Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Social media engagement motivation
What motivates differing levels of engagement with content on social media?
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Overview edit
- Define social media* *Statement about the ubiquity of social media in modern society*. *Social media usage statistics*. *Brief mention of social media engagement tools- like, share, comment, subscribe, create* The success of social media sites and communications efforts by companies and civil society organisations depends on the continued use of the engagement tools offered. Therefore, the focus of this chapter will be on what motivates individuals to engage in different ways with content on social media.
Social media engagement tools have changed the way we provide content and feedback about ourselves and the world around us. These tools are frequently embedded in websites to facilitate the evaluation and dissemination of information; for instance, Facebook Like and Share buttons appear on around 905m sites. Every minute, 1.7m pieces of content are shared across Facebook, 66k photos and videos are shared on Instagram, 500 hours of content is added to YouTube (https://web-assets.domo.com/miyagi/images/product/product-feature-22-data-never-sleeps-10.png?lb-height=100%25&lb-mode=overlay&lb-width=100%25&utm_medium=website&utm_source=domo.com&utm_term=PF) and 167m videos are watched on Tiktok (https://localiq.com/blog/what-happens-in-an-internet-minute/). Given the vast amounts of content available, generating an understanding of the motivations that guide our responses to content could have valuable implications for marketers, content creators and users alike. What motivates us to click on content, like it, comment on it, share it, save it, or perhaps even go on to create our own original derivative content inspired by it? Read on to find out.
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Focus questions:
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Taxonomy of social media engagement types edit
Several studies conceptualise the social media engagement behaviours into a hierarchy from passive spectating through various levels of active contribution (Muntinga, Moorman & Smit, 2011; Swani & Labrecque, 2020). Each engagement behaviour is weighted within recommendation algorithms according to the amount of effort required to perform it (Kim &Yang, 2017) with the act of liking requiring the least amount of cognitive effort (Alhabash et al, 2015). This often leads to a typical pattern of engagement with more likes than comments and shares etc.
The Social Technographics Profile (Li & Bernoff, 2011) is one tool that can be used to classify types of engagement with content.
Creators- generate original content
Conversationalists- update personal statuses
Critics- review products, edit wikis etc
Collectors- e.g. Pinterest/Tumblr users- curation of content- once weekly
Joiners- maintain profile, but don't update statuses
Spectators- passively consume content e.g. read blogs, forums, tweets etc.
Inactives
Hierarchy of effort in engagement - doesn't necessarily have to tie back to a model
Major theoretical perspectives edit
Uses and Gratifications Theory edit
The Uses and Gratifications theory examines patterns of usage of different media in relation to the needs fulfilled by that usage. Many studies of social media engagement have taken this perspective.
Information Gap Theory edit
Information gap theory (Loewenstein) presents the desire for knowledge as a deficiency need, and posits that curiosity is aroused when people are made consciously aware of gaps in their knowledge.
Cognitive Dissonance edit
Identity- Discrepancy between actual and perceived self
Impression Management Theory edit
Impression management theory (Goffman, 1959) refers to conscious and deliberate filtering and selection of information in order to portray a desired self-image.
Self-Determination Theory edit
The self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, YEAR) identifies three core needs that an activity should be designed to fulfil in order to encourage engagement: autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Relevant actions edit
Click edit
Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
The action of clicking a link to external content is generally motivated by curiosity, a deficiency-based motive described in Loewenstein's (1994) "information gap model" as arising from the need to reduce a perceived gap between one's current and desired knowledge. The model distinguishes between the reasons why people become aware of these gaps; voluntary curiosity occurs when a person seeks out curiosity-inducing situations for the relief that comes from their resolution, whereas involuntary curiosity arises when a person becomes aware of a gap between their actual and desired knowledge due to situational cues. These cues, which are often incorporated into article headlines, can include:
Implied or direct questions:
"Which Zodiac Sign Should You Date Based On Your Favorite Color?"
Unresolved sequences of events, especially those with expected or desired outcomes:
"This is what happens when molten lava goes head-to-head against ice"
"A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well."
Events that violate expectations, which can then cause the person to formulate causal attributions (Hastie, 1984, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994) and lead to deeper information processing, regardless of the perceived importance of the information (Maheswaran & Chaiken, 1991, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994):
"This street art in Seoul is only visible when it rains!"
Knowledge of others, where people are motivated through social comparison to seek information known by others- the examples given are the desire to know the sex of one’s unborn child after the doctor finds out, or to find out what someone else is laughing about.
"7 Signs You Smell Bad And People Aren't Telling You"
Prior knowledge or exposure, where people are motivated to remember or relearn what they once knew about a topic. Loewenstein (1992, cited in Loewenstein, 1994) observed increased levels of curiosity about definitions of words that were familiar but inaccessible to short-term memory as opposed to unfamiliar words. This is related to the mere exposure effect (maybe elaborate if you have time).
"39 Awesome Things Only ’90s Kids Will Remember"
Content creators use referential linguistic devices like deixis and cataphora in clickbait to accentuate the information gap (Blom & Hansen, 2015).
The primary motive leading people to click on online content is curiosity, which has been classified and measured using a variety of metrics and models.
Motive: Curiosity
Models: Perceptual-diversive etc. model (Berlyne), Information Gap (Loewenstein, 1994), Interest-Deprivation Model (Litman, 2015), Interesting Content (Davis, 1971), Arousal (Berger)
Information Gap: Gap between actual and desired knowledge, requires awareness of the gap- can be induced through grammatical constructions in headlines
Perceptual-diversive (Berlyne):
Interest-Deprivation (Litman):
Interesting Content (Davis):
Arousal (Berger):
Like edit
Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
The existing literature on why we "like" content on social media is based on uses and gratifications theory, which assumes that all media usage is goal-directed and seeks gratifications through the fulfilment of certain needs, the nature of which will be accessible to the user. As such, studies utilising this theory rely on self-reporting of motives.
ADD SOME FINDINGS
Comment edit
Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
Tenenboim & Cohen (2015) analysed correlations between two aspects of content engagement (clicking and commenting) and content characteristics using 15 341 news articles posted on a single well-known Israeli website in January and June from 2006-2011. They found only 41-60% concordance between the most clicked and most commented list, suggesting a disconnection between the acts of viewing and engaging with content. So what caused this disconnect? A subsequent content analysis of the headlines from the five most commented and five most liked articles in each month found that in general, the majority of articles pertaining to sociopolitical tensions attracted more comments than views. Conversely, the majority of most-viewed articles with fewer comments contained no expressions of conflict.
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Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
Identity (ideal vs actual self)
Du Preez & Lombard- The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae
Berger- STEPPS Framework
Social currency- Content that makes oneself look good to others
Triggers- Content that has strong associations with frequently encountered environmental cues
Emotion- Content that elicits high arousal emotions
Public- Content that contains a specific call-to-action
Practical value- Content with relevance to the lives of audience members
Stories- Content packaged as stories rather than advertisements
Create/Remix edit
Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
Learning Features edit
Sample table (will probably be used for multimedia) edit
| Type of Engagement | Relevant theories | Motivation | Moderating factors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Click | Information gap theory (Loewenstein, 1994) | Curiosity | |
| Like | Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan) | Relatedness | |
| Share | Impression management (Goffman), self-schemas | ||
| Comment | |||
| Remix | Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan), Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964) | Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness (intrinsic); financial incentives (extrinsic) | |
Sample quiz (edit later) edit
Try applying the knowledge that you've just learned with this quiz:
Sample multimedia link: edit
References edit
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell : Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip085/2007048659.html
Loewenstein, G. (1994). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological bulletin, 116(1), 75.
Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D., & Graepel, T. (2013). Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(15), 5802–5805. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1218772110
Reeve, J. (2018). Understanding motivation and emotion. John Wiley & Sons.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020
Tenenboim, O., & Cohen, A. A. (2015). What prompts users to click and comment: A longitudinal study of online news. Journalism, 16(2), 198-217.
See also edit
Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Social media motivation
Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Social media motivation and gender
Motivation and emotion/Book/2015/Internet addiction motivation
Fake news chapter
External Links edit
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Imagine ... a scenario or case study which illustrates the problem and engages reader interest. Consider including an image (see Figure 1). The scenario could be presented in a feature box.
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Table 1. Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table and its Relevant to the Text - Johari Window Model
| Known to self | Not known to self | |
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| Known to others | Open area | Blind spot |
| Not known to others | Hidden area | Unknown |
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See also edit
Provide up to 6 internal (wiki) links to relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related motivation and emotion book chapters) and Wikipedia articles. For example:
- Cognitive dissonance and motivation (Book chapter, 2021)
- Collaborative authoring using wiki (Wikiversity)
- David McClelland (Wikipedia)
- Light triad (Book chapter, 2021)
- Self determination theory (Wikipedia)
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References edit
List cited references in APA style (7th ed.) or wiki style.
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Rosenberg, B. D., & Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. Motivation Science, 4(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091
Sears, C. R., Boyce, M. A., Boon, S. D., Goghari, V. M., Irwin, K., & Boyes, M. (2017). Predictors of student satisfaction in a large psychology undergraduate program. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 58(2), 148–160. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000082
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- The importance of structure (skillsyouneed.com)
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