Decomposing and relating user engagement in festivals’ virtual brand communities: An analysis of Sónar’s Twitter and Facebook

Abstract

Festival branding is undergoing a revolution based on the consolidation of new communicative behaviours in virtual brand communities (VBCs), above all, channelled through social media platforms. Although the literature on festivals has analysed engagement in VBCs, this study provides an in-depth observation of the profiles of festival VBCs users, how they modulate engagement attributes and behaviours and how these relate to their engagement focus, highlighting festival branding while also considering other main focuses (i.e. social capital creation and place-making). Thus, this article aims to characterize these elements in festivals’ VBCs through a multidimensional analysis of nearly 2150 entries in the Twitter and Facebook VBCs of one of the most prominent music festivals in Europe, Sónar (Barcelona). Moreover, it does so through a longitudinal observation covering a whole year, showing the relevance of ongoing communication to festival success. The results show the benefits (for organizers as well as other users) of understanding these elements and their mutual relationships.