Abstract
Branded communication on social media faces new challenges as consumers from Generation Z intentionally keep their engagement practices from the social media metrics. This study seeks to uncover their hidden behaviours in relation to branded content on social media and explore the role of the source of the message in consumer engagement practices.
Drawing on the analysis of 134 hours of screen recordings from smartphones and PCs of 15 participants, 15 in-depth interviews and 185 questionnaires, the article proposes two contributions. First, it presents a taxonomy of non-measured consumer engagement practices on social media and outlines different motives behind each of those practices.
Second, using this classification of practices, it explores the role of the source and concludes that specific combinations of promotion factors affect consumer's engagement practices towards social media branded content posts.