The usage time of social media as a predictor of customer loyalty

This paper aims to shed light on the potential influence of daily usage time of social media on customer loyalty through social media. The main objective is to identify, on the one hand, possible generational differences regarding usage time and, on the other, what characteristics of social media posts impacting loyal customer outcomes are most affected by usage time. To this end, after an exhaustive review of the current state of the art, an online survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2022 with a sample of 485 individuals to assess their opinions and intentions toward different types of social media posts. Attitudinal responses were collected for 12 study variables, and an independence test and a series of regressions were conducted to validate the hypotheses. The results indicate that there are indeed generational differences in social media usage time. Additionally, it was observed that usage time is a significant predictor of social media loyalty in general and, specifically, for loyalty created through posts with relevant content, campaigns with incentives, and popular content among friends. Among the conclusions of this study is the applicability to the business sector, regarding the various considerations that companies should take into account based on their communication objectives and the target user profile, as well as the type of social media posts they should consider. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.