Effects of Symbol Sets and Needs Gratifications on Audience Engagement: Contextualizing Police Social Media Communication

We propose a research model based on media synchronicity theory (MST) and examine how the use of different symbol sets (e.g., images and text) is related to audience engagement on social media. We include uses and gratifications theory (UGT) in the model to identify task characteristics that are relevant to message recipients in the specific context of community policing. Based on our analyses of Facebook posts by five police departments, we find first that, consistent with MST, posts conveying information garner more responses when accompanied by more natural symbol sets, and more textual content is preferred to less, but responses differ depending on the type of engagement: intimacy (likes), interaction (comments), or influence (shares). Second, posts intended for meaning convergence gratify the audience’s socialization and assistance needs and are positively related to intimacy and interaction. Finally, the fit between symbol sets and task characteristics impacts different dimensions of audience engagement. These findings provide empirical support for relying on MST when studying social media and for integrating with UGT to capture contextual task characteristics. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of its findings for theory and offer recommendations for practice

The effect of company responses to social media negative word of mouth: A text mining approach

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is emerging in importance for brand reputation and understanding of consumer behavior. Motivations to engage in WOM has been largely studied in marketing literature. How companies respond to WOM online was accounted in marketing literature to deliver distinguishing managerial response strategies to brands. This research project focuses on identifying which response strategy is the most crucial to make customers satisfied after a negative WOM. Text mining and sentiment analysis were used in order to draw conclusions from actual online consumer behavior. Negative WOM (NWOM) was extracted from different brand pages on Facebook, as well as the responses from the companies to these NWOM and the reaction from the NWOM’s writer to the brand’s response. A literature-based framework using Davidow's Facilitation, Apology and Attentiveness, and Benoit's Corrective Action was tested on the data. Further moderation analysis was conducted to test effects of NWOM’s polarity and industry on the relationship between the responses and satisfaction. Results reveal that Facilitation is important to response satisfaction. Whenever brands re-directed original NWOM writers to formal complaint means, their satisfaction increased. This was especially true for hospitality and e-commerce industries. Reversely, for hospitality and e-commerce industries, Apology had a negative impact on response satisfaction. Results yielded that Attentiveness decreased response satisfaction when polarity was a moderator. Managers should provide effective means for consumers to voice their disappointment and not rely on apologies alone. Future research should tackle more in depth the intricacies of languages and the distinction of complainers and brand haters on response strategies.O word-of-mouth (WOM) está a crescer em importância no ramo da reputação da marca e a compreensão do comportamento do consumidor. As motivações para engajar em WOM tem sido amplamente estudado na literatura de marketing. A forma como as empresas respondem ao WOM online foi contabilizado na literatura para fornecer às marcas estratégias de resposta diferenciadas. Este projeto concentra-se em identificar qual a estratégia mais crucial para satisfazer os clientes. O método escolhido foi o text mining e sentiment analysis devido à necessidade na literatura de obter respostas sobre comportamentos reais de consumidores. Extraímos WOM negativo (NWOM) de diferentes páginas de marcas no Facebook, as suas respostas e a reação dos escritores do NWOM a essas respostas. Um modelo da literatura utilizando Facilitation, Apology, Attentiveness de Davidow e Corrective Action de Benoit, foi construído. Análises de moderação foram realizadas para testar os efeitos da polaridade e da indústria da NWOM na relação entre os tipos de respostas e a satisfação. Os resultados revelam que Facilitation é importante para a satisfação. Quando as marcas redirecionavam os escritores da NWOM para meios formais de reclamação, a sua satisfação aumentava. Revela-se verdade para as indústrias de hospitalidade e e-commerce. Adicionalmente, Apology teve impacto negativo na satisfação. Attentiveness diminui a satisfação quando a polaridade é moderador. Os gestores devem construir melhores meios de reclamações e não contar somente nas suas desculpas. Futuros investigadores devem abordar a complexidade das línguas e a distinção entre escritores de reclamações e aversão à marca nas estratégias de resposta

Social Media Usage and Romantic Development: Testing Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance as Moderators

Social media use is linked with the development and maintenance of romantic relationships, exhibiting both positive and negative effects on relationship quality depending on the social media behavior. However, many of these studies focus on a singular social media platform rather than multiple social media platforms. Also, studies on Facebook have linked anxious attachment to more surveillance and Facebook-induced jealousy (Marshall, Benjanyan, Di Castro, & Lee, 2013). Thus, the impact of social media behaviors for relationship quality may depend on attachment behaviors. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to examine how attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety predict relationship quality for established and developing relationships. Data comes from 183 college students (86.9% female, 87.4% heterosexual) who completed an online survey for ten consecutive days regarding their social media use and quality of their relationship with a romantic partner or crush. Results of linear regression analyses illustrated that avoidance was negatively associated with relationship quality for established relationships, whereas minutes spent private messaging a crush was positively associated with relationship satisfaction. Additionally, anxiety moderated the relationship between commenting and posting photos of partners for relationship satisfaction for established relationships. Avoidance moderated the relationship between commenting and relationship satisfaction for established relationships. No interactions were found between attachment behaviors and social media behaviors for quality of relationships between single participants and crushes. Attachment anxiety and avoidance may explain how social media promotes and hinders the quality of established relationships. Implications regarding attachment security and social media use will be discussed

Selfies On Social Media: The Role Of Appearance Contingent Self-Worth And Impact On Self-Esteem

In this dissertation, women’s motivation to post selfies, defined as self-taken photographs of only themselves, and the impact of feedback received on these images on self-esteem was investigated. It was hypothesized that women higher in appearance contingent self-worth would have a stronger desire for positive appearance feedback, and that this would result in more frequent selfie posting, as this could be a means of soliciting positive feedback. In addition, it was hypothesized that women higher in appearance contingent self-worth would be more strongly impacted by feedback received on selfies than would women lower in appearance contingent self-worth given that this feedback could be perceived as being appearance-based. Three studies were conducted online, all with female undergraduate students. In Study I (N = 297), survey-based data were collected, and the results indicated that although the correlation between appearance-contingent self-worth and frequency of selfie posting was not significant, there was a significant indirect relationship through the desire to obtain positive appearance feedback. Further, exploratory analyses revealed that appearance contingent self-worth was both directly and indirectly related to the extent to which women edit their photos. In Study II (N = 48), women’s Instagram accounts were accessed to obtain information about the average proportion of their followers who liked their selfies and provided positive appearance-based comments over two months. This information was used in conjunction with self-report measures to determine whether the amount of feedback received was associated with women’s trait self-esteem and appearance satisfaction over that time period. However, due to difficulties with recruitment, all analyses were underpowered and limited conclusions could be drawn about the relationships between selfie feedback on one hand and trait self-esteem and appearance satisfaction on the other. Lastly, in Study III (N = 175), an experimental design was used to determine whether receiving more or less likes than expected on a posted selfie affected women’s state appearance and social self-esteem and resulted in changes in women’s global state self-esteem. The results indicated that receiving more or less likes than expected on a selfie affected changes in global self-esteem, such that women who received more likes than expected experienced increases in state global self-esteem. Appearance contingent self-worth was assessed as a moderator of these potential effects, but was not significant. However, appearance contingent self-worth affected the interpretation of women’s number of received likes. Women higher in appearance contingent self-worth were more likely to attribute their number of received likes to their appearance than were women lower in appearance contingent self-worth. Taken together, the findings of this research suggest that although women higher in appearance contingent self-worth may have a stronger desire for appearance feedback and therefore post selfies more frequently, selfie posting may not always be an appearance-driven act. Appearance contingent self-worth was not directly related to selfie posting, nor did it moderate the impact of received likes on self-esteem. Further, research on the uses and gratifications associated with posting selfies on social media indicates that posting selfies to show one’s appearance and/or gain self-confidence is only one potential motivator underlying the posting of these photos (Alblooshi, 2015; Sung et al., 2016)

Online consumer engagement: understanding the antecedents and outcomes

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Given the adoption rates of social media and specifically social networking sites among consumers and companies alike, practitioners and academics need to understand the role of social media within a company's marketing efforts. Specifically, understanding the consumer behavior process of how consumers perceive features on a company's social media page and how these features may lead to loyalty and ultimately consumers' repurchase intentions is critical to justify marketing efforts to upper management. This study focused on this process by situating online consumer engagement between consumers' perceptions about features on a company's social media page and loyalty and (re)purchase intent. Because online consumer engagement is an emerging construct within the marketing literature, the purpose of this study was not only to test the framework of online consumer engagement but also to explore the concept of online consumer engagement within a marketing context. The study refined the definition of online consumer engagement as an attempt to align the industry and academic definitions of the construct. The social networking site, Facebook, was utilized to test the online consumer engagement framework. Specifically, the study examined whether and how perceived Facebook company page features (i.e., perceived information quality, perceived enjoyment, and perceived interactivity) predicted online consumer engagement, and further investigated whether and how online consumer engagement with companies on Facebook related to loyalty and ultimately (re)purchase intent. First, focus groups were conducted to get a better understanding of the "liking" behavior on Facebook and to refine the survey questionnaire. Next, 233 online surveys were collected from U.S. adult Facebook users who "like" companies on Facebook to test the online consumer engagement framework. Hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that perceived Facebook characteristics (i.e., perceived information quality, perceived enjoyment, and perceived interactivity) influence online consumer engagement, which influences loyalty and ultimately (re)purchase intent. Results also revealed that online consumer engagement is a multidimensional construct that encompasses both cognitive/affective and participative dimensions. This study provides the first steps in understanding the role that online consumer engagement plays within a mediated environment that includes both consumers and companies. Implications both academically and for the industry are discussed, and directions for future research endeavors are presented

Hashtagging Your Health: Using Psychosocial Variables and Social Media Use to Understand Impression Management and Exercise Behaviors in Women

Our society has become heavily reliant on social media, especially in the health and exercise domain. Social and environmental factors impact females’ body image perceptions and create body image disturbances, yet little research is dedicated to the exploration of how social media, and social comparisons through social media exposure, impact exercise behaviors and body image perceptions in females. Considering Perloff\u27s (2014) theoretical model, the current study explored how the interaction between individual psychosocial variables and social media use predict exercise behaviors and engagement in impression management in women. Using a mixed methodological approach, the specific aims of this study were to explore (1) how psychosocial behaviors and social media use predict exercise behaviors and engagement in impression management; (2) the relationship between exercise behaviors, frequency of social media use, and content posted to social media; (3) how social media influences women’s thoughts, perceptions, and conceptualizations of a healthy body and healthy exercise behaviors. Two studies were conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore associations in recreationally active women. The results of these studies provide insight into the complexities of social media and its influence on exercise behaviors and impression management, providing information that may be used to develop future interventions to increase body positivity on social media and improve exercise experiences

Detecting Well-being in Digital Communities: An Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach for its Indicators

In this thesis, the challenges of defining, refining, and applying well-being as a progressive management indicator are addressed. This work\u27s implications and contributions are highly relevant for service research as it advances the integration of consumer well-being and the service value chain. It also provides a substantial contribution to policy and strategic management by integrating constituents\u27 values and experiences with recommendations for progressive community management