Key drivers of consumer loyalty to Facebook fan pages

Abstract

Purpose – With the rapid expansion of social networking sites, researchers and practitioners are challenged to understand drivers of customer loyalty in fan pages. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main drivers of Facebook fan page loyalty in order to promote the creation of affective links and long-term relationships with users. Design/methodology/approach – The impact of trust, fan page content dependency, attitude and consumer beliefs on loyalty to fan pages was tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 691 Spanish Facebook users. Findings – Data analysis shows that attitude appears as a key variable in increasing loyalty to fan pages. The empirical study also found a significant positive influence of perceived usefulness, attitude, trust and dependency on loyalty in fan pages, and an indirect influence of perceived ease of use mediated by perceived usefulness and attitude. Practical implications – This research enables managers to know what aspects to highlight in their communication strategies to increase fan page use and positive word-of-mouth. Research findings show managers that Facebook fan page content should provide valuable information, be fun and foster user interactions in order to improve user attitude and loyalty. Practical recommendations to reinforce consumer trust on Facebook fan pages are also provided. Originality/value – There are still too few studies that analyse the effects of trust and fan page dependency on fan page users’ loyalty. This work aims to combine the influence of dependency on fan pages, trust, attitude and Technology Acceptance Model beliefs in order to construct an improved model for fan page loyalty formation.