User-generated Content In Social Media Research Articles

User-generated content behaviour of the dissatisfied service customer

Purpose– This study aims to focus on the motivation of service customers to create user-generated content (UGC) after a negative service experience. In examining this relationship, the moderating role of “extraversion” personality trait is also taken into consideration. Furthermore, the paper examines how differently motivated service customers react to a firm’s service recovery strategies, whilst insights into the relationship between UGC creation and specific online platform usage are also provided.Design/methodology/approach– Structural Equation Modeling is used to test the conceptual model, based on an empirical dataset collected from an online survey research of 239 service customers. The dataset pertains to international travellers and their UGC behaviour after a negative travel experience.Findings– Altruistic, vengeance and economic motivations are strong drivers for UGC creation after a negative service experience. Motivations also correlate to participation in specific online platforms. Furthermore, it is shown that highly extraverted customers create more UGC after a negative service experience when motivated by vengeance. Finally, higher levels of altruistic and self-enhancement motivations correlate with a positive attitude towards a firm’s response, whereas customers who are motivated by vengeance have a negative attitude towards a firm’s response.Practical implications– Customers who share their negative service experience by creating UGC in social media can be segmented according to their motivation. Service providers should inspect the UGC of their customers to understand the motivation behind it. The motivation to create UGC varies across platforms, and hence, customized service recovery strategies are required.Originality/value– This paper examines UGC creation in relation to motivation, extraversion, and attitude towards a firm’s response. This is the first reported application which collectively examines important issues like these in a unified theoretical framework.

Encouraging User-Generated Content with a Conceptional Social Media Communication Process Model

Internet phenomena like Facebook or Twitter hold great potential for companies. The 21st century’s social networks are platforms for the (semi) public exchange of information that is produced and consumed by users alike. For an organisation, taking an active part in these conversations can support the efforts to gain more trust, co-shape the organisation’s image and obtain knowledge from user-generated content. User-generated content can help optimise processes and act as a testimonial for the organisation’s services and products. This work offers an outline of motivation for, types and use of user-generated content in Social Media and provides a conceptional process model facilitating external knowledge management within organisational communication measures in Social Media.

You cannot run or hide from social media—ask a politician

Politicians try to distinguish themselves from others and, as a rule, devote a great deal of their time on ‘brand’‐building exercises. Some would go out of their way to attract attention and, for that reason, foster a relationship with the media. The Web 2.0 has enabled social media that not only changed the ways in which politicians' interact with the masses but also brought speed and scale to exposure in the public domain unparalleled before. This paper attends to three cartoons illustrating activities of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. The cartoons are analysed for the presence of satire, and this analysis is then followed by a deliberation of the extended life gained by the three cartoons when they were transferred to social media such as Google, Google Trends, YouTube, Twitter and blogs. Social media now share the control over a message that are sent out and grant a satirical cartoon an unforeseen longer life. The extended life comes about because communities and individuals can now share, co‐create, discuss and modify user‐generated content in social media. Where political cartoons in printed media, as a rule, end up as waste, online political cartoons have the potential to live forever and ever—‘ad infinitum’. The implication of the extended life of a political cartoon is that the image of a politician can be tarnished daily for 24 h online. Social media has become a powerful mechanism for the electorate to voice their concerns, and politicians such as President Zuma have little opportunities for recourse. The recent upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other countries are evidence of the role that the social media can play in fostering political support. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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