THE LEADING QUESTION: • How can companies manage their brand communities effectively? FINDINGS: • Setting up and managing a brand community of customers is a potentially powerful marketing program for companies in the current harsh economic climate. • Many company-run brand communities...

This paper explains how companies can manage their brand communities effectively. The findings reported in this paper are based on a four-year long project involving the study of company managed and enthusiast-run communities. During that time, 200 brand community managers of company-managed and...

We report the results of a longitudinal field study, conducted in cooperation with two restaurants, to examine the degree to which participating on a Facebook fan page affects customer behaviors. We assessed customers’ baseline levels of visit frequency and spending. The restaurants then set...

Many firms increasingly offer community venues to their customers to facilitate social interactions amongst them. Prior studies have shown that community participants have high engagement and loyalty toward the firm, and provide useful feedback and referrals. However, it is not clear whether...