The emergence of social media as one of the driving forces of consumers’ online experiences today also challenges our current understanding on marketing and brand management. The effects of brands’ social media involvement are to this day uncertain. Severin Dennhardt shows that social media and user-generated brands do have a strong influence on brands. Four independent studies demonstrate that first, successful brands can be created in virtual worlds, second, user-generated content drives the creation of unique brands, third social media strongly influences the social value perception of brands, and fourth, social media impacts consumers’ purchase decision process.

From a brand management perspective Ulrike Arnhold analyses the impact of interactive marketing programmes in Web 2.0, evaluating user generated content as a tool of the brand communication mix.

As media environments and communication practices evolve over time, so do theoretical concepts. This book analyzes some of the most well-known and fiercely discussed concepts of the digital age from a historical perspective, showing how many of them have pre-digital roots and how they have changed and still are constantly changing in the digital era. Written by leading authors in media and communication studies, the chapters historicize 16 concepts that have become central in the digital media literature, focusing on three main areas. The first part, Technologies and Connections, historicises concepts like network, media convergence, multimedia, interactivity and artificial intelligence. The second one is related to Agency and Politics and explores global governance, datafication, fake news, echo chambers, digital media activism. The last one, Users and Practices, is finally devoted to telepresence, digital loneliness, amateurism, user generated content, fandom and authenticity. The book aims to shed light on how concepts emerge and are co-shaped, circulated, used and reappropriated in different contexts. It argues for the need for a conceptual media and communication history that will reveal new developments without concealing continuities and it demonstrates how the analogue/digital dichotomy is often a misleading one.

In the digital world of the participatory web millions of common people have started publishing own brand related content. Such amateur pieces ignore official marketing campaigns and are generated by brand fans and opponents alike. Given the increasing speed and reach of the internet those grassroots messages may have sweeping effects on the brand image. This book represents a first comprehensive study fully dedicated to the emerging phenomenon of brand related user generated content. It explores its patterns and shows how brand managers may benefit from it via user generated branding campaigns.

This book provides a synthesis of research perspectives on customer engagement through a collection of chapters from thought leaders. It identifies cutting-edge metrics for capturing and measuring customer engagement and highlights best practices in implementing customer engagement marketing strategies. Responding to the rapidly changing business landscape where consumers are more connected, accessible, and informed than ever before, many firms are investing in customer engagement marketing. The book will appeal to academics, practitioners, consultants, and managers looking to improve customer engagement.

The knowledge on how to influence user engagement metrics and thereby brand visibility plays a crucial role in influencer branding – both for social media influencers as well as marketers. Based upon two holistic empirical models and the analysis of real-world data, Tanja Fink is able to show important drivers of user engagement in influencer branding. Therefore, the author is building upon established models from research in celebrity endorsement, product placement and social media marketing. The profound empirical results reveal surprising and highly relevant insights for brand managers which call for a more conscientious (visual) integration of brands in user-generated content (UGC) on Instagram. In addition, the author detects several mechanisms for increasing user engagement while preventing user reactance towards the brand endorsement.

Reimagining Communication: Mediation explores information and media technologies across a variety of contemporary platforms, uses, content variations, audiences, and professional roles. A diverse body of contributions in this unique interdisciplinary resource offers perspectives on digital games, social media, photography, and more. The volume is organized to reflect a pedagogical approach of carefully laddered and sequenced topics, which supports experiential, project-based learning in addition to a course’s traditional writing requirements. As the field of Communication Studies has been continuously growing and reaching new horizons, this volume synthesizes the complex relationship of communication to media technologies and its forms in a uniquely accessible and engaging way. This is an essential introductory text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of communication, broadcast media, and interactive technologies, with an interdisciplinary focus and an emphasis on the integration of new technologies.