The Journal of Social Media in Society
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Facebook Under Attack? Privacy – Europe’s Way of Waging War on U.S Giants?
Get PDFWith the latest focus across Europe and globally on data protection and privacy issues, not least in light of the GDPR[1] which came into force in all member states of the European Union on 25th May 2018, social media sites have come under scrutiny for their data protection practices.[1] General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/67
Facebook Chatter during Food Industry Product Harm Crisis
Get PDFProduct harm crisis can affect the reputation of the brand involved, particularly in the online social networks' era. To contribute to current literature on product harm in general and product harm in the food industry in particular, this study examined 6,894 Facebook discussions during the unfolding Unilever/Telma Salmonella-contaminated cereals 2016 crisis in Israel. The main goal of the study was to understand the extent to which discussions focused on the contaminated product versus the brands involved (measured by mentions of the cereal and the brands). During the three-month analysis, 2,894 conversations mentioned the contaminated product, followed by discussions of the role of "Unilever" (2,052) and "Telma" (1,897) in the crisis. While there were practically no conversations about the product or brands prior to the discussed communication crisis, a spike in the number of conversations occurred when the crisis started. The study attempts to help fill the gap in the literature on studies of social media during unfolding product harm crises. The analysis showcases the immediacy and severity of the damage for brands' image in the food industry in social media conversations during product harm crises.
Power of Predictive Analytics: Using Emotion Classification of Twitter Data for Predicting 2016 US Presidential Elections
Get PDFPredictive analytics using the twitter feeds is becoming a popular field for research. A tweet holds a wealth of information on how an individual expresses and communicates their feelings and emotions within their social network. Large-scale collection, cleaning, and mining of tweets will not only help in capturing an individual’s emotion but also the emotions of a larger group. However, capturing a large volume of tweets and identifying the emotions expressed in it is a challenging task. Different classification algorithms employed in the past for classifying emotions have resulted in low-to-moderate accuracies thus making it difficult to precisely predict the outcome of an event. Secondly, the presence of diverse emotion annotated datasets, none of which are specific to a particular domain, has limited the potentiality of supervised algorithms for classification purposes. In this study, we demonstrate the potentiality of a lexicon-based classifier, NRC, which can mine emotions and sentiments in tweets. Using the NRC classifier, we initially determined the emotions and the sentiments within the tweets and used that to predict the swing direction of the 19 US states towards the candidates of the 2016 US presidential election. Comparing the predictions from the NRC against with the actual outcome of the election, we observed a ~90% accuracy, a performance superior to the mainstream pollsters indicating the potential emotion and sentiment-based classification holds in predicting the outcome of significant social and political events
‘Thanks, but it is more about interacting with fans for us’: Twitter Communication between BBC’s Sherlock and NBC’s Hannibal Fans and Producers
No full textThis paper looked at online communication between producers of BBC’s show Sherlock and NBC’s show Hannibal with their fans. The main aim was to investigate engagement of producers with fans on social media and the use of accounts on social media, e.g. whether TV shows interact with fans through the use of the official network, a production company affiliated accounts or people involved with the show use their own accounts to communicate with fans. Kent and Taylor’s five features of dialogic public relations (Mutuality, Propinquity, Empathy, Risk and Commitment) were used to analyse communication. The results show that two shows share many similarities but the main differences in approach to communication come from the business structure of two broadcasters, public versus commercial. Both shows also showed evidence of dialogic PR techniques, but BBC’s Sherlock also utilised elements of publicity
Supporting Older Students in the Research Journey: Assessing a Facebook Group
Get PDFWith many students over 40 years of age undertaking research studies, the need for support and connection with others is vital to research completion. Educational Facebook groups have a well-research history of what constitutes successful practice, but it is unknown if, and to what extent, those running such groups assess their performance for their members. This paper discusses a case study of an older students Facebook group and the challenge of conducting research to assess how it supports members. Examples from the study are provided to illustrate an example of such assessment, with the conclusion that older learners can be successfully supported and connected with others in their research journey
Relationship Initiation on Facebook: Understanding the Role of Personality
Get PDFStudies have shown that some individuals use Facebook to initiate romantic relationships, but few have investigated the motivations for using Facebook to form relationships. As discussed via the Cybernetic Big Five Theory, a potential explanation may be personality, which is associated with general social media use. The current study examines the association between the Big Five personality traits and motivations to initiate romantic relationships using Facebook. Data comes from 177 undergraduate students from two universities in the United States who completed an online survey assessing the Big Five and motivations to and behaviors for which they use Facebook for relationship initiation. Using multiple regression analyses, conscientiousness and neuroticism predicted motivations to initiate relationships via Facebook to learn more about a potential partner without asking, to provide a neutral environment to start a conversation, to pace the progress of the relationship, and to give more control over the interaction. Openness was inconsistently positively associated with initiation motivations whereas extraversion and agreeableness were not associated with motivations to use Facebook for relationship initiation. Findings indicate that personality may explain why some individuals use Facebook to form romantic relationships
Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales in Small Family-Style Restaurant Businesses
Get PDFSmall business owners understand the advantages of using social media as a marketing tool; however, some owners do not leverage social media marketing strategies to increase sales. Small business owners who fail to implement social media marketing strategies minimize the potential to gain new customers; thus, negatively impacting sales. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore social media marketing strategies used by five small family-style restaurants in Maryland. Berry’s relationship marketing theory was the t framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured interviews, documents pertaining to social media marketing strategies, and social media pages and websites from the participating restaurants. Key themes that emerged were (a) social media platforms small family-style restaurant owners use that were most effective in increasing sales, (b) employees’ response to social media marketing strategies small family-style restaurant owners use to increase sales, and (c) relationship marketing. By increasing sales, the demand for employment may increase which can have a direct impact on decreasing the unemployment rate within the United States, particularly in the state of Maryland
Using Instagram as Online Shopping Channel: Key Predictors of Consumers’ Purchase Involvement on Instagram in Saudi Arabia
Get PDFThis study examined key predictors of Saudi consumers’ purchase involvement on Instagram. An online snowball sampling approach was used to reach Saudis via social media, with 1,671 Saudis recruited as valid samples. Results suggested Saudis’ frequency of Instagram shopping, Instagram credibility, and Instagram seller credibility as three major factors toward Saudis’ purchase involvement. Saudis who reported higher Instagram credibility and Instagram seller credibility would be more likely to involve with online shopping on Instagram. As two personality variables (materialism and self-esteem) were not found as powerful as other experiential variables to impact Saudis’ purchase involvement on Instagram, marketing channel planners who intend to use Instagram as a key online shopping tool should attempt to secure shopping privacy and payment safety on Instagram. Moreover, as Saudis’ positive attitudes were activated toward seller credibility, privacy security, and payment security on Instagram, Instagram becomes an effective shopping tool for Saudi consumers
The Influence of Social-Media Sites on Job-Seeker Intentions: Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter
No full textLittle is known about the role that company social media networking sites play in job seeker attraction. This research helps address this gap. Subjects in this study evaluated the websites of three potential employers and then selected one employer to follow on social media in subsequent weeks. Each week subjects evaluated content, the activity of the recruiter who managed each site, and the activity of other users. In addition, at the end of each week subjects evaluated the usefulness of the social networking site and reported their attitudes and intentions towards the company. The results showed no differences in job seekers’ attitudes toward the company across different companies before social media was used. Yet, after social media was used there were meaningful differences in these attitudes. Additional analysis showed that the social media forms of Facebook and Linkedin had significant influence on job seekers’ attitudes toward the company while Twitter demonstrated no such influences