2.

Social Consumers
Products purchased by different social media users
Products purchased by different social media users
Today’s Topic, in a Nutshell

• People on social media

• Their types (segmentation)

• Their motivations underlying and behaviors on social media

 Many behaviors and motivations on social media

• People on social media exhibit a full range of interesting consumer behaviors

under different motivations:
• Getting and sharing information

• Communicate and hang out with others

• Take buying actions (in this case, stocks)

• Influence others’ buying decisions

• Join and fight for a cause

• …

• And everybody does not behave the same.

 Many behaviors and motivations on social media

• So, how to make sense of all those different social media users?

• A traditional wisdom from marketing: Segmentation.

• Segmentation: The process of dividing a market into distinct

groups that have common needs and characteristics.
• Common bases of segmentation: geographic, demographic,
psychographic, behavioral, and benefits sought.

• When this idea is put into the perspective of social media

Discussion

Assuming that you are the

marketing manager of a
headphone company, which
criteria will you use to
categorize the consumers?
Why?
(This product is one of the
products the company sell)
Segmentation and Social Media

• The demographic base

• Group market units by categorical, descriptive characteristics
• The “who” question
• Common variables to use
• Age

• Gender

• Income

• Occupation

• Martial status

• Education

• Socio-economic status

• …
Segmentation and Social Media

• Many social media have a

pretty good grip on
demographic information
that can be used to segment
and target consumers

• This is why social media is

often deeply embedded in ad
business
Segmentation and Social Media

• The geographic base

• Group market units by geographic locations.
• The “where” question
• Common variables to use
• Region

• Country

• Geospatial data (geocode, zip code, address)

• Population density

• Market size

• Climate

• Language

• …
Segmentation and Social Media

• Combined with mobile

devices, social media also
often have a pretty good idea
where you are.

• This information can further

be used to push localized
information, service,
promotions, etc.
Segmentation and Social Media

• The psychographic base

• Group market units by psychological, sociological, and anthropological variables.

• The “why” question

• Common variables to use

• Motives

• Personality

• Values

• Attitudes

• Interests

• …
 Segmentation and Social Media

• The behavioral base

• Group market units by past or predicted behavior

• The “how” question

• Common variables to use

• Role (buyer, user, influencer, etc.)

• Buying occasions (where they buy? How they buy?)

• Customer value (recency, frequency, monetary value of purchases)

• Usage rate

• Shopping patterns (searching online, reading reviews, purchase preferences, etc.)

• …
 Segmentation and Social Media
• Behavioral segmentation is
responsible for many things you
encounter on social media
• Most obvious example, customized
frontpage/recommendations/ads/p
ushes
• But this segmentation method can
also be combined with other bases
towards more sophisticated
predictions of behavior
Segmentation and Social Media

• The benefit base

• Group market units by the underlying utility or need driving decisions

• The “what” question

• Common variables to use

• Needs/utility

• Jobs to be done
Segmentation and Social Media

• Brands often use social media to

identify the benefits consumers
seek.

• For instance, a gaming company

can use social media polling to
let the players determine which
factions they should include in
the game.
And when you bring everything together…

• You’ve got something

called persona profiles, a
“bio” of you consumers
or types of consumers.
And when you bring everything together…

• How do social media get all that information?

• Nowadays, we are all more or less defined by our social media usage
since such usage has become part of our lives.

• As a result, we leave social footprints on social media, the mark we make

when we are present in a social media space.

• Those footprints can be collected, traced, and analyzed. Ultimately, for

companies our footprints become part of the big social data.
Jenn’s Social
Footprints
People on Social Media: What They Do and Why?

• Much research have gone into the motivations underlying the

consumer usage of social media.

• For this class’s purpose, we identify the following motivations and

focus on the behavior those motivations lead to.
Motivation: Personal utility

• We use social media because they provide personal benefits.

• Entertainment (to kill time, enjoy using social media, to be entertained)

• Specific information to solve our problems

• Incentive (e.g., discounts)

• Convenience (free, easier, real-time information)

• Examples?
Motivation: Affinity and contact

• We use social media because they make us feel we belong and are
connected
• To connect and contact with people we know.

• Provide a community that one can find affiliation to and build one’s
social identity on.

• Examples?
Motivation: Altruism

• We use social media because we can do something good for others.

• Examples?
Ice Bucket Challenge
Motivation:(Epistemic) Curiosity

• We use social media because we have a general desire to gain new

knowledge and stimulate intellectual interest.

• Distinguished from the need to get information to solve specific

problems, which is more utilitarian. Here, you get new knowledge for
the sake of getting knowledge.

• Examples?
Motivation: Validation

• Validation impulse is sometimes referred to as the ego-defensive function

(feeding one’s ego)

• This function is thought to be particularly relevant as people seek to eliminate

perceived external threats and eliminate self-doubts.

• Behaviors: posting selfies, a tendency to check to see if posts received likes, a

tendency to overshare, and a tendency to impression manage (e.g., promoting
the perfect life).

• Examples?
Bring It All Together: Motivation and the Human
Condition
• A system of human motivations

In relation to the world In relation to other people

Self-concept-related motivations –
Egocentric Motivations for safety, security, self-verification, self-affirmation, self-
competence, mastery, efficacy, control esteem, self-identity, self-
distinctiveness

Motivation for information – curiosity Motivation for affiliation – love,

Allocentric and exploration belongingness, friendship, etc.
Motivation and the Human Condition

• First-Off, we need to make sure we stay safe and alive…

• Other than the obvious need for physical security and survival…

• Motivation for competence/mastery/efficacy/control – a motivation to

manage the environment and put it under our control
• Social media’s role?
Motivation and the Human Condition

• Second, after we feel safe, we need to gather information of the

environment to better interact with it and to grow
• Motivation for information – curiosity and exploration

• Social media’s role?

Motivation and the Human Condition

• Third, we are social animals, we fare better together…

• Motivation for affiliation – love, company, belongingness,

friendship, etc.
• Social media’s role?
Motivation and the Human Condition

• Fourth, although we associate ourselves with others, and pledge

ourselves into the world

• We are and love to be individuals who are different from others and
from the world

• Self-concept-related motivations – self-affirmation, self-esteem,

self-identity, self-distinctiveness…

• Social media’s role?

After we learn about motivations underlying and
behaviors on social media…

• We can come up with more sophisticated ways to segment

consumers.
• After all, everybody is not driven by the same motivations all to the
same degree. As a result, they also do not exhibit the same
behaviors!
Take the dimensions of social and information
motivations, for instance
Or, take the behaviors of the creation vs.
consumption of social media content

• Most social
media users
are connection
seekers
You can, of course, also include more dimensions
 Introduce yourself

• Name
• Which year are you in
• Major
• Any other things you think that help
others to know you more (hobby,
special technique, etc.)
SEE YOU
NEXT
TIME!