An Empirical Assessment of the Role of Consumer Characteristics in Influencing Active Participation in a Social Media Community

Social media marketers are constantly on the look-out for ways to attract users to actively participate in their brand communities. Active participation has also been described to be influential in signalling the health of a brand community, while also influencing other social media behaviours of users, such as, satisfaction, loyalty, trust etc. The present study aims to uncover how active participation of social media users differs based on their membership duration in the community and gender. The results of the study reveal that both these consumer related aspects make no difference in the active participation of users in the community. Future research implications are discussed to take the subject forward.