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A study of the cultural environment of social media
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Content
A STUDY OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
by
Yijie Liu
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS)
May 2014
Copyright 2014 Yijie Liu
ii!
Dedication
This thesis would not have been possible without the unwavering support of my family and dear
friends. Thank you for your words of encouragement throughout this journey. Mom, Dad and Lie,
you have always taught me to follow my heart and believe in myself. I hope I have made you proud.
!
iii!
Acknowledgements
This long journey was exciting, challenging and amazingly rewarding. I would like to offer special thanks
to my committee chair, Burghardt Tenderich for his helpful advice and unwavering support. He taught me
to be a critical thinker and rigorous researcher. I would also like to thank Jennifer Floto for guiding me
through this complex process and all of her editorial advice. Last but not the least; I would like to thank
Matthew Leveque for reviewing my work patiently and eagerly. They continually inspired me with their
dedication to teaching and passion for public relations.
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!
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iv!
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1
Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 2
About Twitter ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Why Does Culture Matter? ....................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5
The Changing Media Landscape .............................................................................................................. 5
The Need to Study Social Media for Public Relations ............................................................................. 6
Research Questions ................................................................................................................................... 7
Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 9
Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 12
Primary Research .................................................................................................................................... 12
Secondary Research ................................................................................................................................ 16
Special Considerations ............................................................................................................................ 16
Chapter One: Social Media Is About Content ......................................................................... 17
Original Content ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Cultural Interpretations ........................................................................................................................... 18
Photos and Videos................................................................................................................................... 18
Cultural Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 19
Content with Reshare Value ................................................................................................................... 20
Cultural Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 21
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 22
Chapter Two: Social Media Is About Numbers ....................................................................... 23
A Numbers-Sensitive Culture ................................................................................................................. 23
Cultural Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 24
Fake Followers ........................................................................................................................................ 25
Reciprocation .......................................................................................................................................... 26
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 28
Chapter Three: Social Media Is About Engagement ............................................................... 29
Mentions ................................................................................................................................................. 29
Twitter Chat ............................................................................................................................................ 31
!
v!
Contests ................................................................................................................................................... 33
Cultural Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 36
Control .................................................................................................................................................... 36
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 38
Chapter Four: Social Media Is About Community ................................................................. 39
Fan Culture .............................................................................................................................................. 39
Cultural Interpretation ............................................................................................................................. 42
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 43
Chapter Five: Social Media Myths Debunked ......................................................................... 45
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 47
Interesting Data Points ............................................................................................................................ 47
Takeaways ............................................................................................................................................... 47
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 49
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vi!
List of Figures
Figure 1. The Best and Worst Times to Post on Social Networks, May 2012. Social Caffeine ... 10
Figure 2. Demographics of Social Media Users, December 2012 ................................................ 11
Figure 3 The Average Number of Tweets Sent Out by Each Brand per Day, December 2013 ... 15
Figure 4 The Average Time a Tweet of Each Brand Is Retweeted by Followers, December 2013
............................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 5 The Average Time a Tweet of Each Brand Is “Favorited” by Followers, December
2013a ..................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 6 The Percentage of Tweets in Dior’s Account with Each Type of Information, December
2013....................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 7 Tweet by Dior, Retweets<100, Favorites <100, January 2014 ...................................... 20
Figure 8 Tweet by Dior Retweets>400, Favorites >500, January 2014 ....................................... 21
Figure 9 The Total Number of Accounts Each Brand Was Following, December 2013 ............. 23
Figure 10 The Percentage of Fake Followers in Vine’s Twitter Account, January, 2014.
TwitterCounter. ..................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 11 The Change in Starbucks’ Twitter Followers and Following from August 2013 to
January 2014. Social Bakers. ................................................................................................ 26
Figure 12 The Change in Samsung Mobile US’s Twitter Followers and Following from August
2013 to January 2014. Social Bakers .................................................................................... 26
Figure 13 The Change in Whole Foods Market’s Twitter Followers and Following from August
2013 to January 2014. Social Bakers. ................................................................................... 27
Figure 14 The Percentage of Tweets in Whole Foods Market’s Account with Each Type of
Information ........................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 15 The Percentage of Tweets in BlackBerry’s Account with Each Type of Information . 30
Figure 16 The Percentage of Tweets in Starbucks’ Account with Each Type of Information ..... 30
Figure 17 The Percentage of Tweets in Samsung Mobile US’s Account with Each Type of
Information ........................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 18 The Numbers of Reach and Impressions of Hash Tag #WFMdish of Whole Foods ... 32
Figure 19 A Conversation Stream Generated by One Question from Whole Foods’ Twitter Chat
............................................................................................................................................... 33
vii!
Figure 20 The Number of Tweets Sent by Tweet-a-coffee since the Campaign Launched, Twitter
Counter .................................................................................................................................. 35
Figure 21 The Number of Followers of Tweet-a-coffee since the Campaign Launched, Twitter
Counter .................................................................................................................................. 35
Figure 22 Samsung Mobile US Addresses Customer Services Issues on Twitter ........................ 38
Figure 23 The Percentage of Tweets in Android’s Account with Each Type of Information ...... 40
Figure 24 The Percentage of Tweets in Microsoft’s Account with Each Type of Information ... 40
Figure 25 The Percentage of Tweets in iTunes Music’s Account with Each Type of Information
............................................................................................................................................... 40
Figure 26 The Percentage of Tweets in BlackBerry’s Account with Each Type of Information . 41
Figure 27 Visual Content Created by BlackBerry by Embracing the Business Culture .............. 42
Figure 28 Fans Thanked BlackBerry for Being a Useful Tool for Work and Life ....................... 42
Figure 29 The Reach and Impressions of Hash Tag #TeamBlackBerry from Tweet Reach,
January 2014 ......................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 30 Two Tweets from Starbucks with the Highest Number of Retweets and Favorites,
December, 2013 .................................................................................................................... 46
1!
Executive Summary
Over the past several years, social media has emerged to redefine the way people
communicate. A new communications environment was formed during this process. Language,
communication style and power distribution have changed in this new environment. New ideas,
activities and norms form a new kind of culture that is unique to social media, but not stated in
the user agreement or explained in the “Help” sections. Brands are interested in establishing a
social presence to engage with fans, help shape customer experience, and leverage voices for
greater marketing impact. It is important to for public relations professionals as brand advocates
to understand the rules of this new medium and to manage it effectively.
Many experts have written guidelines and tips for social media management. However,
very few of those articles take the cultural perspective to interpret brands’ communication efforts
on social media. The researcher of this study hopes to use this new approach to analyze behavior
patterns of outstanding brands and their followers on Twitter and map out the cultural
environment of this platform as well as social media as a whole.
The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to analyze the
tweets of the top10 brands on Twitter ranked by the social media analytics platform
SocialBakers.
1
By digging deep into the cultural roots of identified patterns, the researcher
mapped out the cultural environment of social media and made recommendations on how
companies should communicate and interact with audiences on social media. How do the top 10
most-followed brands manage their Twitter accounts? Does content creation work? If so, what
kind of content is well received? What do brands compete for on social media: the number of
followers or level of engagement? Why does BlackBerry still thrive in the social media
environment? Why following-back is proper etiquette? Questions like those will be addressed.
1
Top 10 Brands ranked on SocialBakers, October 2013. http://www.socialbakers.com/twitter/group/brands/
2!
Preface
About Twitter
The social media marketing agency 60 Second Marketer listed a total of 52 social media
platforms marketers should know.
2
Twitter is a part of this long list. Moreover, it is the most
popular micro blogging service in the world outside of China and a widely used tool for brands
to build public relations. This research will mainly focus on Twitter as the target platform and
extend findings to other platforms.
Launched in July 2006 by Jack Dorsey, this online social networking site allows users to
post and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets.” Twitter prompts
users to share tweets by addressing the question, “What is happening?” One can “follow” other
people’s accounts on Twitter to receive their tweets. In that way, this person becomes a
“follower” of those accounts. The number of accounts this person “follows” appears as the
number of people “following” his or her account. All tweets are public messages. Private
messaging is available through a “direct message” feature. Through these messages, an open
dialogue can be created between a brand and a customer. “Retweeting” happens when a user
reposts a tweet from another user. People can also share hyperlinks, videos, and photos.
By the end of 2013, the total number of active registered Twitter users passed
645.750,000.
3
According to Zhang et al., Twitter is one of the best social tools for empowering
brands to connect with customers, since micro messages are fairly easy to craft and consume.
The platform offers brands the possibility of reaching a large group of customers with short
messages multiple times a day. According to Malhotra et al., 27 percent of Twitter users log in
every day, and 25 percent say they follow a brand and receive marketing messages from that
2
“Top 52 Social Media Platforms Every Marketer Should Know,” The 60 Second Marketer, December 31,
2013, http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2010/04/09/top-52-social-media-platforms/
3
“Twitter Statistics,” Statistics Brain, December 31, 2013, http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/
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3!
brand. As a result, Twitter has offered a great return for businesses. Dell announced that Twitter
had helped the company make $3 million since 2007 from customers who followed its links to
make purchases.
4
Why Does Culture Matter?
Culture refers to the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or
age group. The ideas, activities, languages, and norms on social media have unique
characteristics that form a new kind of culture of this group.
Grant McCracken stated in his book Chief Culture Officer that culture “is the place to
discover advantage, opportunity, and innovation.” It is “the breeding ground of cataclysmic
change.” A working knowledge of culture will help executives manage organizations aptly.
5
One
example given in his book is Apple. Because Apple is a unique brand in the tech space that cares
so much about beauty, credit should be given to Steve Jobs’ background in calligraphy. The
unique background helped Jobs design the first Macintosh computer with multiple typefaces and
proportionally spaced fonts. It set Apple apart from competitors like HP and IBM, which lived in
a ruthlessly commoditizing marketplace and strongly connected the brand with the creative
community.
Most times people know about the culture that matters because they have lived it for
several years. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, had been a runner. He knew runners. He was
connected to the community. Icebreaker, the New Zealand firm devoted to adventure clothing,
was founded by Jeremy Moon, himself an adventurer. McCracken’s main point of the book is
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4
Lilia LvanaMamic and Isidoro Arroyo Almaraz, “How the Larger Corporations Engage with Stakeholders
Through Twitter,” International Journal of Market Research 55, no. 6 (2013). http://www.warc.com/
5 Grant McCracken, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living Breathing Corporation (New York: Basic
Books, 2009), 5-7
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4!
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that we can reverse engineer cultural sensibility and a professional like a chief culture officer
should have systematic knowledge of culture and the ability to process massive bodies of data
and possibility.
Applying the same theory to the social media realm, a good sense of culture on social
media will help public relations practitioners effectively manage communication efforts through
this medium. Brand strategies and tactics are based on the understanding of the cultural context.
Before jumping into the pool, brands should make sure that they know the rules of the game. A
thorough understanding of social media culture builds the foundation of a brand’s successful
social presence.
!
5!
Introduction
The Changing Media Landscape
Over the past several years, social media has emerged to redefine the way people
communicate. Facebook users spend more than a fourth of their time on the site consuming and
interacting with the Newsfeed; this activity represents 4 percent of all time spent online in the
United States.
6
Everyone’s opinion is given a virtual stage to be shown and spread. More and
more people have started to talk about all sorts of things on social media. First, people used
social media to express personal opinions and keep in touch with friends and families. Several
studies have examined examples like using Facebook to maintain social capital and using Twitter
as a vehicle for opinion making and information sharing.
78
Then people started talking with
politicians and celebrities who couldn’t be reached directly before. Now people have even started
talking with fictional characters and brands on social media. About 25% Twitter users say they
follower a brand and receive marketing messages from that brand.
9
A new communications
environment was formed during this process. Language, communication style, attention span,
and power distribution have changed in this new environment. New ideas, words, activities, and
norms form a new kind of culture that is unique to social media. Living with social media at our
fingertips every day, we may not notice the change. But imagine you were teaching a person who
has no idea about social media and how to communicate and interact on those platforms. What
would you say? Isn’t it a lesson about culture composed of knowledge, habits and experiences?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6
Andrew Lipsman and others, “The Power of “Like”” Journal of Advertising Research, March 2012.
http://www.warc.com/
7
Steinfield C. & Lampe, C. “The Benefits of Facebook “Friends’: Social Capital and College Students’ Use
of Online Socail Network Sites,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, (2007) 12, 4, pp.
1143-1168.
8
Java, A., Song, X., Finin T. “Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities,”
Paper presented at the 9
th
WebKDD and 1
st
SNA-KDD workshop on Web Mining and Social Network
Analysis. August, 2007. San Jose, California
9
Kubowics A. Malhotra, C & See, A. “How To Get Your Messages Retweeted,” MIT Sloan Management
review, (2012) 52, 2, pp. 65-66.
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The Need to Study Social Media for Public Relations
For public relations practitioners, social media is a new and important communication
channel to manage. Professions like marketing, advertising, and public relations are battling for
this unclaimed territory. In the realm of public relations, the combination of public reach and
individual interaction makes social media suitable vehicle for brands to build relationships with
various stakeholders, and especially existing customers. Brands are interested in establishing a
social presence to engage with fans, help shape customer experience, and even leverage voices
for greater marketing impact. A 2010 survey of the members of the World Federation of
Advertisers by Millward Brown showed that 96 percent of advertisers have been increasing their
investment of time and money in social media. However, 50 percent were unsure of the returns
they were getting on this investment.
10
Before spending time on studying this medium, advertisers must clarify the answer to
the question, what is the return on social media investment? The study “The Power of ‘Like’”
proved that for Starbucks, fans of its Facebook page were 418 percent more likely to visit its
website and friends of those fans were230 percent more likely. Their additional analysis, which
examined in-store purchase behavior during May 2011, revealed that Starbucks fans and friends
of fans spent 8 percent more and transacted 11 percent more frequently than the average Internet
user who transacted at Starbucks.
11
Efforts on social media can provide the opportunity to
enhance brand impressions and generate a lift in purchase intent, long-term loyalty, and even
brand value.
Many businesses are very excited about this newly opened window, but very few of
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10
“How should your brand capitalize on social media?” Millward Brown Knowledge Point, August 2011.
http://www.warc.com/
11
Andrew Lipsman and others, “The Power of “Like”” Journal of Advertising Research, March 2012.
http://www.warc.com/
!
7!
them know how to grasp the full promise of this emerging medium. According to a study
conducted by the Harvard Business Review in 2010, only 12 percent of companies surveyed
indicated that they were effective users of social media; just 7 percent said they were able to
integrate social media into their marketing activities.
12
Social media is like a new ecosystem in
which people and companies live with their virtual identities. This research aims to understand
the climate of this ecosystem to help companies communicate and interact more effectively with
their audiences.
Research Questions
This research identifies cultural principles for social media behind the patterns of brands’
current social media behaviors. Many brands have established impactful social presences. Their
online presences should be strongly connected to a thorough understanding of the culture. By
analyzing the communication efforts of leading brands on Twitter, the researcher hopes to be
able to map out the cultural environment of this medium and develop guidelines for public
relations practitioners about social media management.
Research questions were:
! Are there any patterns in the brand’s behaviors on the platform in terms of ideas,
activities, languages, and norms?
! Are there any patterns among the audiences’ behaviors on the platform in terms of
ideas, activities, languages, and norms?
! What is the cultural interpretation of each pattern?
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12
“Harvard Business Review Analytics Services Releases Study on the Impact of Social Media,” Business
Wire, December, 2010.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101214006801/en/Harvard-Business-Review-Analytics-Services-
Releases-Study#.Uva97tJDuSo
!
!
8!
!
! What kinds of posts are well received by audiences?
! What are the drivers behind brands’ and audiences’ behaviors on social media?
! How should brands communicate and interact with audiences based on the cultural
interpretations?
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9!
Literature Review
Since we want to know how brands should behave on social media, a large number of
experts have written guidelines and tips for social media management.
Websites like SocialExaminer.com, Social Media Explorer, and Social Media Today
contain articles about the technical issues of using different social media platforms, such as how
to use hash tags on Twitter or how to install analytical metrics on Facebook. Tech-savvy experts
who have coding skills or hands-on experience of managing accounts on those platforms wrote
these articles. Those articles are like the help sections of those platforms. For practitioners and
small business owners who operate social media accounts by themselves, those are useful
instructions.
Public relations blogs and related sites have talked about lessons learned from
successful and failed cases of social media management. Experts look closely into others’
practices around social media and apply their knowledge to draw insights from the situations.
Famous cases include Domino’s Pizza’s YouTube crisis and Kitchen Aid’s Twitter incident. In
2009, Domino’s Pizza faced a crisis when two employees uploaded a YouTube video of them
doing disgusting things to a sandwich. The video instantly went viral on the Internet. PR
practitioner Melissa Agnes analyzed what happened to Domino’s Pizza and concluded that the
brand should immediately monitor social media closely, act in a timely manner, and implement
rules about social media use in employee regulations.
13
In October 2012, a rogue tweet regarding
President Obama was sent out through Kitchen Aid’s account by an employee who meant to
send it from his personal account. The brand quickly deleted the tweet and issued its “deepest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13
MelissaAgnes, “Domino’s Pizza: A Look At the Timelessness of A Social Media Crisis Plan,” Melissa
Agne Crisis Management, March 22,
2012,http://www.melissaagnescrisismanagement.com/dominos-pizza-a-look-at-the-timelessness-of-a-social-m
edia-crisis-plan/
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apologies.” Jonathan Rick, of Fast Company, used the case to explain how a social media crisis
can be spun into a PR coup.
14
Another type of article talks about how to manage social media based on big data, such
as data about the times when Facebook has the most traffic (see Figure 1). The Pew Research
Center is a leading source for providing statistics about social media. One of the research studies
on the demographic information about social media users provided results as shown in Figure 2:
Figure 1. The Best and Worst Times to Post on Social Networks, May 2012. Social Caffeine
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14
Jonathan Rich, “How Kitchen Aid Spun A Twitter Crisis Into A PR,” Fast Company, October 4, 2012.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3001908/how-kitchenaid-spun-twitter-crisis-pr-coup
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11!
Figure 2. Demographics of Social Media Users, December 2012
There is also research that focuses on social media strategies and tactics. The article
“How Should Your Brand Capitalize on Social Media?” offered tips such as be interesting and
trustworthy, talk like a friend, for brands based on why people use social media,
However, very few articles take the cultural perspective to interpret brands’
communication efforts on social media. The researcher of this study hopes to use this new
approach to analyze behavior patterns of outstanding brands on Twitter and map out the cultural
environment of social media. This approach is more favorable because culture could help unlock
a much better understanding of the communication characteristics of this new medium, which
paves the way for effective strategies and tactics.
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Methodology
In preparation for this thesis, the researcher conducted both secondary and primary
research. For primary research, the researcher selected samples from the top 10brands on Twitter
ranked by the social media analytics platform SocialBakers based on the number of followers.
15
Then the researcher conducted a content analysis of the tweets on those accounts to identify
outstanding patterns. By analyzing the results from a cultural perspective, the researcher drew
initial insights about the communication characteristics on social media. After that, the
researcher conducted secondary researchon10 studies from the Warc database, eight online
articles from blogs and websites dedicated to the discussion of social media, and three books
written by experienced PR professionals and prominent communication scholars. The goal was
to dig deep into the cultural roots of patterns identified from primary research and map out the
cultural environment of social media.
Primary Research
SocialBakers is a user-friendly social media analytics platform that provides free
statistics of top accounts on different platforms. The statistics include rankings and profile
information about each account. In the brand category of Twitter rankings, the site ranked 21,660
brands by the number of followers. Profile information included the number of followers, the
number of following, the number of tweets, and each account’s Twitter age. Graphs indicating
the change of followers and followings in the past six months were also available for each
account.
The table below contains the profile information of the top 10 brands selected and their
profile information. The numbers are based on the day when the data were collected. Given the
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15
Top 10 Brands ranked on SocialBakers, October 2013. http://www.socialbakers.com/twitter/group/brands/
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13!
record number of followers, we need to know how these top brands manage their Twitter
accounts. During a three-month period from October 2013 to January 2014, the researcher
conducted quantitative content analysis of 500 tweets from the accounts of those brands to
identify outstanding patterns.
Brand Followers Following Tweets Age Date
Observed
Vine 5467310 10 143 1 year 4 months
27 days
2013/10/15
Samsung
Mobile
6926250 294 1875 2 years 7 months
18 days
2013/10/26
iTunes Music 4917845 11 11120 4 years 1 month
13 days
2013/10/27
Starbucks 5491941 84226 17478 7 years 24 days 2013/12/20
Whole Foods
Market
3577913 545803 85418 5 years 4 months
15 days
2013/10/28
Samsung
Mobile US
5082259 19866 61873 5 years 10
months 10 days
2013/1/12
Android 4161745 26 243 2 years 2 months
25 days
2013/12/20
Dior 3820904 101 856 2 years 4 months
21 days
2013/12/20
Microsoft 3782844 1055 6858 4 years 3 months
10 days
2013/12/20
BlackBerry 3759712 3537 20858 5 years 7 months
28 days
2013/12/20
!
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14!
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Prior to coding, the researcher reviewed previous literature on commonly used tactics on
Twitter to determine the variables of this analysis. In order to differentiate them from each other,
descriptions were provided as follows:
Variables Description and Coding Information
Retweets The number of times each tweet is reposted as shown below each tweet
Favorites The number of times each tweet is favorited as shown below each tweet
Fan Community This variable was coded when the tweet addresses fans’ requests and needs.
Humor This variable was coded when the tweet contains humorous elements.
Product Info This variable was coded when the tweet contains information about companies and
products.
Visual This variable was coded when the tweet contains pictures and videos.
Customer Service This variable was coded when the tweet addresses customers’ complaints.
Contest This variable was coded when the tweet encourages fans to interact with the brand’s
Twitter account in various ways.
Mention This variable was coded by identifying the “RT@” or “Retweeted by” symbol at the
beginning of the tweet to acknowledge the author.
Promotion This variable was coded when the tweet explicitly states a promotional message.
Article This variable was coded when the tweet includes a third-party article about the brand.
Content This variable was coded when the tweet contains content created by the brand.
Hashtag Words starting with the symbol “#” were recorded
Mention Account handles starting with the symbol “@” were recorded.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Excel spreadsheets were used to code this research, organize data, and transform results
into tables. The tables helped visualize the results and made it easier for the researcher to identify
patterns and draw insights. (See Appendix A: Coding Sheets)
Figures 3, 4, and 5 indicate the results of three variables among all brands, which can be
15!
used for comparison between brands.
Figure 3 The Average Number of Tweets Sent Out by Each Brand per Day, December 2013
Figure 4 The Average Time a Tweet of Each Brand Is Retweeted by Followers, December 2013
Figure 5 The Average Time a Tweet of Each Brand Is “Favorited” by Followers, December 2013
0.3!!
2.0!!
7.4!!
6.8!!
43.6!!
29.0!!
0.3!!
1.0!!
4.4!!
10.1!!
Vine! Samsung!
Mobile!
iTunes!
Music!
Starbucks! Whole!
Food!
Samsung!
Mobile!US!
Android! Dior! MicrosoH!! BlackBerry!
The!number!of!tweets!per!day!
2.74!
2.3!
0.28!
5.32!
0! 0!
4.9!
2.58!
0.2! 0.32!
Vine! Samsung!
Mobile!
iTunes!
Music!
Starbucks! Whole!
Food!
Samsung!
Mobile!US!
Android! Dior! MicrosoH!!BlackBerry!
The!number!of!Nme!a!tweet!is!retweeted!
1.62!
1.4!
0.42!
10.18!
0! 0.08!
1.62!
2.84!
0.14! 0.1!
Vine! Samsung!
Mobile!
iTunes!
Music!
Starbucks! Whole!
Food!
Samsung!
Mobile!US!
Android! Dior! MicrosoH!!BlackBerry!
The!number!of!Nme!a!tweet!is!favorited!
!
!
16!
!
Secondary Research
The researcher reviewed 10 research studies retrieved from the Warc database through
USC’s digital library on guidelines and strategies of social media management for brands. Due to
the nature of social media, various online sources including blogs of PR practitioners, social
media analytics platforms, and digital versions of major publications were used. The researcher
also referenced the book Chief Culture Officer, Disrupted—From Gen Y to iGen:
Communicating with the Next Generation and Spreadable Media. Those theories and points
helped the researcher map out the cultural environment of social media.
Special Considerations
The researcher coded 500 tweets from the top 10 brands on Twitter—50 tweets from
each brand. Patterns identified from this small sample may not represent the overall Twitter
presence of those brands. Also, since the researcher did the coding and analysis individually, the
results may be subjective to the researcher’s personal understanding. A variety of factors could
potentially impact brands’ and audiences’ communication and interactions on social media. It is
difficult to explore all elements and draw definite conclusions about the efforts behind those
messages and numbers. However, the researcher was diligent in capturing and exploring what
she deemed most relevant in this research. Additionally, since the research targets are all
well-established brands with large numbers of followers, it was hard to find benchmarks to
measure the effectiveness of the brands’ social media management. The researcher assumed that
all those brands were managing their accounts effectively so patterns identified from their
presences should imply a thorough understanding of the cultural environment of social media.
Comparisons were conducted between brands or between the tweets of each brand.
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17!
Chapter One: Social Media Is About Content
Among the top 10 brands researched, Dior was the only fashion brand. The account was
about two-and-a-half years old with 3.8 million followers and 856 tweets at the time researched.
The tweet frequency of the account was one per day. Compared with other brands (see Figure 3),
that is relatively infrequent. However, each of Dior’s tweets was retweeted over 250 times and
“favorited” more than 280 times on average. In Figure 4 and 5, these numbers are the second
highest. This means that Dior, as a luxury brand, stayed in touch. It employed a new medium to
reach and interact with a mass audience. Maybe not every follower could afford Dior’s products,
but their following indicated love and support for the brand, which drives up the value of the
brand and fulfills the purpose of inspirational marketing.
Figure 6 The Percentage of Tweets in Dior’s Account with Each Type of Information, December 2013
Original Content
What did Dior do to bring people closer? According to the coding results, 82 percent of
Dior’s tweets contained original content created by the brand (see Figure 6), mostly from Dior
0%! 0%!
6%!
90%!
0%! 0%!
2%!
14%!
0%!
82%!
Dior!!
Percentage!!
!
!
18!
!
Mag—a digital publication on Dior’s website. Dior Mag is not a product brochure. It tells all
kinds of stories related to the brand. There is news about Dior-related events and celebrities,
behind-the-scenes stories of its collections, interviews with renowned fashion designers,
step-by-step how-to videos, and films about mystery ingredients, etc. Those stories were shared
on Twitter by Dior, and as the number indicated, they were widely reshared by Dior’s followers.
Cultural Interpretations
The online community heavily relies on content. Social media is like a convention
center. Users come to look for, showcase, and trade good content with each other. Without the
information that people contribute, it is just a giant empty space. Good content is why people
gather on social media. Not everyone has the ability to produce good content though, it requires
creativity, skill, equipment, time, and, sometimes, a crew. Brands may allocate required
resources and continually feed their audience with fresh content. Many brands have adopted this
strategy of content creation. Among the ones researched, 66 percent of Microsoft’s tweets
contained original content. The Fire Hose is a blog covering the news of the day at Microsoft.
Content of the blog was shared on Microsoft’s Twitter account very often under different titles
such as “Friday Question” and “Weekend Reading.” The Whole Foods Market website also hosts
ample content including healthy eating advice, recipes, product info, and brand-related “Whole
Stories”; 52 percent of Whole Foods’ tweets contained this content.
Photos and Videos
Another outstanding pattern of Dior’s account is that 88 percent of the tweets include
visual elements like photos and videos. This is not hard to understand. For a fashion brand,
!
19!
visual elements can demonstrate the brand’s taste in beauty and art. Moreover, fashion fans rely
heavily on visual content. Fashion blogs, magazines, and sites like Pose are hard proof. However,
visualization is not limited to the fashion community. It is a habit of all users on social media.
Research shows that posts with videos attract 3 times more inbound links than plain text posts.
Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t.
16
Two other brands researched heavily incorporated visual elements in their tweets. A total of 76
percent of tweets by Samsung Mobile contained visual elements. About 50 percent of Vine’s
tweets did as well. Data also proved that tweets with visual elements have more reshare value for
an audience. For the five brands with a higher audience engagement level (see Figure 2), Vine’s
tweets with visual elements were retweeted 22 times more than other tweets on average;
Samsung Mobile, 190 times more; Starbucks, 370 times more; Android, 190 times more; and
Dior, 170 times more.
Cultural Interpretation
Social media is an information-overloaded environment. About 9,100 tweets are sent
every second.
17
Users need to read through a large amount of information in a short amount of
time. Therefore, efficiency is key. That’s why Twitter set the 140-character limit for each tweet.
Even though many tools like URL-shortening applications were invented to help users insert
more information, photos and videos are best situated for quick reading and short attention spans.
Compared to text, photos and videos are easier to interpret. They catch readers’ eyes and look
more appealing. They can also communicate far more information than a 140-character tweet. In
addition, the reading habits of Twitter users are to keep scrolling down. Photos and videos can be
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16
Douglas Idugboe “Visual Marketing Materials that Get You Big Traffic in 30 Days,” Smedio, November 28,
2013, http://www.smedio.com/visual-marketing-materials-that-get-you-big-traffic/#
17
“Twitter Statistics,” Statistics Brain, December 31, 2013, http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/
!
!
20!
!
read within the tweet feed while URLs direct people to another web page. The latter can be an
interruption of one’s reading rhythm.
Content with Reshare Value
Among all the tweets coded, 21of them were retweeted more than 1,000 times. About
52 percent of them contain product information and 43 percent of them contain visual elements.
These numbers indicate that content that is informative and visually appealing has more reshare
value. For a fashion brand like Dior, 90 percent of its tweets contain visual elements, but only
some of them were widely retweeted. A closer look of Dior’s tweets from the account reveals
more about reshare value.
For example, below are two tweets from Dior’s account. People who retweeted the
tweet in Figure 7 are basically sending an ad to their friends. It is hard to attach personal
expression or feelings to the message. People who share the tweet in Figure 8 could express their
own taste in celebrities, movies, or fashion and share that with their friends, who very likely have
similar interests. Clearly, the second tweet has more reshare value.
Figure 7 Tweet by Dior, Retweets<100, Favorites <100, January 2014
!
21!
Figure 8 Tweet by Dior Retweets>400, Favorites >500, January 2014
Cultural Interpretation
Fewer people, especially younger readers, would mark a page in a fashion magazine and
save it for later, but hundreds would click the favorite button when they like a tweet. Because it
is much easier to do, more will do it when they are intrigued. Brands like Dior are good at
producing high-quality and intriguing content. Fewer people would show a magazine page they
like to all of their friends. Shared content represents a part of the person who shares it and must
have value for the person’s friends. If the content is all about the brand, like a simple product
announcement, it is less likely to be reshared. Different from advertising materials, most content
on social media has high reshare value as demonstrated in the earlier content analysis. Brands
can’t just relocate their print and broadcast ads to social media. They need to think about why
people reshare content. When mass-produced material is shared on social media, audience
members will retrofit it to better serve their interests. That is why a lot of material get remixed or
!
!
22!
!
inserted into ongoing conversations and across different platforms as stated in the book
Spreadable Media.
18
Recommendations
Brands should release original, high-quality and intriguing content in their social media
accounts. To play an important role in online conversations, brands need to have a unique voice.
The new cultural environment requires brands to evolve into content creators. When producing
content, they should consider their own expertise, visual elements and the reshare value of
content. Content that is informative, visually appealing, and connects to target audiences’ special
interests has more reshare value. More advanced content creators could open the floor and give
audiences room to reshape the content and add in their voice to better serve their interests.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green, Spreadable Media, (New York and London: New York
University Press, 2013), 27
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23!
Chapter Two: Social Media Is About Numbers
A Numbers-Sensitive Culture
As introduced in the “About Twitter” section in the preface, one can “follow” other
people’s accounts on Twitter to receive their tweets. In that way, this person becomes a
“follower” of those accounts. The number of accounts this person “follows” appears as the
number “following” his or her account.
Figure 9 The Total Number of Accounts Each Brand Was Following, December 2013
Among the brands researched, Whole Foods Market was the one that was following the
most accounts on Twitter. On the day observed, it followed 545,803 accounts on Twitter. (See
Figure 9) The number is distinctly higher than the rest of the brands. Starbucks came in second
by following 84,226 accounts. Samsung Mobile US came in third by following 19,866 accounts.
Following other accounts means that the brand would receive information from those accounts.
Brands usually follow major news sources to get a sense of what is happening in the world. They
may also follow business partners and journalists to maintain good relationships. If a brand
follows over 10,000 accounts, information gathering is not the purpose. It is important to note
that reason for following a large number of accounts is related to online status and reciprocation.
10! 294! 11!
84226!
545803!
19866!
26! 101! 1055! 3537!
Vine! Samsung!
Mobile!
iTunes!
Music!
Starbucks! Whole!
Food!
Samsung!
Mobile!US!
Android! Dior! MicrosoH!!BlackBerry!!
The!Number!of!Accounts!a!Brand!is!Following!
!
!
24!
!
Cultural Interpretation
Social media is not only a communication channel but also provides a psychological
solace for people. It fulfills people’s need for attention and approval. When people like, share, or
comment on others’ posts, those actions are recorded with numbers indicating the amount of
attention and approval. “Positive reinforcement is the most addictive element of social media,”
said Janna Wortham in her New York Time article.
19
Zeynep Tufekci, a professor of sociology at
the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, found that when people in the network do not
respond to one’s content, the person actually shared even more to figure out what his or her
network might like.
20
For brands, those numbers are an important measurement for the results of
their communication efforts on social media.
The number of followers is like a grade of one’s overall popularity. People can sugar up
their profiles, but the number of followers is solid proof of one’s status on social media. Many
analytics applications, such as Klout and Tweet Reach, use this number to rank people’s status
on social media. People with more followers are identified as “influencers.” Forbes publishes a
list of the top 50 influencers on social media every year. They are more respected on social
media and adored by brands. Through new marketing platforms like IZEA and CrowdTap, they
can make money and receive perks by posting certain content. The number of followers becomes
a form of asset. It is a common goal for all users of Twitter, regardless of whether they are
brands or individuals, to increase their number of followers. Thus, following others becomes an
act of kindness. That is why brands like Whole Food Markets, Starbucks, and Samsung Mobile
US are following so many accounts. They are doing a favor for audiences who want to drive up
their number of followers.
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19
Jenna Wortham, “Facebook Made Me Do It,”New York Times, June 15, 2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/sunday-review/facebook-made-me-do-it.html
20
Wortham,“Facebook Made Me Do It.”
!
25!
Fake Followers
The number-sensitive culture not only gives birth to influencers but also its evil
sister—fake followers. According to Entrepreneur, despite Twitter’s efforts to crack down on the
buying and selling of fake accounts, it’s still a booming business.
21
The Wall Street Journal
reported that nearly 9 percent of Twitter’s monthly active users werefake. Barracuda Labs
released an extensive report that found that the average cost for 1,000 followers was $11, and
most sellers can be found on eBay or Fiverr. Fake followers are usually empty accounts with no
activities. They won’t interact with brands, express love, or spread content for brands.
22
Moreover, a handful of tools now are available to detect the authenticity of followers, such as
Status People and Twitter Counter. A test through Twitter Counter revealed that all of the top 10
brands researched have fake followers. Vine was the most authentic brand with the fewest fake
followers which still made up 19 percent of its entire followers. (See Figure 10)
Figure 10 The Percentage of Fake Followers in Vine’s Twitter Account, January, 2014.
TwitterCounter.
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21
Laura Entis, “Fake Twitter Followers: How Many Do You Have?” Entrepreneur, December 2, 2013.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230167
22
Chris, “How To Spot People Who Buy Fake Twitter Followers,” Chris Jone’s Blog, August 29, 2013,
http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2013/08/how-to-spot-people-who-buy-fake-twitter-followers-and-why-if-you-
do-buy-fake-followers-people-might-not-do-business-with-you.html
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!
26!
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Reciprocation
Reciprocation is rooted deeply in people’s communication and interactions. When you
receive something from another person, you feel obligated to give something back even if it is
just a thank you. This culture also applies to the world of social media. People expect a return of
favor when they “follow” a brand on Twitter. Following members of its audience is a simple
return a brand could offer with very little cost. Conversely, brands could also attract new
followers by following them first and expect them to return the favor. These two patterns of logic
can possibly explain why Whole Foods Market, Starbucks, and Samsung Mobile US were
following a large number of accounts. Figure 11indicates that the number of Starbucks followers
and the number of accounts Starbucks follows have similar growth patterns. This could also be
seen in Samsung Mobile US’s account (see Figure 12). Those brands were taking advantage of
the mutual effect between the number of followers and the number of accounts they follow.
Surprisingly, Whole Foods Market was slowly decreasing its following (see Figure 13). Since
Whole Foods Market followed a huge number of accounts and its followers kept growing, the
brand may have decided to slowly unfollow old followers. Only time will tell which strategy will
help it go a long way.
Figure 11 The Change in Starbucks’ Twitter Followers and Following from August 2013 to January 2014.
Social Bakers.
!
27!
Figure 12 The Change in Samsung Mobile US’s Twitter Followers and Following from August 2013 to
January 2014. Social Bakers
!
Figure 13 The Change in Whole Foods Market’s Twitter Followers and Following from August 2013
to January 2014. Social Bakers.
Social media consultant Ted Coine wrote in his famous piece “Following Back Policy”
that “automatically following back is the ethic of the medium. It’s what you do.” For him,
following back indicated that he was not more important than his followers. The action also
helped him make friends with his followers. Conversely, he typically gave people one or two
weeks to follow him back. If they didn’t do so, he would unfollow them. According to Coine,
this rule was passed along to him from other Twitter users and widely respected by many users.
23
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23
Ted Coine, “Ted’s Twitter Follow-Back Policy,” Switch & Shift, January 21, 2012.
http://switchandshift.com/teds-twitter-follow-back-policy
!
!
28!
!
Operating on this code, Coine currently has 313,376 followers and 263,960 following. Forbes
ranked him as one of top 10 influencers on social media.
Recommendations
In a numbers-sensitive environment, brands should understand that followers are not a
means to build a brand; rather they are an end. Numbers are just quantitative measurements. The
focus of public relations and branding is qualitative change in awareness, perceptions and
relationships. Money can buy Twitter followers on Twitter but not influence. It is crucial for
brands to stay authentic on social media, because they communicate directly with general
consumers in this environment. Trust is essential in interpersonal relationships. Pretending to be
somebody fancy will not get you more friends. Also, it is important for brands to return the
favors from their followers by simply following them back. It shows they are not more important
than their fans and they understand Twitter etiquette.
!
29!
Chapter Three: Social Media Is About Engagement
Mentions
Among the brands researched, Whole Foods Market is the one with the highest tweet
frequency. The account posted 43.6 tweets per day on average (see Figure 3). A large number of
tweets were replies to fans. According to Figure 14, the results still indicated that 42 percent of
tweets addressed fans’ requests and needs and 48 percent of tweets mentioned other accounts,
most of which were common followers. The brand almost operated its Twitter account as a chat
room. In order to avoid duplicated data, the researcher had to collect 50 tweets on three different
times to break from the long lists of replies.
Figure 14 The Percentage of Tweets in Whole Foods Market’s Account with Each Type of Information
After a close look at Whole Foods’ Twitter feeds, it is fair to say that the brand really
made the effort to interact with people. It responded to people’s questions, thanked their
compliments, and commented on their photos. Anyone who included “@wholefoods” in a tweet
received a response that was not identical but sincere and specific to him or her. It may seem that
Whole Foods Market is not a brand anymore but a real person, a friend who cares about what
42%!
0%! 0%!
2%!
0%!
22%!
48%!
12%!
2%!
52%!
Whole!Foods!!
Percentage!!
!
!
30!
!
you say and loves you back. It is unknown how many people are handling Whole Foods’ Twitter
account, but clearly they are paying attention to every single one of their fans by following them
back, responding to tweets, and building relationships with them. BlackBerry, Samsung Mobile
US, and Starbucks also tweeted regularly with their fans. About 40 percent of BlackBerry’s
tweets researched include mentioning of fans. (See Figure 15) The number for Samsung Mobile
US is 52 percent, and the number for Starbucks is about 30 percent. (See Figure 16) Interacting
with followers is a primary tactic used by those brands on Twitter.
Figure 15 The Percentage of Tweets in BlackBerry’s Account with Each Type of Information
Figure 16 The Percentage of Tweets in Starbucks’ Account with Each Type of Information
40%!
4%!
16%!
26%!
0%! 0%!
56%!
6%!
26%!
20%!
BlackBerry!!
Percentage!!
30%!
2%!
12%!
20%!
0%!
14%!
56%!
20%!
0%!
20%!
Starbucks!!
Percentage!!
!
31!
Figure 17 The Percentage of Tweets in Samsung Mobile US’s Account with Each Type of Information
Twitter Chat
Another kind of activity Whole Foods Market hosted was a Twitter chat every Thursday
at 6p.m. CST with #WFMdish. It was designed to invite people to talk about their healthy dishes
made with ingredients purchased from Whole Foods. A search for“#WFMDish” on Tweet Reach
generated results as follows (see Figure 18).Even though the hash tag was consistently used by
Whole Foods when tweeting about healthy recipes and dishes, the Twitter chat on January 17
prominently increased interactions and impressions. About 385 tweets were sent out on the day,
making up most of the 179 replies.
52%!
0%!
12%!
26%!
10%!
18%!
56%!
12%!
0%!
22%!
Samsung!Mobile!US!!
Percentage!!
!
!
32!
!
Figure 18 The Numbers of Reach and Impressions of Hash Tag #WFMdish of Whole Foods
One of the top contributors of the conversations around #WFMdish was Earthbound
Farm, which was also a participant in the Twitter chat. The account sent out15 tweets and five
retweets with “#WFMdish,” generating19, 128 total impressions. The screenshots below (see
Figure 19) are of a conversation involving Earthbound Farm and three consumers about a
question from Whole Foods’ Twitter chat on preparing healthy foods. It is a great example
indicating how Twitter chat cultivates a high level of engagement. The conversation went back
and forth between brands and audience and continued for two days.
!
33!
Figure 19 A Conversation Stream Generated by One Question from Whole Foods’ Twitter Chat
Contests
Whole Foods Market is not the only brand that hammers at engagement. On average,
each tweet from Starbucks was retweeted over 532 times and favorited 1,018 times. Among the
top 10 brands, these numbers are the highest (see Figures 2 and 3). According to the coding
results, Starbucks tweets adopted various tactics including product info, visual elements, contests,
promotional info, original content, etc. This might be another reason the tweets were widely
!
!
34!
!
reshared. Moreover, Starbucks invented an innovative method that connects the virtual and real
worlds together named the Tweet-a-Coffee campaign.
The program was launched in October 2013. Customers can simply sync their Starbucks
account with their Twitter account and tweet to @tweetacoffee with the Twitter handle of the gift
recipient. The system will then send the recipient a $5 digital e-gift. Customers can then redeem
the $5 Starbucks card e-gift at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S., either by printing out
the e-gift, showing it directly on their mobile device, or by loading it on their Starbucks mobile
app. “We love the possibilities that the Twitter community can unlock to share acts of kindness
with one another, “said Adam Brotman, chief digital officer at Starbucks, in a statement.
“Tweet-a-coffee is a key next step as we innovate our social digital gifting offering.”
24
According to Twitter Counter, a social media analytics platform, the number of tweets with
@tweetacoffeegrew as follows after it launched (see Figure 20 and 21). It seemed that many
liked the idea at the beginning, but few people participated in it on a daily basis. However, the
number of followers of Tweet-a-Coffee kept growing, even slowly.
Figure 16: The Percentage of Tweets in Starbucks Account with Each Type of Information
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24
Kelly Clay, “Now You Can Give the Gift of Starbucks with Twitter,” Forbes, October 28, 2013.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/10/28/now-you-can-give-the-gift-of-starbucks-with-twitter/
30%!
2%!
12%!
20%!
0%!
14%!
56%!
20%!
0%!
20%!
Starbucks!!
Percentage!!
!
35!
Figure 20 The Number of Tweets Sent by Tweet-a-coffee since the Campaign Launched, Twitter
Counter
Figure 21 The Number of Followers of Tweet-a-coffee since the Campaign Launched, Twitter Counter
!
!
36!
!
Cultural Interpretation
Interaction
Social media is about interactions. The leading global qualitative research agency
Firefly Millward Brown has published research highlighting several drivers that bring people to
social media. The number one is connectedness and belonging.
25
By talking to brands using“@”
plus the brand name, people feel that they are connected to brands in an intimate way at a
personal level. No other medium can achieve this kind of connection. People can express their
love of brands by tweeting “@WholeFoodsMarket I love you!” It is hard to imagine where else a
customer could do that. Within a second, the person will receive love back from Whole Foods.
Brand–consumer communication has changed. The culture on social media is that brands need to
communicate and interact with their audiences like friends. They will love and respond to each
other. Twitter chat is a further effort for interacting with a larger group of followers and
encouraging interactions among them. It creates a sense of community, fulfilling people’s need
for belonging on social media
Control
Another reason given by Firefly is control. Before social media, customers had to visit
stores or call or email customer service to talk to brands. Those conversations happened
individually. Brands control where those conversations happen, who can hear them, and when
they want to give responses. Power has shifted in the new media landscape. Now audiences have
control over conversations. By including “@” and brand names, they can talk directly to brands
on Twitter. All tweets are publicly displayed in front of other Twitter users. Brands cannot hide
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25
“How should your brand capitalize on social media?” Millward Brown Knowledge Point, August 2011.
http://www.warc.com/
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37!
them or ignore them. Instead they need to address them as soon as possible. Twitter is the place
for instant messages. Statistically, it has been reported that 92 percent of all activities and
engagement with tweets happen within the first hour of the post being made.
26
When people
complain about products and services on Twitter, brands have to act quickly to address the
problems. Among the brands researched, Samsung Mobile US is the one with the highest
percentage of tweets responding to customer service issues. (See Figure 17) In about 10 percent
of tweets, the brand apologized for service problems and directed people to its Twitter customer
service center, @SamsungSupport. (See Figure 22)
Figure 17: The Percentage of Tweets in Samsung Mobile US’s Account with Each Type of
Information
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26
“What Is the Difference Between Twitter and Facebook?” Visual Scope, Retrieved on July 28, 2013,
http://www.visualscope.com/twitfb.html
52%!
0%!
12%!
26%!
10%!
18%!
56%!
12%!
0%!
22%!
Samsung!Mobile!US!!
Percentage!!
!
!
38!
!
Figure 22 Samsung Mobile US Addresses Customer Services Issues on Twitter
Bridge Online and Offline Channels
The best social brands are willing to experiment with new technologies. “Tweet a coffee”
is Starbucks, innovative idea. In the book Disrupted from Gen Y to iGen: Communicating with
the Next Generation, Stephan Pollack introduced the concept of “omnipresent impulse zones.”
Impulse zones are the highest revenue-generating areas of any retailer. They entice consumers to
skip the entire marketing funnel and form desires to purchase without awareness or research. The
impulse zones of Starbucks are typically at the checkout counter whereas Tweet-a-Coffee moved
them to Twitter. It is a place with infinite touch points. Pollack called programs like this the
omnipresent impulse zone. The boundary between the real world and virtual world is blurry.
Communication efforts of brands need to bridge both offline and online channels.
27
Recommendations
Brands need to think about different ways to engage an audience. Social media is an
environment that encourages interactions and values connectedness. It is not another channel to
send out messages. Brands need to be active and interact with followers. At the same time, social
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27
Stephen Pollack, Disrupted: from Gen Y to iGen(Los Angeles: Pacific Coast Creative Publishing, 2013), 124,
127, 130
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39!
media is an environment controlled by the audiences so brands need to listen to what followers
are talking about and join their conversation when appropriate. In addition to being good
participants, brands also need to be good facilitators, cultivate interactions among followers and
bridge the connection between online and offline channels. Group chats and contests are good
tactics for organizing online activities.
Chapter Four: Social Media Is About Community
Fan Culture
Among the top 10 brands researched, seven are technology-related brands. Compared to
the audience for other brands, this group is more technology savvy. They are the early adopters
of social media and use this medium to keep up with the latest technology trends. As seen from
the coding results, a larger number of tweets from these technology brands were devoted to
product information and promotional materials. For Android, the brand with the second-highest
engagement level (see Figure 23), product info was included in 42 percent of its tweets and
promotional element was included in 30 percent of its tweets. For Microsoft, 32 percent of
tweets were about products. (See Figure 24) In the iTunes Music’s account, 52 percent of tweets
were promotional. (See Figure 25) Tech-savvier readers of gaming and tech sites are more likely
to use ad blockers, says a report from PageFair.
28
In the tech community, social media becomes
a good tool for fans to receive the latest news about technology advances and product
development. This unique fan culture is what drives up the ranking of these technology brands.
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28
! Kashmir!Hill,!“Use!Of!Ad!Blocking!Is!On!The!Rise,”!Forbes,(August!21,!2013.!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/21/use\of\ad\blocking\is\on\the\rise/!
!
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40!
!
Figure 23 The Percentage of Tweets in Android’s Account with Each Type of Information
Figure 24 The Percentage of Tweets in Microsoft’s Account with Each Type of Information
Figure 25 The Percentage of Tweets in iTunes Music’s Account with Each Type of Information
4%!
0%!
42%!
22%!
0%! 0%!
46%!
30%!
8%!
16%!
Android!!
Percentage!!
16%!
0%!
32%!
40%!
0%! 0%!
62%!
4%!
6%!
66%!
MicrosoPercentage!!
0%! 0%!
10%!
24%!
0%!
14%!
80%!
52%!
8%!
0%!
iTunes!Music!!
Percentage!!
!
41!
Within the tech-savvy community, there is a subgroup with a more unique culture and
deeper brand loyalty. It is the group of BlackBerry followers. As a majority of people move to
the touch-screen age with their mobile devices, it is surprising to see a large number of
BlackBerry users staying with the brand on Twitter and keeping it in the circle of top brands on
Twitter. BlackBerry’s Twitter account was ranked as No.10 on Twitter with 3.75 million
followers on the day researched. The coding results showed that unlike with other tech brands,
product and promotional information is not the primary content in BlackBerry’s tweets. About
56 percent of tweets mentioned other users and 40 percent addressed fans’ requests and needs.
(See Figure 15) As mentioned in the section on engagement, one of BlackBerry’s primary tactics
is interaction with followers.
Figure 15 The Percentage of Tweets in BlackBerry’s Account with Each Type of Information
A closer analysis of BlackBerry’s tweets revealed that the brand embraced a
work-oriented culture that is popular among its audience and highlighted it in its tweets in
different ways. The brand even created a series of visual content related to the business world
(see Figure 26). Among other tweets, words like productivity, efficiency, and work are frequently
40%!
4%!
16%!
26%!
0%! 0%!
56%!
6%!
26%!
20%!
BlackBerry!
Percentage!!
!
!
42!
!
mentioned. A thorough understanding of its consumers’ needs and culture helps the brand
receive fans’ compliments. The tweets in Figure 27 indicated fans’ love for the brand.
Figure 26 Visual Content Created by BlackBerry by Embracing the Business Culture
Figure 27 Fans Thanked BlackBerry for Being a Useful Tool for Work and Life
Cultural Interpretation
!
43!
People gather on social media for a sense of community. When they gather around a
brand, they form a type of community culture. The cultural environment of social media is
composed of various fan cultures. The technology community values product-related news in a
timely manner so brands live tweet at technology events. The BlackBerry community values
business and work, so BlackBerry embraced the culture and embedded it in every tweet from
BlackBerry. Even though Apple and Samsung dominated the mobile market, BlackBerry stayed
strong in the top brands on Twitter with frequent compliments from its followers. The hash tag
#TeamBlackBerry has a surprisingly large reach, and the brand is not among the top contributors.
It was all spread by fans. (See Figure 28)
Figure 28 The Reach and Impressions of Hash Tag #TeamBlackBerry from Tweet Reach, January
2014
Recommendations
Brands should be sensitive to their fan base and understand fan culture. They need to
study the context when sending out messages. If a brand can identify unique cultures in its fan
base and speak languages that are unique to its fans, the brand will cultivate a sense of
community among its followers on social media, which deepens brand loyalty and builds long
term relationships. For customers, it is not about product benefits or service quality; it is like
!
!
44!
!
having a friend who knows who you are in the coffee place down the street. You like to hang out
with him and maybe have coffee. When a customer becomes a member in a recognized group,
the person doesn’t want to join other groups and will speak on behalf of the brand as an advocate.
Social media is an environment to for these types of relationship and communities to grow.
!
45!
Chapter Five: Social Media Myths Debunked
In addition to distinct patterns, the researcher also encountered facts that debunked some
general myths about social media.
First, brands must keep tweeting to attract more followers. Vine remained the No.1
brand on Twitter with the most followers during the time of this research. However, it was the
youngest account with the least tweets. During about one and a half years, Vine sent out 143
tweets but gained 5,467,310 followers. The daily average growth is 19,841 followers and zero
tweets. How does Vine attract followers with no content? One guess is that anyone who joins
Vine will automatically have the option to follow Vine on Twitter since the two applications are
from the same company.
Second, brands must always apply strategies and tactics to win over followers. The two
tweets from Starbucks that were retweeted and “favorited” the most times were the ones that
couldn’t be coded for any tactics (see Figure 29). As shown below, the two tweets incorporated
no visual elements, useful information, contests, or promotional messages. They simply
described a feeling and atmosphere. Because the people that handle the account deeply
understand the brand’s followers, they described a kind of experience that speaks to them and
their friends. Therefore, those simple text-based tweets were shared thousands of times. Content
like this is a stroke of genius. The only science behind it is human resources. It is crucial for
brands to hire the right people to manage social media channels.
!
!
46!
!
Figure 29 Two Tweets from Starbucks with the Highest Number of Retweets and Favorites, December,
2013
!
47!
Conclusion
As brands increasingly look to social media as a new way of communicating with their
consumers, they need to first understand the cultural environment of social media and then
develop strategies and tactics to build that relationship. There are many behaviors and beliefs
characteristic of social media that are not stated in the user agreement but are followed and
respected by the online community as conventions. A good understanding of cultures will help
public relations practitioners effectively manage social media channels for brands and form a
positive relationship with their audience.
Interesting Data Points
• Among the top 10 brands researched, seven are technology-related brands
• Among all the tweets coded, 21 of them were retweeted more than 1,000 times.
About 52 percent of them contain product information and 43 percent of them
contain visual elements
• Wholes Foods Market was following 545,803 accounts at the time researched which
was five times of the combined accounts followed by the rest of the brands
• Over 40 percent of tweets by four of the brands researched were response to fans
• A Twitter chat could generate almost four times more tweets around a hash tag
Takeaways
The analysis of the top 10 most followed brands on Twitter helps illustrate the cultural
environment of social media. Social media is about content, numbers, engagement and
community. To thrive in this environment, brands and public relationship professionals need to:
!
!
48!
!
! Generate original content that is visually appealing and with reshare value
! Be sensitive with numbers and be generous to help others grow. It is a mutual
benefiting environment that thrives on people’s communications and interactions
with each other
! Engage audiences through conversations and activities that connect the online and
offline worlds
! Embrace fan culture and add more meanings to the brand
! Form a community on social media by speaking languages that are unique to the
audience.
Once brands understand the rules of this new environment, they don’t have to fight to be
heard. Speaking all day long does mean will you be heard. Effectiveness is about
communicating to the right audience, at the right time, with the right message and tactics.
Sometimes, it only takes a stroke of genius from a smart person to give the brand some
humanity and personality to be as real as its audience in this “virtual” world.
!
49!
Bibliography
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-with-you.html
Grant McCracken, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living Breathing Corporation (New
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Uva97tJDuSo
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green, Spreadable Media, (New York and London: New
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!
Rank Brand Handle Followers Following Tweets Age Days
Date
Observed
Tweets
Per
Day
Retweet
s
Favor
ites
1 Vine Vineapp 5467310 10 143
1 year 4 monghts 27
days 512 10/15/13 0.3 137 81
2
Samsung
Mobile
SamsungM
obile 6926250 294 1875
2 years 7 months 18
days 958 10/26/13 2.0 115 70
3 iTunes Music
iTunes
Music 4917845 11 11120 4 years 1 month 13 days 1503 10/27/13 7.4 14 21
4 Starbucks starbucks 5491941 84226 17478 7 years 24 days 2579 12/20/13 6.8 266 509
5 Whole Food
Whole
Food 3577913 545803 85418
5 years 4 months 15
days 1960 10/28/13 43.6 0 0
6
Samsung
Mobile US
Samsung
MobileUS 5082259 19866 61873
5 years 10 months 10
days 2135 1/12/13 29.0 0 4
7 Android Android 4161745 26 243
2 years 2 months 25
days 815 12/20/13 0.3 245 81
8 Dior dior 3820904 101 856
2 years 4 months 21
days 871 12/20/13 1.0 129 142
9 Microsoft Microsoft 3782844 1055 6858
4 years 3 months 10
days 1560 12/20/13 4.4 10 7
10 BlackBerry BlackBerry 3759712 3537 20858
5 years 7 months 28
days 2063 12/20/13 10.1 16 5
Brand
The
number of
tweets per
day
Vine 0.3
Samsung Mobile 2.0
iTunes Music 7.4
Starbucks 6.8
Whole Food 43.6
Samsung Mobile US 29.0
Android 0.3
Dior 1.0
Microsoft 4.4
BlackBerry 10.1
Appendix A. Coding Sheets
0.3$$
2.0$$
7.4$$
6.8$$
43.6$$
29.0$$
0.3$$
1.0$$
4.4$$
10.1$$
Vine$ Samsung$
Mobile$
iTunes$
Music$
Starbucks$ Whole$
Food$
Samsung$
Mobile$US$
Android$ Dior$ MicrosoF$$ BlackBerry$$
The$number$of$tweets$per$day$
Brand
The
number of
times a
tweet is
retweeted
Vine 2.74
Samsung Mobile 2.3
iTunes Music 0.28
Starbucks 5.32
Whole Food 0
Samsung Mobile US 0
Android 4.9
Dior 2.58
Microsoft 0.2
BlackBerry 0.32
Brand
The
number of
times a
tweet is
favorited
Vine 1.62
Samsung Mobile 1.4
iTunes Music 0.42
Starbucks 10.18
Whole Food 0
Samsung Mobile US 0.08
Android 1.62
Dior 2.84
Microsoft 0.14
BlackBerry 0.1
2.74$
2.3$
0.28$
5.32$
0$ 0$
4.9$
2.58$
0.2$ 0.32$
Vine$ Samsung$
Mobile$
iTunes$
Music$
Starbucks$ Whole$
Food$
Samsung$
Mobile$US$
Android$ Dior$ MicrosoF$$BlackBerry$$
The$number$of$Mmes$a$tweet$is$retweeted$
1.62$
1.4$
0.42$
10.18$
0$ 0.08$
1.62$
2.84$
0.14$ 0.1$
Vine$ Samsung$
Mobile$
iTunes$
Music$
Starbucks$ Whole$
Food$
Samsung$
Mobile$US$
Android$ Dior$ MicrosoF$$BlackBerry$$
The$number$of$Mmes$a$tweet$is$favorited$
Brand
The
Number of
Accounts
a Brand is
Following
Vine 10
Samsung Mobile 294
iTunes Music 11
Starbucks 84226
Whole Food 545803
Samsung Mobile US 19866
Android 26
Dior 101
Microsoft 1055
BlackBerry 3537
10$ 294$ 11$
84226$
545803$
19866$
26$ 101$ 1055$ 3537$
The$Number$of$Accounts$a$Brand$is$Following$
Vine
Tweet Retweets Favoirtes
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Customer
Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article Hash Tag Mention
1 10 9 1 1 1
#Thankyo
u
3 5 5 1 1 #DumbTo
8 0 1 1 1
14 0 0 1 1
#GMADer
ulo
15 0 0 1 1
#GMADer
ulo
16 0 0 1 1
#GMADer
ulo
17 2 2 1 1
22 2 2 1 1
28 1 1 1 1
#Redworl
drecord
29 3 2 1 1
#Redwold
record
30 0 0 1 1
#Redwold
record
31 10 3 1 1
#Redwold
record
32 2 1 1 1
#Redwold
record
34 0 0 1 1 #HTCone #VineApp
36 29 7 1 1
38 3 3 1 1 1
39 0 0 1 1
40 0 0 1 1
41 4 1 1 1
#UCLFina
l
42 2 1 1 1
#UCLFina
l
43 0 0 1 1
44 1 2 1 1
45 0 0 1 1
46 0 0 1 1 #Howto
#Expo1N
Y
47 0 0 1 1
50 0 0 1 1
#YourMo
m
2 2 2 1
4 0 0 1 1
5 1 1 1 1
#AirbnbH
V
6 5 4 1
7 1 0 1 1
9 1 0 1 1
10 10 7 1
11 0 0 1
12 0 1 1 1
13 2 3 1 1
18 1 1 1
19 0 0 1 1
#WiredOp
ticalIllusio
n
20 2 3 1 1
21 0 0 1
23 1 1 1
24 6 3 1
25 3 1 1
26 1 1 1 1
27 8 7 1 1
#Thankyo
u
33 0 0 1 1 #HTCone #VineApp
35 1 1 1 #VineApp
37 18 5 1 1
48 0 0 1
49 0 0 1
Average 2.74 1.62
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Customer
Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article Hash Tag Mention
Percentage 8% 8% 20% 50% 2% 4% 54% 10% 2% 16%
SUM 4 4 10 25 1 2 27 5 1 8
8%/ 8%/
20%/
50%/
2%/
4%/
54%/
10%/
2%/
16%/
Vine%%
Percentage//
Samsung(Moblie
Tweet Retweets Favoirtes
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Customer
Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article Hash Tag Mention
1 2 1 1 1 1 1
samsung)
content
2 1 0 1 1
3 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3)
4 1 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3)
6 1 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3)
7 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYS
III,#GALAX
YS4,#GAL
AXYNotell,
8 5 2 1 1
9 0 0 1 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,GALA PopArt123
10 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYS
tudio)
#Samsung)
11 0 0 1 1 #GAlAXYG IconaPop
12 1 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,GALA
13 2 1 1 1 #GALAXYN
14 2 2 1 1 #ChatOn
15 1 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,GALA
16 1 0 1 1 #GALAXYN
17 1 0 1 1
19 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,GALA
20 3 1 1 1
21 4 2 1 1 #GALAXYG
22 3 2 1 1 #GALAXYN
23 6 3 1 1 #GALAXYN
24 1 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,GALA
26 5 3 1 1 #GALAXYN
27 1 0 1 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,)
#GALAXYG
IconaPop,)
timessqua
renyc
28 3 2 1 1 #GALAXYN
29 1 1 1 1 #GALAXY
30 0 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,)
#GALAXYG
32 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYS
4,)
#Compani
33 2 2 1 1 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
37 1 1 1 1 1 #news,#fi
39 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYS
4,)
#Compani
40 2 1 1 1 #Galaxyge
41 25 12 1 1
#Galaxyge
ar,)
42 1 0 1 1 #Galaxy11 #Ronald
43 1 1 1 1
#GALAXYS
4,)
#Compani
45 2 2 1 1
#GALAxyN
ote3,#free
47 1 1 1 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
#Galaxyge
ar,)
48 19 11 1 1 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
5 0 0 1 #SDC13
18 1 0 1 1
25 1 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,#S4z
oom,#Pari
31 0 0 1 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,)
#GALAXYG
34 2 4 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
#GalaxyGe
35 1 1 1 1 #Galaxy11
36 1 1 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
38 1 2 1
#GALAXYN
ote3,)
#GALAXYG
44 2 3 1
#Galaxyge
ar,)
46 0 0 1 #GALAxy1
49 1 1 1
#GalaxyN
ote3,)
50 0 0 1
#Galaxyno
te3,)#NYC
Average 2.3 1.4
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Customer
Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article
Hashtag:
# Metnion
Percentage 2% 0% 26% 76% 0% 0% 10% 28% 52% 2%
SUM 1 0 13 38 0 0 5 14 26 1
Samsung(Mobile(
2%)
0%)
26%)
76%)
0%) 0%)
10%)
28%)
52%)
2%)
Samsung(Mobile(
iTunes'Music
Tweet Retweets Favoirtes
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Custome
r Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article Hash Tag Mention
1 0 0 1 1 1 #iTunesRa lang_lang
2 0 0 1 1
#iTunesFes
tival,iTunes
4 0 0 1 1 #iTunesRa
5 0 0 1 1 1 #AskGlasp
13 0 0 1 1 1
#iTunesRa
dio
djkhaled,ty
ga,eminem
15 1 0 1 1
#iTunesFes
tival,iTunes
35 0 0 1 1 1 #askJames
jamesvmc
morrow,E
37 0 0 1 1 1
#iTunesRa
dio
switchfoot,E
itunes
39 0 0 1 1 1
#iTunesRa
dio
jamesvmc
morrow,E
40 0 0 1 1 1 #askJames
jamesvmc
morrow,E
41 0 0 1 1 1 #iTunesRa
50 0 0 1 1 1 #askjames
jamesvmc
morrow,E
3 1 0 1 1 #PRISM katyEperry
6 0 0 1
Jamesblak
e,chanceth
7 0 0 1
timE
hecker,pitc
hforkmedi
a
8 1 0 1
#iTunesFes
tival
katyperry,E
ladygaga,jti
mberlake,p
aramore,je
ssiej,
9 0 0 1 1 #AskGlasp robertE
10 0 0 1 1
JanelleE
Monae,nbc
11 0 0 1 1 MIAunivers
12 1 0 1 1
#TheElectri
cLady
nbcsnl,Jan
elleEMonae
14 0 0 1 1 ericEchurch
16 0 0 1 1 SFGMC
17 0 0 1
18 4 6 1 1 ToriEkelly
19 0 0
#JoyDivisio
n,#Hallowe
enTunes
20 0 0 1 1
bastillE
edan,ERAC,E
ukmele,E
katkrazym
21 0 0 1 #bestof201
22 0 0 1 #bestof201
23 0 0 1 1
#bestof201
3,#iTunesR
24 0 0 1 1
#bestof201
3,#iTunesR
25 0 0 1 #bestof201
26 0 0 1 1
27 0 0 1 1
28 0 0 1 1 #Mozart
29 0 0 1 1
#bestof201
3,#iTunesR
30 0 0 1 1 #iTunesRa
31 0 0 1 1 #bestof201
32 0 0 1
#Throught
hepicturew
33 0 0 1
#bestof201
3,#iTunesR
34 0 2 1 1
#bestof201
3,#iTunesR
36 0 0 1 1
#money,E
#banshee
ivyElevan,E
cinemax,E
itunesE
music
38 0 0 1 1
#iTunesRa
dio
itunes,E
johnmayer,E
42 0 0 1 RedFang
43 0 0 1 neontrees
44 0 0 1 1 #fadingwes itunes
45 0 0 1 1
#fadingwes
t.E itunes
46 0 0 1 1
#askSwitch
foot itunes
47 0 0 1 misterwive
48 0 0 1 1 #iTunesRa itunes
49 6 13 1
#YouSound
GoodToMe
lucyEhale,E
gma
Average 0.28 0.42
Fan
Communi
ty Humor
Product
Info Visual
Custome
r Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promotio
nal Content Article
Hashtag:
# Metnion
Percentage 0% 0% 10% 24% 0% 14% 80% 52% 8% 0%
SUM 0 0 5 12 0 7 40 26 4 0
0%E 0%E
10%E
24%E
0%E
14%E
80%E
52%E
8%E
0%E
iTunes'Music''
PercentageEE
Whole&Foods
Tweet Retweets Favoirtes
Fan
Commun
ity Humor
Product
Info Visual
Custome
r Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
Promoti
onal Content Article
Hash
Tag Mention Notes
17 0 0 1 1
"It's)in)the)
Bag")
photo)
contest)
1 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish
2 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish
3 0 0 1 1 1 #WFMdish
4 0 0 1
5 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish
6 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish Repeat
7 0 0 1 1 1 #WFMdish Repeat
8 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish Repeat
9 0 0 1 1
10 0 0 1 1 Repeat
11 0 0 1 1 1
12 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish
13 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish Repeat
14 0 0 1 1 #WFMdish
15 0 0 1 1
16 0 0 1 1
pannacoo
king
18 0 0 1 #WFMdish
19 0 0 1 Repeat
20 0 0 1 #WFMdish
Twitter)
chat)every)
Thursday)
CST)6pm)
with)
#WFMdish)
21 0 0 1
22 0 0 1
23 0 0 1
24 0 0 1
25 0 0 1
26 0 0 1
27 0 0 1
28 0 0 1
29 0 0 1 1
30 0 0 1
pinterest,)
cooking)
light
31 0 0 1 1 fan
32 0 0 1 1 fan
33 0 0 1 1 fan
34 0 0 1 1 fan
35 0 0 1 1 fan
36 0 0 1 1 fan
37 0 0 1 1 fan
38 0 0 1 1 fan
39 0 0 1 1 fan
40 0 0 1 1 fan
41 0 0 1 1 fan
42 0 0 1 1 fan
43 0 0 1 1 fan
44 0 0 1 1 fan
45 0 0 1 1 fan
46 0 0 1 1 fan
47 0 0 1 1 fan
48 0 0 1 1 fan
49 0 0 1 1 fan
50 0 0 1 1 fan
Average 0 0
Fan
Commun
ity Humor
Product
Info Visual
Custome
r Service Contest Mention
Promoti
onal Article Content
Hashtag:
# Metnion
Percentage 42% 0% 0% 2% 0% 22% 48% 12% 2% 52%
SUM 21 0 0 1 0 11 24 6 1 26
42%)
0%) 0%)
2%)
0%)
22%)
48%)
12%)
2%)
52%)
Whole&Foods&&
Percentage))
BlackBerry)
Tweet Retweets Favoirtes
Fan
Commun
ity Humor
Product
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r Service Contest
Retweet/
mention
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onal Content Article
Hash
Tag Mention Notes
41 0 0 1 1 1
#blackberr
y
Blackberry.
news,.
bloomber
gTV,.
JonErlichm
an
11 0 0 1 1
#BlackBerr
y10,.
#BES10
BlackBerry
4Biz
38 0 0 1 1 1
#Blackberr
y
Blackberry
4Biz
33 0 0 1 1
#blackberr
y
CNBC,InaF
ried
10 0 0 1 1 1 #BB10 fan
13 1 0 1 1 1 #Z30 fan
6 0 0 1 1
#reliable,#
hatsoff fan
17 0 0 1 1
#Commun
ications,#B
BM,.
#business,
#Blackberr
yQ10 fan
18 0 0 1 1 fan
22 0 0 1 1 fan
24 0 0 1 fan
Fan's.
complime
nt
26 0 0 1 1 fan
27 0 0 1 1 fan
28 0 0 1 1 fan
29 0 0 1 1 fan
30 0 0 1 1 fan
32 0 0 1 fan
Fan's.
complime
nt
34 0 0 1 1 fan
36 0 0 1 1
#TeamBla
ckBerry Fan
40 0 0 1 1 fan
43 0 0 1 1 fan
44 0 0 1 1 fan
47 0 0 1 1 fan
48 0 0 1 1 fan
5 0 0 1 1 #BB10 SpeekApp
8 1 0 1 1 1
37 0 0 1 1
39 0 0 1 1 #CES2014
16 0 0 1
about.
Friday.
13th
35 0 0 1
#blackberr
y,.
#CES2014 IntlCES
12 0 0 1 1 LinkedIn
2 0 0 1 1
4 0 0 1 1 1
9 1 0 1 1
15 1 0 1 1
#Powered
byBlackBe
rry
19 0 0 1 1
#Powered
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21 0 0 1
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42 0 0 1 1 1
45 1 1 1 1
The.power.
to.take.
charge.in.
the.palm.
of.your.
hand.with.
pictures
46 2 1 1 1
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Abstract (if available)
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Liu, Yijie
(author)
Core Title
A study of the cultural environment of social media
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Strategic Public Relations
Publication Date
05/07/2014
Defense Date
05/06/2014
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
branding,OAI-PMH Harvest,Public Relations,social media management,Twitter,Twitter marketing
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Tenderich, Burghardt (
committee chair
), Floto, Jennifer D. (
committee member
), LeVeque, Matthew (
committee member
)
Creator Email
lyj13035@gmail.com,yijieliu@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-412371
Unique identifier
UC11295333
Identifier
etd-LiuYijie-2501.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-412371 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-LiuYijie-2501-1.pdf
Dmrecord
412371
Document Type
Thesis
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Liu, Yijie
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
branding
social media management
Twitter
Twitter marketing