The topic of customer engagement via social media is receiving increasing consideration in the literature. Previously, scholars’ use of the notion and dimensionality of customer engagement has been incomplete and inconsistent – an oversight that has significant theoretical and practical repercussions. This paper examines the managerial perspective on customer engagement and performance metrics in the context of social media. Data is collected from three different sources representing the main categories of social media stakeholders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers from 41 companies, 23 advertising/communication agencies, and 10 research/consulting firms and cover a range of views on different social media channels platforms. The results illustrate the gaps between customer engagement’s conceptions, the customer engagement dimensionality, and the metrics of social media performance beyond customer engagement. We also derive theoretical and managerial practical implications and suggest an agenda for future research.

通过社交媒体进行客户互动的话题在文献中越来越受到关注。以前，学者对客户参与度的概念和范围的使用是不完整和不一致的–这种疏忽具有重大的理论和实践影响。本文考察了社交媒体环境下客户参与度和绩效指标的管理观点。数据是从代表社交媒体利益相关方主要类别的三个不同来源收集的。与来自41家公司，23家广告/传播机构以及10家研究/咨询公司的经理进行了半结构化访谈，涵盖了不同社交媒体渠道平台上的各种观点。结果说明了客户参与度概念之间的差距，客户参与度，以及超越客户参与度的社交媒体绩效指标。我们还得出理论和管理方面的实际意义，并提出未来研究的议程。