Motivation and emotion/Book/2015/Social media engagement motivation

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Social media engagement motivation:
What motivates differing levels of engagement with content on social media?

The media usage of any individual is increasingly complex in the modern networked world.

[Multimedia link goes here Go to a 3 min. audiovisual overview of this chapter.]

Overview

**Define social media* *Statement about ubiquity of social media in modern society*. *Social media usage statistics*. *Brief mention of social media engagement tools- like, share, comment, subscribe, create* The success of social media sites depends on the continued use of the engagement tools offered. Therefore, the focus of this chapter will be on what motivates individuals to engage in different ways with content on social media.

Social media engagement tools have changed the way we provide content and feedback about ourselves and the world around us. These tools are frequently embedded in websites to facilitate the evaluation and dissemination of information. Facebook estimates that their like and share buttons can be found on at least 10 million pages. Every minute, Facebook’s users generate an average of more than 3.12 million likes (https://www.facebook.com/facebook/photos/a.10151908376636729.1073741825.20531316728/10151908376831729/?type=3&permPage=1) and share over 3.29 million items (Facebook, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/facebook/photos/a.10151908376636729.1073741825.20531316728/10151908376716729/?type=3). Given the vast amounts of content available, generating an understanding of the motivations that guide our responses to content could have valuable implications for marketers, content creators and users alike. What motivates us to click on content, like it, comment on it, share it, or perhaps even go on to create our own original derivative content inspired by it? Read on to find out.

Key Definitions

Motivation- the state arising from physiological and/or psychological needs, emotions and cognitions that gives energy and direction to behaviour (Reeve, 2015).

Central Questions

The Facebook Like Button is a common metric for engagement with content, and its uses and gratifications are varied.

-What motivates people to click on a link to external content? (Clickbait, information gap etc.)

-What motivates people to "like" content? Reciprocity, relatedness, interest

-What motivates people to comment on content? Relatedness

-What motivates people to "share" content?

-What motivates people to subscribe to content creators?

-What motivates people to create derivatives of content?

-What makes content go viral? (Social currency + environmental cues that stimulate thought about the product + emotional responses + content characteristics + relevance to target audience + stories ==>> motivation to share) + algorithms = virality

Taxonomy of social media engagement types

The Social Media Technographics Profile (Li & Bernoff, 2011) is one tool that can be used to classify types of engagement with content.

Creators- generate original content

Conversationalists- update personal statuses

Critics- review products, edit wikis etc

Collectors- e.g. Pinterest/Tumblr users- curation of content- once weekly

Joiners- maintain profile, but don't update statuses

Spectators- passively consume content e.g. read blogs, forums, tweets etc.

Inactives

Click

The action of clicking a link to external content is generally motivated by curiosity, a deficiency-based motive described in Loewenstein's (1994) "information gap model" as arising from the need to reduce a perceived gap between one's current and desired knowledge. The model distinguishes between the reasons why people become aware of these gaps; voluntary curiosity occurs when a person seeks out curiosity-inducing situations for the relief that comes from their resolution, whereas involuntary curiosity arises when a person becomes aware of a gap between their actual and desired knowledge due to situational cues. These cues, which are often incorporated into article headlines, can include:

Implied or direct questions:

"Which Zodiac Sign Should You Date Based On Your Favorite Color?"

Unresolved sequences of events, especially those with expected or desired outcomes:

"This is what happens when molten lava goes head-to-head against ice"

"A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well."

Events that violate expectations, which can then cause the person to formulate causal attributions (Hastie, 1984, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994) and lead to deeper information processing, regardless of the perceived importance of the information (Maheswaran & Chaiken, 1991, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994):

"This street art in Seoul is only visible when it rains!"

Knowledge of others, where people are motivated through social comparison to seek information known by others- the examples given are the desire to know the sex of one’s unborn child after the doctor finds out, or to find out what someone else is laughing about.

"7 Signs You Smell Bad And People Aren't Telling You"

Prior knowledge or exposure, where people are motivated to remember or relearn what they once knew about a topic. Loewenstein (1992, cited in Loewenstein, 1994) observed increased levels of curiosity about definitions of words that were familiar but inaccessible to short-term memory as opposed to unfamiliar words. This is related to the mere exposure effect (maybe elaborate if you have time).

"39 Awesome Things Only ’90s Kids Will Remember"

Like

The existing literature on why we "like" content on social media is based on uses and gratifications theory, which assumes that all media usage is goal-directed and seeks gratifications through the fulfilment of certain needs, the nature of which will be accessible to the user. As such, studies utilising this theory rely on self-reporting of motives.

ADD SOME FINDINGS

Comment

Tenenboim & Cohen (2015) analysed correlations between two aspects of content engagement (clicking and commenting) and content characteristics using 15 341 news articles posted on a single well-known Israeli website in January and June from 2006-2011. They found only 41-60% concordance between the most clicked and most commented list, suggesting a disconnection between the acts of viewing and engaging with content. So what caused this disconnect? A subsequent content analysis of the headlines from the five most commented and five most liked articles in each month found that in general, the majority of articles pertaining to sociopolitical tensions attracted more comments than views. Conversely, the majority of most-viewed articles with fewer comments contained no expressions of conflict.

Identity (ideal vs actual self)

Du Preez & Lombard- The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae

Berger- STEPPS Framework

Social currency- Content that makes oneself look good to others

Triggers- Content that has strong associations with frequently encountered environmental cues

Emotion- Content that elicits high arousal emotions

Public- Content that contains a specific call-to-action

Practical value- Content with relevance to the lives of audience members

Stories- Content packaged as stories rather than advertisements

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The Uses and Gratifications theory examines patterns of usage of different media in relation to the needs fulfilled by that usage. Many studies of social media engagement have taken this perspective.

Information Gap Theory

Information gap theory (Loewenstein) presents the desire for knowledge as a deficiency need, and posits that curiosity is aroused when people are made consciously aware of gaps in their knowledge.

Cognitive Dissonance

Identity- Discrepancy between actual and perceived self

Impression Management Theory

Impression management theory (Goffman, YEAR) refers to conscious and deliberate filtering and selection of information in order to portray a desired self-image.

Self-Determination Theory

The self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, YEAR) identifies three core needs that an activity should be designed to fulfil in order to encourage engagement: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Sample table (will probably be used for multimedia)

Type of Engagement	Relevant theories	Motivation
Click	Information gap theory (Loewenstein, 1994)	Curiosity
Like	Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan)	Relatedness
Share	Impression management (Goffman), self-schemas
Subscribe
Comment
Imitate/Create derivatives	Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan), Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964)	Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness (intrinsic); financial incentives (extrinsic)

Sample quiz (edit later)

Try applying the knowledge that you've just learned with this quiz:

Sample multimedia link:

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