E-WOM engagement: Is it worth talking only about posters and lurkers?

The digital revolution has brought foundational changes in marketing, customer relationship and brand management (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Dramatic developments in interactive digital media are revolutionizing marketing, and the rise of social media has catapulted company and consumer contact from the traditional Web 1.0 model to the highly interactive Web 2.0 world in which consumers dictate the nature, extent and context of marketing exchanges. Today, consumers increasingly use digital media not just to search for products or services but also to engage with the companies they buy from and with other consumers who might have valuable insights (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, 2011). The development of interactive digital media has fundamentally altered marketing’s ecosystem of influence (Malthouse & Hofacker, 2010). The social web is currently reconstituting branding, and dramatic change is under way. We have moved from a world in which the firm/brand sets the agenda to a world in which consumers decide if and when brands are invited into their virtual environments (Fournier & Avery, 2011; Labrecque et al., 2013). Social media technologies have engendered radically new ways of interacting (Malthouse & Hofacker, 2010). To this end, literally hundreds of different digital platforms exist (e.g. social networks, blogs, discussion groups and podcasts). This new era involves participatory, collaborative, and socially linked behaviors whereby consumers are taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional messages (Fournier & Avery, 2011).