Understanding Brand Image from Consumer-generated Hashtags

Social media has emerged as a major hub of engagement between brands and consumers in recent years, and allows user-generated content to serve as a powerful means of encouraging communication between the sides. However, it is challenging to negotiate user-generated content owing to its lack of structure and the enormous amount generated. This study focuses on the hashtag, a metadata tag that reflects customers’ brand perception through social media platforms. Online users share their knowledge and impressions using a wide variety of hashtags. We examine hashtags that co-occur with particular branded hashtags on the social media platform, Instagram, to derive insights about brand perception. We apply text mining technology and network analysis to identify the perceptions of brand images among consumers on the site, where this helps distinguish among the diverse personalities of the brands. This study contributes to highlighting the value of hashtags in constructing brand personality in the context of online marketing.