Investigating Consumers' Brands Connection on Facebook

Due to the fact that social networks have become an irreplaceable part of modern life, their effectiveness for business purposes is increasing, too. The development of social networks and the growing number of users have a strong impact on companies’ attempt to improve the communication with their fans and/or followers. Social networks are recognized as a popular and widely used marketing tool hence they present different information about the product and the brand to various market segments. Specifically for these media, every contact with the brand via social network does not necessarily mean that the user is also an actual or a potential buyer. Taking into account the dominance of Facebook usage among others social networks in Croatia, this paper aims to understand the primary motives driving the Facebook users to be connected with the brand. The research methodology includes a questionnaire-based study on a sample of 207 Facebook users. The results point out that the main motivation attribute is to have real-time information about product and events related to the product. In addition, some study observations show that there is a significant statistical positive correlation between benefits of being informed of competition and social interactions and information as motive, as well as the respondents’ engagement in social networks positively affects self-esteem.