Using two samples of LinkedIn portraits from American (n = 480) and Israeli (n = 300) users, we found that most LinkedIn portraits adhere to popular recommendations found on the Internet. However, there were cross-cultural differences in the level of formality and adherence to popular advice, with Americans more than Israelis presenting themselves in a formal manner and in an appropriate location and position. Occupation categories did not prove to moderate the cultural effects on the portraits features. Future research is needed to generalize these findings to other cultures, geographical areas, religions, and occupations. These findings have implications for SNS users and recruiters.

Since a social networking service (SNS) isconsidered as an effective means to communicate and interact with customers, companies are trying to utilize SNS effectively. There is a lack of theory relating to the attributes of SNS. This study aims to investigate the attributes of SNS to classify SNS. Based on the social network theory, and previous studies on internet, blog, homepage, communication attributes, this study proposes the seven attributes to classify SNS: interaction, communication, entertainment, information, sharing, intimacy and connection. A pre-test, a pilot test and a main test are conducted. In the main test, 239 SNS users are participated. Through a factor analysis this study verifies the seven attributes of SNS. An analysis of variance with multiple comparisons of Scheffé method identifies that three attributes, interaction, communication and connection, are found to play significant roles to differentiate SNS. Looking at the overall mean values of the SNS by attribute, interaction, sharing, entertainment, intimacy and communication were relatively high in Facebook. Facebook showed higher values in attributes of interaction, sharing, entertainment, intimacy and communication. Twitter shows the relatively high scores for information and connection. Regarding interaction, Facebook shows higher scores than Twitter and Cyworld. For connection, Cyworld showed a significantly lower score than Twitter and Facebook. Cyworld was separated from the others in the light of communication. Cyworld is relatively weak in communication as it is limited to the message exchanges. The results will help in identifying major attributes for each SNS and classifying SNS.

This study samples the content of posts of display-related information posted on social networking services to clarify the in-store display requirements that influence the strength of response by SNS users. The data was found using the submission history of “Minrepo,” a social networking service used for marketing research by DOCOMO Insight Marketing, Inc. In this analysis, we presented the theme “please show us displays you thought were interesting on streets or in shop windows,” and gathered posts relating to this subject in content. The theme was presented for two weeks in June and July 2015 respectively, with 91 posts gathered. These explanatory variables, which were related to the format of the comment and the photographic content (display theme), and acquisition number of “likes” were clarified using a regression model of explained variables, which in this case was Poisson regression modeling (de Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012) assuming distribution of Poisson. As a result of the analysis, the following were established as comments that easily elicited a sympathetic response and are exhibit requirements of the displays: (1) In terms of comment format, “attaching lots of photographs,” “including exclamation marks,” and “including a mixture of both negative and positive comments” easily elicited a sympathetic response from the reader, (2) in terms of the content of attached photographs, exhibits with the keywords “season,” “mass display,” “fresh foods,” “character,” “sweets,” “variety,” and “local foods” similarly gained a sympathetic response, while (3) on the other hand, the standard shelving and mass display just of packaged foods as well as specialized exhibits of particular products were not popular. These findings suggest the following two points: (1) it is possible that pre-existing forms of special displays (the mass display of specific products) will not suffice to make a product more than something that is just bought and into a topic of news, (2) while it is obvious for most retailers selling packaged foods, manufacturers and wholesalers offering products and supporting exhibits within stores, should also try to make instore displays that takes the above mentioned contents into account.