THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON ONLINE SMALL BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Social media has become a value-adding marketing channel. With the significance of social media for online small businesses and the lack of understanding of this area, this study attempts to investigate the impact of social media marketing on the sales performance of such businesses. Drawing on the theories of media richness and uses and gratifications, we propose a research model in which the impact of social media marketing message strategies (i.e., message content and format) on customer engagement, brand awareness, and sales performance of online small business is investigated. Customer engagement and brand awareness are expected to mediate the relations between message strategies and online small business sales performance. To validate our model, we will collect data from a Twitter-like microblogging platform Sina Weibo and e-commerce platform Taobao in China. This study is expected to contribute to research and practice on social media marketing and online small businesses

Men, Women, Microblogging: Where Do We Stand?

With millions of users worldwide, microblogging has developed into a powerful tool for interaction and information dissemination. While both men and women readily use this technology, there are significant differences in how they embrace it. Understanding these differences is important to ensure gender parity, provide advertisers with actionable insights on the marketing potential of both groups, and to inform current theories on how microblogging affordances shape gender roles. So far, existing research has not provided a unified framework for such analysis, with gender insights scattered across multiple studies. To fill this gap, our study conducts a comprehensive meta-review of existing research. We find that current discourse offers a solid body of knowledge on gender differences in adoption, shared content, stylistic presentation, and a rather convoluted picture of female and male interaction. Together, our structured findings offer a deeper insight into the underlying dynamics of gender differences in microblogging

The Shapes of Cultures: A Case Study of Social Network Sites/Services Design in the U.S. and China

With growing popularity of the use of social network sites/services (SNSs) throughout the world, the global dominance of SNSs designed in the western industrialized countries, especially in the United Sates, seems to have become an inevitable trend. As internationalization has become a common practice in designing SNSs in the United States, is localization still a viable practice? Does culture still matter in designing SNSs? This dissertation aims to answer these questions by comparing the user interface (UI) designs of a U.S.-based SNS, Twitter, and a China-based SNS, Sina Weibo, both of which have assumed an identity of a “microblogging” service, a sub category of SNSs. This study employs the theoretical lens of the theory of technical identity, user-centered website cultural usability studies, and communication and media studies. By comparing the UI designs, or the “form,” of the two microblogging sites/services, I illustrate how the social functions of a technological object as embedded and expressed in the interface designs are preserved or changed as the technological object that has developed a relatively stable identity (as a microblogging site/service) in one culture is transferred between the “home” culture and another. The analysis in this study focuses on design elements relevant to users as members of networks, members of audience, and publishers/broadcasters. The results suggest that the designs carry disparate biases towards modes of communication and social affordances, which indicate a shift of the identity of microblogging service/site across cultures

Celebrity-Following And Social Capital: A Study Of User Behavior In Microblogging

In recent years, microblogging has emerged as a disruptive new force in social networking. Unlike the bi-directional relationships on traditional SNS sites (such as Facebook), connections on most microblogging platforms (such as Twitter) is one-directional, by which users choose others to “follow” and each user has her own group of “followers”. Such asymmetric relationships are particularly ubiquitous between celebrities and their fans. This study investigated the impacts of microblogging users’ various celebrity-following activities from a social capital perspective. The results of a large-scale survey provided supportive evidence to our theoretical research model, i.e., microblogging users’ one-directional celebrity-fol lowing activities could increase their perceived social capital and such influences are mediated by their parasocial interactions with the celebrities

Modeling of Causes of Sina Weibo Continuance Intention with Mediation of Gender Effects

Sina Weibo is a Twitter-like social networking site and one of the most popular microblogging services in China. This study aims to examine the factors that influence the intentions of users to continue using this site. This paper synthesizes the expectation confirmation model (ECM), constructs of habit and perceived critical mass, and the gender effect to construct a theoretical model to explain and predict these user intentions. The model is then tested via an online survey of 498 Sina Weibo users and partial least squares (PLS) modeling. The results indicate that the continuance intention of users is directly predicted by their perceived usefulness of the service (β=0.299), their satisfaction (β=0.208), and their habits (β=0.389), which jointly explain 65.9% of the variance in intention. In addition to the effects of these predictors on the continuance intentions of Sina Weibo users, an assessment of the moderating effect of gender suggests that habit plays a more important role for females than for males in continuance intention, but perceived usefulness seems to be more important for males than for females. The implications of these findings are then discussed

Micro-Blogging Policy for Local Governments in China: A Critical Analysis

This study aims to address, how the government of China’s adaptation of microblog does impacts social contention and local governance? This study assess the extent to microblogging can serve as:  1) a virus bringing unexpected outcome; 2) a battering ram for spearhead reform and 3) as an authority of reinforcer of existing power, such as politics as usual.  The research studied WEIBO in depth perspective of local governance. The author also found that microblog of government in the short run is resulting in organizational change.  Perhaps, Chinese local government microblogs operate largely as “beta-institutions” experimenting with respect to negotiation and corporation with their microblog services and micro public providers aimed at enhancing political legitimacy and social management. Furthermore, local government is engaging progressively from service providers to ‘service predictors” with improved abilities of delivering individualized services and institute state surveillance via business service providers. These improvements warrant further investigations of the long haul ramifications of microblogs as a major aspect of the administration data nature Furthermore, for the prospective of comparison, the study will help a healthier understanding of the way microblogging is diffused over the globe as part of neighborhood government political tool compartment as the need to have more comprehensive and mindful organizations which can offer a space for conveying among government and subjects is an aggregate concern. Keywords: Government, Communication, Micro-Bilogging, Administration, Development

Government and Social Media: A Case Study of 31 Informational World Cities

Social media platforms are increasingly being used by governments to foster user interaction. Particularly in cities with enhanced ICT infrastructures (i.e., Informational World Cities) and high internet penetration rates, social media platforms are valuable tools for reaching high numbers of citizens. This empirical investigation of 31 Informational World Cities will provide an overview of social media services used for governmental purposes, of their popularity among governments, and of their usage intensity in broadcasting information online.Comment: In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1715-1724). IEEE Computer Society, 201

Developing Consumers’ Brand Loyalty in Companies’ Microblogs: The Roles of Social- and Self- Factors

This paper aims to explore how social- and self-factors may affect consumers’ brand loyalty while they follow companies’ microblogs. Drawing upon the commitment-trust theory, social influence theory, and self-congruence theory, we propose that network externalities, social norms, and self-congruence are the key determinants in the research model. The impacts of these factors on brand loyalty will be mediated by brand trust and brand commitment. We empirically test the model through an online survey on an existing microblogging site. The findings illustrate that network externalities and self-congruence can positively affect brand trust, which subsequently leads to brand commitment and brand loyalty. Meanwhile, social norms, together with self-congruence, directly posit influence on brand commitment. Brand commitment is then positively associated with brand loyalty. We believe that the findings of this research can contribute to the literature. We offer new insights regarding how consumers’ brand loyalty develops from the two social-factors and their self-congruence with the brand. Company managers could also apply our findings to strengthen their relationship marketing with consumers on microblogging sites