Tag: social media

Insta Users Hate Advertisements, But Should You Disguise Them?

By Sydney Brower, @sydpaigebro , sydneyd.brower []wsu.edu

Native advertisements, unlike traditional ads, blend in with user-generated content by looking like a regular post from a friend. The difference lies in the subtle product placement, and not your friend posting. Disguising ads reflect businesses’ longing for social post ads. 

Old instagram icon

Researchers define social post advertisements when a consumer feels pleased enough with a product to post about it on their account. When a brand earns a social post, they reap the benefits of effective and free marketing. But do native ads actually sell products and boost brand image more effectively than traditional ads? Johnson, Potocki, and Veldhuis conducted a study on the three different styles of Instagram advertisements.

The researchers polled 482 avid Instagram users. They were shown six fictitious Instagram posts, advertising for Dyson vacuums, McDonalds, and Nivea sun. Below you will see the variables measured for each post, the type of measurement used, and the participants’ total average scores:  

Results  

Variable Measurement  Social Post Native Ad Traditional Ad 
Social Comparison I compared myself with the person in the posted picture.  1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree 2.75 2.21 1.73 
Credibility The ad is reliable, convincing, and credible.  1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree 3.98 3.51 3.22 
Ad Attitude 1 = Negative and 7 = Positive 3.72 2.94 2.99 
Brand Attitude 1 = Negative and 7 = Positive 4.51 4.36 4.40 
Behavioral Intention I plan on buying this product.  1 = Strongly Disagree and 7 = Strongly Agree 3.84 3.68 3.73 

The results above show a slight difference in the overall attitudes each participant had towards the different advertisements. Below you will find a breakdown of the results for each type of advertisement:  

Social Post Ads: Some participants believed social post ads were sponsored, despite the absence of a “sponsored” disclaimer. With that said, this type of ad received the highest credibility and social comparative scores. This positively influenced the likelihood of participants purchasing the product. Social posts also received the highest ad and brand attitude scores. The researchers were not surprised that social ad posts were overall liked the most by participants, thus being the most effective form of Instagram advertising.  

Native Ads: Although native ads did not blend in with user-generated content, they were still perceived as more credible than traditional ads. In addition, they elicited more social comparison from participants than traditional ads, yet lower than social posts. Compared to social posts and traditional ads, native ads scored the lowest for behavioral intention, ad attitude, and brand attitude.  

Traditional Ads: Participants did not often socially compare themselves nor believe traditional advertisements. Users felt more likely to make a purchase after seeing traditional ads than the native ads. Traditional ads also beat native ads for positive ad and brand sentiment. Researchers had not predicted traditional advertising to earn better marketing results than native advertising.  

The Instagram users responded relatively positively to all of the advertisement styles. Turns out, there is no need to cut out traditional ads from your social media marketing strategy. Instagram users are not more accepting of disguised ads than traditional ads. You could benefit from mixing up your advertising by using all three styles.  

Johnson, B. K., Potocki, B., & Veldhuis, J. (2019). Is That My Friend or an Advert? The Effectiveness of Instagram Native Advertisements Posing as Social Posts. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 24(3), 108–125.

Hidden Privileges in Social Media

By Kara Klaus, @karaklaus

Black and white image of people in suits behind a University door.
Picture by by Trojan_Llama. Image is licensed under CC.

In the 21st century people use social media daily. People post about their new lover or a beautiful location without a second thought, but what if they worried about posting a picture of food because it’s not one widely recognized in America? This is the reality for most underrepresented youth in America.  

The 25 participants aged 18 and over identified as low income, and as part of one or more historically underrepresented groups. Once selected, the participants completed an hour-long interview where each youth answered a series of questions which aided in the researcher’s understanding of their perception of social media.  

When asked to envision the demographics of those who design their favorite social media platform, without fail the youth described them as predominately younger white males who received a higher education, specifically in a STEM-based major. Few, if any, could picture people of color, or even females in that line of work. Based on the 2018 United States Department of Labor statistics, they assumed correctly. 

Next, the researchers asked the youth about the negative aspects of social media as it pertains to their demographic. Youth like “David” felt as though he could only post things that represented American norms; to him, a post about a Latino holiday he celebrated would not get the positive reactions an American holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas would receive. Some of the participants believed they would be ridiculed for posting about their culture. Most felt it best to adhere strictly to norms widely accepted on social media platforms.  

Participants additionally brought attention to the idealistic life portrayed on many Instagram accounts and the pressure to fit into that mold. “Maristela” said that she posted pictures of herself living a lifestyle of travel and comfort, when in reality she struggled with many financial burdens. Most youth in the study also expressed that they believed their low-income status negatively impacted their followers and likes.  

While negative impacts of social media do exist, the participants in the study felt as though these platforms gave them three important positive things. Social media provides them representation, a space to share their voice, and a place to create connections. For example, the #blackLGBTQ hashtag helps promote the ideas of individuals in support of this cause as well as allowing people to find and create new connections.  

While underrepresented youth expressed both positive and negative aspects of social media, we need to continue to work on making online platforms a more inclusive and welcoming space for people of all demographics. A place to start is by following someone with whom you may have differences, not to incite any negativity, but to gain new perspectives and ideas. Further, perhaps we can take steps on our own social spaces to advocate for those underrepresented groups who deserve to have their voices heard. 

Brough, M., Literat, I., & Ikin, A. (2020). “Good Social Media?”: Underrepresented Youth Perspectives on the Ethical and Equitable Design of Social Media Platforms. Social Media + Society,6(2), 1-11. doi:10.1177/2056305120928488 

When Social Work and Social Media Collide

By Christina Lopatin, @christi_bbttc and christinalopat (found at) gmail

Because online and offline worlds are more integrated now than ever, it has become vital for the social work institutions to instill stricter social media guidelines and risk management strategies.

picture of "Observing group work" by DoDEA Communications is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/21614119@N05

The challenge is that social workers must maintain the privacy of their clients as well as cultivate their professional and personal identities on and off the Internet.

As technologies become more advanced, these challenges will become more daunting.

Harbeck and Wesala considered the ambiguous reality and changing technologies of today and their implication to social work ethics. Despite efforts from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), policies for official social work practices lag behind the booming growth of online social media. With social media on the rise, social workers and students must stay up to date with their organization’s attitudes towards social media. At the same time, organizations need to instill clear guidelines and standards for their employees.

In order to protect the confidentiality between clients and practitioners and maintain professional boundaries, the authors these fundamental guidelines while online:

  • Be mindful (online identity should intentionally be set with a purpose and consistently monitored.)
  • Exercise caution (understand that your online persona will effect your professional role as a social worker long-term.)
  • Honor the integrity of the profession (especially when social workers identify themselves as social workers on their sites.)
  • Publish an organization-wide, written policy (this helps show transparency through employees, students and clients.)
  • Discuss privacy and social media with clients (this should be a topic in an initial session with a client because it is important for their privacy and confidentiality.)
  • New hires should be trained (students and new employees need to be socialized to understand the organization’s approach and regulations for social media use.)
  • Host workshops or debriefings (this will help equip and prepare practitioners and students with basic online management knowledge and ethic codes.)

These represent a few of the fundamental actions an organization can take as a safe guard for themselves and their clients. Professional standards and the NASW Code of Ethics help keep you accountable, but it is not enough in this fast-paced technological society. The line between professional and personal is easily blurred because of social media. As new technologies emerge, guidelines and approaches will need to be continuously readjusted. Having strict guidelines helps enable integrity and security in the practice.

Voshel, E. H., & Wesala, A. (2015). Social Media & Social Work Ethics: Determining Best Practices in an Ambiguous Reality. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 12(1), 67-76. Retrieved May 14, 2016.

How Social Media Engagement Affects Sales

By Guest Author Annie Hoch-South

Through social media, the average consumer has the ability to engage with a company firsthand, something unheard of just a few decades ago. How can companies and businesses use this to their advantage, in the new digital age?

Yoon et al. (2018) looked at the power of user engagement, a tool akin to a double-edged sword. Researchers examined a complete list of the social media and financial data of The Standard & Poor’s 500, an American stock market index of 500 large companies, which was organized using the companies’ Facebook posts from the first quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2015. Business revenue was measured each quarter and analyzed. Three hundred and forty-six companies (out of 500) used Facebook at the time of their study. Only 339 companies allowed researchers access and were active enough in their postings. By using data-mining techniques, researchers were able to examine people’s online behaviors and interactions to derive a sense of users’ engagement.

By examining the quality and quantity of consumer comments on Facebook, they found that active engagement (going beyond just hitting the “Like” or “Share” buttons) made consumers more likely to become emotionally and mentally invested in a company. By commenting, users were giving public feedback. More positive comments led to greater revenue, as did larger quantities of comments. Therefore, generating more comments generates buzz, which in turn creates profit and establishes a relationship between consumer and company.

Consumers have the power to interact with companies on a very personal level via instant messaging. Users can post their feedback, both positive and negative, directly in the public comment feed for all to see. People will take that company’s impressions with them offline and continue to shape the behavior of those around and in their social circles. In those social circles, people value acceptance amongst peers and accurate judgements of products, companies, and brands. People notice how other people behave online and follow suit. With more than 50% of social media users engaging with some brand or company and 71% of Internet users using Facebook (as cited in Gunwoo et al., 2018), it would be wise to create a marketing plan that is dedicated to increasing positive engagement and active behaviors. To become active, a company or business must be dynamic and continue to share socially. Be proactive!

Yoon, G., Li, C., Ji, Y., North, M., Hong, C., & Liu, J. (2018). Attracting comments: Digital engagement metrics on Facebook and financial performance. Journal of Advertising, 47(1), 24-37. doi:10.1080/00913367.2017.1405753

( “File:Small shop in newton abbot – panoramio.jpg” by Panoramio upload bot is licensed under CC BY 3.0 )

Youth, sexuality, and social media

By Guest Author Kaitlin Slorey: kslorey {} yahoo.com

As with many things young people use social media for, making sense of sexuality is one of the most important and life-affecting.

It holds, then, that as a society, we need to better understand how rapidly social media technologies are transforming, and how this could overwhelm our youth. Youth face a continuous struggle of contradicting beliefs regarding sexual values and norms. Deciding which behaviors on social media should be supported or disciplined puts forth an unclear sense of “controlled freedom” for youth interacting on social media.

“a Wave of Social media” by winxEsther, licensed under CC BY-ND 3.0

Before social media, there were (and still are) beliefs that sexuality is something to be thought of as harmful to our youth, and thus has caused over-protection from sexual knowledge and openness. However, with highly sexualized popular media, these messages are nearly impossible to avoid.

When young people encounter sexual material in the media, they express moral concerns about such content, while equally valuing it as a source of information and learning.

Although young people seem more open-minded about sexuality than previous generations, Ridder suggests that they enforce stricter self-guiding morals on themselves.

Because of fast-paced changes in this digital age, this leaves little to no room for questioning or negotiating the behaviors that sexuality and social media bring about. We need to consider social media’s material as well as each platform’s important functions (particularly Tinder and Snapchat).

The results were based on 14 focus groups of Dutch-speaking youth in Belgium, including 89 participants from diverse backgrounds (52 girls and 37 boys), between the age of 14 and 19. The first 8 focus groups were conducted in 2012, and the last 6 took place in 2015. In doing so, the research was purposeful within the rapidly evolving culture of social media.

Discussion topics included displaying sexual identity, relationship status, exploring and experimenting with sexual desires through texts (status updates, hashtags, etc.), pictures (from profile pictures to selfies and snaps, etc.), and communicative interactions (chatting, commenting, texting, etc.). As opposed to direct experiences of the participants, this emphasized knowledge about values, and exploring the struggles youth face in a sexual culture in relation to social media.

Ridder noted, “When I asked young people about everyday intimate and sexual practices on social media, they usually talked about related risks and how to avoid them. Whether we talked about a relationship status on Facebook, posting or sending sexy pictures, looking for dates, or sending sexual messages, they found it smart to see sexuality as mostly private matters intended for outside of social media.”

Managing an online reputation and social media use, while balancing ambiguous social norms, was seen as a personal task where the individual is in charge of making these moral decisions. There is not one single way to understand what “good” sexual practices in social media are, but rather is heavily influenced by peer control.

Defining what is too private or what is unacceptable to share online was difficult for the participants to distinguish, but was commonly motivated by these individual moral judgments.

It was common for participants to distance themselves from their peers who behaved in a risky or inappropriate way. Whether talking about sexy pictures, messages, or dating, many of them acknowledged these kinds of behaviors causally, but the moral distancing played out as a way to respond to it in a competitive manner.

Final Thoughts

Competitive value judgments between the different focus groups may suggest a new sense of conservatism in young people’s knowledge on what’s considered “good” sexual values online. This conservatism is a way of dealing with the complexity of both perceived and real online risks in rapidly transforming social media. Relying on traditional values may be comfortable for youth, or makes this mindset of individuality a “smart” choice.

Ridder suggests society should start to engage with young people’s social media lives, interrogating what people hold as normal, natural, and healthy. Addressing the current conflicts about sexuality in the context of social media can further involve how to deal with social media overload, overlaid with issues of how society feels about sexuality and young people.

Ridder, S. D. (2017). Social Media and Young People’s Sexualities: Values, Norms, and Battlegrounds. Social Media + Society, 3(4), 1-11. doi:10.1177/2056305117738992

Does stress actually affect social media usage?

By Briar Anderson

Today, about 65% of adults use social media. Inevitably, social media use has affected different aspects of life like parenting and dating. It connects people around the globe. Many people actually to turn to social media as a stress reliever, as it can provide perceptions of social support.

In a study of 201 adults with Facebook accounts by Denq, Denq, and Hsu, participants were put under two conditions, either stress inducing or not stress inducing. They were then given a 10-minute break on their own computers and allowed to do whatever they wanted. The survey additionally asked questions pertaining to:

  • How much stress they felt when certain events happened (e.g., “In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?”).
  • Frequency of social media usage (e.g., “How often on average do you ‘like’ someone’s photos or status updates per week?”).
  • Desirable and undesirable life events that range from common to uncommon of someone within the participant’s life. (e.g., if they knew someone who started a new job).
  • Support-seeking behavior on Facebook (e.g., “I tried to get emotional support from friends or relatives on Facebook”).
  • Individual’s perception of social support from family, friends, and significant others (e.g., “I get the emotional help and support I need from my family”).
  • Positive and negative mood affectivity (e.g., “inspired” or “hostile”).
  • Habits on Facebook (e.g., “I do without having to consciously remember”).
  • Urge to use Facebook (e.g., “If it were possible, I probably would use Facebook now”).
  • Feelings of sympathy and concern for others (e.g., “I would describe myself as a pretty softhearted person”).
  • Active or passive usage of Facebook during the 10-minute break (e.g., “did you see only the pictures without reading the text?”).
  • Importance of Facebook (e.g., “how important is your Facebook profile in regards to your happiness?”).

The results indicated that seeking social support may contribute to increased use of social media. Also, increased usage of social media is a gauge of both frequency and strength of inducing habitual behavior regardless of stress. However, the results do not reinforce that habit is a factor in predicting social media usage as a reaction to stress. It shows that a habit of using social media was a stronger indicator of social media usage than stress. This may occur because users with strong habits of using social media may use it regardless of being stressed or not.

This may not come as surprising to many who engage in social media. People naturally seek support from others during stressful times, and social media has become an easy, free, and useful place to do so. But, people’s natural inclination to use social media through both good and bad prevails. Social media is still such a new phenomenon; it will take a lot more time, learning and research to fully understand its effects when used as a stress relief or for social support, and if these harm or help.

Denq, B., Denq, W., & Hsu, W. (2019). Stress and Its Impact on Social Media Usage. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 49(2), 232–245. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281618772076

Image by Geraint Rowland via Creative Commons

What we use social media for

Research by NM Incite reveals some notable but not terribly shocking data regarding why people engage with social media.

From the highlights:

Not surprisingly, the top drivers of social media use among social networkers are keeping in touch with family and friends (89% and 88%, respectively) and finding new friends (70%).  Another driver of use is the desire to view and contribute to reviews of products and services as 68 percent of social media users go to social networking sites to read product reviews and over half use these sites to provide product feedback, both positive and negative.  Other top reasons social media users engage in social networking include entertainment (67%), as a creative outlet (64%), to learn about products (58%), and to get coupons or promotions (54%).

I am surprised people use it more to praise a product than to bury one, given  often I see people airing out their grievances about products on Twitter. On the other hand, people do not generally like the Facebook pages of a company that they dislike.

How Young People Perceive the News and Where to Get It– In the Future

Photo courtesy of Joe ShlabotnikLooking into the recent past to see what people thought of the future, well, isn’t that half of the fun of visiting Tomorrowland? A recent study sampled 1,222 people between the ages of 18-29 to understand how they perceive the news, and where they see themselves getting the news in the future. The study was published in 2008, meaning data was likely collected around 2007.

Five dimensions of how the participants perceive news and its utility emerged. While they felt it 1) satisfies civic and personal needs, and was 2) socially useful (it gave them something to talk about it, they had more negative perceptions of it. They find the news 3) time and effort consuming, 4) biased, and 5) devoid of fun.

The participants  reported they planned on getting less of their news from social media sites in the future. The view from this vantage point shows that this is wrong to the Nth degree, but perhaps they perceived it as more of a fad (and they survey did not take Twitter into account, which for many of us provides a top source of articles). They anticipated getting more of their news from print and television than they do now, which offers some ray of hope for traditional modes of journalism.

I am not so sure attitudes have changed that radically in the 3 years since the data in this study was collected. College students still see themselves seeking out news in the same manner as their parents and other adults that they have seen all of their lives. I wonder when they will consciously make the decision to switch the means by which they get the news, and what would motivate them to do so… or will their current habits bore into their psyches, and they won’t make the changes they anticipate? Tomorrow never knows.

Lewis, S.C. (2008). Where young adults intend to get news in five years. Newspaper Research Journal, 29, 36-52.

How and Why Students Use Instant Messaging

By Guest Author Carolyn Borsch

Ding: You have 12 billion messages. Well, maybe not, but that’s how many instant messages (IMs) get sent each day, worldwide, among 510 million users.

Quan-Haase examined a wide-range of studies involving North American college and middle/high school students regarding their instant messaging habits, with whom they use IM to communicate, and the effects of IM on their social and academic life. Quan-Haase made the following baseline observations:

  • High use abounds across the board.
  • Speed, availability of information, and support for multiple conversations and multitasking attract students to this form of communication.
  • IM is used to form and maintain communities and social ties, minimizes the gap felt between long distance communicators (like friends back home), and increase closeness– sense of psychological connection between two people.
  • IM is informal, and convenient to send messages not phone call worthy.
  • Certain features help maintain and promote students’ identity.
  • IM is used to stay in touch with classmates, friends, family members, and to meet new people. However, it is used more frequently to talk with friends on campus than friends back home.
  • In-person meetings are still important, even though they take place less often.
  • There is an increase in the use of IM by faculty and staff at universities. Professors hold virtual office hours and use IM to connect students with libraries for reference help.

On the plus side, IM provides a new environment for collaboration with peers, professors, librarians, technicians, and other experts. It also correlates with greater numbers of social ties (something that more recent studies continue to indicate). However, possible negative effects include 1) the diminished quality of a student’s writing- very few professors actually think that writing quality has declined since the introduction of the internet, 2)  multitasking leading to less attention on homework and studying, interfering with a student’s focus, and 3) students find it difficult to ignore an IM.

Capturing and measuring IM use can be difficult, as many different levels of engagement exist.  Quan-Haase suggests measuring IM use by initially measuring overall time logged in, measuring time spent screening IM users, time spent reading/writing IM messages, time spent checking the IM buddy list, and time spent on administrative tasks like updating profile information.

Quan-Haase, A. (2008). Instant Messaging on campus: Use and integration in university students’ everyday communication. The Information Society, 24, 105-115.

How adolescents use fast-paced communication to form relationships

By Guest Author Katie Weltner

From Marc_Smith's photostream via Flickr

Technology affects children at increasingly younger ages, and I have often wondered at how immediate and constant interaction alters the formation and maintenance of friendships, and how their friendships will differ from the older, more traditional (re: face-to-face) way of communicating.

Three Indiana University professors studied 40 seventh grade students (ages 11-13) to see if the students created more, but weaker relationships, and to learn the extent that technological communication was valuable for less social students. With the abundance of online friendship networks, it seems plausible that many students would communicate more often with less-close friends, yet this data indicates otherwise.

They write that the number of relationships students identified as “close” showed “no significant difference in relational intensity” as with the number of friends with whom the students communicated through socially interactive technologies (SITs), meaning the students did not have more friends online than offline. However, the study also found that the 10% of students who said they had “few” or “no” close friends used SITs to communicate with acquaintances, as opposed to close friends. This divergence can possibly be explained through an understanding that the majority of students hold “in-depth” conversations, presumably with closer friends, in person or on the telephone. Additionally, with friends identified as “close”, many students only used SITs as basic maintenance and making plans.

Ultimately, all relationships differ. Some students with strong friendships rarely communicate with SITs, while others often do, and the students used “different SITs with different friends.” One aspect of this is that many of these students only had access to one SIT, while others had access to none, which would alter the form of communication with both players in the friendship. In addition, some relationships simply may be stronger through certain modes of communication than others.

Since 2006 when this article was published,  the usage of IMing has increased. What has not possibly changed? In this article nearly all communication through SITs was between those the students who had met before, and that the students were not using the internet to develop new friendships, a trend I hope will continue.

One of the interesting things to note about the technological world is the abundance of accessible information. Websites such as Facebook allow friends, acquaintances and complete strangers to see equal amounts of information about the user. Acquaintances can suddenly learn a surprising deal about someone they just met, and can instantly judge whether or not to pursue the relationship. This instantaneous selection process can affect the way children learn to deal with bad situations and relationships in their lives. For those primarily developed before the rush of technological communication, it is important to note how a slightly younger generation will relate to those around them throughout their entire lives.

Bryant, J., Sanders-Jackson, A., & Smallwood, A. (2006). IMing, text messaging, and adolescent social networks. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 577-592.