The relation between content typology and consumer engagement in Instagram

The use of social media channels has been growing significantly, bringing a third of the worldwide population online. Thus, brands’ presence in online channels has become critical to communicate and engage with consumers through brand pages such as Instagram accounts. For brands to stand out in Instagram, their content marketing strategies must be consistent with the brand’s mission and relevant to attract their target audience. Therefore, to grasp consumers’ attention, content needs to be original, unique and appealing. This dissertation aims to study the relation between content delivered by brands and consumer engagement in Instagram. Three hypotheses were proposed regarding whether consumer engagement was impacted by different content types, human presence and reposting on Instagram. Content typology was based on a theoretical framework, which subdivided content into different categories (Brand Awareness, Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Service, Engagement, Product Awareness, Promotion and Seasonal). Consumer engagement was measured by users’ reactions (number of likes and comments) on posts of two fashion accessories brands. Results showed that content typology has a significant impact on consumer engagement, and that there was a linear trend between all types of content, being Brand Awareness the content which raised higher engagement. Additionally, consumer engagement was higher when posts showed only the product itself and were original content from the brands rather than reposts.O uso de plataformas de redes sociais tem aumentado significativamente nos últimos anos e já reúne um terço da população mundial online. Desta forma, a presença das marcas nas redes sociais é fundamental para comunicar e interagir com os consumidores através de aplicações como o Instagram. Para as marcas se destacarem no Instagram, as estratégias de marketing de conteúdo devem ser consistentes com a missão da marca e relevantes para atrair o público-alvo. Para tal, o conteúdo publicado deve ser original, único e atrativo. Esta dissertação visa estudar a relação entre o conteúdo das marcas e o envolvimento do consumidor no Instagram. Foram propostas três hipóteses relacionadas com o impacto de tipos de conteúdo, a presença humana e o reposting no envolvimento do consumidor no Instagram. A tipologia de conteúdo utilizada foi baseada num quadro teórico que dividia o conteúdo em sete categorias diferentes: consciência da marca, envolvimento, responsabilidade social corporativa, consciência de produto, serviço ao cliente, promoção e sazonalidade. O envolvimento do consumidor foi medido através de interações nas redes sociais (número de gostos e comentários) de publicações de duas marcas na indústria de acessórios de moda. Resultados mostram que a tipologia de conteúdo tem um impacto significativo no envolvimento do consumidor e que existe uma tendência linear entre todos os tipos de conteúdo apresentados, sendo que conteúdos de consciência da marca despoletaram maior envolvimento. Adicionalmente, o envolvimento do consumidor foi maior quando o conteúdo mostrou apenas os produtos (sem presença humana) e quando era original das marcas (ao invés de ser repost)

Spread of hate speech in online social media

The present online social media platform is afflicted with several issues, with hate speech being on the predominant forefront. The prevalence of online hate speech has fueled horrific real-world hate-crime such as the mass-genocide of Rohingya Muslims, communal violence in Colombo and the recent massacre in the Pittsburgh synagogue. Consequently, It is imperative to understand the diffusion of such hateful content in an online setting. We conduct the first study that analyses the flow and dynamics of posts generated by hateful and non-hateful users on Gab (gab.com) over a massive dataset of 341K users and 21M posts. Our observations confirms that hateful content diffuse farther, wider and faster and have a greater outreach than those of non-hateful users. A deeper inspection into the profiles and network of hateful and non-hateful users reveals that the former are more influential, popular and cohesive. Thus, our research explores the interesting facets of diffusion dynamics of hateful users and broadens our understanding of hate speech in the online world.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, and 4 tabl

Communicating Environmental Research: Harnessing the Power of Curation

Never before has public communication of critical research, science, and knowledge on climate change and biodiversity loss been more important. The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report, Global Warming of 1.5 ºC, stated that we only have 12 years to limit the catastrophic effects of climate change, including extreme weather, flood, drought, and poverty. The 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services revealed that roughly 1 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Given these dire warnings, the threat of climate change and biodiversity loss have never been more relevant, considering the impact these unprecedented issues will have on human survival, health, and well-being. This paper describes the results of our study, which explores findings used to develop the practice of research curation, which found that adapting and applying museum engagement strategies, using art to communicate science, and applying social media content curation and marketing strategies in combination with social learning practices are key to successful knowledge mobilization. This article focuses primarily on the methodologies and results of three projects: an art and literary exhibit, a biodiversity conversation series, and a sustainability-themed Instagram account. Based on our experience and findings, we share the lessons learned that we believe are actional for other researchers with similar goals, in particular those who are communicating research on climate change and biodiversity loss