Measuring the consumer engagement related to social media: the case of franchising

Abstract

The appearance of social media has fostered consumers chatting with each other, comparing and recommending products and services. In the case of franchising, social media take on a yet greater importance due to brands having to achieve the expansion of their chains selecting new franchisees. The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to analyze the activity of franchise chains in social media -Facebook and Twitter- and, on the other hand, to measure the engagement which social media users show with franchise brands or chains. Quantitative data from Spanish franchisors (N = 53 and N = 46) was collected by means of the Fanpage Karma and Twitonomy tools. The PRGS model and statistical tests were used for the analysis of the data. The results show that the activity of the chains in social media is different according to the sector in which the chain is operating. Conclusions are also drawn regarding the characteristics of franchising chains.