Industry professionals and scholars in academia have probed the question of how best to engage audiences. Social media has facilitated various business opportunities as well as provided organizations with platforms through which they can engage their stakeholders. A key issue surrounding customer engagement is how it is conceptualized and what factors facilitate and support user interaction on social media. In this dissertation, the Self Determination framework served as the theoretical foundation for understanding customer engagement on Facebook brand pages. The research model was based on the premise that individuals are likely to symbolically engage on social media when they feel self-determined to do so based on three key factors: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Through a survey of students at a large Midwestern university (n=745) this dissertation found: 1) social media self-efficacy positively predicts symbolic customer engagement in the form of sharing on Facebook brand pages; 2) time spent on Facebook is a positive predictor of liking, commenting, and sharing; 3) social media experience is a negative predictor of symbolic customer engagement in the form of liking and commenting; 4) social skills negatively predict symbolic customer engagement in the form of commenting, and 5) customer relationship with the brand and community predict symbolic customer engagement in terms of liking, commenting and sharing. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in the realm of communication and marketing through strengthening our understanding of how online brand communities and relationships serve as strategic assets for organizations in building brand engagement. Findings in this dissertation are limited by the characteristics of the population studied. Further research is recommended to better understand the different types of engagement and how such engagement impacts user perceptions.
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