The purpose of this research was to identify how students used social media during their experience with study abroad programs that focus on social and environmental sustainability. Key research questions included: Did students and program faculty directors perceive social media as beneficial or challenging to program goal? How did social media contribute to the overall learning process? How can this knowledge inform the design and implementation of future study abroad experiences? Surveys were conducted with students participating in three study abroad programs in three countries with varying levels of internet access. We found that most students used social media as a familiar support system to help acclimate to a foreign land, through the formation of cohesive peer groups and establishment of communication channels with family and friends. However, both students and program directors acknowledged the challenges of social media dependency. We conclude that judicious use of social media, when coupled with conscious immersion into the local environment and culture can enhance study abroad programs; and offer suggestions for future program planning.

Social networking sites (SNS) are defined as web-based services that enable consumers to create a public profile and a list of contacts with whom they share a social network (Kang et al., 2014). On SNS sites, consumers can find the right product, obtain advice from people, make purchases, post product recommendations, reviews and photos, and create SNS communities (Shen, 2008). The shopping motive acts as an important trigger to browse for products on social media websites. Product browsing over social media sites could influence the intention of future purchase and sharing information of product and brand with friend and acquaintances. For companies related to social media business, both intention to purchase and information sharing are crucial elements. However, few efforts have been made to identify the factors driving consumer intentions to purchase and word-of-mouth of fashion products on social media sites. The objectives of this study were to determine the factor to facilitate product browsing and to find out the causative relationship among influential factors and consumer intentions to purchase and word-of-mouth of fashion products on social media sites. The instrument was developed based on the previous literatures (Brien, 2010; Park, et al., 2012; To, 2007; Woo & Hwang, 2013) and each item was measured by five-point Liker type scales. A total of 269 data were collected during a regularly scheduled class in universities, who have experienced to purchase fashion products or make a product review on social media sites. Mean age of the respondents was 22.3 years old. Nearly 75.3 percent of the subjects were women, and more than half of the respondents (61.6%) have purchased the products (e.g., apparel, shoes, etc.) on social commerce sites over three years. The structure equation model analysis was conducted by AMOS 23.0 using a correlation matrix with maximum likelihood approach. The structural equation model was relatively acceptable (chi-square value = 136.30, df = 66, p = .000; GFI = .94, AGFI = .91, RMR = .05). Cronbach's alphas were ranged between .83 and .87. This result suggests that utilitarian shopping motives have influenced directly product browsing, purchase intention, and word-of-mouth intentions of fashion products on social media sites. The more product browsing on social media sites, the more intended to purchase and word-of-mouth of fashion products with friend and acquaintances. It implies that consumer with utilitarian shopping motives are likely to more browse, and then to more purchase and write the review of fashion products on social media sites. However, consumers with hedonic shopping motives are prone to more write the review of fashion products to their friends and acquaintances without product browsing or purchase intention on social media sites.

According to industry reports, a CEO’s strong social presence has a tremendous impact on the company’s reputation and their own image. However, despite being considered as digital influencers, most C-suite leaders fail to establish their own personal brand online. This under-development leads to the following questions: What are CEOs currently doing with their social media and why are CEOs (not) using social media? Interviewing 16 Dutch CEOs, this study explores the impact of the leadership style (transactional or transformational) and leaders' perception of narcissism in online impression management on CEOs’ social media activities. By investigating these relationships, the research further clarifies CEOs’ leadership communication strategies on social media and establishes the drivers and barriers for social media engagement to pave the ways for interested social CEOs. The results suggest that leadership styles may detect the content strategies and motivations of social media usage. The activity level, however, is determined by the perceptions of self-image and degree of a narcissistic impression on using social media. With this finding, we propose CEO social media activities can be typified into four categories: thought leader, storyteller, professional networker and selective performer. Transformational leaders tend to emphasize on being accessible and transparent to their audience. When they are positive about being narcissistic on social media, they are more likely to be a storyteller where they strive for charismatic and authentic content building. Conversely, a more reserved transformational leader would be a selective performer where they only publicize their stories in front of a selected group of audience, mostly through internal platforms. On the other hand, transactional leaders tend to focus on professionalism and efficiency in using social media. The ones who see the benefits of social media and are confident in sharing their own ideas tend to be thought leaders among their professional networks. On the contrary, the reserved transactional leaders rather using social media to connect with their professional network to obtain information than broadcasting their own voices. The study provides insights in how CEOs formulate their leadership communication online; further research should continue exploring the impact of various strategies on corporate performance and stakeholder engagement.

Social media as an online channel for sharing and participating can play an important role for many marketing activities. Social media can be especially influential in word of mouth (WOM) communication as the focus of it is the sharing of information regarding consumers’ product experiences. To use social media as a marketing tool, identifying the relationship between message sender and receiver (the strength of social tie) is important in the viral marketing campaign context. Also, the effects can be influenced by message type, and consumers’ situational context. Therefore, the study examines the consumers’ intention to share advertising message with others in social media focusing on the strength of social ties (strong vs. weak tie) between message receivers and senders. The authors hypothesize that participants’ intention for sharing will be higher for the message recipients of strong tie than of weak tie. Especially, the sharing intention, for strong tie than for weak tie, will be higher when there is a match between message type (visual vs. text) and consumers’ purchasing context (close vs. far distance). The study used 2(temporal distance: close vs. distant) x 2(message type: text vs. picture) x 2 (close friends, vs. general public) design with the first two factors as between –subject factors and the last factor as a within-subject factor. A total of 107 student subjects participated in an experiment. They were recruited from a private university, in Seoul, in exchange for extra credit. The participants’ average age was 22 (SD=2.72) and 58 percent of them were males.

Recent evidence suggests a dramatic increase of use on the social media environment in the tourism and hospitality industry. This study aims to develop a measurement scale for the social media environment also called “social media scape”. The study will offer insights regarding the consequences of social media scape as well. Empirical data will be collected from 3 different countries and 3 studies will be conducted. In addition, the findings of this study will suggest how social media scape shapes key consumer behavior outcomes. Finally, this study will discuss the managerial implications for marketing and positioning strategy in the social media environment. In particular, the results of the study will indicate how the social media scape should be developed thus helping brands to better position themselves in this social media world and what consumers’ needs can satisfy such as functional, hedonic, social, and psychological. In addition, for global marketers who want to develop international networks, ethnicities are a significant impact factor on users’ behaviors. As such, this information will be useful since our study will include 3 different countries

Luxury brand marketers have recently turned their attention to luxury brand consumers and their social brand communities devoted to the brands. Luxury brands appeal to customers by enhancing their images regarding heritage, quality, and artistic value. Luxury fashion brands also establish social media communities to communicate their images more effectively. This study uses the key concepts of integration and interactivity to provide theoretical foundations to investigate luxury brand communities (LBCs) in the social media context. A survey was given to 252 members of Facebook fan pages for luxury brands from South Korea. This study examines effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs in social media, and consequences, attitude, purchase intentions, and brand loyalties, hence offering implications for luxury brand management academics and practitioners

This study is intended to provide marketing practitioners with an overview of web analytics to explore the issue of how to define and measure the effectiveness of social media through analyzing the various activities of current/potential consumers as well as provide a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of digital content marketing using social media. These analytics answer broad questions about which types of social media metrics are best at referring traffic, about conversations at the organization’s website, and about comparing different social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter in this study. The major goal of this study is to demonstrate the value of businesses’ efforts and to optimize their digital/social marketing strategy using web analytics. Based on this goal three research questions were identified: (1) can the model identify social media performance variables that are related to audience response which can be represented by website traffic?; (2) which social media sties are driving traffic to a firm’s website, specifically in B2B environment?; and (3) can the model provide insight into the importance of those variables? These analytics employ time series analysis to specifically address activities in SNSs that effectively drive traffic to a website and accomplish business goals. This study is one of the first empirical investigations in the marketing communication field related to measuring social media’s effectiveness.

This paper aims to explain how storytelling becomes interlinked with social media and the conceptual consequences this development implies. In recent years the interest in storytelling has increased within the marketing discipline. Parallel to this development, the traditional media landscape has been subjected to change as a result of digitization and particularly the expansion of social media. Even though the social nature of these media and its associated electronic word of mouth seem to be well aligned with storytelling, extant literature exhibits few attempts to review the storytelling concept in relation to social media. Based on such a review, the contribution of this paper is condensed into six theoretical propositions that point out how storytelling is expected to become increasingly common and dynamic in social media. Therefore, storytelling is suggested to represent a managerial challenge with regard to professional organizations’ marketing approaches but simultaneously allow for increased customer intimacy for those actors who develop successful ways of attracting the interest and engagement of social media users.

In this paper, we review the influence of crisis response strategies in social media on attitude recovery in relation to customer brand commitment. We extend the situational crisis communication theory and the social-mediated crisis communication model to include the role of audience characteristics (i.e., customer brand commitment). The effects of crisis response strategies (i.e., defensive, accommodative) and electronic word of mouth antecedents are discussed because source factors, message factors, and audience factors lead to attitude recovery. We also introduce a framework of the impacts of brand crisis response strategies on customer attitude recovery after exposure to negative word of mouth and response strategies in social media.

The rise of technology has brought innovations in the field of marketing. The most modern trend of marketing is termed as social media marketing. Social media is not only reducing the communication distance in the world but the discovery of social media provided opportunities for business to increase their exposure. However, it has been observed that regardless of the advantages of new technology some time users’ are reluctant to accept and use that technology. Considering these facts, the investigation of the factors affecting consumers’ intention for the acceptance and use of social media marketing (SMM) has been the greatest concern of the researcher. Other facet of this study is to understand the nature of consumers’ behavior across culture. This research is an empirical study for testing the underlying factors that influence the users’ intention for the acceptance and use of SMM. Current research proposes SMM acceptance model by integrating unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and technology acceptance model along with personal constructs. As the focus of this study was on UTAUT, hence majority of factors were selected from this theory. The survey was conducted with sample of 612 participants from South Korea and Pakistan. Findings by using structural equation modeling revealed that attitude towards online advertisement and electronic word of mouth significantly affect users’ intention for acceptance of SMM. Moreover, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, social influence, perceived usefulness, and perceived risk significantly influence users’ attitude towards advertisement. It has been found that the effect of social influence, perceived usefulness, and involvement is significant on attitude towards electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Moderating effects of nationality, gender, and use frequency are also tested on integrated model. The findings are helpful to understand consumer behavior and advantageous for marketing strategies. This research will contribute to the literature within the domain of social media marketing. The findings along with implications and recommendations for future research were also discussed at the end.

Through the theoretical lens of self-concept and by conducting 27 in-depth interviews, the study shows that social media provides an arena for the development, negotiation and maintenance of home and host identity self-schemas, as well reducing negative emotional effects. However due to simultaneous online surveillance from multiple agents, maintaining disparate expectations is found to result in social anxiety and the practice of self-regulation.

The aim of this paper is to investigate, through a content analysis, the communication strategies used by luxury fashion brands on Twitter and the related Twitter eWOM, with the purpose to identify brand associations compared to luxury dimensions considered in literature (De Barnier et al. 2012; Godey et al. 2014). Within the luxury fashion environment, where every detail is meaningful and, consequently, every single word matters, this study attempts to provide a contribution into the field of luxury advertising, by comparing semantic fields of words chosen by digital fashion marketers and by popular fashion bloggers to the dimensions that define the luxury construct in luxury literature.

Social media was originally based on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and is described as “user-generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Although initially used for communication among internet users for privacy, it has become one of the most powerful online networking tools, and in the last few years has been widely practiced in the real world to enhance relationships between businesses and customers. Virtual tourist communities are not a new concept; they have been used for more than 10 years by tourists to exchange opinions and experiences of certain travel destinations. In tourism, internet based social communities have greatly expanded recently as a result of Web 2.0 technologies’ development. Tourists use the Internet to obtain information on trips, and share experiences related to their trip before, during and after their vacation (Parra-Lopez et al., 2011). Therefore, behaviors such as sharing photos and videos, writing travel experiences in blogs and microblogs, ranking travel destinations and posting opinions on social forums (for example, TripAdvisor) are becoming generalized (Chung & Buhalis, 2008) into what has been called Travel 2.0 (Adam, et al., 2007). The purpose and importance of this study is to explore how tourists perceive the value of social media as practiced in the tourism industry. We also investigate travel agencies’ social media marketing activities, and how tourists’ perceived value of social media affects their intention to use social media for organizing their vacation. Conceptual foundations Perceived value of using social media in tourism Perceived value is treated as a major element in a number of tourism research papers (for example, Parasuraman & Grewal, 2000; Sweeny & Soutar, 2001; Jin et al. 2015). As Parra-Lopez et al. (2011, pp.641) said, “the identification of the types of customer value perceived by travelers using social media for trip planning purposes is very essential, because it can provide significant guidelines on how to design the information sources, the structure and the functionality of social media in order to enhance their web traffic, usage and competiveness”. Realizing the essential role of social media in the tourist industry, and clarifying how to measure the perceived value of using social media is required. Because perceived value is defined as ‘cognitive-affective evaluation’ in this study, we employ both cognitive and affective variables to measure the perceived value of using social mediato organize vacations. This study applies four dimensions – ‘functional’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’ and ‘trust’ from Parra-Lopez et al.’s (2011) study - to measure the value that travelers perceive from using social media to organize their vacations. Because both cognitive and affective value are used to evaluate a product or service during the purchasing process (Bajs, 2015), it seems reasonable to assume that ‘function’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’, and ‘trust’ are regarded as essential when measuring the perceived value of using social media to organize vacations. Such propositions and findings provide valuable insights that enable us to introduce our Hypothesis 1. H1: ‘Functional’, ‘Social’, ‘Altruism’ and ‘Trust’ are the dominant dimensions in the perceived value of using social media in organizing vacations. The inter-relationship of attitudes towards social media marketing activities and the perceived value and intention of using social media to organize vacations Social media is seen as one of the most powerful communication tools, and social media marketing (referred to henceforth as ‘SMM’) is used by business companies to build and maintain relationships with their customers in various fields (Kim & Ko, 2012). In previous studies, such as Kim and Ko (2012) as well as Teo and Tan (2002), it has been claimed that customers’ attitudes towards SMM activities affect brand equity. This conclusion is also supported by Chan and Guillet’s (2011) study, which shows the important role of SMM in the hospitality industry. Nowadays, most travel agencies in Japan have created their social communities aiming to enhance their relationship with customers and promote their travel products. Aker and Topcu (2011) suggest that attitude greatly affects people’s purchase intention and behavior. Moreover, the wide acceptance of SMM also means that a positive attitude towards SMM affects the perceived value of social media. It has been clarified that perceived value is positive when the benefits are greater than the sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988). As more and more tourists rely on social media to enhance their vacations, this suggests that the perceived benefit of social media is greater than the sacrifice, and therefore its perceived value positively affects the behavior intention of tourists who use social media to organize vacations. This academic background leads us to Hypothesis 2. H2: Both direct effect (i.e. attitude towards SMM activities→Intention) and indirect effect (i.e. attitude towards SMM activities→ Perceived value→Intention) will provide a good explanation of tourists’ intention of using social media to organize vacations. Methodology Proposed conceptual model Based on the theoretical background, this study proposes a conceptual model (see Figure 1) to show the inter-relationship of ‘attitudes towards SMM activities’, ‘perceived value’ and ‘behavior intention’. Figure 1: Conceptual Model Measurement This study involves items which have been used in past research. All items were developed based on the 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ (see Table 1).Data collection The empirical data for this study was collected by an online survey conducted by one of the biggest research companies in Japan from March 13th to March 16th, 2015. A screening test was conducted to select suitable respondents with experience of using social media to organize their vacation and had accessed or used travel agencies’ social media, such as Facebook, Blog, and Twitter. Finally, due to the limited research budget, 622 valid samples were collected to be used in analysing the conceptual model. Data analysis results As all items presented in this study are cited from past research, we employed second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) directly to explore the dominant dimensions of the perceived value of using social media to organize vacations (H1), and covariance structure analysis to investigate the inter-relationship among attitudes towards SMM activities, perceived value and behavior intention (H2). The results of data analysis are shown below (see Figure 2&3). Conclusions and managerial implications Based on the results reported in the present study, ‘functional’, ‘social’, ‘altruism’ and ‘trust’ are shown as dominant dimensions of perceived value in social media literature, thus supporting hypothesis 1. However, these four dimensions play different roles in perceived value. Compared with other dimensions, ‘altruism’ appears to be more essential. This result can be explained by the usage of social media. Tourists tend to share their experiences, opinions, photos and videos about certain travel destinations in what is called ‘altruism dimensions’. These tourists’ behavior is not for the benefit of others but for self-satisfaction (Baym, 2010) and is believed to be the most important incentive for using social media. Concerning the inter-relationship of attitudes towards SMM, perceived value and the intention of using social media to organize a vacation, contrary to our hypothesis, tourists’ attitudes towards SMM activities conducted by travel agencies do not seem to affect their behavior intention of using social media to organize their vacation (.05). The perceived value of social media seems to play a significant mediating role between attitudes towards SMM and behavior intention. In other words, the indirect influence (.585) through perceived value is greater than the direct influence (.05) of attitudes toward SMM on behavior intention. This result implies that travel agency managers should know how to increase the perceived value of social media, instead of only attempting to enhance SMM activities. Limitations Social media’s commodification in Japan is still a new concept, and for Japanese tourists, the practice of social media in the tourist industry is relatively novel. In other words, social media’s commodification has not been developed enough in Japan. Thus, the results gained from the empirical study should be compared in the countries where social media is more developed.

This study investigates whether goods and service brands have different social media strategy to develop relationships with consumers. A content analysis of 10,752 brand posts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts of 10 Indonesian leading brands finds that goods and service brands have different strategies in utilizing their social media.

With its fast growing economy and huge population, China has become one of the most lucrative markets for luxury brands (Zhan and He 2012). In fact, China has surpassed Japan and become the No.1 luxury products spender in the world, accounting more than one-quarter of the global luxury brand expenditure (Artsmon et al. 2012). Chinese middle-class consumers thus have become important targets of luxury brands (Zhan and He 2012). However, China’s culture is different from Western cultures (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012), and Chinese luxury consumers have their distinctive characteristics (Buchwald, 2015). Therefore, Chinese luxury consumption may not follow the trends of Western world (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012). Previous studies have explored Chinese luxury consumers’ perceptions and receptivity of luxury brands in different cultural contexts (Bian and Forsythe 2012; Wang, Sun and Song 2011; Zhan and He 2012; Wang, Sun and Song 2011; Li, Li and Kanbelle 2012; Oswald 2010, Li and Su 2007; Wang and Ahuvia 1998). However, all those studies have only investigated luxury brands’ marketing strategies in traditional offline worlds. With the emergence of digital technology, luxury brands have started building presence in online world through different digital marketing strategies (Okonkwo 2009). Among all the digital marketing tools, social media marketing has become an increasingly important marketing communication weapon (Kim and Ko, 2012). While the luxury brands have widely accepted social media marketing, the academic research largely lags behind, Only limited number of studies have examined luxury brands’ social media marketing strategies (Tynan, McKechnie, and Chhoun, 2010; Kim and Ko, 2012). No study, to the authors’ knowledge, has been conducted to investigate luxury brands’ social media marketing strategies in connecting with Chinese consumers. In addition, previous studies on luxury brands marketing have conducted either quantitatively (Bian and Forsythe 2012; Wang, Sun and Song 2011; Zhan and He 2012; Wang, Sun and Song 2011; Li, Li and Kanbelle 2012) or qualitatively (Oswald 2010, Li and Su 2007; Wang and Ahuvia 1998) from either consumers’ or marketer’s perspective. In order to fill the research gaps, the current study is designed to explore the phenomenon with a mixed method by integrating both marketers’ social media marketing strategies and consumers’ interpretation of those marketers’ social media marketing in the contextof China. Specifically, a quantitative content analysis was conducted to examine marketers’ social media marketing strategies on a Chinese social media platform: WeChat; in the meanwhile, a qualitative study was conducted to explore Chinese female affluent consumers’ interpretations of those social media strategies transmitted via WeChat. Based on the research purpose, two overarching research questions were proposed: R1: Do Western luxury brand use social media platform of WeChat to build social presence, create self-presentation or interact with consumers? R2: What are Chinese female affluent consumers’ perceptions and interpretations of luxury brands’ social media marketing communication strategies via WeChat? Methodology The current study used a mixed methodological approach (Creswell 2014). Specifically, a quantitative content analysis (Krippendorff 2012) and a phenomenological study (Creswell 2012) were conducted to investigate luxury brands’ social media marketing communication strategies via WeChat and Chinese female affluent consumers’ perception toward those marketing communication strategies. Initial Findings Study 1 So far, 50% (N = 60) of the sample was analyzed. RQ1 asked about the luxury brands’ marketing communication strategies. The initial frequencies of each coded variable are reported in Table 1. Table 1. Frequencies of Coded Variables The results showed that more than half of the coded messages had images, showed products/brands in images or videos, provided event, discount and other promotional information, described products’ physical features and attributes, contained celebrities, sought action-based participation, and applied hyperlinks. The initial data suggest that a major use of social media in luxury brand advertising is to build the brand’s social presence by extensively using visuals. Images were found in 44 messages, and 25 of them used 6 or more images. Most of these images showed products or brands. Video also appeared in 14 messages. The initial results also suggest consumer interaction and engagement is restricted to the lowest level. The two major ways of interaction were hyperlinks and action-based participation. A close examination showed that these two were often used together. A hyperlink used anchor text that contained a call for action-based participation, like “read more,” “get the coupon,” etc. A lot of these actions related to consuming content, like reading, downloading or sharing, which is the lowest level of brand related-activeness on branded social media sites (Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit 2011).Additionally, product/brand information and physical features and attributes were frequently mentioned, suggesting that luxury brands use social media for information dissemination. WeChat has a large size of active users, and self-disclosure of information on social media can create a sense of close relationship (Kaplan and Haelein, 2010). High product quality, especially in terms of design and craftsmanship were frequently addressed, suggesting that that social media are used to communicate the nuances of brand’s social meanings. For example, some messages described the conceptualization of the design, the processing of handcrafting, and the meaning of the design, etc. These deeper meaning of a brand is often left out of traditional methods of advertising because of limited space or time. Celebrity was one of the major methods to create social meaning, suggesting that luxury brands use social media to leverage parasocial interaction between celebrities and consumers. Parasocial interaction refers to consumers’ perception of personal relationship with media personalities (Men and Tsai 2013). Among the sample messages, there were interviews with famous designers, advices and recommendations from celebrities about luxury brand and fashion, etc. These messages offer an opportunity for consumers to connect with celebrities, and subsequently, associate luxury brands with these iconic figures (McCraken, 1989). All in all, Western luxury brands largely use social media to build social presence, disseminate information, and communicate brand’s social meanings. Luxury brands frequently interact with audiences on social media but the level of consumer engagement is restricted. Study 2 The participants’ interpretations of WeChat provide a unique context and form a crucial referential framework for them to interpret luxury brands’ marketing communications on this particular social media platform. Specifically, the themes that emerged regarding those Chinese female affluent consumers’ perceptions of the social medium are an intimate friend vs. an everyday assistant, simple vs. complicated, and stickiness vs. interactivity; and, the themes regarding the participants’ interpretation of luxury brands’ marketing communications include inactive, conservative, and distance. Based on their own experiences of social media marketing and from consumers’ perspectives, the participants also provided insightful suggestions for luxury brands to improve their social media marketing to better connect with their consumers. Interpretation of WeChat An Intimate Friend vs. An Everyday Assistant According to the participants, their usage and composition of friends on WeChat has kept changing and evolving. At the initial stage of their usage, all the friends on WeChat were family members and close friends. At that time, WeChat constructed a small, closed, and intimate social circle for them to communicate, socialize, and entertain themselves and their WeChat friends in a carefree and relaxing way. In this sense, WeChat is like a good friend, who can accompany them and chat with them whenever they need him/her. Later, with the number of WeChat friends increasing and expanding, the composition of theirWeChat friends has also become complicated: different social relationships have been added to their WeChat friend list. Accordingly, based on the closeness and remoteness, they categorize their WeChat friends and communicate and socialize with them in a more cautious and delicate way. In this sense, WeChat has also changed to an office assistant who helps them to manage and maintain their social relationships. Simple vs. Complicated With the change of WeChat and the revolution of participants’ usage and experiences, in the life-worlds of the participants, WeChat has transformed from a simple chatting app to a multi-functional personal service hub. At the initial usage of stage, according to the participants, the major function of WeChat is a chatting app to communicate with their friends conveniently. Later, with more functions to be added to WeChat, WeChat has evolved to a complicated personal service hub to serve various personal and commercial purposes for the participants. Stickiness vs. Interactivity According to the participants, WeChat is a unique social media platform with high stickiness but low interactivity. The participants indicated that they use WeChat all the time, and they have to check their WeChat numerous times during a day. In other words, WeChat is considered as a high frequency social media app. In the meantime, the participants felt that WeChat is lacking interactivity when comparing to other social media platforms such as microblogging. They stated that the possible interactive activities on WeChat are very limited. In other words, in the life-world of the participants, WeChat is perceived as a less reciprocative social media platform. Interpretation of Luxury Brands’ Marketing Communication on WeChat Inactive According to the participants, the luxury brands’ WeChat public accounts are less active than other brands’ public accounts. Those luxury brands’ WeChat public accounts post information less frequently and seldom interact with followers. This is actually put those luxury brands in a relatively negative marketing position on WeChat. The participants indicated that they follow many public accounts. Because the luxury brands’ public accounts are not very active, without constant reminder, the followers may gradually forget about those luxury brands’ public accounts and stop checking their accounts’ updates. Conservative In addition to be seen as inactive, the luxury brands’ WeChat public accounts are also perceived to be conservative. According to the participants, compared to other brands, luxury brands’ WeChat public accounts are too serious, less interesting, and lacking entertainment. The participants felt that the luxury brands are very cautious and careful regarding their WeChat presence. Therefore, their WeChat posts are generally too conservative and formal, lacking creativity and uniqueness. As a result, the participants couldn’t remember any impressive and unforgettable post from those luxury brands’ WeChat public accounts.Distance In the participants’ eyes, the luxury brands are perceived to intentionally keep a certain distance from WeChat users. The participants felt that on the one hand the luxury brands are trying hard to connect with their consumers on social media, on the other hand, they are also trying to preserve their luxury brand image on this media platform by alienating general WeChat users. However, the participants felt it is not easy for luxury brands to achieve those two purposes successfully on WeChat. Suggestion of Luxury Brands’ Marketing Communication on WeChat Based on their perceptions and experiences of luxury brands’ social media marketing, the participants offered several insightful suggestions for luxury brands to improve their social marketing endeavors to better connect with their consumers. According to the participants, the most important marketing communication strategy via social media that luxury brands could adopt is to collaborate with opinion leaders (Katz and Lazarsfeld 1957) on social media to humanize, personalize, and entertainize their marketing communications. As the participants indicated, there are many successful and popular personal fashion public accounts on WeChat which have millions of loyal followers. Those personal fashion public accounts usually have unique styles and characteristics that are attractive to and well-liked by their followers. Compared to luxury brands’ official public accounts, those personal public accounts are perceived more humanized, personal, and closer to consumers. In addition, those accounts also have more flexibility to be creative and entertaining thus providing a better social media experience for luxury brands’ consumers. For luxury brands’ own public accounts on social media, the participants suggested that those luxury brands should become more active on social media by posting messages more frequently and constantly reminding consumers of their social presence. In addition, the participants think those luxury brands should be more adventurous on social media by being more creative and expressing more entertaining spirit.

As consumers take greater control over products and brands they consume, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and user-generated content (UGC) are now being considered as one of the most critical product sources for consumers. Most notable in recent years has been the widespread emergence of eWOM in social media. The proliferation of a variety of social networking sites (SNSs), propelled by the development of mobile technologies (e.g., smartphones), has allowed consumers to share, more quickly and easily than ever before, product information, reviews, and consumption experiences. Perhaps one of the newest and most effective ways to communicate brand information and experiences in digital environments is the ‘brand-selfie.’ Every day, millions of selfies (i.e., a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media) are taken and then posted on a variety of SNSs all over the world, providing people the opportunity to show multiple facets of the self (Bazarova et al., 2013). Further, there are consumers who voluntarily post selfies with brands/products they possess (so called brand-selfies) and brand-related hashtags (e.g., your #brand). Through brand-selfies, consumers not only express themselves by connecting with and extending through brands, but also influence peer consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase decisions by sharing brand information. In order to better understand how the selfie can succeed on SNSs as a new form of eWOM, in the present study, we attempt to identify key predictive variables that may lead consumers to post brand-selfies and engage eWOM in social media. We do so by comparing how such variables differ between those who post brand-selfies and those who do not. Specifically, this study examines whether brand-selfie-posting behavior is influenced by two individual difference factors (i.e., narcissism and materialism), and whether it is associated with consumers’ beliefs that SNSs are brand/product information sources. Using a survey administered by an online panel, a total of 305 participants who had had the experience of taking and posting selfies on SNSs participated. Discriminant analysis identified the characteristics of consumers who post brand-selfies, and those who do not. Findings suggest that narcissism, materialism, and belief that SNSs are a brand/productinformation source are significant factors in stimulating SNS users’ brand-selfie posting behaviors, and that they could be used to differentiate between brand-selfie posters and no-brand-selfie posters. Of these factors, consumers’ perceptions of SNSs as a source of brand/product information best predicted brand-selfie posting behaviors, followed by materialism and narcissism. Areas for future research are discussed.

This research examines the concepts of customer brand engagement (CBE) and perceived social presence (PSP) in a corporate Facebook context, and tests whether CBE and PSP have an impact on brand trust. CBE has well-defined sub-dimensions that are about behavioral, emotional and cognitive, and motivational aspects. The sample (n=461) is from Kuwait, and asks about use of corporate Facebook pages for smart phones. All three of the CBE sub-dimensions have a significant impact on brand trust. PSP influences the CBE sub-dimensions, and it also influences brand trust directly. Brand trust does impact brand loyalty in the corporate Facebook context.

본 연구에서는 소셜미디어 콘텐츠를 소프트웨어 시스템을 이용하거나 정성적으로 분석함으로써 L-글루타민산나트륨에 대한 소비자 인식도를 조사하고자 하였다. 첫 번째로, 1년 (2013.7~2014.6)의 기간 동안 네이버와 카페에서 작성된 글들을 수집하였으며, 수집한 문서들을 무료 텍스트 분석 소프트웨어인 TONK를 사용하여 분석하였다. 블로그와 카페에서 작성된 글들은 주로 L-글루타민산나트륨의 사용과 관련된 음식점 후기 및 MSG (L-글루타민산나트륨)-무첨가 제품에 대한 홍보 내용을 담은 글들로 파악되었으며, 기타 L-글루타민산나트륨의 안전성 또는 식품첨가물 제거법에 대한 내용으로 파악되었다. 두 번째로, 네이버 트렌드 검색 서비스를 이용하여 L-글루타민산나트륨에 대한 검색량 증가 구간에 발생한 언론보도 사건을 조사하였다. PC 검색량의 경우 총 5개 증가 구간 중 3개의 구간에서, 모바일 검색량의 총 9개 증가 구간 중 6개의 구간에서 시사 프로그램에서 L-글루타민산나트륨에 대해 보도한 것으로 나타났다. 나머지 구간에서는 일간지나 TV 뉴스로 기사를 보도한 구간들로 나타났다. 세 번째로 식품의약품안전처의 L-글루타민산나트륨의 안전성 발표를 보도한 연합뉴스의 댓글을 분석하였다. 공감수 100개 이상인 댓글의 내용을 분석한 결과, L-글루타민산나트륨의 안전성, 질 낮은 재료의 사용 지적, MSG (L-글루타민산나트륨) 과다사용에 대한 우려, 정부 불신을 표현하는 댓글들이 파악되었다. 시판 제품들의 표시사항을 분석한 결과, 일일섭취허용량을 설정할 필요가 없을 정도로 안전한 식품첨가물임에도 불구하고 L-글루타민산나트륨을 첨가하지 않은 제품들은 L-글루타민산나트륨 무첨가라는 표시를 강조하고 있는 것으로 조사되었다. 이는 국가기관, 교육청과 지방자치단체에서 MSG 미사용을 원칙으로 제도를 운용하고 있어 이러한 정책이 산업계와 소비자 인식에 영향을 미쳤을 가능성도 고려해볼 수 있다. 본 연구 결과 소비자들은 대체로 소셜 미디어를 이용하여 검색하거나 관련 제품을 구매하고자 할 때 L-글루타민산나트륨을 사용하지 않는 것이 좋다는 인식을 하게 될 가능성이 있는 것으로 파악되며, L-글루타민산나트륨의 과다 사용에 관심이 있는 것으로 나타났다. TV 시사 프로그램에서 방송하거나 일간지 또는 TV 뉴스에서 기사를 보도할 경우 네이버 검색량이 증가하였으며, 검색량 증가구간은 PC 환경에서보다는 모바일 환경에서 더욱 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 L-글루타민산나트륨과 관련한 커뮤니케이션 수단으로 소비자들이 관심있어 하는 방송프로그램, 뉴스 프로그램 등 언론을 활용하고, PC보다는 모바일을 통하여 소비자에게 접근한다면 효과적으로 소비자에게 정보를 전달할 수 있을 것이다.

본연구는 최근 한국 대중문화를 관통하는 핵심적 키워드 중 하나인 ‘복고’에 주목했다. 급격한 미디어 환경 변화 속에서 세대별 미디어 격차가 정보격차로 이어지고 이것이 세대갈등을 파생시키고 있다고 보고, 한국 사회의 갈등구조 속에서 복고 미디어콘텐츠가 갖는 세대갈등 완화와 사회통합의 가능성을 탐색하고자 tvN 드라마 <응답하라 1994>에 대한 내용분석과 수용자 심층인터뷰를 수행했다. <응답하라 1994>는 미디어, 대중문화, 정치·경제·사회적 사건을 중심으로 다양한 소재와 삽 입곡, 소품을 활용해 ‘1994년, 서울’이라는 특정한 시대적, 공간적 정서로 문화적 향수를 자극하는 한편 다양한 에피소드와 등장인물들의 성찰적 내레이션을 통해 20대의 사랑과 우정 그리고 가족애 등의 보편적 정서를 담았다. 특히 아날로그에서 디지털로의 미디어 환경 변화와 대중문화의 다양성 확대, 우리 사회에 각인된 정치·경제·사회적 사건이 집약된 1990년대의 재현은 단순히 과거를 감상적으로 추억하고 향유하거나 젊은층의 호기심을 충족시키는 차원에 머무르지 않고 해당 시기를 경험한 세대와 그렇지 않은 세대 모두에게 동일한 사회문화적 경험을 제공함으로써 미디어 격차에도 불구하고 상호 이해와 소통을 활성화시키는 촉매제가 될 수 있음을 확인하였다. 다만 1990년대의 정치·경제·사회적 사건을 주변화, 희화화하거나 시련의 극복 과정은 은폐함으로써 현실도피와 힐링의 기제로 활용한 부분은 한계로 남는다.

본 연구에서는 소셜미디어 콘텐츠를 소프트웨어 시스템을 이용하거나 정성적으로 분석함으로써 삭카린나트륨에 대한 소비자 인식도를 조사하고자 하였다. 첫 번째로, 1년(2013.7~2014.6)의 기간 동안 네이버와 카페에서 작성된 글들을 수집하였으며, 수집된 글들은 무료 텍스트 분석 소프트웨어인 TONK를 사용하여 분석되었다. 블로그와 카페에서 작성된 글들은 주로 삭카린나트륨을 사용하지 않은 제품에 대한 것으로 파악되었으며, 기타 높은 단맛과낮은 열량을 보이는 삭카린나트륨의 특성, 식품첨가물 제거법에 대한 내용이 있는 것으로 파악되었다. 두 번째로, 네이버 트렌드 검색 서비스를 이용하여 삭카린나트륨에 대한 검색량 증가 구간에 발생한 언론보도 사건을 조사하였다. PC 검색량의 경우 총 11개 증가 구간 중 6개의 구간에서, 모바일 검색량의 총 12개 증가 구간 중 8개의 구간에서 뉴스에서 삭카린나트륨 사용허용 품목 확대에 대해 보도한 것으로 나타났다. 세 번째로 식품의약품안전처의 삭카린나트륨 사용 허용품목 확대 발표를 보도한 연합뉴스의 댓글을 분석하였다. 공감수 100개 이상인 댓글의 내용을 분석 결과 정부 불신을 비판하는 댓글들이 가장많았으며, 그 외 관련 제품의 가격 비판 댓글과 기업 불신을 드러내는 댓글들이 파악되었다. 시판 제품들의 표시사항 분석 결과, 삭카린나트륨을 첨가하지 않은 제품들은 삭카린나트륨 무첨가라는 표시를 강조하고 있는 것으로 조사되었다. 본 연구 결과 소비자들은 삭카린나트륨의 사용 확대에 관심이 있으며, 사용 확대 보도시에 검색량이 증가하였다. 따라서, 매체들은 삭카린나트륨 사용 확대에관하여 보도를 할 때에 과학적인 근거에 바탕하여 확대배경이나 적정 섭취량 등을 함께 알리는 것이 소비자의 올바른 인식에 도움을 줄 것이다.