Consumer interest in receiving information through social media about the risks of pesticide residues

A consumer segmentation approach was used to determine consumer interest in using social media to obtain information concerning the risks of pesticide residues on vegetables. A total of 497 Flemish consumers participated in an online survey in March 2012 to assess interest in social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, forums and blogs, and Wikipedia as channels for receiving information about pesticide residues from official bodies. The participants were segmented in four clusters depending on their level of information sufficiency and level of interest in social media applications: “very satisfied; interested” (24%), “not satisfied; very interested” (28%), “not satisfied; some interest” (25%) and “satisfied; little interest” (23%). The segments with higher levels of satisfaction displayed higher trust in oneself and in public bodies to deal with the risks of pesticide residues and also contained relatively more males. Differences in information sufficiency between the segments were associated with different methods of information acquisition, i.e. by purposeful information seeking or by incidental information acquisition. The segments with higher interest in social media displayed higher familiarity and higher appreciation for the opportunities of social media. These segments also contained relatively younger participants. Popular channels like Facebook and Twitter scored low in terms of perceived usefulness, even among high users. Wikipedia on the other hand was perceived by all segments as the most useful and credible online source when it comes to information about risks of pesticide residues. Speed and accessibility were the main motives for using social media applications as an information channel while lack of trustworthiness was the main barrier.