Lecture 9 – Social media, Influencers and word of mouth
a) How social media influence consumers – Profile and stream
Social media share characteristics with both mass media and interpersonal channels
Problem – Broadcasting information about ourselves to brands (we share more on social
media than what we would share in real-life)
Major implications in social media communication
1. Profile – Social media element enabling users to maintain unique collections of personal attributes
created by the user, their network, and/or the platform
Self-presentation – the process of controlling how one is perceived by other people (Leary,
1995)
o People try to manage and control the impression self that they give to others
o Chilling effect – Users carefully manage their online personas, constrained by
expectations of their audience (negatively directed impression management)
Surveillance from online audiences not only chills our online behaviour, but
in certain circumstances may also have a similar chilling effect on our offline
behaviour
Offer a customised version of the self, tailored to a specific audience at a specific time
(Goffman, 1959)
Multiple audiences and low audience transparency (issue)
o Experiencing certain levels of anxiety as we are broadcasting messages to multiple
different audiences
o Compression of audience
o Does not know the audience
Selective self-presentation and enhancement (curating image of ourselves)
Deceptive self-presentation and lying
o Significant factor that can influence deceptive self-presentation is the presence of an
audience of friends or contacts
o Warranting theory (DeAndrea, 2014; Walther, 2011) – the less control users have
over a piece of information about themselves, the more that information is
considered credible
Research shows that personal profiles reflect the actual, rather than idealised personality of
social media users (Back et al, 2010)
2. Stream – Social media element that allows users to consume and/or engage with feeds of user-
generated content provided by their network
Active vs. passive consumption and/or engagement with feeds of content provided by the
network
Organic reach – idea that you can reach all the people who follow you or your friends’
followers with your social media posts
Post engagement – Number of time that people react to your post through reactions,
comments, shares, and clicks
o Passive engagement (clicks and likes)
a) How social media influence consumers – Profile and stream
Social media share characteristics with both mass media and interpersonal channels
Problem – Broadcasting information about ourselves to brands (we share more on social
media than what we would share in real-life)
Major implications in social media communication
1. Profile – Social media element enabling users to maintain unique collections of personal attributes
created by the user, their network, and/or the platform
Self-presentation – the process of controlling how one is perceived by other people (Leary,
1995)
o People try to manage and control the impression self that they give to others
o Chilling effect – Users carefully manage their online personas, constrained by
expectations of their audience (negatively directed impression management)
Surveillance from online audiences not only chills our online behaviour, but
in certain circumstances may also have a similar chilling effect on our offline
behaviour
Offer a customised version of the self, tailored to a specific audience at a specific time
(Goffman, 1959)
Multiple audiences and low audience transparency (issue)
o Experiencing certain levels of anxiety as we are broadcasting messages to multiple
different audiences
o Compression of audience
o Does not know the audience
Selective self-presentation and enhancement (curating image of ourselves)
Deceptive self-presentation and lying
o Significant factor that can influence deceptive self-presentation is the presence of an
audience of friends or contacts
o Warranting theory (DeAndrea, 2014; Walther, 2011) – the less control users have
over a piece of information about themselves, the more that information is
considered credible
Research shows that personal profiles reflect the actual, rather than idealised personality of
social media users (Back et al, 2010)
2. Stream – Social media element that allows users to consume and/or engage with feeds of user-
generated content provided by their network
Active vs. passive consumption and/or engagement with feeds of content provided by the
network
Organic reach – idea that you can reach all the people who follow you or your friends’
followers with your social media posts
Post engagement – Number of time that people react to your post through reactions,
comments, shares, and clicks
o Passive engagement (clicks and likes)
