model estimation was done through structural equation modelling with AMOS 23.0.

The findings indicate that intrinsic, integrated, introjected and external motivational regulations significantly influence consumer participation in SBE activities, whereas identified regulation does not. Furthermore, while age and gender presented mixed interaction effects on the paths examined, cognitive effort does not moderate the influence of autonomous and controlled motivational regulations on SBE participation.

This study employed a cross-sectional survey to explore consumer motivation and cognitive effort in SBE practices. As an exploratory study, the findings may be limited and not conclusive, which could limit the generalisation of the results reported.

This study demonstrates a need for retailing managers to understand customers’ varying intentions or needs in participating in online SBE activities As a result, retail managers need to adopt social media strategies that could elicit interest and curiosity on the part of the customer to excite them to participate in the brand social interactions.

This research contributes to the conceptual understanding of SBE through the application of SDT, and contends that cognitive effort does not moderate consumer participation in SBE practices. Also, the mixed findings resulting from the moderation test of age and gender sheds light on specific types of regulated motivations that are either moderated or not in relation to these demographic variables.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of social media teams to firm social media performance. Although social media teams are tasked with planning, executing and optimizing the social media marketing effort of firms, little systematic research has examined their roles. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the present study develops collective social media efficacy as a key mechanism to explain the contribution of social media teams to firm social media performance.

The study tested a conceptual framework in which social media team members' previous experience, short-term training and online resources use contribute to collective social media efficacy. In turn, collective social media efficacy is hypothesized to enhance firm social media performance. The study employed primary data and PROCESS macro to test its proposed hypotheses.

The findings revealed that previous social media experience, short-term training and online resources use contributed to firm social media performance by enabling social media teams to build strong collective social media efficacy.

The findings offer novel insights into how firms can optimize their social media marketing effort by systematically managing their social media teams. The findings add to the nascent literature on the organizational influences of social media performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale and framework for examining stakeholder reactions to crisis communication messages in various social media channels. Stakeholders can become crisis communications by entering various sub-arenas of the larger rhetorical arena. The concept of sub-arena is presented and a case analysis used to illustrate the application and value of examining stakeholder crisis communicators during a crisis.

Content analysis was used to evaluate publicly available social media messages posted on the Livestrong blog and the Huffington Post online news site.

The paper demonstrates that monitoring reactions of stakeholders can reveal how individuals can act as crisis communications in social media messages can serve as barometers the effectiveness of an organization's crisis response. The importance of examining multiple sub-arenas is considered due to the influence of supportive stakeholders in organizational social media.

Only two sub-arenas were analyzed using one crisis response during a crisis that extended over a number of months.

The paper includes implications for the examination of social media messages from supportive stakeholder and neutral sub-arenas. The results provide indicators of the effectiveness of an organization's crisis response and how stakeholder messages in social media may contribute to or undermine the crisis response.

This paper demonstrates the value of monitoring social media comments to gauge reactions to organizational crisis responses and demonstrates how stakeholders can function as informal crisis managers. It also begins the discussion of the value and conceptualization of sub-arenas.

This study aims to investigate how a sample of US municipalities use social media for strategic communication, focusing on efforts to effectively measure and evaluate that communication. Research questions focus on measurement and evaluation practices, as well as the motivations and impacts associated with these practices.

This research uses a qualitative approach. Interviews were conducted with 12 municipal government personnel responsible for social media communication. The self-selected participants represent 10 states and all US Census regions. Data was content analyzed and categorized according to four research questions, with emergent themes described.

The results show a diverse set of approaches and motivations, with surface-level measurement and evaluation methods. Initial efforts at more ad hoc use of social media are moving toward more deliberate strategies, but limited resources inhibit progress for some municipalities.

Few studies exist which explore how US municipalities formally measure and evaluate their social media activities as part of their overall strategic communication efforts. This study adds to the existing literature by providing insight into the measurement and evaluation practices that municipalities use to assess their social media communication. The study also provides a basis for larger and deeper investigations of municipal strategic communication practices related to measurement and evaluation.

As adults and young adults have become increasingly active on social media, public libraries have incorporated social media alongside their more traditional services. However, libraries are faced with the challenging task of determining how to successfully engage with their users through social media. This chapter examines research literature from both social media and information studies to explore evidence-based results on providing popular information services and resources for adult and young adult users in social spaces. Key elements of social media use by libraries identified in this review include promotion of information resources and services, participation and engagement, social care, pastoral care, outreach, cocreation and motivation of users, advocacy and crowdsourcing, and measurement and assessment. Based on results from current research, best practices and assessment methods for social media are discussed which offer practical considerations for selecting social media platforms appropriate to a library’s mission, goals, and objectives, with examples relevant to a variety of social media platforms. The chapter also offers a review of social media platforms, practices, and assessment designed to inform librarians and library managers in decision-making about library social media efforts.

This paper aims to uncover how social media is used, managed, and perceived by sports and entertainment venue (SEV) managers. While there is considerable evidence that social media has been used effectively by Fortune 500 companies, it is not known how social media is administered and perceived among managers of arenas, stadiums, performing art centers, and convention centers.

This paper used survey methodology to capture the perceptions of 383 venue management professionals, all members of the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM).

Most venue managers feel their social media efforts are proficient or at the expert level and most have a defined social media strategy. Others feel much less confident about their social media efforts and have no defined social media strategy. At a statistically significant level, those with a defined social media strategy report increased revenue, while those without a defined social media strategy do not. Venue managers forecast a significant increase in non‐traditional marketing strategies while using traditional marketing efforts over the next three years far less.

While the 383 responders are IAVM active members who are in venue management, they reasonably represent SEV managers in general and these survey results can be generalized to SEV managers with an overall conservative margin of error of ±5.0 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. The survey was conducted online by e‐mail invitation. While using the online media to deliver a survey related to the proliferation of various online activities was, at one time, questionable and, potentially, a source of responder bias, the current level of saturation of e‐mail use by and comfort with online activity of professionals mitigates these likely sources of responder bias and is not a source of additional concern with this study.

The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and a recommendation that venue managers define a social media strategy that includes hiring or reassigning staff to support this important area of social media marketing.

This paper is unique in that examines social media use in the unique context of SEVs.