scholarly journals Affordances-Based Brand Relations: An Inquire on Memetic Brands on Instagram

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110213
Author(s):  
Alessandro Caliandro ◽  
Guido Anselmi

In this article, we argue that, in an era of platformization of culture, social media users tend to relate with brands through modalities that are more informed by platforms’ affordances (i.e., by the technical architecture of and participatory cultures thriving on social media platforms), rather than shared systems of values and meanings promulgated within brand communities or influencers’ fandoms. Our argument grounds on an analysis of 757,776 Instagram posts related to six global brands, through which we show how users create branded content by following and reproducing a memetic logic. Drawing on our empirical results and Limor Shifman’s theory of Internet memes, we introduce the notion of memetic brands. Memetic brands are collections of branded social media posts, which derive from a standard branded template that repeats from user to user with small compositional changes at every iteration and on top of which users attach expressions of their vernacular creativity. In the process, memetic brands vehiculate a hypersignification, that is, an implicit discourse on fluid and situational consumption. Through the concepts of affordances-based brand relations and memetic brands, the article contributes (from a theoretical and methodological point of view) to the emerging literature on platformization of culture.

Author(s):  
Georgia-Zozeta Miliopoulou ◽  
Vassiliki Cossiavelou

This chapter examines the brand manager's point of view on content marketing and brand management in the social media. Using the filters of media gatekeeping, the authors study Greek executives' views and practices in local and multinational firms and agencies. Findings indicate that gatekeeping still prevails. The dipole between control and security on the one hand, and openness and dialog on the other, determines all decision-making processes. A standardization of practices is observed, especially around brand communities and content publishing, as well as a need for control and risk avoidance. Global brands rely on headquarter-provided content requesting approvals for any modification. Local brands tend to outsource and monitor content calendars. Most brands consider what to release rather than what not to. They maintain a narrow, campaign-oriented mindset that reflects traditional practices and have not embraced the requirements for transparency and openness that prevail in the social media environment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Dessart ◽  
Cleopatra Veloutsou ◽  
Anna Morgan-Thomas

Purpose – This paper aims to delineate the meaning, conceptual boundaries and dimensions of consumer engagement within the context of online brand communities both in term of the engagement with the brand and the other members of the online brand communities. It also explores the relationships of consumer engagement with other concepts, suggesting antecedents of engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 international online brand community members, covering a variety of brand categories and social media platforms. Findings – This paper suggests that individuals are engaging in online communities in social network platforms both with other individuals and with brands. The study also identifies three key engagement dimensions (cognition, affect and behaviours). Their meaning and sub-dimensions are investigated. The paper further suggests key drivers, one outcome and objects of consumer engagement in online brand communities. These findings are integrated in a conceptual framework. Research limitations/implications – Further research should aim at comparing consumer engagement on different social media and across brand categories, as this study takes a holistic approach and does not focus on any particular category of brands or social media. Consumers’ views should also be evaluated against and compared with marketing managers’ understanding of consumer engagement. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the fast-growing and fragmented consumer engagement literature by refining the understanding of its dimensions and situating it in a network of conceptual relationships. It focusses on online brand communities in rich social media contexts to tap into the core social and interactive characteristics of engagement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Zappavigna

AbstractThis paper explores how people present their relationship to their domestic objects in decluttering vlogs on YouTube, where they show the process of getting rid of undesired items. These videos are associated with discourses of ‘minimalism’ that are currently prevalent on social media platforms. The paper adopts a multimodal social semiotic approach, focusing on how language, gesture, and the visual frame coordinate intermodally to make meanings about objects. The multimodal construction of deixis in coordination with a type of ‘point-of-view shot’, filmed from the visual perspective of the vlogger, is examined. The broader aim is to investigate what these videos reveal about how digital semiotic capitalism is inflecting the lived experience of social media users. What is at stake is how people articulate intersubjective meanings about their experiences and relationships through the way they communicate about their objects.


Subject Importance of social media in the United Arab Emirates. Significance The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is among the most connected countries in the Middle East, with one of the highest rates of social media penetration. Compared with Western countries, UAE consumers are more likely to engage with brands and to be less worried about issues of privacy and tracking. The government engages in extensive monitoring, surveillance and censorship of social media and apps. Impacts Both global brands and local businesses have additional scope to develop social media strategies to capitalise on rising usage. Content with the status quo and tight monitoring will prevent activists from leveraging social media platforms to bring about change. Extraterritorial aspects of the cybercrime law could be applied to non-residents and travellers in transit. Non-renewal of visas could become a more common, low-profile way to exclude expatriates who transgress on social media.


Author(s):  
Guida Helal

Fashion brands have shifted communication to social media as part of evolutionary modern-day marketing approaches to reaching consumers. Brands have adjusted to a vocal customer through back-and-forth interchange on social media platforms that have progressively facilitated for online brand communities. Social media brand communities serve to engage audiences in interactive settings that resonate with individual consumers across different levels. As brand awareness is augmented, brand impressions are conceived, brand-customer relationships are formed, and a sense of community is fostered around a brand, consumers exploit association to such social media brand communities in advancing social identity. The following chapter explores the impact of social media brand communities on Millennials in the fashion industry, while considering the social identity theory. The chapter focuses on theoretical and managerial implications. This chapter considers the influence social media brand communities and social identity may have on a fashion brand.


2019 ◽  
pp. 674-694
Author(s):  
Linda Lea Elisabet Muinonen ◽  
Ashish Kumar

The recent transition from city marketing to city branding heralds a new era of representation and signification of cities as brands where conscious and planned practices are used to promote them as any other economic commodity. Given the tremendous impact of social media on brand image, city branding has to embrace this new channel to promote their cities as brands. On social media platforms users forming a brand community can significantly influence the brand image by co-creating the user-generated contents. Today, users search for information online and their behaviors and responses are influenced by online social networks and community practices. In addition, they perceive information from online social community highly credible and useful. As traditional firm generated information is losing its persuasive power to social media, it is never late for managers of city branding to embark on social media platforms to support online social media brand communities which in turn would influence city brand image positively by engaging users. Social media provides an excellent platform for users to form social media brand communities, where they can share inside knowledge and discuss about brands. The greater credibility of user generated contents on these platforms can significantly influence the user perception about the brands. The focus of this paper is to investigate challenges and opportunities of online social media brand communities in influencing brand image.


2020 ◽  
pp. 736-755
Author(s):  
Kishalay Adhikari ◽  
Rajeev Kumar Panda

The dynamic, omnipresent, and frequent on-the-go consumer-brand interactions via social media platforms are significantly changing the branding landscape. A profound comprehension of this change is crucial in assessing brand loyalty. Considering the enormous fame of social media and inherent capabilities of brand communities, the purpose of this paper is to exhibit the contributory role of Social media brand communities (SMBC) towards brand loyalty. A Survey-based empirical study involving young consumers was conducted in the selected cities of Bangalore, Kolkata, and Pune. In contrast to prior works (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Laroche et al., 2012), the authors have incorporated Analytical Hierarchy Process (hereafter AHP) in the study to implement and validate new scales. The outcomes of AHP methodology found shared consciousness and social networking as the most-preferred component and activity respectively. These outcomes would assist brand managers in the optimized allocation of communication budget and formulation of competitive branding strategies to tackle intense competition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluís Garay ◽  
Soledad Morales

Festival branding is undergoing a revolution based on the consolidation of new communicative behaviours in virtual brand communities (VBCs), above all, channelled through social media platforms. Although the literature on festivals has analysed engagement in VBCs, this study provides an in-depth observation of the profiles of festival VBCs users, how they modulate engagement attributes and behaviours and how these relate to their engagement focus, highlighting festival branding while also considering other main focuses (i.e. social capital creation and place-making). Thus, this article aims to characterize these elements in festivals’ VBCs through a multidimensional analysis of nearly 2150 entries in the Twitter and Facebook VBCs of one of the most prominent music festivals in Europe, Sónar (Barcelona). Moreover, it does so through a longitudinal observation covering a whole year, showing the relevance of ongoing communication to festival success. The results show the benefits (for organizers as well as other users) of understanding these elements and their mutual relationships.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Mohammad Thoriq Bahri ◽  
Derajad Sulistyo Widhyharto

Twitter has become a tool for people to trigger a social change, like what is happening right now during COVID-19 outbreaks. Most people are using social media platforms to express their perspectives. For the first time, this research aimed to analyze the pattern of a social movement that happened during COVID-19 Outbreaks by analyzing the Twitter dataset contains 23,476 tweets worldwide with the #COVID19 hashtag which was obtained from 02 March to 09 April 2020. Social Network Analysis tools are used to understand the pattern of movement. This research concluded that if the Government and Mainstream Media Twitter account triggered the conversation in the social media platform, followed by the activists and celebrities who engage in conversation between their followers, an ordinary person spread the point of view of the Government and Mainstream Media across their conversation network. The COVID-19 hashtag successfully engaged 10 protest clusters, which pushed the people to fight against COVID-19 in their countries, mostly targeting the government-related account. The digital social movement pattern is relatively different from the traditional social movement, even it has the same steps, which emerge, coalesce, bureaucratise, and the movement itself, but it takes place in the Digital Public Sphere without any social or political boundaries. The digital social movement forced the government to implement a better policy to fight the COVID-19 Pandemic, including to close the national border to prevent unnecessary effects of International Migration.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Alaa Hussain Al-Hamami

Because of its importance, social media became a main target in cyber war and for criminals as well. The attacker can gain a lot of valued information from social media. This chapter will discuss the security impacts on social media and their effects on individuals, companies, and governments. This chapter, also will explain risks of using Internet, the importance of social media for attackers, what could go wrong in social media, examples of methods used by attackers, why attackers success in their attacks, social media problems from a legal point of view, social media security environment, general security model for social media web sites, data that could be mined, points of attack, security defenses against attacks, methods of security attacks, reasons of attacking social media, social media programming flaws, social media security strategy and policy, social media privacy and governments, social media security new trends, and the best practice in social media.


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