Personality and content preferences on social network sites in South Africa

K Mwaba,Y Saini,R Abratt

doi:10.4102/sajbm.v48i4.39

Abstract

Worldwide, visual content, such as photos and videos, have increased dramatically on social network sites (SNS), with South Africa being no exception. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two personality traits – need for cognition and need for affect – and visual and verbal content preference on SNS in South Africa. A survey was conducted and data were obtained from 307 social network site users. The main findings showed that personality does have an influence on SNS users’ preference for visual or verbal content. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Highlights

As marketers increasingly integrate social network sites (SNS) as a key promotional tool in the marketing mix, thorough exploration of the factors that impact consumers’ usage of these sites is becoming essential (Mangold & Faulds, 2009)
The results showed that need for cognition had a negative correlation with information seeking on Facebook and a positive correlation with information seeking on Twitter
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits and content preferences on social network sites (SNS) in South Africa

Summary

Introduction

As marketers increasingly integrate social network sites (SNS) as a key promotional tool in the marketing mix, thorough exploration of the factors that impact consumers’ usage of these sites is becoming essential (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). In advertising for example, when evaluating the same advertisement, studies have shown that a consumer that prefers verbal information would process the words in the advertisement, while a consumer that prefers visual information would process the images (Bone & Ellen, 1992; McQuarrie & Mick, 2003; Mitchell, 1986; Sojka & Giese, 2006). They are exposed to the same advertisement, their responses to the components of the advert (in terms of advertisement recall, purchase intention, etc.) would differ according to their preference for visual or verbal information (Bone & Ellen, 1992; McQuarrie & Mick, 2003; Mitchell, 1986; Sojka & Giese, 2006)

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion