Unlocking health participation: enhancing customer experiences in public health social media communities

Purpose: This study develops and validates a novel framework for understanding customer experience (CX) in public health social media communities (PHSMCs). This paper conceptualises PHSM-CX as a multidimensional construct reflecting both individual and socially embedded experiential benefits and investigates its influence on health outcomes such as quality of life, advocacy and compliance.
Design/methodology/approach: A three-phase, multi-method design was used. Study One used data from 24 interviews to develop the research framework, which Study Two validated through 268 online survey responses from Saudi Arabia. Study Three replicated the findings with 304 responses from Australia. Both samples were analysed using PLS-SEM, and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA).
Findings: Results confirm that PHSM-CX is a multidimensional construct that significantly predicts health-related outcomes, including quality of life, compliance and advocacy. NCA reveals that learning benefit is a necessary condition for all three outcomes, and shared vision plays an influential role.
Practical implications: Findings provide actionable insights for practitioners by identifying high-impact experiential dimensions – particularly learning benefit and shared vision – that should be prioritised in PHSMC design to enhance user engagement, health compliance and advocacy.
Originality/value: This study is the first to conceptualise and test CX in PHSMCs using a multi-method, cross-national approach.