Perceptions of Personalization in Company-consumer Interactions on Social Network: Experiment Conducted in the Czech Republic

Social media has revolutionized the way in which organizations communicate with their customers and stakeholders. Therefore, understanding the characteristics that influence the interactivity and the relationship between an organization and its page visitors is essential for the capability of an organization ability to respond to the current and potential customers on social networking sites in an appropriate manner. The research investigates how companies using brand communities on Facebook influence consumers’ intention to purchase through online interactivity, responsiveness, and personalization. In an online experiment, participants viewed selected records of communication with customers from companies on Facebook pages that differed as to whether and how specifically the companies responded to their consumers. The results were obtained using mediation analyses. These indicate that perceptions of company responsiveness and personalization, based on existing consumer interactions on a Facebook page, influence how participants rated the company, the quality of their own potential company interactions, and the likelihood of them purchasing products from the company in future. The findings of this research also support the assertion that social media has an impact on brand communities as a platform on which consumers interact. Additionally, eye tracking was used to collect data about customers’ activities that assist in understanding how people acquire information from web pages. The research provides a better understanding of which distinct components of a message meaningfully influence perceptions of interactivity. The findings show that marketers should focus on customer complaints as this component of the messages on social media influences the viewer’s visual search. To test other cultural contexts and for further validation of identified relationships, future research could be conducted globally.