Social media and tourism : a wishful relationship

For decades hospitality firms were used to domain the communication process. Thematic social network sites such as TripAdvisor became very important tools for travelers when deciding which hotels to book, and what restaurants and tourist attractions to visit, been a visible part of tourism communication evolution. Evidence suggests that e-WOM serves as a primary information source when tourists choose destinations, hotels, and other experiences. The role and use of social media in tourists’ decision making has been widely discuss in tourism and hospitality research, especially in the research phase of the tourist’ travel planning process. With the wide adoption of social media the influence of customers’ word-of-mouth increased and influences not only the research phase, but the repetition and overall customers’ experiences. To answer these questions a model assessing e-wom was developed and data was gathering from TripAdvisor regarding customer’s opinion in restaurant experiences. The results found establish the bases for understanding tourists’ engagement level and profiles.N/

Digital Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Problematic Practices and Policy Interventions

Examines trends in digital marketing to youth that uses "immersive" techniques, social media, behavioral profiling, location targeting and mobile marketing, and neuroscience methods. Recommends principles for regulating inappropriate advertising to youth

Advertising and Word-of-Mouth Effects on Pre-launch Consumer Interest and Initial Sales of Experience Products

This study examines how consumers' interest in a new experience product develops as a result of advertising and word-of-mouth activities during the pre-launch period. The empirical settings are the U.S. motion picture and video game industries. The focal variables include weekly ad spend, blog volume, online search volume during pre-launch periods, opening-week sales, and product characteristics. We treat pre-launch search volume of keywords as a measure of pre-launch consumer interest in the related product. To identify probable persistent effects among the pre-launch time-series variables, we apply a vector autoregressive modeling approach. We find that blog postings have permanent, trend-setting effects on pre-launch consumer interest in a new product, while advertising has only temporary effects. In the U.S. motion picture industry, the four-week cumulative elasticity of pre-launch consumer interest is 0.187 to advertising and 0.635 to blog postings. In the U.S. video game industry, the elasticities are 0.093 and 1.306, respectively. We also find long-run co-evolution between blog and search volume, which suggests that consumers' interest in the upcoming product cannot grow without bounds for a given level of blog volume

Understanding the Dynamic Interplay of Social Buzz and Contribution Behavior within and between Online Platforms – Evidence from Crowdfunding

Motivated by the growing interconnection between online platforms, we examine the dynamic interplay between social buzz and contribution behavior in the crowdfunding context. Since the utility of crowdfunding projects is usually difficult to ascertain, prospective backers draw on quality signals, such as social buzz and prior-contribution behavior, to make their funding decisions. We employ the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) methodology to investigate both intra- and cross-platform effects based on data collected from three platforms: Indiegogo, one of the largest crowdfunding platforms on the web, Twitter and Facebook. Our results show a positive influence of social buzz on project backing, but a negative relationship in the reverse direction. Furthermore, we observe strong positive feedback cycles within each platform. Our results are supplemented by split-sample analyses for project orientation (Social, Cause and Entrepreneurial) and project success (Winners vs. Losers), in which Facebook shares were identified as a critical success factor

The Rise of Viral Marketing through the New Media of Social Media

This paper fully addresses the rationale of the need for corporate presence in social media, the value that can be derived from a well-developed viral marketing campaign, strategies for entry into this developing new media segment, and an analysis of why entry into social media is crucial for corporate success and brand management. There are marked advantages to the embracing of new formats for consumer interaction: “brands increase consumer loyalty by involving their customers in their decision-making processes, and the research provides substantial profiling intelligence as a basis for sales and marketing decisions” (Online communities, 2009, p. 13). Social media is the newest and most actively engaging forum for customer and company interaction

Negatywne opinie oraz ich rozprzestrzenianie się w internetowych mediach społecznościowych: rola wyznacznikowa populacji początkowej

This paper is a contribution to the knowledge of WoM transmis­sion on OSN. We specifically analyze the role of the seeding popula­tion diffusion of negative WoM. The method is based on an experi­ment on the Facebook fan base of an existing company. We manage to control the four elements of a successful WoM communication: the message, the social structure of the network, the characteristics of the individuals in the network, and the seeding population. We de­velop an original method to dissociate a seeding population from the general population and compare the diffusion of a set of negative messages distributed to both the original population and the artifi­cially targeted subset. Results show the impact of the seeding popu­lation’s characteristics on the diffusion of consumers’ negative mes­sages. We specifically show the impact of the carrier on the virality of the message.Artykuł stanowi wkład w wiedzę dotyczącą transmisji WoM (Word of Mouth) w sieciach społecznościowych (OSN). Analizujemy w szcze­gólności rolę rozprzestrzeniania się antyreklamy w populacji użyt­kowników. Metoda badawcza opiera się na eksperymencie wykona­nym na społeczności fanów realnie istniejącej marki na Facebooku. Udało nam się poddać kontroli cztery elementy skutecznej komuni­kacji WoM: komunikat, strukturę społeczną sieci, charakterystykę jed­nostek w sieci, populację początkową (seeding population). Wypraco­waliśmy autorską metodę wyodrębniania takiej populacji z ogółu oraz porównywania rozprzestrzeniania się zestawu negatywnych komuni­katów dostarczonych zarówno populacji pierwotnej, jak i sztucznie wyznaczonemu jej podzbiorowi. Wyniki pokazują skutki oddziaływa­nia cech populacji początkowej na wiralne rozprzestrzenianie się ne­gatywnych opinii konsumentów. Ukazujemy w szczególności wpływ nośnika komunikatu na jego wiralność

Introducing Social Capital Value Add: Manifesto for New Social Network Structural Management of Corporate Value

Within the field of social capital study, concerns have been expressed that deviations from a fundamental understanding that social capital is captured from embedded resources in social networks may reduce the intellectual enterprise to a catch all fad (Lin, Cook, Burt, 1999). This paper is an argument that sometime in 2004, when broadband internet connections became more prevalent than those of less capacity, individuals became empowered as our most intense form of media. Scaled up effects of the Individual as Medium including: • increased information flow, • exertion of influence, • expansion of social credentials and reinforcement of identity and recognition, are consistent with a network theory of social capital. Corporations are exposed to new risks and opportunities due to these scaled up forms of social capital and they require new methods to manage them. Social Capital Value Add is introduced as such a new method, designed to link the pioneering intellectual enterprise of social capital to value based management and the priorities of marketers. A plausible SCVA valuation method is proposed to demonstrate how these links may be articulated in a way that is meaningful for investors and corporate managers."social capital"; "corporate value"; "Web 2.0"; finance; "corporate valuation"; valuation; "social media"; blog; podcast; RSS; syndication; "memetic brand"; marketing; "social networks"; brand, 2.0; Burt; “structural holes”; “weak ties”; “Nan Lin”; “social capital value add”; Cayley; broadband; “Olav Sorenson”; Ning; Facebook; MySpace; “Marc Andreesen”; “Mark Zuckerburg”; Skype; “inflection point”; “Point of inflection”; Granovetter; goodwill; “Matthew O. Jackson”; “idea habitats”; Heath; Berger; embeddedness; “embedded ties”; Uzzi; “network effects”; trust; reputation; “corporate reputation”; McLuhan; “Understanding Media”; “Marshall McLuhan”; “extensions of man”; “information flow”; “exertion of influence”; Rathergate; “information cascade”; Watts; Gladwell; Friedman; CGM; “consumer generate media”; word-of-mouth; WOM; buzz; “PR 2.0”; “public relations”; PR; CRM; “CRM 2.0”; “customer relationship management”; “social credentials”; recognition; identity; “social recognition”; “Individual as Medium”; I.A.M.; SCVA; “market positioning”; findability; “Jack Trout”; “Al Ries”; “Seth Godin”; humbug; “economic profit”; "economic value add"; “EVA”; “Interbrand”; “Microsoft Yahoo”; Digg; “value based management”; “Dell Hell”; “Kyle Minogue”; “Agent Provocateur”; Wal-Mart; “brand valuation”; “digital footprint”; “social identity”; “social engagement”; “value added earnings”; “branded earnings”; “Chris Anderson”; “The Long Tail”; “reciprocity”; CSR; “corporate social responsibility”; green; sustainability; E-Bay, Amazon; “rate & review”; comments