Consumer Insights in the Use of Social Media by Belgian Young Adults: current findings

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1 Consumer Insights in the Use of Social Media by Belgian Young Adults: current findings (Brigitte Neetens, Linda Engels & Claire Maréchal) Abstract The goal of the research project Consumer Insights in the Use of Social Media by Belgian Young Adults, funded by University College Ghent, is to gain a better understanding about what drives Belgian youngsters to create and share commercial content using social media. Based on a literature review, a framework was created. This framework is based upon insights into word-of-mouth communication combined with known motives for users to participate in social media or to create user generated content. This framework was tested in interviews with 25 respondents: 10 individual interviews and 4 group ones. Thanks to this qualitative research we were able to fine-tune the theoretical framework provided by literature and to fill in the blanks. Some motives are obviously present. A few word-of-mouth (WOM) motives are almost identical in the online context, like concern for other consumers. Other motives are more unique to the online context, like the urge to express oneself and the need for self-enhancement. Subsequently a content analysis was conducted to investigate the significant characteristics of viral messages. Therefore 150 YouTube viral commercials were analyzed which provided us with insights on the kind of video content users frequently share. The next stage of the research is a comprehensive survey. The aim is to gain quantitative data to sustain or to update the framework and to clarify the link between message characteristics and the motives of content sharing and creating. We hope that certain patterns will emerge concerning the demographic profile of the social media users and their motives for creating and sharing commercial content. 1. Introduction People are spending, on average, more time on the internet than they spend time watching TV (Inside digital Media, 2009). Youngsters between the ages of 15 and 24 use the internet the 1

2 most: approximately 100 minutes each day. (Adformatie, 2009) Advertising agencies often use the internet as a way to connect with consumers. It is an inexpensive way to connect with a group and it is easier to avoid irritation, which is often the result of classic TVcommercials. A well known marketing technique is viral marketing. Viral marketing was first defined by a Netscape Newsletter as network-enhanced word of mouth. (Jurvetson, 2000) When successful, the diffusion of a viral is quite similar to the spread of an infectious disease. (Watts & Peretti, 2010). However, little is known about what makes a message viral in the online context and what truly motivates people to share those messages. The aim of our research is to understand all possible drivers for youngsters to share commercial messages but also what motivates youngsters to create commercials messages themselves and to understand what kind of messages are more likely to be shared. Further, by identifying all these motivations and the significant characteristics of the messages, it will be possible to gain a profound understanding of the sharing and creating of online commercial content. The goal of the research is to find an answer to three questions: RQ1. Which social media do Belgian youngsters use? For example: is there a difference in use between social network sites? RQ2. What motivates Belgian youngsters to create and share commercial content? RQ3. Is there a link (and if yes, what sort of link?) between the social media, the motivations and the characteristics of the messages? For example: is there a link between certain motivations and social media? It is quite possible that consumers who are not happy about a product use Twitter to complain because they believe that companies watch what has been said about their product or brand on Twitter. Another example is what motivates youngsters to share content they perceive as funny? To find an answer to these questions, the research project followed a study design consisting of 5 stages. A literature review to inventarise the known motivations for social media users to share and create commercial content online. 2

3 The known motivations were put to the test in the qualitative research fase: there are different undertones in certain motivations and some motivations are relatively new to the online context. A content analysis to have a better understanding of what kind of messages are viral in the online context and to examine the significant characteristics of those viral commercials. Quantitative research (in progress): an inquiry to gain quantitative data. As yet, there are no findings based on the results of this inquiry. The quantitative research will also include an experiment. The last stage will be to implement the research results and ask the business community for their point of view. 2. Literature review The goal of the literature review was to inventarise all motivations found in literature for creating and sharing commercial content. We approached this research subject by combining two topics: known motivations for users to create online content were combined with insights on word-of-mouth communications. First of all, we have a list of possible motivations on why people create online content: to document life (for oneself or for others) (Nardi, Schiano, Grumbrecht & Swartz, 2004) for leisure and to pass time (Papacharissi, Rubin, 2000; Phelps, Lewis, Perry & Raman, 2004; Trammell, Tarkowski & Sapp, 2006) to experiment (Efimova, 2010) to learn (Nardi et al., 2004; Efimova, 2010) for self-expression, to formulate opinions and catharsis (Nardi et al., 2004; Trammell et al., 2006; Huang, Shen, Lin & Chang, 2007; Efimova, 2010;) for empowerment (Rein) Because the subject is commercial content, known motivations (Dichter, 1966; Engel, Kollat & Blackwell, 1973; Sundaram, Mitra & Webster, 1998; Hennig-Thurau & Walsh, ; 3

4 Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh & Gremler, 2004; Kambe, Washida, Kinoshita & Tominaga, 2007; Dellarocas & Naravan) for people to talk, offline and online, about products and brands were summarized. Very well known, and already verified, theories were found and those motivations were taken into account. The motivations for classic, offline word-ofmouth were expected to be quite similar to the motivations for online word of mouth, referred to as electronic word of mouth (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004): concern for others: altruism concern for others: helping companies product involvement revenge or ventilating negative feelings message involvement Within concern for others we have two categories. The first category, concern for others: altruism, includes motivations for people to warn others if they are dissatisfied with a product or to recommend a product when they are satisfied. Concern for others: helping companies means that people feel sympathy towards a company and are willing to contribute to the fame of that company. Product involvement refers to enthusiasm people feel when they purchase or use a product they are really satisfied with. This enthusiasm results in people wanting to talk about the product and how that product is better than others. Revenge or ventilating negative feelings speaks for itself: these motivations are mostly present when people are dissatisfied with a product. Message involvement stands for entertainment as a result of a conversation about a message. If people talk about a funny or well-made commercial, that s message-involvement. Finally, there is a list of motivations users have to create content and to participate in WOM: utilitaristic motivations and (economic) incentives (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Daugherty, Matthew & Bright, 2008;) social interaction and social benefits (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004) knowledge and information (Trammell et al., 2006; Daugherty et al., 2008; Huang et al., 2007) self-enhancement, expertise and career (Dichter, 1966; Engel et al., 1973; Sundaram et al., 1998; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Trammell et al., 2006; Daugherty, 2008) 4

5 By combining the different motivations for users to create content, the motivations for users to participate in WOM and the motivations that can be found in the two topics, it is possible to have a indication on what motivations will be present if people share and create commercial messages online. The list of known motivations was put to the test in the qualitative research fase. 3. Qualitative research fase The goal of the qualitative research fase was to gain a better understanding of the motivations based on the literature review and to be certain that all the possible motivations were included. Therefore, interviews were conducted Methodology There were two requirements for these respondents: They had to be between the ages of 16 and 34. They shared at least 5 commercial messages in the past six months. The respondents had to be regular social media users who frequently shared such messages because it would be easier for them to reflect on their behavior. In the recruitment message, we defined commercial message as a message, either positive or negative, posted on social media concerning a product or brand. The 25 respondents 1 were given the choice to either participate in a group discussion or to have an individual interview. For the division into groups, the age and the behavior of the respondents was taken into account. If possible a big age gap or difference in internet use, was avoided. The respondents were recruited using Twitter, blogs and fora. There was a huge response to the recruitment message posted on Twitter. People who responded were asked for their username on twitter or the name of their blog. We then examined these to see if they met our behavioral requirements. If blog or twitter were used, the five most recent commercial tweets and the five most recent commercial blog posts 1 14 in-depth interviews were conducted: ten with people individually, 4 within a group. 5

6 were collected. Given the subject, the priority was given to respondents who are not professionally active on Twitter. Every interview was conducted online and was based upon a topic guide. For the individual interviews, each respondent could choose a program to chat with the least inconvenience for himself. For the group discussions, the program VisionsLife was used. The respondents were asked to talk about every motivation they have to share commercial content. At the end of the interview, the respondents were asked about their five tweets and their five blog posts. We have noticed that the negative motivations, such as revenge, were present but not spontaneously declared Results The respondents were not confronted with every possible motivation described in literature because that would have lead to an inaccurate view on the research subject. Rather, we choose to research our respondents motivations based on what they spontaneously declared. After all the interviews were completed, every indication of a motivation concerning the sharing of online commercial messages was labeled. If possible, the labels were arranged in accordance with the list of motivations literature provided. A list of all the motivations is given in table 1. Some motivations were obviously present. The three most commonly mentioned motivations are: concern for others: altruism need to express oneself, to formulate opinions and catharsis product/brand involvement We noticed that the top 3 of the most present motivations are a combination of the motivations for users to talk about products offline (WOM) and motivations for users to create content (UGC) 2. The motivation product involvement as described in literature, was modified to product and brand involvement. Not only did the respondents report that they feel enthusiasm when they 2 Table 1: the fourth column. 6

7 purchase or use a product they are really satisfied with but also when they talk about a brand. Two respondents indicated that they share every message a brand posts online. Results qualitative research fase Table 1 Number of Motivation Topic respondents 1 17 concern for others: altruism WOM 2 15 self-expression, to formulate opinions and UGC catharsis 3 13 product/brand involvement WOM 4 12 social interaction and social benefits Both 5 11 self-enhancement, expertise and career Both 6 11 revenge or ventilating negative feelings WOM 7 10 utilitaristic motivations and incentives Both 8 8 message-involvement Both 9 7 concern for others: helping companies WOM 10 7 pass time UGC 11 7 document life (for oneself or for others) UGC 12 7 knowledge and information Both 13 4 need to characterize oneself New 14 3 google traffic New 15 3 reciprocity and contribution to the New community 16 2 urge to create content New 17 2 point out problems New 18 1 learn UGC 19 1 empowerment UGC 20 1 provocation New 21 0 experimentation UGC 7

8 We were not able to trace back all motivations the respondents have to motivations described in literature. We concluded that those motivations 3 are rather different from the once described in literature. 4 The need to characterize oneself: for example people who share commercial messages because they associate themselves with the values of a brand and want to be perceived as such. Google traffic: here the motivations are partial because of incentives, for example people who get paid for advertisements on their blog, but also because they want to be read and they want to know people are following them. Reciprocity and contribution to the community differs from helping each other. For example people who contribute to a forum because they believe in the idea of shared knowledge and they also want to contribute to it. The urge to create content drives people to share content on a frequent basis, some daily. They have no idea what, for example, to write about until the commercial came along. If there was something more interesting to write about, they wouldn t have shared that commercial. Point out problems we see particularly on Twitter. More people want to use social media to their advantage. By complaining about a product or addressing the company directly on Twitter, they hope to get tips from other users to solve a problem but they also want to be helped by the company. Provocation: we noticed a few times that people shared commercial messages because they wanted to provoke others. For example, they share a negative article about an Apple product because they know that a lot of people will react. 3 Table 1: in bold. 4 The quantitative research fase will hopefully provide us with data to sustain or disprove those new found motivations. 8

9 We discovered a few patterns. Some motivations appear to go together. Concern for others: altruism and product involvement Revenge and ventilating negative feelings and concern for others: altruism Reciprocity and contribution to the community and concern for others: altruism Also, we found two sets of motivations that seem to be incompatible. It seems that these motivations represent two opposite drives. Social interaction and social benefits versus self-enhancement, expertise and career : others versus myself Need to express oneself, to formulate opinions and catharsis versus message involvement : expression versus entertainment 4. Content analysis Subsequently a content analysis was conducted to investigate the significant characteristics of viral messages. By inserting a content analysis, we gained a better understanding on what kind of video messages are viral in the online context. The goal of the content analysis was to investigate the characteristics of viral messages and to find commercials we could use for the survey. The survey will include commercials because we want to know if there is a link between the characteristics of the message and the motivations for users to share commercial content Methodology We started by generating a list of hundred and fifty commercials with the highest view count on YouTube. We did that by typing commercial in the search box and by sorting the commercials based on the view count. 5 Subsequently we analyzed the commercials in order to collect certain data. It is possible to distinguish four groups of data. 5 We generated the list on 9/11/

10 The general information of the commercial, for example, the brand. Another example is the word banned in the YouTube description. Second, we took a look at the insights YouTube provides. It s an indication of the viewers appreciation concerning the commercial. The insights provided by YouTube, are based upon the number of people who click like or dislike. YouTube-users are given the opportunity to click on either choice when they view the commercial. By calculating how many users give their opinion about the commercial and how many of those were negative or positive we got an indication of the appreciation the users have. Image 1 Image 2 Further, we have the objective message characteristics: here we took into account the visible elements presented in the commercial and the information given about a product in the commercial. Finally we have the subjective message characteristics: we listed the emotions presented in the commercial and the effect the commercials have on the viewers. The 10

11 subjective characteristics for each commercial were verified by five people between the ages of 16 and 34. The effects of the commercials is based upon a Belgian article. (Ketelaar & Van Gisbergen, 2009) Ketelaar en Van Gisbergen researched the presence of four effects: funny, surprising, sexual overtone and shocking. We added a fifth element: well made. The list of emotions presented in the commercials is primarily based on the list of basic emotions given by Ekman & Friesen. (Ekman & Friesen, 1969) We also examined the presence of the emotion awe, which is based on an article by Berger & Milkman. (Berger & Milkman) Berger & Milkman define awe as the emotion of selftranscendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than the self. (Berger & Milkman, p. 50) Berger & Milkman researched the virality of news content and concluded that articles with that emotion present, are more likely to be shared with others. We want to know if that s also accurate for commercials Results The aim of the content analysis was to identify the characteristics of viral commercials and to select commercials we could use for the survey. Thanks to the content analysis, it is possible to formulate certain conclusions. General information of the commercial We found out that most of the commercials originated from a company (88%). Only 12% of the commercials are user generated content. Some brands are obviously present: Nike has ten commercial within the 150 commercials with the highest view count, Bud has nine and Pepsi has seven. YouTube insights 65% of the commercials were put online between 2006 and 2007, the early years of YouTube. There is a big gap between the view count of the first commercial and commercial nr This could be explained by the nature of viral content : a successful viral commercial gains exponentially in view count. 11

12 Objective message characteristics We noticed an important role for fantasy (20%) and celebrities (32%) in the commercials. Information about the product is given by using a logo (68%) or a slogan (63%). Subjective message characteristics The respondents labeled 43% of the commercials as well made and 35% of the commercials as funny. The respondents mostly recognized positive emotions in the commercials. 6 They recognized the emotion awe in three commercials. By combining the insights from YouTube with elements out of the other three groups (general information, objective message characteristics and subjective message characteristics), we found some interesting results. Commercials that have banned 7 in their description of title 8 have, on average, a higher view count. Also, commercials from users have, on average, a higher view count than the ones originating from a company. 108 commercials have an appreciation from the YouTube-users between 90% and 100%. 6 A commercial was labeled with an effect or emotion only if the majority of the respondents recognized the characteristic in the commercial. 7 The user who uploaded the commercial, stated in the description or title that the commercial was banned. It s not necessarily true that the commercial is indeed banned from TV commercials 12

13 The appreciation is the number of users who clicked like divided by the number of users who clicked either like or dislike. Commercials with the same characteristics are grouped together. Table 2 shows the average appreciation for commercials with the following objective message characteristics present. Four commercials didn t contain any of the six elements but got well above average appreciation. Objective message characteristics: visual elements Table 2 Children 92,7% Celebraties 92,3% Nature 92,3% Animals 92,0% Fantasy 90,3% Adults 89,2% None of the above 94,5% Average 89,6% Table 3 shows that funny commercials are most appreciated, above the average. Shocking commercials, however, are less appreciated. Interesting is that commercials that do not contain any of the analyzed effects are less appreciated than average. Subjective message characteristics: effects Table 3 Well made 92,7% Funny 91,5% Surprising 91,3% Sexual overtone 90,3% Shocking 73,6% None of the above 87,5% Average 89,6% 13

14 Table 4 shows that two negative emotions, sadness and fear, are more appreciated than positive emotions. Sadness and fear are not often recognized in the commercials: there are only three commercials with the emotion sadness present and 7 with the emotion fear. We noticed that the average appreciation is the highest for the commercials with the emotion awe present. Subjective message characteristics: emotions Table 4 Awe 97,6% Sadness 97,4% Fear 94,9% Pride in achievement 93,3% Happiness 91,8% Sensory pleasure 91,7% Pleasant surprise 91,7% Excitement 91,5% Disgust 91,1% Anger 86,3% Shame 84,7% Guilt 79,0% None of the above 87,9% Average 89,6% 5. Discussion and further research Based on the qualitative research and the content analyses, we gained a better understanding of our research content. It s too soon however to formulate a sufficient answer to our research questions. Therefore, it is necessary to further investigate our current findings using different research methods. There are a few limitations to our qualitative research fase. First of all, we have a rather limited sample of respondents. By using the self-reporting method, it is possible that there is a discrepancy between the motivations the respondents indicated and the motivations they truly have. Also, given the quickly evolving social media landscape, it is possible that there will be new social media that aim to trigger motivations that are not listed in this research. Hence, 14

15 there is no way to know for certain that we have listed all possible motivations. By conducting both a qualitative and a quantitative research, we try to reduce that risk to the bare minimum. The limited sample is also a limitation of our content analysis. There are also undeniably other various variables not taken into account in our content analysis. Finally, it would be interesting to compare the characteristics of the mostly older viral commercials of the content analysis with the characteristics of the viral commercials that have been successful recently. Another valuable comparison would be one between the viral commercials on YouTube and the commercials used on TV. Our further research consists out of two new stages. The first stage of this quantitative research is a survey. The survey will gain quantitative data concerning the motivations people have to share commercial messages using social media. We hope that certain patterns will emerge concerning the demographic profile of the social media users and their motivations for sharing commercial content. Also, 19 commercials are being used in the survey. These commercials are carefully selected to conform to every characteristic we want to investigate because we want to analyze the link between every characteristic and the motivations for sharing commercial content. Finally, part of our quantitative research will also include an experiment. One possibility is that we will examine if the sharing of content changes the consumers attitude towards the brand or product. The last stage will be to implement the research results and to ask the business community for their point of view. 15

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18 Watts, D., Peretti, J., Viral Marketing for the Real World, Harvard Business Review, consulted on 05/10/