I'm looking for research that specifically look into psychological motivations behind liking and sharing facebook posts/statuses. Does "like" means "agree", "awesome!", "good!", or simply just "like", or does clicking the button simply means that one is aware of the post.
Is there any research that measure the number of likes and shares as part of its methodology?
Thank you.
Hi, Amir:
Excellent topic to research. Consumer's fascination with the word 'Like' continues to grow and add value! Social networking, Facebook in particular, is becoming a popular channel for firms to establish and maintain relationships with customers. I think you will find the following three recent research studies interesting for your current research:
Study 1 (Wallace, Buik, Cherntony, and Hogan, 2014) explored a typology of Fans, drawn from a sample of 438 individuals who "Like" brands on Facebook. Fans' brand loyalty, brand love, use of self-expressive brands, and word of mouth (WOM) for Liked brands were used to suggest four Fan types: the "Fan"- atic, the Utilitarian, the Self-Expressive, and the Authentic!
Study 2 (Pelletier and Horky, 2013) argued whether a simple quantification of "Likes" sufficient? Are all "Likes" created equal? The authors engaged in exploratory, qualitative-based research in order to look at the motivations and consequences associated with "Liking" a brand, using a sample of 160 Facebook users. Antecedents and outcomes are analyzed, coded and reported in order to more holistically understand Facebook "Liking" behavior!
Study 3 (Heng-Hui and Weig-Feng, 2014) examined the antecedents of Facebook users' behavioral intentions and draw on social exchange theory. Data were collected from 414 undergraduate and EMBA students in one university in Taiwan. Participants were asked to fill out the questionnaire based on the newest one post on their Facebook wall that they had recently received. The authors argued that this study can assist managers to understand the factors relate to motivate people to click "like", "comment", and "share"!
- WALLACE, E., BUIL, I., de CHERNATONY, L., & HOGAN, M. (2014). Who "Likes" You … and Why? A Typology of Facebook Fans. Journal Of Advertising Research, 54(1), 92-109.
- Pelletier, M. J., & Horky, A. B. (2013). The Anatomy of a Facebook Like: An Exploratory Study of Antecedents and Outcomes. Society For Marketing Advances Proceedings, 25207-208.
- Heng-Hui, W., & Wei-Feng, L. (2014). Why do you want to do "like", "comment" or "share" on Facebook: The Study of Antecedent on Facebook User's Behavioral Intentions. (English). Marketing Review / Xing Xiao Ping Lun, 11(2), 107-131.
Hope this helps!
Nadeem
Dear Amir,
at the moment we are thinking about "Likes" as a means to reward suppliers in a Public Goods Game. This - of course - is mainly reasonable for private posts and pictures of kittens.
Supply of content may be costly and content is effectively a public good. Thus the standard Nash-Equilibrium would suggest that none is supplied. Psychic rewards like "Likes" might change this equilibrium.
But this is all very much work in progress (really slow progress to be honest). At least Nadeems hints to the literature take us a little further.
Thanks!
Michael
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your reply.
May you suggest any journal article or book chapter so that I can refer? Thanks!
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