Generating brand awareness in Online Social Networks Albert A. Barreda a , Anil Bilgihan b,⇑ , Khaldoon Nusair d,1 , Fevzi Okumus c a Hospitality & Restaurant Administration, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA b Department of Marketing, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA c Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA d College of Economics & Political Science Marketing Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman article info Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: OSNs Brand awareness WOM Virtual interactivity Rewards Information and system quality abstract With their exceptional interactive and communicative capabilities, Online Social Networks (OSNs) allow destinations and companies to heighten their brand awareness. Many tourist destinations and hospitality brands are exploring the use of OSNs to form brand awareness and generate positive WOM. The purpose of this research is to propose and empirically test a theory-driven model of brand awareness in OSNs. A survey among 230 OSN users was deployed to test the theoretical model. The data was analyzed using SEM. Study results indicate that building brand awareness in OSNs increases WOM traffic. In order to fos- ter brand awareness in OSN, it is important to create a virtually interactive environment, enabling users to exchange reliable, rich and updated information in a timely manner. Receiving financial and/or psy- chological rewards and accessing exclusive privileges in OSNs are important factors for users. Both sys- tem quality and information quality were found to be important precursors of brand awareness in OSNs. Study results support the importance of social media in online branding strategies. Virtual interactivity, system quality, information content quality, and rewarding activities influence and generate brand awareness, which in return, triggers WOM. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction With their exceptional interactive and communicative capabili- ties, Online Social Networks (OSNs) offer new avenues for busi- nesses (Sigala, 2012; Yoon, Choi, & Sohn, 2008). Most companies use OSNs as tools for customer engagement and collaboration. However, OSNs can also boost brand awareness (Barwise & Meehan, 2010). Brand awareness has a significant effect on con- sumer choices (Hoyer & Brown, 1990; Lin, 2013). It is, therefore, an important concept both in marketing and consumer behavior. Consumers rely more than ever on OSNs when making decisions. The effects of OSN campaigns on consumers’ perception of services and brands have yet to be better understood (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt, & Füller, 2013; Nusair, Bilgihan, Okumus, & Cobanoglu, 2013). OSNs have evolved as platforms that can gener- ate brand awareness due to their heavy adoption. Each user who posts on a popular OSN, such as Facebook, is seen by an average 35% of their friends or connections (Bernstein, Bakshy, Burke, & Karrer, 2013). Therefore, it is important to get the branding fundamentals right in OSNs (Barwise & Meehan, 2010). The company’s effective presentation of its brand contributes directly to brand awareness, which is the customer’s ability to recognize and recall the brand when provided a cue (Berry, 2000; Bilgihan, Peng, & Kandampully, 2014; Lin, 2013). When asked to a group of people ‘‘what destinations come to your mind when you think about a skiing destination?’’ responses would provide a basic understanding of a ski destination’s brand awareness in the market. OSNs create opportunities for travel com- panies and tourist destinations to build strong brand awareness when designed and implemented properly. High levels of brand awareness (recall and recognition) can significantly impact a brand’s market share, and contribute to the formation of other brand elements such as brand image, brand equity and brand loy- alty (Bilgihan et al., 2014; Chang, 2013; Xie & Chen, 2014). Brand awareness is viewed as a means through which individu- als become informed and accustomed with a brand name and recall and recognize the brand (Gursoy, Chen, & Chi, 2014; Jakeli & Tchumburidze, 2012; Lin, 2013). WOM is vital for a company’s success. Companies that are capable of using WOM for marketing purposes are more successful compared to ones that are not (Mason, 2008). When asked about the main objectives of their OSN programs, more than half of marketing decision-makers indi- cated that ‘improving brand awareness or reputation’ is among the most important objectives (Pfeffer, Zorbach, & Carley, 2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.023 0747-5632/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: abilgihan@fau.edu (A. Bilgihan), knusair@squ.edu.om (K. Nusair). 1 PhD Associate Professor. Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Please cite this article in press as: Barreda, A. A., et al. Generating brand awareness in Online Social Networks. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.023