Who Likes You and Why? A typology of Facebook Fans

Abstract

Although many managers recognize that Facebook fans represent a marketing opportunity, little is known about fan types. This study explores a typology of fans, drawn from a sample of 438 individuals who Like brands on Facebook. Fans brand loyalty, brand love, use of self-expressive brands, and word of mouth (WOM) for Liked brands were used to suggest four fan types: the fan-atic, the utilitarian, the self-expressive and the authentic. The results of this exploratory study highlight the value of cluster analysis as a strategy for identifying different fan types and provide insights to prompt further research into Facebook fan types.