context collapse on social media: implications for interpersonal and marketing communication

Context collapse on social media: implications for interpersonal and marketing communication

Sonja UtzVU University Amsterdam & NHL Leeuwarden

11.07.2012Brown Bag Seminar Jena Graduate School

Human Behavior in Social & Economic Change

How my social network used to be

Amsterdam friends

ColleaguesFamily

ReDefTie Sonja UtzReDefTie Sonja Utz

Friends from school


Amsterdam friends

ColleaguesFamily

Strong tieemotional support

ReDefTie Sonja Utz

Friends from school


Amsterdam friends

ColleaguesFamily

Weak tieinformation

ReDefTie Sonja Utz

Friends from school


Amsterdam friends

ColleaguesFamily

absent tieuseless

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Friends from school

My social network today

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Characteristics of social media

• Blurring boundaries between interpersonal and mass communication, between private and public communication

Context collapseImplications for• dealing with information on own profile• dealing with information from friends• dealing with information from politicians or

brandsSonja Utz

Social network sites

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1)construct a public or semi-public profile within

a bounded system, (2)articulate a list of other users with whom they

share a connection, and (3)view and traverse their list of connections and

those made by others within the system.

(boyd & Ellison, 2007)

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Dealing with information on own profile: The privacy-paradox

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Privacy settings

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• Early studies=> about 70% of all profiles public(Gross & Acquisti, 2006; Lewis et al. ,2008; Thelwall, 2008)

• Meanwhile => majority of profiles only accessible for „friends“ (Utz & Krämer, 2009)

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Who can see the profiles?

Privacy-Network, German Sample (n = 809)

Visible for…

Part profile me friends Friends of friends

everybody in the

network

everybody

contact details 51,4% 46,1% 1% 0,5% 1%birthday 12,1% 72,5% 7,7% 4% 3,7%relationship status 27,9% 62,4% 4,5% 2,4% 2,8%occupation/university 6,9% 58,6% 11,7% 14,3% 8,5%place of residence 15,8% 57,4% 10,2% 9,1% 7,5%interests 8,1% 75% 9,3% 3,3% 4,2%status updates 3,7% 87% 7% 0,8% 1,5%profile picture 1% 35,1% 10,5% 27,8% 25,6

Supported by the “Young Scholar’s Network on Privacy and the Web 2.0” (DFG TR 498/11-1)

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Factors influencing choice of privacy settings

Restrictive Privacy settings

Norms

Privacy concerns +

Narcissism/need for

popularity

+-

see Utz & Krämer (2009); Utz, Tanis & Vermeulen (2012)

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-

Only “friends”

• Dutch students 2010:Hyves M = 249 (SD =

149)Facebook M = 204 (SD =

129)

• Dutch pupils, 2012:

Hyves M = 240 (SD = 188)

Facebook M = 78 (SD = 91)

• German SNS users, 2011: M = 204 (SD = 138)

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Potential audience: Who are these “friends”?

% 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100 friends

other family members

colleagues

partner

expartner

people I'm interested in

parents

boss/teacher

people I know but haven't met in person

celebrities

strangers

(grand)childrenSupported by the “Young Scholar’s Network on Privacy and the Web 2.0” (DFG TR 498/11-1)

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Audience management (Schmidt, 2011)

• Potential audience: people who can receive the message

• Intended audience: people the sender has in mind when posting the message

• Empirical audience: people who actually read the message

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Intended audience: mainly friends

friends other family members

colleagues partner expartner people I'm interested in

parents boss/teacher people I know but

haven't met in person

celebrities strangers0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100 potential audience intended audience

Supported by the “Young Scholar’s Network on Privacy and the Web 2.0” (DFG TR 498/11-1)

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Intended vs. empirical audience

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20 not intended, but empirical intended, but not empirical

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What do people disclose?

nice eve

nts

holiday

achieve

ments

happiness

everyd

ay stuff

other news (

cultu

re, s

port)

TV, movie

s

enthousiasm

product

disappointm

ent pro

duct

failure

anger

health

politica

l news

falling in

love

relationsh

ip problems

0

1

2

3

4

5students NHL teachers NHL

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Predictors of self-disclosure

• Facebook use: – Login frequency, number of friends, number of

face-to-face friends, public use (status updates, likes,…), private use (chat, privat message)

– Network diversity – Privacy settings

• Personality– Need for popularity, privacy concerns, impression

management

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Results students

Self-disclosure

Public use

age - .19

Private use

.38

.14, p < .10

Network diversity

.14, p < .10

R2adj = .38

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Results teachers

Self-disclosure

Public use

Impression management

.41

.48

R2adj = .46

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Conclusion privacy self-presentation

• People use SNS to stay in touch with people; self-presentation not main goal

• Change over time: more sensitive privacy-settings=> “only friends”

• but: many „friends“• Problematic: discrepancy between potential,

intended and empirical audience• Self-disclosure

– Younger people: strong positivity norm– Older people: strategic impression management

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Implications for• dealing with information on own profile• dealing with information from friends• dealing with information from politicians or

brands

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SNS and romantic relationships

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SNS and romantic relationships

• More information about partner available• Socially accepted way of “monitoring” the

partner• Public display of the information, at least

within circle of “friends”

• => can be very self-threatening

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Prior research

• Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais (2009)• Facebook jealousy scale• Predicted mainly by trait jealousy, but also by

Facebook use

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Goals present research

• Focus also on positive effects: relationship happiness

• Replicate and extend the findings by Muise et al. (2009)

• Examine the role of need-for-popularity• Examine the moderating role of self-esteem

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The role of need for popularity andself-esteem

• SNS ideal venue for people with a high need for popularity => idealized self-presentation + relevant audience

• People want to display their relationships (Zhao et al., 2008)

• => partner can threaten this idealized self-presentation (public self-threat; Afifi et al., 2001)

• Self-esteem moderator in relationship research; face-threat should be higher for low self-esteem individuals

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Hypotheses – SNS jealousy

• H1:Trait jealousy is positively related to SNS jealousy.

• H2: Monitoring behavior is positively related to SNS jealousy.

• H3: SNS use, especially use for grooming, is positively related to SNS jealousy.

• H4: Need for popularity is positively related to SNS jealousy.

• H5: Self-esteem moderates the effects of SNS use and need for popularity on SNS jealousy.

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Hypotheses – SNS relationship happiness

• H6: Relationship satisfaction is positively related to SNS relationship happiness.

• H7: SNS use, especially use for grooming, is positively related to SNS relationship happiness.

• H8: Need for popularity is positively related to SNS relationship happiness.

• H9: Self-esteem moderates the effects of SNS use and need for popularity on SNS relationship happiness.

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Method

• Online survey among students • SNS jealousy: Scale by Muise et al. (2009)• SNS relationship happiness: similar scale, positive aspects,

e.g. “How likely are you to become happy if your partner posted an accurate relationship status”

• SNS use: frequency of logins, SNS intensity (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007), SNS use for profile maintenance, SNS use for grooming

• Trait jealousy (one item), monitoring behavior (e.g., check partner’s email, search partner’s bags)

• Relationship satisfaction (1= not at all happy – 5 = very happy)

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Results

happiness jealousy0

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.55

low self-esteemhigh self-esteem

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SNS jealousy

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SNS happiness

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Discussion

• Effects on SNS jealousy stronger• Need-for-popularity important predictor for low

self-esteem individuals (jealousy and happiness)• => “wrong” behavior of the partner on a SNS is a

public face-threat• Relationship happiness mainly influenced by SNS

use=> avoiding negative impression more important?

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Conclusion

• SNS play an important role for romantic relationships

• In general: more relationship happiness than jealousy

• But: low self-esteem individuals with a high need for popularity feel easily threatened

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Implications for• dealing with information on own profile• dealing with information from friends• dealing with information from politicians or

brands

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Does interaction with voters help?

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Experiment

• 2 (position of the politician: left-wing vs. right-wing) x 2 (interaction with voters: yes vs. no) - design

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Right-wing politicians benefit from interaction

right-wing left-wing 2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

no interaction interaction

political orientation of the candidate

eva

lua

tion

of t

he

po

litic

ian

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Left-wing voters pay more attention to interaction

2

2,2

2,4

2,6

2,8

3

3,2

3,4

left-wing right-wing

Evalu

ation o

f th

e p

olit

icia

n

Political orientation of the participant

reaction no reaction

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marketing context

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Prior research on the role of interactivity

• Different types of interactivity (e.g., McMillan, 2002)

– (user-to-document)– user-to-user– user-to-system

• Flow as mediator (Van Noort, Voorveld & Van Reijmersdaal, in press)

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Model

Affective and cognitive responses

flow

Communicated commitmenthuman voice

Need-to-belong

User-to-systeminteractivity

Brand-to-userinteractivity

Method

• Online experiment 2 (brand-to-user interactivity: low vs. high) x 2 (user-to-system interactivity: low vs. high) x 2 (need-to-belong: low vs. high) – design

• Case: Facebook Fanpage Bijenkorf

• Dependent variables: attitude towards the fanpage, intention to like the fanpage, participation intention, loyalty, buying intention

• Controlled for prior attitude towards BijenkorfSonja Utz

Results: main effects of brand-to-user interactivty on Facebook-related variables

attitu

de fanpag

e *

liking f

anpag

e *

particip

ation fa

npage *

buying i

ntention

loyalty

0123456

low brand-to-user interactivity high brand-to-user interactivity

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Results: interaction effect on participation intention

low user-to-system interactivity high user-to-system interactivity0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4


Similar pattern, but marginal effect on attitude towards the Fanpage

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Results: marginal interaction need-to-belong and brand-to-user interactivity on attitude toward the fanpage

low need-to-belong high need-to-belong0

1

2

3

4

5

6


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Results: effects on possible mediators

communicated-com-mitment

human voice flow0

1

2

3

4

5

6low brand-to-user interactivity high brand-to-user interactivity

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mediation analysis


3 flow

2 human voice

1 Communicated commitment

• attitude Fanpage (all three)

• liking intention (1 + 3)• participation (2 + 3)

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hypothetical model

Affective and cognitive responses

flow


Need-to-belong



empirical model

Facebookvariables


flow



Discussion

• Brand-to-user interactivity matters much more than user-to-system interactivity

• Not much influence of need-to-belong; effects stronger for people with low need-to-belong

• Flow, communicated commitment and human voice as mediators

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Implications

• (potential) consumers want human interaction on social media

• flow plays an important role

• mainly effects on Facebook-related variables => transfer to offline-world problematic

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Wrap up

Summary

• Context collapse on social mediaImplications for• dealing with information on own profile• dealing with information from friends• dealing with information from politicians or

brands

Sonja Utz

context collapse on social media: implications for interpersonal and marketing communication

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