An analytical understanding of user response to advertisements published in social media websites is very interesting from both academic and marketing perspectives. Present research administers two studies; study 1; explores user perceptions of advertisements in four areas of social media, viz. social networking (Facebook), business networking (LinkedIn), microblogging (Twitter) and video sharing (YouTube) dependent to their demographic and lifestyle characteristics, study 2; empirically identifies is there any significant mean difference with the perceived advertising value and attitude across the four social media websites. The data culled from 710 usable responses were used to empirically examine the objectives of this research. The decision tree technique (classification tree) using CHAID criterion and MANOVA was employed to study 1 and study 2 respectively. The results identified that; the four sites showed differing patterns of user attitude towards advertisements published in them (b) both advertising value and attitude compositely differ across the four social media websites.
TopIntroduction
Social media has grown to be a leading communication channel in the past decade. Its various functions including social networking, blogging, image and music sharing, video sharing, business networking, scheduling and meeting tools have become extensive in both business and private communications (Rowlands et al, 2011; Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Thus, the use of social media has become a lucrative option for businesses. Earlier studies have extensively explored the applicability of social media in business domains, particularly in the areas of business potential (Karkkainen et al, 2010), marketing (Miller and Lammas, 2010; Mangold and Faulds, 2009; Chu and Kim, 2011) and sales (Rodriguez et al, 2012, Agnihotri et al, 2012; Andzulis et al, 2012; Stephen and Galak, 2012).
Marketing is an area that constantly adopts new and emerging technologies and platforms to attract consumers. The rapid increase in the number of advertisements published in social media domains is an example of such adaptability. The response and attitude of the consumer/user to advertisements published in social media is a dynamic and important area of study to understand the efficiency of such developments. The rapidly expanding list of social media websites driven by the trend and expectations of a net-savvy population offers wide scope for the quantification of attitudinal response among social media users, to advertisements placed in popular social media websites. Earlier studies have examined social media advertisements in Western countries, notably USA. Similar studies in Asian countries, especially India, are necessary, given the rapid penetration of social media websites among Indian internet users.
Condensing and examining advertisements among social media websites in a single context is incomplete. Social media is associated with a variety of functions. This study focuses on understanding the user attitude disposition of advertisements in four growing social media functions, viz. social networking (SN), business networking (BN), microblogging (MB) and video sharing (VS). It is important to identify the differences in user characteristics among these social media functions. Earlier studies have emphasised the importance of user characteristics from a general perspective (Naseri and Elliot, 2011; Girard et al, 2003, Bigne et al, 2005). Examining user characteristics associated with social media advertisements in particular is a new area of research. This study examines the differences in user characteristics, value and attitude pattern towards advertisements among these four different social media domains. This study introduces and identifies popular websites in each of the above mentioned social media functions, develops a methodology to identify the divergent pattern among these sites, and discusses the results applicable from practical and theoretical perspectives.