1. Relational Benefits and Costs in Social Media Brand Pages
Georgios Tsimonis
Phd Student
Athens University of Economics and Business
Department of Marketing & Communication
Athens, Greece
Sergios Dimitriadis
Associate Professor
Athens University of Economics and Business
Department of Marketing & Communication
Athens, Greece

2. The Idea Literature & Study 1 Research Questions
Long term customer-brand relationships
Competitive advantage
Profitability
How can a brand build and maintain an effective relationship?
Most promising conceptual approach: Relational Benefits & Relational Costs
Literature & Study 1
Social Media are a powerful tool for brand-consumer relationship building
(Borle et., 2012; Dholakia and Durham, 2010; Jahn & Kunz, 2012)
Brands use popular Social Media to create & enhance relationships with consumers
Research Questions
How can a brand build and maintain an effective relationship in the context of Social Media?
What Relational Benefits & Costs customers perceive in Social Media Brand Pages?

3. Relational Benefits & Costs
What customers expect and perceive from a relationship with a firm has been measured as relational benefits.
(Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Gwinner et al., 1998; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002, 2005; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999).
Gwinner et al. (1998):
Several authors have confirmed these benefits or proposed the existence of new ones in online virtual communities,
brand communities or e-business environments
Social benefits,
Special treatment benefits,
Confidence benefits
Most of the studies examine benefits as expectations and motives/factors for participation in communities.
Relational Costs…
Customers’ sacrifices both monetary and non-monetary (psychological) arising from the maintenance of a relationship with a firm.
(Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Grönroos, 1997, 2000; Jones et al., 2007; Morgan and Hunt, 1994)
Switching Costs
Difficulty of use
Privacy Cost
Termination Costs
Time & monetary Costs

4. The Social Media Phenomenon
Increased used from Internet users…
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Brands are utilizing Social Media…
Facebook Brand Pages
Twitter Accounts
YouTube Channels
Interact with consumers
Build relationships
Engagement

5. Originality & Objectives
To the best of our knowledge…
Lack of studies to simultaneously examine perceived relational benefits and costs in the context of social media.
The objectives are…
Examine Facebook & Twitter Brand Pages use from brands’ fans & followers, and discover
Perceived Benefits
Perceived Costs

6. Methodology Qualitative Study Population of the Study Sample
Social Media users who use both Facebook & Twitter > 2 years,
Follow at least 10 popular brands in Facebook & Twitter (Socialbakers, 2013) > 1 year,
Recruitment– Research company “Focus Bari”
Sample
4 focus groups
32 participants
Ages 18-24, 25-31, and 39-45
4 women, 4 men in each group

7. The Study Interview guide – Open-ended questions
Use of SM and Brand Pages
Perceived Benefits-pleasant experiences
Perceived Costs- unpleasant/annoying experiences
Pilot test – Readjustment of some questions’ expressions
September 2013
4 groups, 90’ duration each
Video & audio recording.
Transcript & data procession
Answers were grouped according to literature definitions
An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings

8. Results Perceived Benefits Social Benefits Information Benefits
Time & Effort Benefits
Economic Benefits
Special Treatment Benefits

9. Results Perceived Costs (Information) Overload
Annoyance (Ad Intrusiveness/Post Intrusiveness)
(Loss of) Privacy

10. Conclusion & Implications
Adjust Social Media Strategy
+Relational Benefits
Interact & Communicate with fans
Encourage customer-customer communication
Provide Useful content
Contests, Gifts, Discounts, Free Coupons
Personalized service and communication
-Relational Costs
Avoid too many posts
Avoid advertisements or promotional content
Clear policies about personal data handling

11. Limitations & Further Research
Exploratory Study
Preliminary Data
Results cannot be generalized on all Social Media platforms
Extension on more Social Media
Twitter-Facebook have different characteristics as platforms and different audiences as users
Quantitative examination - effect on behavioral intentions
- Different user segments according to different participation motives and page characteristics that value most
Continuous monitoring – Longitudinal study - Social Media are a rapidly changing environment – New changes & added features
Mobile Technologies

12.
Georgios Tsimonis