Enhancing member-institution relationships through social media: the role of other-user engagement behavior and similarity perceptions

Social media facilitates more frequent, immediate, and larger-scale exposures of people affiliated with a group than was previously possible. However, little is known about how this occurs in the case of institutions’ brand pages and about its impact on existing member relationships. In examining the role perception about other users of a brand page plays on focal user identity construction, we found seeing other users demonstrating engagement behavior and recognizing similarity led to institutional identification through an increased perception of brand page sociability and identification with the page. Institutional distinctiveness also mediated the impact of other-user engagement behavior on member-institution relationships. These findings suggest traditional institutions can use social media to increase the visibility and accessibility of member-owned identity resources so as to facilitate opportunities for focal members to reinforce their self-concepts. Findings contribute to knowledge on the dynamic group processes enabled by the various engagement tools on brand pages.