scholarly journals Do Us a Favour: An Exploration of Lay’s Do Us a Flavour Contest through the lens of Social Media and Brand Community Features

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Easto
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technological Affordances

This study evaluated if and how the Lay’s Do Us a Flavour campaign could be classified as a brand community and how the features of this concept in conjunction with the features of social media are reflected in the design and interactions of the site. This paper uses the theory of technological affordances and the social media features of Trust, Transparency, and Authenticity combined with the three markers of brand community as a framework to understand the user interactions and design of the site. The study found that the design of the Lay’s site was limited in its design, especially in the presence of authenticity and transparency and therefore the brand community markers of moral responsibility and consciousness of kind did not have a strong presence within the site. Based on these findings, the study determined the contest, especially when considering its temporary nature, does not demonstrate the features of brand communities and cannot be considered one in its own right but could be effective as an incentive to participate in more permanent communities.

scholarly journals Do Us a Favour: An Exploration of Lay’s Do Us a Flavour Contest through the lens of Social Media and Brand Community Features

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Easto
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technological Affordances

This study evaluated if and how the Lay’s Do Us a Flavour campaign could be classified as a brand community and how the features of this concept in conjunction with the features of social media are reflected in the design and interactions of the site. This paper uses the theory of technological affordances and the social media features of Trust, Transparency, and Authenticity combined with the three markers of brand community as a framework to understand the user interactions and design of the site. The study found that the design of the Lay’s site was limited in its design, especially in the presence of authenticity and transparency and therefore the brand community markers of moral responsibility and consciousness of kind did not have a strong presence within the site. Based on these findings, the study determined the contest, especially when considering its temporary nature, does not demonstrate the features of brand communities and cannot be considered one in its own right but could be effective as an incentive to participate in more permanent communities.

scholarly journals Why people use online social media brand communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Puneet Kaur ◽  
Amandeep Dhir ◽  
Risto Rajala ◽  
Yogesh Dwivedi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Values ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Consumption Values ◽  
Intention To Continue

Purpose The success and survival of any form of online community relies on the presence and active participation of its users. Hence, ensuring active user participation and retaining existing users is a key concern of the moderators of online communities. To address these challenges, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the epistemic, emotional, and social values that influence users’ intention to continue using an online social media brand community. Moreover, the study also investigates the differences in the influence of the investigated constructs and users’ various activity levels. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized the consumption value theory framework for testing the relationship between different measures. An empirical analysis of the consumption values of 577 users in an online social media brand community was accomplished using structural equation modeling. Findings The study findings revealed that emotional and social values exert partial influence in predicting users’ intention to continue using online social media brand communities. In particular, social enhancement and playfulness predict users’ continuation intentions. Moreover, the results show that the influence of the investigated constructs (except playfulness) is consistent across users with various activity levels in online social media brand communities. Research limitations/implications These findings pave the way for further theoretical and practical considerations of the role of consumption values in resolving challenges of user participation and retention. However, there are still some open gaps concerning the generalizability of the findings as well as other factors that could potentially influence the user intentions. Future studies should validate the findings by recruiting diverse users in terms of their age and cultural background. Practical implications The study findings are of special relevance for the service operators interested in practicing user-centric innovation. Moreover, the findings can help online social media brand community managers to kick start user-centric innovation activities in their community. Originality/value The study provides a novel perspective on the challenges of assessing users’ consumption behavior. The perceived values have been conceptualized using the constructs of social influence, problem solving, playfulness, social enhancement, and social interaction.

Internet blackouts in Meghalaya: A case of emerging complexities in the digital age

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110453
Author(s):  
Alexander Lewis Passah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The One ◽  
Technological Affordances ◽  
Media Practices

The paper is rooted in the observations from the two internet blackouts witnessed in Meghalaya in 2018 and 2019. The state is located in the North Eastern region of India and this study focuses on the Khasi population residing in the East Khasi Hills District. The study explores the complex role social media has played in information dissemination in the digital age. India currently leads the world in terms of internet blackouts and it has been imposed 538 times in the country. This phenomenon has become a reoccurring trend over the last few years with the rise in digital communications and technological affordances. The paper addresses the dualistic nature of social media and how it can be empowering on the one hand, and can also be a key contributor to mis(dis)information on the other. The study offers a non-digital centric approach by adopting digital ethnographic methods and offers insights into the social media practices and experiences of the Khasi participants as well as delving into the problematic nature of internet blackouts with respect to Meghalaya. Evidently, social media has become a space in which most individuals carry their identity, aspirations, views, history, and opinions.

Creating Consumer-Based Brand Equity With Social Media Content Marketing

2019 ◽  
pp. 419-441
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Weitzl
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Brand Equity ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Brand Engagement ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Simultaneous Evaluation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Entertainment Value ◽  
The Impact

Due to the growing importance of company-initiated online brand communities (OBCs) like Facebook brand fan pages, details about consumers' perceptions of these sites need to be linked to their effects on customer-based brand equity. This research builds on Keller and Lehmann's brand value chain as the theoretical foundation and adopts the theory to fit the social media context. This approach enables the simultaneous evaluation of the impact of consumer online content perceptions on both fan-page engagement and consumers' brand mindset. Specifically, this research investigates the consumer-based outcomes of perceptions of content's vividness and interactivity as well as the effects of perceived information and entertainment value of brand posts. In addition, this empirical study evaluates the consequences of positive brand fans' comments for consumer online engagement (e.g., liking), brand awareness, image, and attitude. Results show that consumer-oriented brand pages can stimulate positive offline brand engagement such as loyalty and recommendation.

Advertising in the World of Social Media-Based Brand Communities

2018 ◽  
pp. 545-556
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Habibi ◽  
Michel Laroche ◽  
Marie-Odile Richard
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Context ◽  
External World ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
The World ◽  
Do So

Social media has revolutionized marketing practices and created many opportunities for smart marketers to take advantage of its unique characteristics. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the concept of Social Media-Based Brand Communities to advertisers and show how they can use these communities to work for them in creating and distributing favorable communication messages to masses of consumers. The authors underscore that consumers in a brand community can be employed as unpaid volunteer ambassadors of the brand who diligently try to create favorable impressions about the brand in the external world. Social media has also empowered them to do so through participating in brand communities based in social media. These communities, however, are different from conventional brand communities on at least five dimensions: social context, structure, scale, storytelling, and myriad affiliated communities. Therefore, marketers should treat such communities differently. This chapter provides the essentials all marketers should know before facilitating brand communities in social media.

scholarly journals Degrees of Freedom: Exploring Agency, Narratives, and Technological Affordances in the #TakeAKnee Controversy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511982612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith E. Rosenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
American National Identity ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Narratives ◽  
Technological Affordances

This study extends current research into social media platforms as counterpublic spaces by examining how the social media narratives produced by the #TakeAKnee controversy negotiate technological affordances and existing discourses surrounding American national identity. Giddens’ Structuration Theory is used to explore the nature of user agency on social media platforms and the extent to which this agency is constrained or enabled by the interplay between the systems and structures that guide social media use. Exploratory qualitative content analysis was used to analyze and compare tweets and Instagram posts using the #TakeAKnee hashtag shared in September 2017. Results showed that narratives are dominated by four themes, freedom, unity, equality and justice, and respect and honor. Users actively employ technological affordances to create highly personalized meanings, affirming that agency operates at the intersection of reflexivity and self-efficacy.

Exploring the forced closure of a brand community that is also a participatory culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 957-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Burgess ◽  
Christian Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Emotional Bonds

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate members’ reactions to the forced closure of a narrative video game brand community and its participatory culture. Design/methodology/approach The BioWare Social Network forums closure was announced in a thread, which attracted 8,891 posts. These were analysed using thematic analysis, facilitated by the software program Leximancer and non-participatory netnography. Findings The brand community and participatory culture members were predominantly distressed because they would lose their relationships with each other and access to the participatory culture’s creative output. Research limitations/implications Previous research suggested that video game players cannot be fans and that player-generated content is exploitative. However, members, self-identified as fans, encouraged BioWare’s use of their player-created content for financial gain and articulated the community’s marketing benefits, all of which have implications for Fan and Game Studies’ researchers. Research using primary data could identify brand communities and participatory cultures’ specific benefits and their members’ attitudes about brands’ commercial use of their outputs. Further research is required to identify other products and brands not suitable for establishing brand communities on social media to determine the best ways to manage them. Practical implications Addressing narrative brand communities’ complaints quickly can prevent negative financial outcomes and using social media sites for brand communities may not be suitable structurally or because of members’ privacy concerns. Furthermore, consumers often have intense emotional bonds with narrative brands, their communities and participatory cultures, which marketers may underestimate or misunderstand. Originality/value This study of the unique phenomenon of the forced closure of a narrative brand community and its participatory culture increased understandings about them.

The Alt-social Network of Natalie Bookchin’s Testament

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 459-477
Author(s):  
Sarah Whitcomb Laiola
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Social Web ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Media Criticism ◽  
Direct Translation ◽  
The Social

This article addresses issues of user precarity and vulnerability in online social networks. As social media criticism by Jose van Dijck, Felix Stalder, and Geert Lovink describes, the social web is a predatory system that exploits users’ desires for connection. Although accurate, this critical description casts the social web as a zone where users are always already disempowered, so fails to imagine possibilities for users beyond this paradigm. This article examines Natalie Bookchin’s composite video series, Testament, as it mobilizes an alt-(ernative) social network of vernacular video on YouTube. In the first place, the alt-social network works as an iteration of “tactical media” to critically reimagine empowered user-to-user interactions on the social web. In the second place, it obfuscates YouTube’s data-mining functionality, so allows users to socialize online in a way that evades their direct translation into data and the exploitation of their social labor.

scholarly journals The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1755-1767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Laroche ◽  
Mohammad Reza Habibi ◽  
Marie-Odile Richard ◽  
Ramesh Sankaranarayanan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Brand Loyalty ◽  
Brand Trust ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Brand Communities

Exploiting online environment to engage customers: social commerce brand community

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-361
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa Cuomo ◽  
Alice Mazzucchelli ◽  
Roberto Chierici ◽  
Francesca Ceruti
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Case Study ◽  
Social Commerce ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
Multiple Case

Purpose Taking jointly into account social commerce and online brand community, this paper aims to investigate how the growth of social commerce and the fast adoption of online brand communities have given firms the opportunity to establish a new kind of community, namely, the social commerce brand community. Adopting a managerial perspective, the research aims to identify the core dimensions of social commerce brand community and shed light on how they contribute in engaging customers and transform them into brand advocates. Design/methodology/approach Five social commerce retailers operating into five different sectors of activity have been involved in a multiple case study. Data retrieved from semi-structured interviews have been triangulated with information gathered from different sources to provide depth to the cases and enhance data validity. Findings This study substantiates the rise of social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon that differs from traditional online brand communities and provides firms with concrete support in selling activities and in managing relationships with customers. The multiple case study allows also to detect social commerce brand community core pillars, namely, participants’ identification, participation, conversation and social support. These four elements turned out to be crucial to develop an effective social commerce brand community. Research limitations/implications This study extends existing theory on social commerce and online brand community by investigating the social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon and clarifying the fundamental pillars on which it relies. Originality/value This study extends existing theory on social commerce and online brand community by investigating the social commerce brand community as a new phenomenon and clarifying the fundamental pillars on which it relies.

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