Sustaining customer engagement through social media brand communities

Customers are spending an exorbitant amount of time engaging various media outlets. Due to technological advances such as social media, marketers must innovate to stay top-of-mind for customers and approach the customer engagement journey differently. Social media allows brands to facilitate traditional offline brand communities, virtually. However, sustaining that engagement often presents a challenge and can be a strain on the resources of a company and marketing team. Allowing customers to engage with other customers and brands gives social media brand communities a unique competitive advantage over other marketing methods. By engaging in content creation within social media brand communities, customers and marketers are able to co-create value and increase customer engagement. Transferring part of the customer engagement experience into an online setting provides value co-creation opportunities among customers and for the brand. This manuscript proposes a framework for sustaining social media brand communities and customer engagement for value co-creation.