Mind the gap: a global analysis of the number of buyers to sellers using blogging, social networking, online video, and microblogging platforms.

• Author: Gilfoil, David M.
• Position: Survey

1. INTRODUCTION

   Global trends in the patterns of online social interactive behavior on the web are being established in the academic literature. This survey paper is a continuation of research analyzing the global usage of so called Web 2.0 tools as they relate to marketing (Jobs, 2011; Jobs and Gilfoil, 2011). Of particular interest here is the potential utilization of Web 2.0 for electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) initiatives including corporate driven marketing as well as ad hoc efforts by consumers. Our preliminary research findings suggest that there are currently more sellers than buyers using these tools for all the countries we analyzed, with the exception of China. The size of the gap between sellers and buyers is lowest for the social networking behavioral pattern and greatest for the blogging behavioral pattern.

   This study measures the gaps between seller and buyer participation in sixteen countries to determine if they are statistically significant. The significance determination is made by a two tailed McNemar test performed at the 95% confidence interval. Significant differences are noted, and the average for all the gaps for each social broadcast behavior is reported. Based on the findings, a few key areas requiring further investigation are suggested to better understand the implications of the current market participation conditions.

   The current research is important because the four forms of social broadcast behavior under analysis are the ones reportedly most often used by companies seeking to market their offerings. Our selection of these broadcast behaviors is validated by TopRank Online Marketing--a leading, internationally recognized, digital marketing agency that annually publishes the top digital marketing tactics used by readers of their popular online marketing blog (TopRank, 2011). Indeed, the 2011 four leading online interactive marketing behaviors most likely to be used by their readers (and their respective percentage of usage) are: social networking (34%), blogging (30%), video (13%), and microblogging (12%) (TopRank, 2011).

   The goal of this study is to look closer at the usage patterns of these online interactive behaviors, where users indicate they use them to sell or buy goods and services, to address any significant county by country differences, and to discuss implications for the future of eWOM marketing.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   Online social media networks are increasingly being recognized as an important source of information influencing the adoption and use of products and services. These online networks and services are a subset of the so called Web 2.0 world. The popularity of the term Web 2.0 is largely credited to Tim O'Reilly who described it as a new form of collaborative Web, a "platform harnessing collective intelligence" (O'Reilly, 2005). Hoegg, Martignoni, Meckel, and Stanoevsla-Slabeva (2006) define Web 2.0 as "the philosophy of mutually maximizing collective intelligence and added value for each participant by formalized and dynamic information sharing and creation" (p.12). Anderson (2007) defines Web 2.0 as a group of technologies that have become deeply associated with the term: blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on; technologies contributing to a more socially connected Web where everyone is able to add to and edit content. More recently, Constantinides and Fountain (2008) proposed the following definition: "Web 2.0 is a collection of open-source, interactive and user-controlled online applications expanding the experience, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes. Web 2.0 supports the creation of informal users' networks, facilitating the flow of ideas and knowledge by allowing the efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing/refining of informational content" (p.232).

   Usage of Web 2.0 for marketing purposes makes great sense. Many have suggested that Web 2.0 can enhance the power of viral marketing (Subramani and Rajagopalan, 2003; Leskovec, Adamic, and Huberman, 2007; Hartline, Mirrokni, and Sundararajan, 2008). Others agree and further suggest that Web 2.0 clearly increases the speed at which consumers share experiences and opinions with progressively larger audiences (Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, and McKenzie, 2008). A fundamental component of viral marketing is providing tools to make it easier to share information. Web 2.0 social media technology enables marketers to develop interactive Web tools that make it virtually effortless for users to engage in viral marketing by encouraging the user to share feedback, provide comments, rate products, provide reviews, and download items for sharing with friends. To better understand the importance and impact of viral marketing activities in today's global marketplace, Van der Lans, Van Bruggen, Eliashberg, and Wierenga (2010) recently developed a model that predicts how many customers a viral marketing campaign reaches, how this reach evolves, and how it depends on proactive marketing activities.

   Word of mouth (WOM) advertising is a process of conveying information from person to person which plays a major role in customer buying decisions (Richins and Root-Shaffer, 1988). In commercial situations, WOM involves consumers sharing attitudes, opinions, or reactions about businesses, products, or services with other people. The term eWOM has been defined as: "a statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet" (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, and Gremle, 2004, p. 39).

   Communication via eWOM manifests itself through Web 2.0 applications such as online discussion forums, electronic bulletin board systems, newsgroups, blogs, review sites, and social networking sites (Goldsmith, 2006). Modern (eWOM) communication, using Web 2.0 applications, clearly transcends the limitations of traditional WOM. Consumers today obtain information related to goods and services from a vast, geographically dispersed group of people who have experience with relevant products or services instead of only the few people they know (Ratchford, Talukdar, and Lee, 2001; Lee, Cheung, Lim, and Sia, 2006).

   Jalilvand, Esfanani, and Samiei (2011) provide a cursory theoretical framework of eWOM, discuss the significant role it plays in the consumer purchasing decision process, and provide a review of the key challenges and opportunities for companies to reach consumers and to influence their opinions. The authors conclude: "Companies should actively get involved in some online consumer communities and provide all relevant and complete information about their company... Marketers must understand that their customers are going online in increasing numbers and that these consumers are likely influenced by the many sites devoted to the selling or discussion of their products or services" (p.45).

   While most discussions of eWOM are of a theoretical nature, some recent empirical studies have been reported. Parise and Guinan (2008), for example, conducted an interview survey of 30 marketing managers and senior executives and concluded that there were four principles which guided managers' marketing actions using Web 2.0: 1) facilitate users in generating content, 2) focus on building a community, 3) ensure authenticity of the message, and 4) look for marketing opportunities through experimentation. Also, Jansen, Zhang, Sobel and Chowdury (2009) recently found microblogging (Twitter) to be an effective online tool for customer word of mouth communications, and discuss the implications for corporations using microblogging as part of their overall marketing strategy.

   Global trends in the patterns of online behavior (using Web 2.0 as a potential eWOM facility) are also starting to be established in the academic literature. Using data from a global panel study we found that developing countries, when compared to technologically and economically developed countries, are adopting microblogging services at a significantly greater and relative rate than social networking services (Jobs, 2011; Jobs and Gilfoil, 2011). The latter study attempted to explain these divergent usage patterns using Hofstede's cultural dimensions model. What is needed to better understand global adoption patterns, according to Jobs and Gilfoil (2011), is to look at some of the motivations that drive usage--for example, how marketers and consumers use the web to buy and sell things.

   Prior theoretical work by Constantinides, Romero, and Boria (2008) can perhaps help us refine the way we think about Web 2.0 usage by marketers and consumers alike. It is helpful, according to Constantinides et al, to think about marketers interacting with consumers using passive and active web marketing tools:

   Using Web 2.0 applications as passive marketing tools: Listening-in to the user's...