Co-creation experiences in social media brand communities: Analyzing the main types of co-created experiences = Comunidades de marca de medios sociales y co-creación de experiencias: Una investigación sobre los principales tipos de experiencias co-creadas

Purpose – This paper presents an in-depth investigation on how brands may concur to the co-creation of consumers’ experiences. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the main types of co- created experiences that consumers may encounter as a result of social media brand communities. Design/methodology/approach – To identify the main types of co-created experiences, a digital investigation has been used as the main method of analysis. The authors draw their digital investigation on the digital methods paradigm. Findings – Four principal types of co-created experiences have been identified and conceptualized, namely, brand’s products’ individual usage experiences, auto-celebrative experiences, brand’s products’ communal usage experiences and collective celebration experiences. Originality/value – Results stress the importance for brand strategists to involve members of social media brand communities to stimulate co-creation experiences. Specifically, it emerges that the simultaneous interaction among members of the community and the brand may directly affect co- creation experiences.