The power of lurking: Assessing the online experience of luxury brand fan page followers

Despite the popularity of brand fan pages, knowledge of how following a luxury brand on social media contributes to the firm's customer relationship management efforts is still limited. Drawing on data from a survey of 206 social media followers of the Louis Vuitton brand, this study helps clarify how the content of a luxury brand fan page affects followers' engagement and thereby influences their brand relationship. The results indicate that both the hedonic and informative content dimensions are crucial to stimulating followers' active and passive participation and, ultimately, their attitudinal loyalty toward the brand. In general, passive (vs. active) participation is a stronger driver of followers' brand affect and subsequent attitudinal loyalty. In addition, the brand affect has a stronger effect than brand trust on followers' attitudinal loyalty. These results contribute to enhancing luxury brand managers' understanding of how to effectively use fan pages as a customer relationship management tool.