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MIB605- Lecture 4Technology and Online Community
How technologies change information flow and social interactions?
Prof. Cui
Internet Communication Technology (ICT)
What you learned from other classes need to be updated and integrated!
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Internet Communication Technologies
� Internet, email, discussion groups (BBS)
� Texting, Mobile, GPS
� Befriending, grouping, tagging, hashtags
� Audio, video, multi-user gaming
� Virtual reality, artificial intelligence
� The new “credit” (reputation) society in China
Networksunderline the premise of social media
� Social network is a socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations (ties). These relations lead to interaction.
� Information “flow” between nodes. Flows are exchange of resources, information, or influence among members of the network.
� These flows of communication go in many directions at any point in time and often on multiple platforms-
� Of course, the communication is often led by people with strong ties (e.g., close friends) Media Multiplexity Theory
� Real friends? The strength of weak ties!
Strong tieWeak tie
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Discussion
� Why should social media managers care about these “flows”?
Power of social influence!
Networks: The underlying structure of communities
� A group of people who come together for a specific purpose
� About belonging and exclusion;
� About “us” vs. “them”;
� So, have we become more similar or different?
� Example: Lingnan community; MScMIB community.
� A community’s reality is based on “how it is imagined” rather than on the space in which it exists. (e.g., the existence of virtual community) – a sense of belong and inter-subjectivity! (add a friend to a group, follow a group)
� If consumers log on, form relationships in cyberspace, and believe that they have found communities, these must be “real” for them.
� Again, a network with no “flow”, there is no participation and may not be an effective community.
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Internet Marketing Technology2
Information and data for Internet Marketing Technologies
� Web transaction logs: records user activity at a web site.� registration forms
� Shopping cart database
� Oder of item, relationship of item, items placed without buying
� Clickstream data, GPS data
� Main questions to answer:� What are the major patterns of interest and purchase for group and individuals?
� After the home page, where do most users go first, and then second and third?
� What are the interests of specific individual?
� How can we make it easier for people to use our sites so that they can find what they want?
� How can we change the design of the site to encourage visitors to purchase our high-margin products?
� Where are visitors coming from and how can we optimize our presence on these referral sites?
� How can we personalize our messages, offerings, and products to individuals users?
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Internet Marketing Technologies
� Databases, Data Warehouses, Data Mining, and Big Data
� Database: is a collection of information (data) in a systematically organized way for future retrieval.
� Data Warehouse:
� a database that collects a firm’s transactional and customer data in a single location for offline analysis.
� Used for reporting and data analysis, including the storage of current and historical data.
� Data Mining: is a set of analytical techniques that look for “patterns” in the data of a database or data warehouse, or seek to model the behavioral of customers.
Internet Marketing Technologies
� Data Mining:
� Query-driven data mining
� The analysis is driven by a “question” about relationship.
� Model-driven data mining
� The analysis is driven by an “examination” of a proposed model.
� Big Data: to predict behavior or pattern (smart city)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RYKgj-QK4I
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Online Community3
Community-Based Participation
For all communities:Feeling of membershipA sense of proximity to one anotherInterest in the community’s activities
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Characteristics of Online Communities
� Benefits of being community members (motivation):
� Needs for affiliation;
� Resource acquisition;
� Entertainment;
� Information exchange.
1. Presence- experience when interacting with a computer-mediated (-generated) environment.
2. Standards of Behavior (Norm)- rules that govern behavior
3. Conversations: talks between the members
4. Democracy- everyone has equal talk while leaders may emerge from reputation
5. Level of Participation: engagement frequency KOLs, followers, vs lurkers)
Type of Social Networks and Online Communities
Type Description
General Online social gathering place to meet and socialize with friends, share content, schedules, and interests. (Facebook)
Practice Social network of professionals and practitioners, creators of artifacts such as computer code or music. (LinkedIn)
Interest Community built around a common interest, such as games, sports, music, or lifestyle. (Pinterest)
Affinity Community of members who self-identity with a demographic or geographic category. (Taiwanese in HK)
Sponsored Network created by commercial, government, and nonprofit organizations for a variety of purposes. (Nike, Apple, and polital candidates)
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Brand Community
A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relation among admirers of a brand.
Core community commonalities
Consciousness of the same kind
examples: supermacro photographyShared rituals and traditions
post new photos, new year greetings,Sense of moral responsibility
Establish rules, condemn unethical behaviors, group leaders/moderators(群主)
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How about brand community: Main argument
Such as Nikon, Nike, or Celebrities
Brand communities are in fact legitimate forms of community, but communities of a particular stripe, and of their time.
These communities may form around any brand, but are probably most likely to form around brands with a strong image, a rich and lengthy history, and threatening competition.
Para-social interactions and relationships
How ideas/conversations travel in a community?
� Democracy aspect of conversation� Opinions supported by the majority may win
� Norm/ Culture aspect of conversation. � People with status, reputation, power may direct the conversation. (e.g., opinion
leader- a person who is frequently able to influence others’ attitude or behaviors).
� Some people’s recommendations carry more weight than others.
� The Process of Influence: Social influence� Normative influence: a type of conformity in order to be liked or accepted by
others.
� Informational influence: a type of conformity that reflects one’s belief about others’ information correctness.
-> Results: Compliance, impact
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Questions
� How does community-based participation relate to different media options (i.e., paid, earned, or owned)?
� If you are a social media manager, how would you incorporate the idea of community into your social media strategy?
Relationships among Earned, Paid, and Owned Media –transformation of advertising – how it is done on social media Paid
Digital Media
Paid Ad Placements
Paid Partnerships in games, networks, forums, blogs, etc.
Earned Digital Media
Seeded Content
Communities and Forums
Network
Blogs
Corporate Websites, Corporate Blogs, Direct
Messaging
Owned Media
“Create awareness, persuade”
“Listen, engage, respond”
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Social Community Zone for marketing� Paid media in Social Networks:
� Display ads
� Social ads
� Social engagement ad: contains ad creative (image and text) along with an opinion to encourage the viewer to engage with the brand (e.g., LIKE button)
� Social context ad: includes ad creative, an engagement device, and personalized referral content from people in the viewer’s network. (e.g., Your Friends make a comment on an ad)
� Organic social ads: are shared on a person’s activity stream following a brand interaction (e.g., liking the brand). Organic social ads occur only when people are interacting with the brand and are thought to carry enhanced credibility.
Word-of-Mouth4
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Understanding WOM Marketing in Online Communities
Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is the intentional influencing of consumer-to-consumer communications by professional marketing techniques.
To affect WOM effectively, we need to know how WOM is happening in online communities.
They study bloggers behavior to identify the communication strategies used by those “influencers”.
The evolution of WOM theory
A. The Organic Interconsumer Influence Model
B. The Linear Marketer Influence Model
C. The Network Coproduction Model
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Patterns of Evolution of e-WOM
� Critical mass or threshold
� Cascade
� Tipping point
� Positivity vs. negativity bias
� Key opinion leaders (beauty bloggers)
� Followers
� Lurkers
� Participation inequality (1-9-90%)
Research: 1) The Effect of WOM on Sales: Online Book Review (Mayzlin 2006) and Amazon (Cui 2010)� How to demonstrate that reviews help sales?
� Match the reviews amount pattern with sales pattern (e.g., correlational analysis or linear regression).
� However,
� causal relationship can’t be proven in a correlational analysis.
� Sales may lead to more WOM, so the cause-effect relation could be opposite.
� Time-series data -> historical effect needs to control
� Partial correlation may lead to the same result
� Solution: “differences-in-differences” approach
� Using “public available data” is sufficient because it eliminates the need of certain “private data”.
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� What is the general social media marketing objective?
� Get more participation: reviews, comments, sharing, etc.
� We assume that, participation leads to traffic, and subsequently enhance sales.
� But, is this true?
� When consumers are talking about a product, can such behavior indeed leads to more potential sales?
� That is, can community content plays any role in consumer decision making?
� Or, if I post one positive review, will I receive more sales?
The Effect of WOM on Sales: Online Book Review (2006)
Research Questions and Method
Q1: How do communities respond to community-oriented WOM?Q2: What patterns to WOM communicator strategies assume?Q3: Why do they assume these patterns?
Method:Studied seeding campaign- the product is placed among influential consumers so that they can communicate favorably about it to other consumers.
Target product: a camera-equipped mobile phone
2) Brand Community
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Blogger selection
How many bloggers were selected?What are the criteria for selection?
Demographic:22 ~ 45 years59% malePhotographers, designers, writers, programmers, consultants, and administrative personnel.
Data:Total posts: 220; total comments responded by readers: 700Coding: classified into categories, analyzed the themes.
Findings
Frank’s blog: Seeking social connection and offering explanation
Alicia’s blog: Honesty and humility meets marketing intent
Carrie’s blog: Mocking, exhibitionism, and embracing commercialism
Judith’s blog: Honest survival and an honest living
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Narrative strategies
Evaluation
Explanation
Embracing
Endorsement
Discussion
If you are a famous blogger and being provided a free sample of a SmartWatch (or fitness watch, Fuelband, etc.), how will you describe the new product in your blog? What is your communication strategy?
Evaluation? Explanation? Embracing? Endorsement?
Why?
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Findings (1)Consciousness of kind:
Members feel that they sort of know each other at some level, even if they have never met.
Legitimacy: a process whereby members of the community differentiate between true members of the community and those who are not.
Oppositional Brand Loyalty: derive an important aspect of their community experience, and an important component of the meaning of the brand.
Findings (2)Rituals and Traditions:
The meaning of the community is reproduced and transmitted within and beyond the community.
Example:George: If you drove a Saab, whenever you passed someone else driving a Saab on the road, you beeped or flashed your lights.
Celebrating the History of the Brand.Sharing Brand Stories
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Findings (3)Moral Responsibility
A sense of duty to the community as a whole, and to individuals members of the community.
Example:George: If you drove a Saab, whenever you passed someone else driving a Saab on the road, you beeped or flashed your lights.
Integrating and Retaining MembersAssisting in the Use of the Brand
Hear what the author says about Brand Community
Thomas O’Guinn (Prof. in Marketing, Uni of Wisconsin-Madison)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqA_tRkHBs
Brand community of Harley-Davidson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxMYzIm6MXY
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Break
� Followed by leading discussion group 1