Exploring the reasons why consumers follow a sports brand on social media and the impact this has on brand commitment

Social media websites play an important role in the life of consumers; companies create brand pages in order to spread information, entertaining movies, photos and stories. Consumers can join these brand pages to gain information, have conversations, buy products, belong to a group or just for entertainment. Consumers and companies can exchange ideas about products or company related issues on these pages. Social network sites and sharing sites are examples of social media platforms, both with different functional blocks. Due to the fact that many companies have created a brand page, consumers have to select which pages to follow according to their own needs. Although there are various studies about the impact of social media, this study gives a new perception of the reason for consumers to follow a sports brand on social media. Furthermore this research examines the impact of following the online communities on brand commitment. Brand commitment can result in positive behavior and attitude towards a brand. With this study it cannot be statistically proven that one of the four needs: functional, social, psychological, and hedonic have a positive effect on the reason to follow sports brand on social media. Despite this fact, functional needs have a positive effect on following a sports brand if a consumer only follows a sports brand on social network sites or sharing sites. The effect of following a sports brand on social network sites and sharing sites due to hedonic needs is positive, but not significant. Brand commitment increases when consumers follow the sports brand on social media, social network sites, or sharing sites. Since functional needs are important for consumers on social network sites and sharing sites, companies can focus on spreading information via these platforms. Based on the results of this study, with all the respondents, the positive effect of following a sports brand with a higher market share on social media, social network sites or sharing sites is larger if you compare it, with a sports brand with a lower market share. The relation between the different variables can be defined as a correlational relationship.