Follow Me! The Ultimate Quest for Consumer and Brand Interaction in Social Media

Abstract: Abstract In the marketing world, in which social media is becoming a natural part of any company’s or brand’s marketing strategy, it is crucial to stay current on how to reach target groups. Interactions between brand and consumer are essential when building relationships in order to gain trust and loyalty. However, the social media world is changing with consumers finding new ways of avoiding marketing messages from companies and brands. Furthermore, media sharing platforms with users actively having to choose to follow corporate accounts to receive commercial messages are expanding. Potential reasons for people to engage in the act of following companies and brands in media sharing platforms shall be detected by conducting four focus groups and by looking at theories about corporate use of social media and Social CRM as well as a framework for social media interaction. The results suggest that consumers are following corporate accounts to stay updated with trends and developments within their fields of interest, but mainly to get inspiration. Companies should learn from how celebrities and blogger use media sharing platform, since they have an ability to create a closer emotional connection to consumers, which also affects the decision to follow.