Module 2: Building Relationships (Facebook)

<professors' note: this is one of those special Module posts you should comment on>

Thinking of Module 2 and our examination of network theory and Facebook and how we might start thinking about our business Facebook Pages.... this article will be of interest. In a way, we noticed that Twitter users have changed...as we become more literate with Twitter, we change how we employ Twitter, well, similar evidence is being uncovered with Facebook. You might expect that but have a read here of our use of the "like" button. How do you think this may change with Facebook's announcement of the dislike button:

"People have asked about the 'dislike' button for many years," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a live Q&A session Tuesday, according toThe Washington Post. "Today is a special day, because today is the day I can say we're working on it and shipping it."

"To explore the motivation and behavior of Facebook users when clicking the “Like” button, we analyzed the behaviors of 743 university student Facebook users using motivational theory and the theory of reasoned action. The main study findings were as follows: (a) hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation, compliance motivation, conformity motivation, and affiliation motivation all had a positive impact on attitudes toward “Like”-clicking behaviors; (b) subjective norms and attitudes toward “Like”-clicking behaviors all had a positive impact on behavioral intention, and (c) behavioral intention had a positive impact on actual behaviors. These findings provide a valuable basis for constructing an explanatory model for “Like”-clicking behaviors of Facebook community platform users, as well as making significant practical contributions to enhance social and commercial benefits for businesses and individuals."

You can access the article via the UAlberta online catalogue and just search for the title of the article but here is the APA citation:

CHIH-YU, C., HSI-PENG, L., & CHAO-MING, W. (2015). FACEBOOK USERS' MOTIVATION FOR CLICKING THE "LIKE" BUTTON. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 43(4), 579-592. doi:10.2224/sbp.2015.43.4.579

Facebook and a Dislike Button?

Here is a bit about Facebook's announcement:

Facebook Working on a Dislike Button (Sort Of)

• BY ANGELA MOSCARITOLO
• SEPTEMBER 15, 2015 05:24PM EST
• 4 COMMENTS

Just don't expect Facebook to turn into Reddit anytime soon.

Your wishes are about to come true, Facebook users: A dislike button is on the way. Or at least something like it.

"People have asked about the 'dislike' button for many years," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a live Q&A session Tuesday, according toThe Washington Post. "Today is a special day, because today is the day I can say we're working on it and shipping it."

The move is somewhat of an about-face for Facebook and its CEO, who in December said the social network had no plans for a dislike button because a virtual thumbs-down could be more harmful than helpful. But, today he admitted such a feature could be useful.

"Not every moment is a good moment," he said, according to the Post. "If you share something that's sad, like a refugee crisis that touches you or a family member passes away — it may not be comfortable to like that post."

But don't expect Facebook to turn into Reddit anytime soon. Zuckerberg reiterated previous statements that he doesn't want to create a voting system on Facebook, where posts are deemed good or bad. So, instead of a straight dislike button, Facebook is working on "something that allows you to express 'empathy' with 'more options,'" the Post reported.

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"Perhaps this could mean not a single button but rather a range of possible responses that offer alternatives to the like without being its direct opposite," the newspaper speculated.

Rumors of such a feature date back to 2013, when word spread that Facebook toyed with the idea of adding a"sympathize" button to the social network, for when "like" doesn't quite apply.

For now, we'll just have to wait and see what Facebook ends up rolling out.

Module 2: Building Relationships (Facebook)

Weeks 4–6 Module 2: Building Relationships (Facebook)

Oct 09: Module 2 Reading Reflections due by 11:55pm Tweet reflections on your Module 2 readings. Oct 09: Final Assignment (Part 1) Draft Blog Posting due by 11:55pm Share part of your DRAFT of Part 1 of the Final Assignment in a short blog post, and comment on your classmates' drafts.

#Hashtag Activity (#SM on Twitter activity)

Due Friday, September 18 by 11:55 p.m.

Search #SM on Twitter and persue the 20-120 most recent tweets. Discuss what your search reveals by commenting on this post outlining the following:

• What do you notice? Is there anything surprising?
• Who is tweeting?
• Are there any recurring topics?
• Are there citations/links to other sources?
• Do many tweets include (links to( images or videos?

Module 1: Content or Process Gratification and Twitter

As you know,  students need to post comments on the instructors' Module posts. We already have one post published for Module 1 and today we offer you another.

Sorin Adam Matai, "What Can Uses and Gratification Theory Tell Us about Social Media. Retrieved from: http://matei.org/ithink/2010/07/29/what-can-uses-and-gratifications-theory-tell-us-about-social-media/.  

After making your way through the readings you might find, as Kaylee commented, that Facebook is adequate for a certain kind of communication while Twitter is aimed at another. Of course, both these platforms were created with different purposes in mind; Facebook for social connection and Twitter as a broadcasting site. As time passes and tools develop and users refine them, platforms can become more intricate and specific. Following up these ideas and focusing on the current mobile-heavy climate, Han, Min and Lee examine Twitter.

You can access this article with your UAlberta credentials via the UAlberta library. Here is the abstract:

Sehee Han, Jinyoung Min, Heeseok Lee, Antecedents of social presence and gratification of social connection needs in SNS: A study of Twitter users and their mobile and non-mobile usage, International Journal of Information Management, 

Volume 35, Issue 4, August 2015, Pages 459-471, ISSN 0268-4012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.04.004.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401215000407)

Abstract: Abstract

As the use of social network sites (SNS) proliferates, more people than ever are becoming connected to one another. Nonetheless, we have little knowledge about how certain characteristics of SNS fulfill their users’ need for social connection and enhance this connectivity. Building on uses and gratification theory, this study of Twitter users posits that users are drawn to SNS to fulfill their social connection needs and that the sense of social presence SNS engender plays a significant role in fulfilling these needs. We argue that this sense of social presence is formed by immediacy-related characteristics (represented as immediate feedback) and intimacy-related characteristics (represented as feelings of privacy and responsiveness) of SNS in Twitter. We further investigate how those characteristics operate differently on mobile and non-mobile users. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 798 Twitter users and analyzed their responses using a structural equation model. The results support our research model. Furthermore, analysis of the responses of 367 primarily mobile users and 161 primarily desktop users indicates that the linkage between immediacy-related characteristics and social presence is stronger and the linkage between intimacy-related characteristics and social presence is weaker among mobile users than desktop users of Twitter.

Keywords: Mobile SNS; Intimacy; Immediacy; Social presence; Gratification of social connection need