Valeria Noguti and David S. Waller
This research investigates how consumers who are most active on Facebook during the day vs in the evening differ, differ in their ad consumption, and how advertising effects vary…
Abstract
Purpose
This research investigates how consumers who are most active on Facebook during the day vs in the evening differ, differ in their ad consumption, and how advertising effects vary as a function of a key moderator: gender.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey of 281 people, the research identifies Facebook users who are more intensely using mobile social media during the day versus in the evening, and measures five Facebook mobile advertising outcomes: brand and product recall, clicking on ads, acting on ads and purchases.
Findings
The results show that women who are using social media more intensely during the day are more likely to use Facebook to seek information, hence, Facebook mobile ads tend to be more effective for these users compared to those in the evening.
Research limitations/implications
This contributes to the literature by analyzing how the time of day affects social media behavior in relation to mobile advertising effectiveness, and broadening the scope of mobile advertising effectiveness research from other than just clicks on ads to include measures like brand and product recall.
Practical implications
By analyzing the effectiveness of mobile advertising on social media as a function of the time of day, advertisers can be more targeted in their media buys, and so better use their social media budgets, i.e. advertising is more effective for women who use social media (Facebook) more intensely during the day than for those who use social media more intensely in the evening as the former tend to seek more information than the latter.
Social implications
This research extends media ecology theory by drawing on circadian rhythm research to provide a first demonstration of how the time of day relates to different uses of mobile social media, which in turn relate to social media mobile advertising consumption.
Originality/value
While research on social media advertising has been steadily increasing, little has been explored on how users consume ads when they engage with social media at different periods along the day. This paper extends media ecology theory by investigating time of day, drawing on the circadian rhythm literature, and how it relates to social media usage.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to understand how structural characteristics of social media enable consumers to satisfy needs related to marketer-generated content (MGC) and identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how structural characteristics of social media enable consumers to satisfy needs related to marketer-generated content (MGC) and identify the consequences of consumer exposure to MGC.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper revisits research on antecedents and consequences of advertising consumption to build an emergent conceptual model applied to MGC through the investigation of consumer experiences in social media. Thirty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with consumers who follow brands on Instagram. The interview transcripts were coded and analysed using a grounded theory approach.
Findings
This study finds that, structurally, MGC consumption is characterised by the combination of: consumer micro-control over both content and timing/place of consumption and ease of consumption, enabling consumers to seek pleasure and utility without effort. The data show that MGC is only likely to be shared to a restricted group with strong social connections, such as family members and close friends with similar interests, with whom new interactions develop over brands and products, online or in person. MGC consumption experiences also generate significant consumer learning that improves purchase outcomes for consumers. Three types of MGC consumers were identified in the data: “enthusiasts”, “circumstantial” and “occasional”.
Research limitations/implications
This study updates previous literature, offering a conceptual framework that specifies how the structural characteristics of social media are conducive to consumer exposure to self-curated MGC flows. This research also uncovers unique social dynamics and consumer learning related to MGC consumption.
Practical implications
Insights from this study suggest alternative business models that may be attractive for consumers, brands and social media platforms. This research also suggests ways in which brands can improve consumer MGC experiences.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates how and why consumers embrace MGC at scale through social media and reveals consequences of MGC consumption.
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Keywords
This study aims to uncover relationships between content communities post language, such as parts of speech, and user engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to uncover relationships between content communities post language, such as parts of speech, and user engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Analyses of almost 12,000 posts from the content community Reddit are undertaken. First, posts’ titles are subjected to electronic classification and subsequent counting of main parts of speech and other language elements. Then, statistical models are built to examine the relationships between these elements and user engagement, controlling for variables identified in previous research.
Findings
The number of adjectives and nouns, adverbs, pronouns, punctuation (exclamation marks, quotation marks and ellipses), question marks, advisory words (should, shall, must and have to) and complexity indicators that appear in content community posts’ titles relate to post popularity (scores: number of favourable minus unfavourable votes) and number of comments. However, these relationships vary according to the category, for example, text-based categories (e.g. Politics and World News) vs image-based ones (e.g. Pictures).
Research limitations/implications
While the relationships uncovered are appealing, this research is correlational, so causality cannot be implied.
Practical implications
Among other implications, companies may tailor their own content community post titles to match the types of language related to higher user engagement in a particular category. Companies may also provide advice to brand ambassadors on how to make better use of language to increase user engagement.
Originality/value
This paper shows that language features add explained variance to models of online engagement variables, providing significant contribution to both language and social media researchers and practitioners.