Does culture matter in effectiveness of social media marketing strategy? An investigation of brand fan pages

Purpose Along with traditional marketing channels, social media outlets are integrated as a part of the marketing mix. Social media has changed the dynamics of interaction between companies and consumers that foster this relationship. Managing brand fan pages on social networking sites is a specific way the companies are using. Customers can become brand fans on these pages and indicate that they like the brand posts, share on their wall or simply comment. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of cultural differences on the effectiveness of social media metrics and scientifically tested brand engagement in terms of commitment, loyalty and brand recommendations. Design/methodology/approach The authors analysed 1,922 brand posts from five different brands of a single product category in three different countries. Ordinary least square and hierarchical moderation regression was used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results show that all determinants are not equally suitable for enhancement of number of likes, comments and shares. More specifically, vivid and interactive brand post determinants enhance the number of likes. Furthermore, interactive brand posts enhance the number of comments while vivid brand posts enhance number of shares. Moreover, impact and intensity vary across different cultures. Originality/value Brand fan page moderators can obtain guidance from the research in formulating their social media marketing strategies in order to decide which post determinants to place on the fan page.