A essay I wrote at the university some months ago when I was in Australia for an assignment and had a perception of Social media based on its impact in India and Australia; but since have read articles like “Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing?” By Donna L. Hoffman and Marek Fodor and how it is being used in Europe and US as one of the largest and the most sought after space in the world of marketing today..
Involvement can be defined as the importance of the product as perceived by the consumer. High Involvement purchases are deemed to be more risky in nature and are infrequently purchased while low Involvement products are purchased frequently and are low cost and risk (Kotler et al. 2010). In this case the product is the Social Networking Site and the Involvement is its usage. Generally social networking sites are perceived to be low involvement as choosing a social networking site does not require special attention on behalf of the customer. Most social networking sites are available to public for free, thus are low or in this case no cost to consumers. And to add to this, people mostly consider social networking site to be a harmless way of communicating with their friends and relatives; thus is widely considered low risk. Though, this notion is being challenged lately due to the variation in the privacy policies, across the Social Networking Sites. This behaviour can be classified as Variety Seeking buying behaviour wherein consumers often do a lot of brand switching eg.- Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter etc are Social Networking Sites providing similar platforms but vary from each other in terms of security, privacy, content, interaction etc.
Considering the fact that most social networking sites are free to users and rely on advertising revenue brings the risk factor into play. Facebook with its 30 million users has content that surpasses calculation. Marketers find it an easy platform to identify and target its consumers and thus Facebook often exposes its consumer’s personal information to the market. The risk apart from being in privacy issues for consumers poses a risk for marketer as well. User generated content in the quantity that Facebook sees everyday is near impossible to track and thus marketers often cannot track; next to what content is there advertisement being displayed. This content can at times be of the nature which is not appropriate or acceptable to the marketer. Thus social networking sites are considered inherently risky due to a very high user generated content and their accessibility, brands that advertise on them and the privacy concerns of its users and thus all parties need to be aware of potential problems (2007).
Maslow argued that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, from the most pressing to the least pressing starting from physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. The theory suggests that a person tries to satisfy the most pressing need first and once a need is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivator (Kotler et al. 2010).
Figure 2 – Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory (Wikipedia 2010)
This model explains how it has the potential to influence participation in social networking sites. The demographic defined as the user of Facebook is between 25 to 34 which hail from middle class to rich social class in the society and have the education to understand and operate computer and internet. Social networking sites provide users a platform to stay in touch, form or sustain relationships, make friends and share information in a convenient and secure manner. Individuals that participate have as per Maslow already achieved Physiological and Safety needs and thus look to satisfy the need for love and belongingness by socializing online with their friends and family. The motivation to be involved in the lives of friends and acquaintances and also to create new relationships attracts most of the consumers to social networking sites. Though some social networking sites can also be classified under the Safety motivation like Linkedin; a social networking site for professionals looking for employment to create and maintain professional relationships to help them satisfy their safety need.
Another concept that can explain what motivates consumers to participate in social networking sites is the Personality and the Self-Concept. “Personality is the unique psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one’s own environment” (Kotler et al. 2010). All social networking sites provide its users the freedom to create profiles that are unique and reflect their individual personalities which is viewed online by friends and contacts. This not only motivates users by reflecting their personalities but also satisfies esteem needs of individuals to some extent by helping them portray themselves as they want to and thus achieve respect and confidence. This personality motivation attribute not only attracts users but also marketers who instead of having to spend on identification and targeting of consumers find them at one place and thus makes it easy for them. Facebook for example allows marketers to create specific pages for their brand or product that users can subscribe to. Then the marketer can place videos, advertisements, posts etc and all the subscribers can see it; and not only see but can comment and provide actionable feedback in real time. With its risks and still evolving nature, social networking sites are the future of ecommerce and marketing (Yankee 2009).
Attitudes affect the consumers in participating in social networking sites and also to choose between various sites. An individual’s attitude that “he wants to stay in touch with as many people as possible”, while another may want to share his passion of photography by publishing pictures and seeking opinion of his friends; a writer may want to put his article for review by his peers. These attitudes are well understood and it is the ability of social networking sites like facebook, Myspace, Twitter that makes them attractive for consumers. To cite an example, more than six million photos are uploaded on facebook every day. This coupled with other user friendliness, unique features and games that make Facebook the leader in online social networking today (2007).
Personal factors such as Age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic situation and social class influence consumer’s participation in social networking sites as well. As defined in the case Facebook has a core demographic of 25-34 consisting of mature and educated users with good knowledge and access to internet. Individuals at this age mostly have friends living in various places and thus have the need to stay in touch with school and college friends and thus make use of Facebook. A farmer in India or China is unlikely to participate in a social network his personal factors like economic situation which means that he cannot afford a computer and social class wherein he is not educated enough to have the knowledge of Internet. Though the social networks today are breaking demographic boundaries and are being accessed by an increasing number of people every day.
Social Networking Sites form a crucial part of people’s lives today and have an accessibility that transcends cultural, demographic and geographic boundaries. They have risks involved like the content being user generated may at times be inappropriate and offending, privacy policies may have loop holes that may expose personal information of individuals, marketer may find there advertisements next to a random selection of content and at times resulting in the message being lost or misinterpreted etc. Yet the opportunity for consumers to connect with people, make contacts, share data, photos, videos etc today shrink the world more; provides a platform for marketers to easily segment and target its consumers and interact with its consumers directly in real time among others are factors that make social networking sites so crucial for both consumers and marketers today.
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