Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated

ContentOpinions posted via mobile devices are more timely, shorter, more “to the point” and more negative than web reviews.

Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Agenda

Mobile Technology ChangesThe Research Study Findings from the StudyGuidelines for Managing Reputation

Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of User-Generated Content 1/3

On August 13, 2013, under pressure from its 10.4 million users who access the platform each month via mobile devices, Yelp allowed users to post reviews from their mobile devices.

Up to that date, Yelp had resisted enabling such reviews, citing concerns about their short length and overall quality.

The Yelp example suggests that even firms at the forefront of technology-mediated interaction with customers are struggling to manage the impact of new IT devices.

Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of User-Generated Content 2/3

In the past, a brand manager could carefully craft brand messages that were then delivered to consumers through television, print, radio and static websites.

Today, those same brand messages must compete with user- generated opinions that are published and distributed around the world through social media.

Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of User-Generated Content 3/3

“Unbiased hotel reviews, photos and travel advice for hotels and vacations” TripAdvisor

“Unbiased reviews by real people” Epinions

Publicly expressed opinions may not simply reflect the personal evaluation of the individual posting a comment.

Rather, they are often influenced by the opinions of others and by timing effects.

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Agenda

Mobile Technology ChangesThe Research Study Findings from the StudyGuidelines for Managing Reputation

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The Research Study Primary data source for this study was all reviews

posted on a leading online review platform for travel products in 2012 relating to the 25 largest U.S. markets (n=293,945).

From this data, matched samples of all reviews posted via mobile devices (30,540) and via the web interface (38,248) for the same product on the same day are were extracted.

A machine learning algorithm designed to establish if a review was posted on the same day as the service.

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Agenda

Mobile Technology ChangesThe Research Study Findings from the StudyGuidelines for Managing Reputation

Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated ContentGabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014

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Findings from the Study 1/5

Reviews Posted via Mobile Devices are Shorterreviewers posting via the website use, on average,

41.3% more text than mobile users.After excluding emoticons, reviews posted on mobile

devices use less punctuation.Mobile reviews use more abbreviations and Internet

slang than their web counterparts. Perhaps counter-intuitively, text written on mobile

devices has fewer misspellings.

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Findings from the Study 2/5Reviews from Mobile Devices are Posted Earlier

customers who used the mobile- enabled review system are 2.46 times more likely to contribute their comments on the same day as the service encounter compared to those using the website.

individuals commenting in the months following the service encounter are 1.38 times more likely to do so via the web- based review system.

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Findings from the Study 3/5Reviews Posted from Mobile Devices are More

NegativeCustomers posting their commentary through the mobile

platform select the worst evaluation (i.e., “terrible”) proportionally 1.66 times more often for their overall rating

The results are similar for “poor” ratings, albeit of lesser magnitude (1.27 and 1.35 times for overall and service ratings, respectively)

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Findings from the Study 4/5

What surprised you the most ?

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Findings from the Study 5/5

What caused this?How to manage it?

Negative

EarlierShorter

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Agenda

Mobile Technology ChangesThe Research Study Findings from the StudyGuidelines for Managing Reputation

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Guidelines for Managing ReputationManage the Essential Nature of Reviews

Posted via Mobile Devices

Managers may be able to stimulate positive reviews.

How?Strategy for responding to negative reviews posted via mobile devices.

Recognize the Triggered Nature of Mobile-Posted Reviews

Mobile reviews are 2.46 times more likely to appear on the same day as the service. Triggers and caution

Proactively Manage Communication Channels

Managers should seek to mitigate the need for customers to vent their frustration online – with real world venting options

Monitor for Early Signs of Customer Dissatisfaction

Complement customer service strategy with a monitoring system designed to intercept negative experiences from digital data flows.