Role of Social Media Marketing Activities in Influencing Customer Intentions: A Perspective of a New Emerging Era

The aim of this study is to explore social media marketing activities (SMMAs) and their impact on consumer intentions (continuance, participate, and purchase). This study also analyzes the mediating roles of social identification and satisfaction. The participants in this study were experienced users of two social media platforms Facebook and Instagram in Pakistan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. We used an online community to invite Facebook and Instagram users to complete the questionnaire in the designated online questionnaire system. Data were collected from 353 respondents, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. Results show that SMMAs have a significant impact on the intentions of users. Furthermore, social identification mediates the relationship between social media activities and satisfaction, and satisfaction mediates the relationship between social media activities and the intentions of users. This will help marketers how to attract customers to develop their intentions. This is the first novel study that used SMMAs to address the user intentions with the role of social identification and satisfaction in the context of Pakistan.

Fostering Communication

The period of transition for foster youth into independent adulthood is an important life stage, and one that has yet to be explored in HCI circles. We studied an online community centered on the experiences of former foster youth through the first year of its existence to better understand how online spaces are being used by this population. Our mixed-method study included the coding of all posts from the first year of the online community and offers a mix of quantitative and qualitative findings. These findings include alignments and gaps in an established descriptive framework from the field of social work as it relates to the online communication of former foster youth. It also includes how the domains from the framework co-occur, and some potential implications of these co-occurrences. Future research on this subject is warranted, particularly related to why former foster youth seek online platforms to engage in conversations on these topics and how effective community members perceive the platform to be in safely and securely facilitating their needs.

Electronic Media

Recruitment has changed over the years. Organisations have started searching for an easy and cost effective platform for personality mining. With the explosion of social networking sites, candidates are now able to choose where they could spend their time online. This has encouraged many recruiters to start using social networking as part of a new cost-conscious approach to personality mining. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Popular online sites include LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. They are growing at an exponential rate, with most of the sites being free to join and, importantly, giving organizations an effective means of attracting today's Generation Y workforce. The purpose of this article is to contribute to emerging theory about the role of social networking sites in the process of personality mining.

Communication Overload in Online Communities in Higher Education

This paper presents part of a research project on the use of information technology by students and teachers to communicate with each other in online community contexts of higher education institutions. The part of this project which investigated whether the number of messages exchanged, and the effort required to process them are a source of communication overload is the focus of the paper. The research was conducted at a Portuguese university, was supported by an analysis model, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inference tests were used to analyse a validated data sample of n = 570 students and n = 172 teachers. The results show that students and teachers generally perceive communication overload when using communication technologies to communicate with each other. This perception is particularly relevant when using email, and inference tests show that it is higher for teachers than for students

Online Communities. Benefits and Risks

This article reviews empirical studies from 2008 to 2017 on the effects of participating in online communities. The review uses three databases: PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect. The criteria are: (1) online community aimed to provide support by and for people with a common problem; (2) the content of the sessions was determined by users; (3) members met via the Internet; (4) online community was available 24/7; (5) online community access was free and open to everyone with an Internet connection. Of the articles, 13 of 105 met the inclusion criteria. Seven studies reported positive changes: informational and emotional support, increased sense of belonging, less isolation, better medical understanding. Six articles also considered risks: the rise of the level of stress because of successes or failures of other users, the addiction to the forum and the consequent isolation from real relationships.

Impacting Practice

This chapter follows the journey of Participate, and diverse organizations within its platform, utilizing a peer review micro-credential system through adult learner research, product development, and design iterations. Throughout the past eight years, Participate has developed and tested various peer review structures where learners and reviewers leverage chat functionality to provide real-time formative feedback and collaborate to build new ideas together throughout the micro-credential, not just at the end in summative review. This chapter covers the evolution of the design and development of digital credentials to support social learning, provide evidence of competencies and impact, and create the foundation for reputation building and trust in an online community of practice (CoP).

An Investigation of the Factors That Motivate Users to Participate in Online Communities

The objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the online community by empirically examining the major factors motivating online community members to participate and actively contribute to their communities. In pursuing this endeavor, a comprehensive conceptual model of motivations that drive online community participation is developed based on an extensive revision of the existing relevant literature. However, modest research had been conducted to understand the online participant's motivation to participate in online communities. Thus, the current research model will enhance understanding and add to the relevant existing knowledge by categorizing digital user's motivation to participate in online communities, through the employment of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Herzberg's two-factor theory. The paper used a deductive methodological approach adopted.

Rhetoric of Belonging and Transnational Appropriation in the Development and Marketing of the Bulgarian Popular Feature Love.net

This article focuses on issues of representation and belonging, in an attempt to uncover how popular cinema in Bulgaria caters to national sensitivities while at the same time making the link with the global film industries. The Bulgarian popular feature Love.net (Ilian Djevelekov, 2011) is an example of the shift towards treating filmmaking in Bulgaria as a business as much as a cultural venture. It emerged as part of broader European trends, which put an emphasis on film development, marketing and stars, with the aim to counter Hollywood’s dominant market position. Love.net focuses on the role of the Internet as facilitating love, relations and communication in the contemporary world. On a textual level, and similarly to Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), it explores the six degrees of separation theory, implicitly advocating for a world of interconnectedness. Contextually, Love.net created a sense of virtual belonging among the local online community, allowing them to participate in the film’s development and engage with its interactive marketing. Transnational stars provided a further point of contact and involvement. Through its mixed cast featuring home-grown and locally popular foreign actors, Love.net both channelled and challenged Hollywood, positioning European cinema as similar in glamour and attraction but different in identity.