How to Improve Customer Engagement in Social Networks: A Study of Spanish Brands in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify to what extent volumes, components, time slots, and publication topics improve customer engagement with Spanish automotive brands through social networks. The study considers thirteen brands and the total number of publications created by them in 2020 (23,670 publications) on the social network Twitter. Applying machine learning algorithms followed by multiple linear regression techniques, the authors examine how the variables previously mentioned affect a customer engagement indicator developed for this purpose. The results reveal that while publication components (links, mentions, and hashtags) and the publication time slot do not affect customer engagement, the volume of retweets made by the brand and publications on customer experience topics (without a direct commercial purpose) significantly improve the customer engagement indicator. The authors conclude that customer engagement in social networks can only be improved by conducting exhaustive analyses of activity data for these platforms. However, such analyses must not be done via generic multisector analyses, which only generate superficial and inapplicable knowledge, but rather through detailed studies for each sector.