Social Media Attitudes Research Articles

Investigating the Impact of Salespersons’ Use of Technology and Social Media on Their Customer Relationship Performance in B2B Settings

Purpose – Salespeople have had a long affair with technology in serving customers. Some research studies, however, indicate that too much technology may have a negative impact on salespeople’s social skills. This paper aims to analyze what impact technology – specifically, social media, in terms of attitudes and use – has on selling performance. Design/Methodology/Approach – In a sample of salespeople from different business-to-business (B2B) industries, respondents were surveyed in the form of face-to-face interviews that were conducted at their place of work. The study analyzed how the intensity of technology use, attitudes towards and the use of social media affect customer relationship performance. Variance-based structural equation modeling, especially PLS-SEM, was applied for the analysis. Findings and implications – According to the results of this study, the effects of intensive technology use on social media attitude and use, as well as on customer relationship performance, are verified. The objective of this research, namely, to understand the influence of technology use and social media attitude and use on selling performance, has been partly achieved: the presumed positive theoretical connection between social media and performance is not trivial, although company managers should be aware the risks involved with the application of technology in sales. Limitations – These results highlight that, if the focus is solely on social media, the effects of social media attitude and social media use on customer relationship performance are limited, and their explanatory power is relatively low. Therefore, a business model that focuses solely on customer retention mostly through the increased use of social media seems to have serious limitations. This study suffers from further limitations, such as small sample size and the exploratory nature of the research. Moreover, the findings are derived from perceived constructs and not from actual behavior. Originality – The analysis of technology and social media is new in the current context. With the large scale of social media use being a relatively new phenomenon, this study can presumably provide a new understanding of social media in the selling environment.

Socio-spatial Self-organizing Maps: Using Social Media to Assess Relevant Geographies for Exposure to Social Processes.

Social media offers a unique window into attitudes like racism and homophobia, exposure to which are important, hard to measure and understudied social determinants of health. However, individual geo-located observations from social media are noisy and geographically inconsistent. Existing areas by which exposures are measured, like Zip codes, average over irrelevant administratively-defined boundaries. Hence, in order to enable studies of online social environmental measures like attitudes on social media and their possible relationship to health outcomes, first there is a need for a method to define the collective, underlying degree of social media attitudes by region. To address this, we create the Socio-spatial-Self organizing map, "SS-SOM" pipeline to best identify regions by their latent social attitude from Twitter posts. SS-SOMs use neural embedding for text-classification, and augment traditional SOMs to generate a controlled number of nonoverlapping, topologically-constrained and topically-similar clusters. We find that not only are SS-SOMs robust to missing data, the exposure of a cohort of men who are susceptible to multiple racism and homophobia-linked health outcomes, changes by up to 42% using SS-SOM measures as compared to using Zip code-based measures.

Examination of Social Media Attitudes and Loneliness Levels of Secondary Education Students with Regard to Gender and Sport

The purpose of the study was to examine secondary school students' attitudes towards social media and their loneliness levels in terms of gender and whether they do sports or not. The sample of the study consisted of 175 female and 269 male secondary school stıdents. To collect data personal information form, Social Media Attitude Scale (Otrar ve Argın, 2013) and UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980) were used to in this study. Independent t test analysis was conducted to examine whether the participants' social media attitudes and loneliness levels differed with regard to gender and do sport. According to the results, there was no significant difference in social media attitudes (t = -.832, p > .05) with regard to gender. However, loneliness levels of the participants seems to be significantly different with regard to gender (t = -6.513, p = .000). When the participants were examined whether they do sports or not, there was not any significant difference in social media attitudes (t = -.427, p> .05). However, the levels of loneliness was significantly found to be different in terms of doing sports or not (t = -3.675, p = .000). Furthermore, there was not a significant relationship between social media attitudes and loneliness (p > .05). It can be concluded that sport and regular physical activity can be considered as a means to provide environments where individuals will feel far away from the feeling of loneliness and that they will feel themselves more valuable.

Use of Social Media for Knowledge Sharing Among Students

The world of research requires researchers, students to share knowledge. With the invention of social media, knowledge sharing process has been more effective and easier. This study examined the usage of social media for knowledge sharing among students of the Polytechnic Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted, while stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the students. Four hundred and thirty four copies of questionnaire were administered, while 301 were retrieved and 271 copies found useful for data analysis. Data was analysed using frequencies and percentage distribution, Spearman’s rank correlation, Kruskal Wallis test, and Chi-Square. Findings reveal that Facebook and Whatsapp are the widely used social media tools for knowledge sharing by the students. The study found significant relationship between social influence and attitude towards using social media for knowledge sharing, as well as significant relationship between attitude and use of social media for knowledge sharing.The study recommends that institutions should exploit the proliferation of social media and its use to set up off-class student-student and student-lecturer discussion groups, which could help encourage and promote knowledge sharing, and thereby help students in achieving good academic outcomes.

The Relationship between Academic Procrastination Behaviors of Preservice Science Teachers and Their Attitudes toward Social Media

In this study, the relationship between study preservice science teachers’ academic procrastination and their attitudes toward social media was investigated. The study was carried out with the participation of 511 preservice science teachers (F: 346, M:165) on teacher education course at Dicle University during 2014-2015 academic year. The date was collected through “Social Media Attitude Scale” and Academic Procrastination Scale. The data collected was analyzed by using t test, one-way Anova and multiple regression. Analysis of the data revealed that academic procrastination was higher among male preservice science teachers in comparison to the female participants. The study also found that having social media membership positively affects the preservice teachers’ attitude in terms of social sharing, social competency and social isolation. The study also revealed that the duration of membership for a social media site has an influence on academic procrastination. The multiple regression displayed that as social media attitude dimensions, the sharing need, social competency, social isolation and relationship with teachers’ variables all together yield a low-level and significant relationship with preservice teachers’ academic procrastination behaviors. The findings have important implications for teacher education.

Conversing and searching: the causal relationship between social media and web search

PurposeIt is important to measure the interaction between conversing in social media and searching on the web in order to understand the impact on electronic word-of-mouth marketing. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors research the relationship between social media conversing and web searching concerning brands on three major social soundtrack platforms (Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr) and on a major web search engine (Google). The authors examine the effects of changes in both volume and attitude of conversing and volume of searching for two phases (Pre and Post) concerning brands in commercials aired during Super Bowl XLIX. The authors perform Granger causality testing and panel data regression analysis to determine the causal relationship between social media conversing and web searching.FindingsResults show that volume and attitude of social media conversing has a significant causality relationship to the volume of web searching. Each unit increase of volume on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr significantly increases Google search volume for the same brands by 4.7 times, 11.9 times, and 8.7 times, respectively. Each unit increase of attitude score on Twitter significantly increases web search volume 3.96 times, while for Tumblr, search volume significantly increases 0.95 times with each unit. Interestingly, search volume also has a significant causality relationship on the volume of social media postings.Originality/valueThis research seeks to understand the commercial impacts of the interaction among broadcast advertising, social media conversing, and web searching for which there is limited prior work, especially in the context of a major media event.

Iranian Teachers’ Attitude towards Using Social Media and Technology to Increase Interaction amongst Students inside or outside the Classroom

Internet and Social media is a ubiquitous phenomenon affecting many areas of life, including education. From various disciplines have used some forms of social media in their personal as well as professional lives, the English Language Teaching (ELT) teachers are no exception. Many studies on the area have been conducted such as those reviewed by Inayati (2013), and Tess (2013). However, despite the fact that Iran is among the high users of a number of social media, such study in Iran is still scarcely found in International journals. Therefore, this paper addresses the issue by studying how Iranian ELT teachers perceive social media in relation to their teaching as well as their general attitudes towards this type of media. A number of ELT teachers in recent popular social media (telegram, whatsapp) were surveyed with regards to their attitude and perception of social media use in teaching English. Analysis of the survey results showed that generally, the participants indicated positive attitude towards the employment of social media in ELT. In addition, most participants also showed high awareness of the educative potentials offered by social media in ELT practices, and several factors which could potentially hinder the actual use of social media were also identified. Some implications were drawn based on the findings of the study, some of which are related to the aspect of education management.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INSTRUCTION AMONG PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN NIGERIA AND RWANDA

This study investigated student’s use of different social media tools, their perceptions and attitudes towards these tools, their preference of social media for instructional purpose, and acceptance of social media among, pre-service teachers in Nigeria and Rwanda. This study adopted a comparative survey design, and Nigeria and Rwanda were chosen as sample region through purposive sampling. The population of the study included 487 higher education students of the faculty of education; 246 of them were Nigerians and 241 were Rwandese. They comprised of 212 male and 267 females. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers in both countries have adequate knowledge of different type of social media sites. The findings show that the level of preference of social media site is very high in both countries among the pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers in both countries are willing to use social media technology to support learning. Pre-service teachers in both countries have a positive attitude towards the use of social media for instruction purposes p<0.05). Also, Facebook was discovered to be the most popular social networking site among them followed by Twitter and Google+. Rwandese pre-service teachers used Skype more than their counterparts in Nigeria. Based on these findings recommendations were made that establishment of educational technology units in the faculties of education in Rwanda, also curricular underlying teacher educational programs should ensure that these knowledge and beliefs are emphasized when designing educational technology courses as well as modifying the content the courses so that student teachers have greater engagement in technology. Nigeria still has a lot to explore in the use of social media for instruction purpose therefore further in-depth studies should be carried out. Article visualizations:

Factors Directing Students to Academic Digital Reading

This research study aims at investigating at which level the variables of academic and recreational digital reading attitude, technology attitude, and possession of social media account and mobile devices predict the classification of students as those who perform more academic digital reading and who perform less academic digital reading. The participants of the research are 259 students (120 male, 139 female) within the age range of 13-15 who were attending the 8th-grade of 3 state secondary schools in the city center of Duzce. In accordance with the purpose, the Logistic Regression Analysis (LRA) was preferred. It was seen in the regression model that variables of academic digital reading attitude and technology tendency are significant predictive variables in estimating the academic digital reading group membership of the students of 13-15 age group. It was also found in the model that recreational digital reading attitude, negativity of technology, contribution and importance of technology, technology for all, possession of online mobile devices, possession of an active social media account and gender variables are not significant predictors of students performing less or more digital reading. It can be argued based on the research results that supporting the academic digital reading attitude and technology tendency together may provide more qualified attainments regarding the purpose of online reading for learning.

Examination of the attitudes of middle school students towards social media

This study aims to identify middle school students` general attitudes towards social media. Participants of this descriptive study were middle school students from three public schools (n=367) in Ankara. Data was collected using “Demographic Information Form” and “Social Media Attitudes Survey for Students” developed by Ferhat Suleyman Argin in 2013. Data was analyzed using ANOVA, t test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskall Wallis-H test, frequency (f) and percentage (%). In this study, demographic information such as students’ gender, school type, grade level, perceived income levels, mother’s education level, and father’s education level; and social media use information such as membership to social media services, duration of social media use, frequency of social media use, time spent on social media at each use, medium that they use social media, tools to access social media and most used social media were collected. Students’ scores for Social Media Attitudes Survey were compared between groups based on this demographic and social media use variables. There were not a significant difference of Social Media Attitudes scores between the groups based on gender, schools, grade levels, perceived income levels, mother’s education level, father’s education level, membership to social media services, medium that they use social media, and tools to access social media variables. There were a significant difference of Social Media Attitudes scores between the groups based on frequency of social media use, and time spent on social media at each use variables. Since most used social media services variable was not distributed homogeneously, it couldn’t be compared. Based on the students overall Social Media Attitudes scores averages and score distribution and standard deviations it could be claimed that students’ general attitude toward social media was positive and high. Keywords: Type your keywords here, separated by semicolons

From the Editors

It is an honour for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. We are ready to publish the new studies of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has 5 full length articles written by authors from, Cyprus, Iran and Turkey.The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all who have contributed to this issue. There are different focuses. For example, Tutku Basoz and Dilek Tüfekci Can aim to investigate if there is any significant difference in preschool children’s vocabulary gain depending upon the computer assisted vocabulary instruction or the traditional vocabulary instruction both adopting a semiotic approach. On the other hand, Gerannaz Zamani, Saman Ebadia aim to investigate reports on an analysis of the conclusion sections of Persian and English Research Articles (RAs) published in international journals. In addition to these, Hafize Keser, Melike Kavuk and Gulcan Numanoglu aimed to investigated the relationship between preservice teachers’ internet addiction level and cyber-loafing activities. There were a moderate positive relationships between internet addiction and individual cyber-loafing, and search cyber-loafing. There were also a small positive relationships between internet addiction and social cyber-loafing. There was not a significant relationship between internet addiction and news cyber-loafing. Also Sanser Bulu, Mustafa Numanoglu and Hafize Keser, aimed to identify middle school students` general attitudes towards social media. Students overall Social Media Attitudes scores averages and score distribution and standard deviations it could be claimed that students’ general attitude toward social media was positive and high. I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to make their articles published, all reviewers working seriously in the process of publishing, and also quest editors supporting us in this process. Best regards,

Analyzing The Risk Factors Predicting The Cyberbullying Status of Secondary School Students

In this study, it was aimed to anaylze the risk factors that predicts the cyberbullying status of secondary school students. Relational model was used in the study. The study was conducted on 400 secondary school student getting educated in different schools in Erzurum. Information form, Revised Cyberbullying Inventory, Positive and Negative Affection Scale, Social Media Attitude Questionnaire was used as data collection tools. The data analysis was done with multinominal logistik regression. In the study, it was determied that 17 % of the students experience cyberbullying, 10.5 % of the students bully others, and 35.2 % of them are bully/victim. As a result of the study, being unable to socialize is a risk factor to be a cyberbully, victim and victim/bully. It was seen that gender and internet usage time are factors to be cyberbully and cyberbully/victim, parental uncontrolling in child's internet use is a risk factor to be cyberbully, social attitude and negative affect are risk factors to be cyberbully/victim.

Far from reach but near at hand: The role of social media for cross-national mobilization

This study investigates the role of social media in contributing to participatory democracy in a cross-national context. By examining the Sunflower social movement in Taiwan and targeting a particular subgroup—Taiwanese citizens abroad—this study assesses factors that influence citizens abroad to engage in social media use for social movements as well as how different activities on social media contribute to political participation. The findings show that individual’s personal attitude and civic attitude exert a positive influence on political participation through opinion expression and activism on social media. Similarly, negative emotions toward the government’s handling of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) also promote political participation through expressing opinion and joining movement-related groups on social media. The paths signify the importance of attitude, emotion, and active use of social media for social movement in cross-national mobilization.