The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers,value creation practices,brand trust and brand loyalty

Social media based brand communities are communities initiated on the platform of social media. In this article, we explore whether brand communities based on social media (a special type of online brand communities) have positive effects on the main community elements and value creation practices in the communities as well as on brand trust and brand loyalty. A survey based empirical study with 441 respondents was conducted. The results of structural equation modeling show that brand communities established on social media have positive effects on community markers (i.e., shared consciousness, shared rituals and traditions, and obligations to society), which have positive effects on value creation practices (i.e., social networking, community engagement, impressions management, and brand use). Such communities could enhance brand loyalty through brand use and impression management practices. We show that brand trust has a full mediating role in converting value creation practices into brand loyalty. Implications for practice and future research opportunities are discussed.     

Understanding the effects of trust and risk on individual behavior toward social media platforms: A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence

Trust and risk have been theorized and empirically approved as the most influential factors affecting individual behavior toward social media platforms (SMPs). However, the evidence is scattered and the understanding of the effects is ambiguous. To address this problem, a rigorous and quantitative meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the empirical evidence of 43 studies in information systems research between 2006 and 2014. The findings suggested that trust and risk both had significant effects on individual behavior toward SMPs but that trust had a stronger effect. Moderating effects of trust objects (community members vs. platforms) and platform types (virtual communities vs. social networking sites) were found. Surprisingly, culture was found to exert no moderating effect. This paper contributes more generalized knowledge to social media research literature to the theory with regard to the influence of trust and risk on individual behavior toward SMPs. The knowledge serves as the foundation for future research efforts in social media. Implications for practice are discussed.     

A tale of two sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the personality predictors of social media usage

Social networking sites (SNS) are quickly becoming one of the most popular tools for social interaction and information exchange. Previous research has shown a relationship between users’ personality and SNS use. Using a general population sample (N = 300), this study furthers such investigations by examining the personality correlates (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness-to-Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Sociability and Need-for-Cognition) of social and informational use of the two largest SNS: Facebook and Twitter. Age and Gender were also examined. Results showed that personality was related to online socialising and information seeking/exchange, though not as influential as some previous research has suggested. In addition, a preference for Facebook or Twitter was associated with differences in personality. The results reveal differential relationships between personality and Facebook and Twitter usage.     

Tweet this: A uses and gratifications perspective on how active Twitter use gratifies a need to connect with others

Twitter is an Internet social-network and micro-blogging platform with both mass and interpersonal communication features for sharing 140-character messages, called tweets, with other people, called followers. Hierarchical OLS regression of survey results from 317 Twitter users found that the more months a person is active on Twitter and the more hours per week the person spends on Twitter, the more the person gratifies a need for an informal sense of camaraderie, called connection, with other users. Controlling for demographic variables does not diminish this positive relationship. Additionally, frequency of tweeting and number of @replies, public messages between Twitter users, mediate the relationship between active Twitter use and gratifying a need for connection. Results are discussed in light of uses and gratifications theory.     

The influence of disposition and social ties on trust in new virtual teammates

With the increased presence of social media tools such as LinkedIn and Facebook, social network information is now commonplace. Social media websites prominently display the social distance or so-called “degrees of separation” among users, effectively allowing people to view their shared social ties with others, including prospective teammates they have not met. Through the presentation and manipulation of social network information, this longitudinal experiment investigated whether dispositional and relational variables contribute to “swift trust” among new virtual teammates. Data from 74 participants were collected to test a path analytic model predicting that social ties and propensity to trust influence perceptions of a new teammate’s trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) as well as the willingness to trust that new teammate when given the opportunity to do so. Path analysis indicated good model fit, but showed no significant evidence that social ties or propensity to trust affect perceived trustworthiness at the initial point of team engagement. Additionally, only one component of perceived trustworthiness (perceived ability) and propensity to trust were found to predict trusting behavior towards a new, unknown, teammate.     

Trust and commitment within a virtual brand community: The mediating role of brand relationship quality

This study seeks to clarify the antecedents and consequences of trust and commitment within the brand fan page context on Facebook, examining a sample of 210 respondents using structural equation modeling. The results highlight the positive effect of economic and hedonic benefits on trust and commitment within the brand fan page. Mediation analysis reveals that trust and commitment developed within the brand fan page will be transformed into positive “word of mouth” for the respective brand if fans have a strong relationship quality with the brand. Further, we found that young and female fans with a high level of engagement, having a strong relationship with the brand, spread positive WOM. Our findings broaden ways for developing relational governance in a firm-initiated virtual brand community by providing new levers and guidance for marketers to build strong customer relationships.     

Branding with social media: User gratifications,usage patterns,and brand message content strategies

The emergence of social media provides a new platform for developing brand–consumer relationships. The aim of the current study is to examine the differences in Chinese users’ gratifications of different social media and the impact of brand content strategies on the quality of brand–consumer communication via social media. In the first study, 209 SNS and 161 microblog users were surveyed. Five dimensions of social media gratifications emerged from the factor analysis. Significant differences in the strengths of gratifications were found between SNS and microblog users. Usage patterns of SNS and microblog are analyzed and compared. In the second study, we examined the impact of users’ gratification and the type of social media on the effectiveness of different brand content strategies through a two-week experiment involving 60 SNS users and 61 microblog users. Implications for developing branding strategies on different social media platforms are discussed.     

Modeling individual trust development in computer mediated collaboration: A comparison of approaches

This research models and investigates individual trust development over time in computer mediated collaboration. Risk, benefit, utility value, effort, power and interest are six factors that influence individual trust development. This paper introduces two new approaches, the scale balance model and the trust spider diagram, to help model and investigate individual trust development over time. A 2 year longitudinal case study is used to investigate individual trust development based on a yearlong student project. 16 student groups participated in the computer mediated collaboration. Survey data were collected at three points throughout the project year and the results are analyzed using the two approaches. Interviews were also conducted at the end of the project. In this research, interesting findings, such as some dynamic features, are revealed by using the methods. Each approach to analyzing individual trust development has its strengths and weaknesses, and using the two together has the benefit of mitigating some weaknesses and combining the strengths. Analyzing trust development over time contributes to enhance computer mediated collaboration in both theoretical research and practical application.     

A motives framework of social media website use: A survey of young Americans

Social media is increasingly important in daily life and is an especially important social interaction mechanism for young people. Although research has been conducted evaluating user types based on motives for using social media, no such framework has been extended to social media websites. We extend previous research by evaluating the underlying structure of social media website usage motivations using a 13 item survey and evaluations from 19 different social media websites administered to 1686 young Americans. Using a multidimensional scaling approach, we uncover 2 major motive dimensions underlying social media website use: fun-related and content-specific. Based on the derived dimensions, we generate a graphical “quadrant” system for classifying social media websites and depict all 19 social media sites based on their quadrant. We propose that our quadrant system can be used by other researchers to further refine understanding of social media website usage motives.     

Experiencing motivational conflict on social media in a crisis situation: The case of the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy

This study examined the relationship between motivational conflict involving social media use and attitude formation in a brand crisis situation. An online experiment was conducted with 658 participants using a 2 (news-article valence: positive vs. negative) × 2 (situational cue valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design. During the experiment, participants loyal to Chick-fil-A (defense-motivated) were asked to communicate the brand through the brand's social networking sites (SNSs) while receiving a cue for the SNS audience's general unfavorable opinions on the crisis issue, the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy (impression-motivated). It was found that when motivational conflict was experienced (defense vs. impression), (1) individuals' brand attitudes were affected more by objective information such as a news article than by a cue for audience opinion and (2) their positive brand-related cognitions were countervailed by their impression-related cognitions. Overall, the findings suggest that it is not always desirable for a company to encourage customers to engage in SNS-facilitated interaction in a crisis situation.     

The tweets that killed a university: A case study investigating the use of traditional and social media in the closure of a state university

The 12-month discussion surrounding a regional university campus quickly evolved from a suggestion of independence, to a plan, to the ultimate closure of the university. This unique series of events at the University of South Florida Polytechnic (USFP) allows for an investigation of how various forms of media were used during this significant event that impacted college student’s education and immediate future. A campus wide survey was combined with social and online media monitoring to assess the topics, authors, and methods used during prominent discussions during and preceding the closure of USFP. Although social media played a crucial role, the most common format was Twitter and it was used almost exclusively by members of the media itself. Students instead relied on traditional sources to gather information. Additionally, students expressed their opinion utilizing classic methods, such as petitions, foregoing more modern Twitter or Facebook campaigns. It is incorrect to automatically assume younger demographic authorship or utilization of social media technology. Whereas social media use could expand even more over the next decade, identifying authorship remains critical as it is unclear how frequent social media is viewed as an official method of public discussion, especially when politics and higher education collide.     

Habit formation in social media consumption: a case of political engagement

This study draw upon the theory of habit formation in consumption from macroeconomics to support the evidence on the existence of habit formation in social media consumption. Treating social media consumption as a form of digital good consumption and using aggregated weekly posts from the Facebook pages of a group of 12 politicians in the cabinet of Singapore, we verified through a non-separable recursive time model that social media consumption habits were developed among this group of politicians. This study further confirms the existence of reciprocity by validating habit formation in the social media consumption of citizens and followers of these politicians’ posts using time aggregated data of ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘comments’. Further, this study shows the relationship between the strength of habit formation in social media consumption of politicians and citizens is positively correlated: the stronger the habit formation, the stronger the social capital reciprocity. Through these measurements, our analysis proved that political engagement in social media is a bi-directional habitual process and the use of a habit formation coefficient as a new parameter to measure ‘reciprocal engagement’ in social media provides a better understanding of the dynamic exchange between users of social media.     

User opinion classification in social media: A global consistency maximization approach

Social media is a major platform for opinion sharing. In order to better understand and exploit opinions on social media, we aim to classify users with opposite opinions on a topic for decision support. Rather than mining text content, we introduce a link-based classification model, named global consistency maximization (GCM) that partitions a social network into two classes of users with opposite opinions. Experiments on a Twitter data set show that: (1) our global approach achieves higher accuracy than two baseline approaches and (2) link-based classifiers are more robust to small training samples if selected properly.     

A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on Twitter

Social media have gained increased usage rapidly for a variety of reasons. News and information is one such reason. The current study examines how system-generated cues available in social media impact perceptions of a source’s credibility. Participants were asked to view one of six mock Twitter.com pages that varied both the number of followers and the ratio between followers and follows on the page and report their perceived source credibility. Data indicate that curvilinear effects for number of followers exist, such that having too many or too few connections results in lower judgments of expertise and trustworthiness. Having a narrow gap between the number of followers and follows also led to increased judgments of competence. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations of the current study and directions for future research.     

Collaborative storytelling experiences in social media: Influence of peer-assistance mechanisms

Collaborative storytelling activities in social media environments are generally developed in a linear way in which all participants collaborate on a shared story as it is passed from one to another in a relay form. Difficulties with this linear approach arise when collecting the contributions of participants in to a coherent story. This study proposes a hypermedia approach to enable students to integrate the episodes of others to develop different branches of stories. Since these linear and nonlinear approaches facilitate students in developing stories in quite a different manner, students’ perceptions of linear and hypermedia approaches differ in their collaboration mechanisms, which may in turn affect positive inter-dependence and ultimate success in the collaborative storytelling. The results of an empirical study show that the performance of students in the hypermedia group was superior to that of members the linear group insofar as perception of collaborative process, peer support, authorship, and collaborative result where concerned.     

The reciprocal effects of social network site use and the disposition for self-disclosure: A longitudinal study

Since the advent of social network sites (SNSs), scholars have critically discussed the psychological and societal implication of online self-disclosure. Does Facebook change our willingness to disclose personal information? The present study proposes that the use of SNSs and the psychological disposition for self-disclosure interact reciprocally: Individuals with a stronger disposition show a higher tendency to use SNSs (selection effect). At the same time, frequent SNS use increases the wish to self-disclose online, because self-disclosing behaviors are reinforced through social capital within the SNS environment (socialization effect). In a longitudinal panel study, 488 users of SNSs were surveyed twice in a 6 months interval. Data were analyzed using structure equation modeling. The proposed reciprocal effects of SNS activities and self-disclosure were supported by the data: The disposition for online self-disclosure had a positive longitudinal effect on SNS use which in turn positively influenced the disposition for online self-disclosure. Both effects were moderated by the amount of social capital users received as a consequence of their SNS use.     

Interpersonal knowledge exchange in China: The impact of guanxi and social media

The employees of professional service firms regularly engage in various knowledge-related activities, including the seeking and sharing of knowledge with other people; we refer to this process as interpersonal knowledge exchange (IKE). Two prominent drivers of IKE in China are the socio-cultural concept of guanxi and social media. We conduct an interpretive investigation into IKE, collecting qualitative data from employees in three Chinese organizations. We explore how guanxi lubricates the social media-based communication practices that are central to IKE in China. We report and generalise our findings into theoretical propositions, discuss the practical implications, and identify opportunities for future research.     

Getting closer and experiencing together: Antecedents and consequences of psychological distance in social media-enhanced real-time streaming video

Social media services such as YouTube and Flickr have become online necessities for millions of users worldwide. Social media are online services that enable users to share contents, opinions, and perspectives that support communication with other users. Social media places an emphasis on the shared experience between users, which we call co-experience. However, the online characteristics of social media increase psychological distance between users, which, in turn, results in a decrease in the quality of co-experience. Hence, as the goal of this study, we theoretically modeled and empirically verified the antecedents and user experience-based consequences of psychological distance in a social media-enhanced real-time streaming video service. In order to reduce psychological distance, we introduced two system elements: inhabited space (the degree of being situated in context and in a meaningful place) and isomorph effects (the degree of preserving the structure of a user’s actions). We constructed a social media-enhanced real-time streaming video service prototype and conducted a field experiment with actual social media users. The prototype, which streamed a live baseball game, enabled users to simultaneously view the game from remote locations and to interact with each other through cheering tools. The results indicate that inhabited space and isomorph effects reduce psychological distance between users, and this, in turn, enhances co-experience. This paper ends with theoretical as well as practical implications of the study.     

Social media and mental health in democracy movement in Hong Kong: A population-based study

Social media use has proliferated in the past ten years and studies are beginning to investigate the associations of social media use with political movements and mental health. This study extends this literature by testing a novel hypothesis that social resource loss on social media (e.g., “unfriending”) may be associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety in social upheaval. A population-based sample of 1,208 Chinese Hong Kong citizens (mean age = 46.89; 52.4% female) was recruited by random digit dialing in February 2015, two months after the conclusion of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. Respondents reported social resource loss on social media, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that social resource loss on social media was positively associated with depressive symptoms but not anxiety symptoms. Age moderated the positive association between social resource loss on social media and depressive symptoms. Simple slope tests revealed that the association was significant only among middle-aged (39–55 years) and older (≥56 years) adults but not younger (18–38 years) adults. The current findings shed light on the role of social media in mental health during political movements across different age groups.     

A dynamic longitudinal examination of social media use,needs, and gratifications among college students

This study extends the U&G theoretical perspective to account for the situated, adaptive, and dynamic nature of mediated cognition and behavior. It specifies dynamic uses and gratifications of social media (compared to other media) in the everyday lives of college students using experience sampling data across 4 weeks. The study tests and quantifies reciprocal causal relationships between needs, social media use, and gratifications, as well as their self-sustaining endogenous (i.e., feedback) effects. Social media use is significantly driven by all four categories of needs examined (emotional, cognitive, social, and habitual), but only gratifies some of them. Ungratified needs accumulate over time and drive subsequent social media use. Interpersonal social environments also affect social media use. In particular, solitude and interpersonal support increase social media use, and moderate the effects of needs on social media use.