Customer engagement with startups on social media and the influence of content type, and frequency

Abstract

Social media are part of many individuals’ life. This has led many firms to use such platforms to communicate and engage with their customers, as well as for marketing purposes. However, there is still little known about how startups use social media to increase customer engagement. In this study, we investigated whether content related to the brand identity or the products of a startup, as well as the frequency with which the startups share content increase customer engagement. To do so, we collected data from a startup that operates in the fashion industry and promotes its products through Instagram. Also, we interviewed five entrepreneurs in order to interpret through their experience our quantitative findings. Our main findings were not statistically significant regarding the content type, and they were statistically significant for the frequency indicating that the lower frequency leads to higher customer engagement. Additionally, entrepreneurs provided us with important information on what customers like to see, how they interact with the startups and how often they like to see content.