JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Over the past decade, social media has changed the ways luxury brands communicate to their customers, market their products and build the brand image. This study’s theory examined the prior research of luxury brands’ social media marketing and social media content. As experiences are at the core of luxury brands’ marketing strategy, the theory concentrated on studying online experiences and customer engagement in social media context. The social media content, luxury experiences and customer engagement were included in the theoretical framework of the study and giving guidance for the empirical research. The purpose of this study was to investigate luxury brands’ social media content to be able to identify effective content tactics to create online experiences and customer engagement. A content analysis was conducted to examine the content elements on social media posts and their impact on social media engagement. The posts of three Finnish luxury brands were analyzed in three major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). After the visual content analysis was conducted, then the social media engagement represented by the number of likes, the number of shares and comments, was determined in the form of engagement rate percent. The findings of the research emphasize that luxury brands’ social media content needs to be inspirational, innovative and creative. It must reflect the high quality of products and the prestige qualities of the brand. The research results revealed a set of luxury brands’ content elements which can be associated with high social media engagement. The most engaging content often includes cool, trendy and luxurious elements. A balanced and well-coordinated colour scheme helps the brand to build a harmonious social media feed which is hedonic and pleasant for the viewer. With inspiring visuals and evoking videos, luxury brands can boost emotions and entertain their followers. The key is to deliver content that provides a deep experience of the brand with the sense of exclusivity. The content analysis also revealed that different social media platforms may be effectively used in different ways by luxury brands. The findings revealed that Instagram allowed the greatest customer engagement rates and the highest customer feedback. This research provides an insight into the luxury brands’ social media content and the effectiveness of content elements to create experiences, and thus customer engagement. The research results help the brands to design their social media content according the taste of luxury customers and achieve higher engagement and build personal relationships through social media. Being present on social media has effects on brand’s economic outcome, so therefore it is crucial for luxury brands to understand their audiences motives and needs to use social media. The studied companies are Finnish luxury brands operating in personal luxury category, so it needs to be acknowledged it brings limitations for generalization of the research findings for other industries and cultural settings.