Elsevier

Telematics and Informatics

Volume 34, Issue 1, February 2017, Pages 412-424
Telematics and Informatics

Gratifications of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat to follow brands: The moderating effect of social comparison, trust, tie strength, and network homophily on brand identification, brand engagement, brand commitment, and membership intention

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.06.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Snapchat is used for passing time, sharing problems, and social knowledge.

  • Instagram is used for showing affection, following fashion, and sociability.

  • Twitter users had highest brand community identification and membership intention.

  • Instagram users had highest brand community engagement and commitment.

  • Social comparison, trust, tie strength, and network homophily are moderators.

Abstract

Applying uses and gratifications theory (UGT), this study examined consumers’ use of one of four social networking sites (SNSs): Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat, for following brands, and their influence on brand community-related outcomes. Results (N = 297) indicated Snapchat users scored highest for passing time, sharing problems, and improving social knowledge, while Instagram users scored highest for showing affection, following fashion, and demonstrating sociability. Twitter users had highest brand community identification and membership intention, while Instagram users had highest brand community engagement and commitment. Attention to social comparison, SNS trust, tie strength, and homophily also significantly moderated the relationship between frequent use of each SNS to follow brands, and brand community-related outcomes. Implications for future research on SNS users’ goal-directed consumption behaviors are discussed.

Introduction

Social networking sites (SNSs) enable users to create personal profiles, articulate their identities, connect with other users and brands, and view, share, upload and comment on photos, messages, videos and other content posted on their newsfeeds (Boyd and Ellison, 2007, Phua and Jin, 2011). SNSs are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the everyday lives of people worldwide. Among the most popular SNSs as of March 2016 are Facebook (1.56 billion active users), Instagram (400 million active users), Twitter (320 million active users), and Snapchat (200 million active users) (Statista, 2015). Additionally, a 2015 industry report by Social Media Examiner found that over 96% of businesses use SNSs to market their brands and products, due to their ability to increase brand exposure, attract website traffic, develop loyal fans, and gain marketplace intelligence (Stelzner, 2015). At the same time, consumers are increasingly using SNSs to find out about brands and products (Laroche et al., 2012, Lipsman et al., 2012). Consumers also integrate two or more SNSs as part of their daily activities (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010) and access these SNSs on their mobile devices (Lenhart et al., 2015), allowing marketers more touch-points to reach their consumers. Social media activities for a brand can foster the consumer base of the brand (Xie and Lee, 2015) and engagement in social media brand communities increases consumers’ purchase expenditures (Goh et al., 2013). Millions of companies have set up Facebook pages for brand communication purposes and the popularity of social media necessitates theoretical understanding of how social media exposures influence brand-related outcomes (Xie and Lee, 2015).

In light of the exponential growth of SNSs and the integral role social media platforms play in brand communication (Xie and Lee, 2015, Goh et al., 2013), this study aims to provide theoretical explanations for “why” people use SNSs and further elucidate the key motivations for using different SNS platforms in the context of brand communities. To this end, the current research draws from uses and gratification theory (UGT) given the relevance of the theory to the assumption of media users as “active communicators” instead of passive recipients of media forms and contents (Rubin, 2002).

Approaching the intersection between consumers’ use of multiple SNSs to find out about brands and the utility of different SNSs for social media marketing, this study applies UGT (Katz et al., 1974) to examine consumers’ use of several top SNS platforms to follow brands, gratifications gained from using them, and their influence on brand community-related outcomes. Drawing from UGT and building upon previous empirical findings (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010), the present study posited that frequent users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat would derive different gratifications from their use (passing time, showing affection, following fashion, sharing problems, demonstrating sociability, and improving social knowledge) (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010), and also have different impacts on brand community-related outcomes (identification, engagement, commitment, and membership intention). The relationship between SNS use and brand community-related outcomes would also be moderated by several intervening variables (e.g., attention to social comparison, SNS trust, tie strength, and network homophily). Overall, the study offers insights into the utility of different SNS platforms for marketing and their influences on consumers’ perceptions of brands they follow.

Section snippets

Social networking sites (SNSs) and brands

A major advantage of SNSs over more traditional media (e.g., radio, television) is their capacity for greater user interactivity. When SNS users “like” or “follow” a brand, they will receive updates and posts by the brand on their newsfeed. The users can then “like”, share, or comment on the post, which would further propagate it on their friends’ newsfeeds, whose own interactions with the post would, in turn, be rebroadcast to their networks. Hence, brand content is transmitted in SNSs at a

Participants

College students (N = 305) enrolled at a major university in the United States participated in the study for extra credit. A total of 252 (82.6%) were female, while 53 (17.4%) were male. For ethnicity, 229 (75.1%) were White, 28 (9.2%) were African-American, 28 (9.2%) were Asian, 10 (3.3%) were Latino/Hispanic, 5 (1.6%) were Mixed, and 5 (1.6%) were Other. For year in school, 23 (7.5%) were freshmen, 92 (30.2%) were sophomores, 116 (38.0%) were juniors, 71 (23.3%) were seniors, and 3 (1.0%) were

SNS Use

For SNS most frequently used to follow brands, 116 (38.0%) answered Instagram, 93 (30.5%) answered Facebook, 60 (19.7%) answered Twitter, 28 (9.2%) answered Snapchat, 6 (2.0%) answered Tumblr, 1 (0.4%) answered Pinterest, and 1 (0.4%) answered Google+. For main device to log in to the SNS, 241 (79.0%) used smartphones, 55 (18.0%) used laptops, 5 (1.6%) used desktops, and 4 (1.3%) used tablets. These findings were consistent with a Pew Research Center report on teenagers, SNS and technology use (

Key empirical findings, managerial implications, and theoretical contributions

The results indicate that individuals who most frequently used Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat to follow brands differ significantly on six gratifications of SNS use: passing time (H1a), showing affection (H1b), following fashion (H1c), sharing problems (H1d), demonstrating sociability (H1e), and improving social knowledge (H1f). Specifically, individuals who used Snapchat most frequently for following brands scored highest on passing time, sharing problems, and improving social

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