Mobilizing Social Media Data: Reflections of a Researcher Mediating between Data and Organization

This paper examines the practices involved in mobilizing social media data from their site of production to the institutional context of non-profit organizations. We report on nine months of fieldwork with a transnational and intergovernmental organization using social media data to understand the role of grassroots initiatives in Mexico, in the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show how different stakeholders negotiate the definition of problems to be addressed with social media data, the collective creation of ground-truth, and the limitations involved in the process of extracting value from data. The meanings of social media data are not defined in advance;instead, they are contingent on the practices and needs of the organization that seeks to extract insights from the analysis. We conclude with a list of reflections and questions for researchers who mediate in the mobilization of social media data into non-profit organizations to inform humanitarian action. © 2023 ACM.

The digital skills divide: evidence from the European tourism industry

PurposeThis paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.Design/methodology/approachMixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria).FindingsThe most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents' answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them.Originality/valueThe paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.

Data mining analytics investigate WeChat users' behaviours: online social media and social commerce development

PurposeAs of December 2021, WeChat had more than 1.2 billion active users worldwide, making it the most active online social media in mainland China. The term social commerce is used to describe new online sales through a mix of social networks and/or peer-to-peer communication or marketing strategies in terms of allowing consumers to satisfy their shopping behaviour through online social media. Thus, given the numerous active users, the development of online social media and social commerce on WeChat is a critical issue of internet research.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study takes WeChat as the online social media research object. Questionnaires for WeChat users in China were designed and distributed. All items are designed as nominal and ordinal scales (not Likert scale). The obtained data was put into a relational database (N = 2,342), and different meaningful patterns and rules were examined through data mining analytics, including clustering analysis and association rules, to explore the role of WeChat in the development of online social media and social commerce.FindingsPractical implications are presented according to the research findings of meaningful patterns and rules. In addition, alternatives to WeChat in terms of further development are also proposed according to the investigation findings of WeChat users' behaviour and preferences in China.Originality/valueThis study concludes that online social media, such as WeChat, will be able to transcend the current development pattern of most online social media and make good use of investigating users' behaviour and preferences, not only to stimulate the interaction of users in the social network, but also to create social commerce value in social sciences.

The impact of integrated marketing communications consistency on destination brand equity in times of uncertainty: the case of Croatia

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how message consistency pursued through integrated marketing communications (IMC) can build a strong destination brand equity in a very dynamic environment and whether this process is affected by the perceived risk of COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachData collection was conducted among 333 international tourists visiting Croatia, a destination that has experienced a remarkable boom in the summer/autumn season of 2021, regardless of the pandemic. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis.FindingsResults show that IMC consistency has a significant impact on the four destination brand equity dimensions, i.e. awareness, image, perceived quality and loyalty. This influence is found to be the highest on destination brand awareness and the lowest on destination brand loyalty. Perceived risk of COVID-19 moderates the impact of message consistency on brand image and perceived quality.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines the role of IMC consistency in a tourism context during turbulent times. The impact of IMC consistency is analyzed on different components of destination brand equity, which addresses the most recent research call from tourism literature. The moderating effects of perceived risk are considered, thus providing additional implications in a context of high uncertainty. Finally, IMC consistency is assessed from the consumer rather than managerial viewpoints, thus adopting the necessary outside-in approach embedded in the IMC idea.

Does social media usage boost career prospects of women: an exploratory study in the academia

PurposeThis paper draws on the affordance perspective, to explore the social media (SM) usage experiences that might render valuable for academic women professionals, for knowledge exchange, networking and success. Owing to the increased SM usage during COVID-19 pandemic, this paper tries to find out that in what ways do SM affordances facilitate the underprivileged group of women professionals to grow in their careers in a masculine, conservative society through knowledge exchange.Design/methodology/approachBy utilizing qualitative study design, the authors collected data from 31 women employed in Pakistani universities, through unstructured questionnaires. The responses were analyzed through Nvivo.FindingsThe generated themes suggested that women in Pakistan are aware of SM's potential for knowledge exchange among fellow professionals. They use it to aid them in communication, collaboration and networking. Additionally, they utilize it to share knowledge and build networks that are vital for career progression and success.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper concludes with the implications for practitioners that would aid them in boosting career prospects for women academicians through SM usage in a developing country Pakistan;where women's career outlooks are not as promising as for men;or as bright as for women working in the developed economies.Originality/valueThis a unique attempt to explore knowledge exchange dimensions with the help of SM in the context of working women by the deploying the phenomenological approach.

A Comparison of Opinion Mining Algorithms by Using Product Review Data

After release of Web 2.0 in 2004 user spawned contents on the internet eminently in abundant review sites, online forums, online blogs, and many other sites. Entire user generated contents are considerable bunches of unorganized text written in different languages that encompass user emotions about one or more entities. Mainly predictive analysis exerts the existing data to forecast future outcomes. Currently, a massive amount of researches are being engrossed in the area of opinion mining, also called sentiment analysis, opinion extraction, review analysis, subjective analysis, emotion analysis, and mood extraction. It can be an utmost choice whilst perceiving the meaning and patterns in prevailing data. Most of the time, there are various algorithms available to work with polling. There are contradictory opinions among researchers regarding the effectiveness of algorithms. We have compared different opinion mining algorithms and presented the findings in this paper.

"We Are in Control": Instagram Influencers and the Proliferation of Conspiracy Narratives in Digital Spaces

Female spiritual influencers on Instagram engage with conspiracy content and appeal to the issue of control over female bodies to bridge the gap between mainstream and fringe online spaces. I use the concept of "third space" to analyse the dynamics of Instagram communities around spiritual influencers and highlight how these communities operate as spaces for political discussion while simultaneously appearing apolitical from the outside. Analysing data from participant observation and interviews with six female Czech spiritual influencers, I place their online communication and presentation within the context of the conspirituality movement (Ward, Voas, 2011). Furthermore, I present ethnographic evidence on how the influencers moved from spiritual to conspiritual content within their everyday online performances.

Acceptance of Social Media for Study Purposes—A Longitudinal Case Study

Background: Social media is a ubiquitous phenomenon that serves as a tool for communication, collaboration, and creativity. In the long term, it has an indispensable place in the field of education. The research paper discusses the use of certain social networking sites where learning management systems are extensively and consistently used in the teaching and learning process at universities. The rapid transition to online platforms had a tremendous impact on the educational process, exposing and promoting the effectiveness of heutagogy. The circumstances made it necessary to emphasize the value of self-directed learning and the capacity to identify educational requirements and strategies for reaching study objectives. This kind of research corresponds to the increased need to develop desired self-study skills in students. Objectives: The goal of the paper is to demonstrate how undergraduate students perceive the trends in acceptance and the degree of appropriateness of social media for academic purposes. Methods: Research on social media use in education was inspired by a review of the literature. The purpose of the questionnaire is to track awareness, use, general satisfaction, communication, testing, and revision. The set of social media examined in the survey (years 2021 and 2022) was modified to reflect the social media landscape at the time. This study compares the findings of four different studies. The outcomes are displayed in graphs. Results: Two areas are analyzed: social media as a means of communication in the process of education and social media as a tool enabling students' revision and testing of study materials. The first two studies, which were conducted in 2014 and 2019, are based on the same set of examined social media and fit the comparison, enabling to define the trend in students' perceived satisfaction with social media for study purposes. The third and fourth studies discussed in this paper were run during the winter semesters of 2021 and 2022. Conclusions: The most significant differences between 2021 and 2022 can be seen in Instagram, Twitch, and other platforms, where a substantial drop in satisfaction in the communication field can be seen. The biggest difference in revision and testing is found in Facebook, Twitch, and Teams, which are abandoning online teaching and learning after the COVID-19 event. Social media use for studying has significantly decreased, with noteworthy decreases in Wiki, Facebook, and video calls.

Improved healthcare disaster decision-making utilizing information extraction from complementary social media data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Managing an extreme event like a healthcare disaster requires accurate information about the event's circumstances to comprehend the full consequences of acting. However, information quality is rarely optimal since it takes time to determine the information of relevance. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that even official data sources are far from optimal since they suffer from reporting delays that slow decision-making. To support decision-makers with timely information, we utilize data from online social networks to propose an adaptable information extraction solution to create indices helping to forecast COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalization rates. We show that combining heterogeneous data sources like Twitter and Reddit can leverage these sources' inherent complementarity and yield better predictions than those using a single data source alone. We further show that the predictions run ahead of the official COVID-19 incidences by up to 14 days. Additionally, we highlight the importance of model adjustments whenever new information becomes available or the underlying data changes by observing distinct changes in the presence of specific symptoms on Reddit.

Social Media Transforming Tourist Behavior: Leading Towards Overtourism

Most admired and exotic tourist destinations around the globe are distress from challenges posed by overtourism, which in turn affect the well-being of nature and humans. The causes of overtourism are many but social media can be considered as the foremost reason for overtourism in the era of web 2.0. This chapter aims to address the role of social media in transforming the behavior of tourist by descriptive research approach using secondary sources of information collected from e-resources, journals, articles, and books. It has been concluded from the literature analysis that social media plays a tremendous part in transforming the behavior of tourist due to the craze of user-generated content like reviews, selfies, photographs, visuals, and lots more. A positive attempt has been made to suggest ways to combat overtourism. Tourist behavior has been changed due to the novel coronavirus. Impact of COVID-19 on overtourism has also been touched to provide insight. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

Share Your Beautiful Journey: Investigating User Generated Content (UGC) and Webrooming Among Malaysian Online Shoppers

The electric commerce (e-commerce) platform in Malaysia has been growing exponentially since the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many local businesses were badly affected when the first phase of Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented for several weeks. The increasing number of social media platform users stems from wide internet accessibility and smartphone ownership. As such, this study investigated online purchasing behaviour in Malaysia by linking webrooming and user generated content (UGC) with brand experience and brand engagement. Essentially, this study unravelled consumer purchasing behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the effects of UGC and webrooming on brand experience and brand engagement among Malaysian online consumers who purchased beauty product. As a result, UGC and webrooming displayed positive correlation with brand experience. However, brand experience was insignificant for brand engagement. Additionally, brand experience was unsuitable to function as a mediator. Thus, the impact of social influencers and shoppertainment on brand engagement should be assessed. Future studies may look into webrooming from the light of Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Theory. Lastly, fake reviews, fake accounts, and bots that influence online purchasing behaviour among Malaysians should be investigated as well. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The Effects of Social Media Communication and e-WOM on Brand Equity: The Moderating Roles of Product Involvement

As brand equity (BE) is a valuable, but intangible, asset of any firm, understanding BE represents a primary task for many organizations. Factors that influence the development of BE are of inordinate academic and practical significance and a source of continuous investigation. While the current literature on social media communication (SMC) and BE provides a wealth of information, our study pioneers the most recent processes of mediation and moderation of electronic word-of-mouth and product involvement (PI) in BE research. Accordingly, the results of this work will likely become one of the key sources of information in sustainable marketing planning and in the development of strategies. To accomplish this goal, we assessed the structural relationships among SMC, electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), PI, and BE. A questionnaire survey was administered concerning consumer brands in China. In this survey, due to the need for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the questionnaire was distributed and collected via the internet. A total of 369 data sets were analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of our investigation reveal that: (a) social media firm- and user-generated content have a positive impact on e-WOM, (b) social media firm- and user-generated content have a positive impact on BE, (c) e-WOM has a positive impact on BE and serves as an intermediary role between SMC and BE, and (d) PI exerts specific moderating effects between SMC and BE.

Social media and inspiring physical activity during COVID-19 and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted sport and events greatly with a shutdown of leagues and the postponement of events like the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. However, new media technologies, such as social media platforms, have provided an avenue for sport organisations and athletes to continue to engage with their consumers and promote physical activity during the absence of live sport. New media technologies allow organisations and individuals to share user-generated content and facilitate interactivity. This commentary intends to stimulate discussion, interest and research on whether social media could be used as a platform to inspire physical activity and sport participation and what strategies may be successful in engaging with consumers. Olympic sport and the campaigns National Olympic Committees have engaged in during lockdown are the focus of this piece. It is hoped that this piece provides a starting point for future research focusing on the adoption of new media technologies, like social media, to engage with and inspire people to become more active and involved in sport.

Peer effects on brand activism: evidence from brand and user chatter on Twitter

Although brands appear to be taking public stands on sociopolitical issues with increasing frequency, the predictors of such strategies are still under-explored. In this research, we investigate whether the activism of peers has an effect on a brand's decision to engage in social media activism. Analysing tweets from 177 brands over a five-year period on three prominent sociopolitical issues (Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA rights, and COVID-19 policies), we find evidence that brands not only monitor and react to peer social media activism, but that such peer effects occur across industries. Furthermore, the data support the notion that brands also monitor consumer reactions to peer social media activism in order to weigh the risk of taking a stand as well as the risk of staying silent. Overall, the findings suggest that while weighing the risks and benefits of engaging in activism on social media, brand managers monitor not only the activism of other brands, but also the real-time public reactions to those initiatives. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Catholic Impact evolution Through Public Twitter data during CoVId-19

During the Covid-19 crisis, many networks have sprung up disseminating information. This study examines the influence of religion during the Covid-19 pandemic. It understands religion as a factor capable of mitigating frustrations and critical situations in society. To this end, a data mining analysis was developed for a set of 107,786 tweets collected from the social platform Twitter in the framework of user-generated content (UGC), linked to the Covid-19 related tweets published by @Pontifex and @Pontifex_es. To achieve this goal, hidden insight data extraction and sentiment analysis are carried out, along with the application of social network analysis (SNA) techniques. The main outcome of the study is the positive correlation between the repercussion of the Pope's tweets and the evolution of the Covid-19 incidence in Europe. Finally, the latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm identifies the relevant topics in the analysis. Copyright © 2022, IGI Global.

Social media communication with intensified pandemic fears: evaluating the relative impact of user- and firm-generated content on brand loyalty

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyse user-generated content and firm-generated content on perceived quality and brand trust, and eventually how it impacted brand loyalty with pandemic fear as the moderator.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed an online survey questionnaire method in the Facebook online shopping groups to collect the data. The filter question technique was adopted to verify the respondent's validity. A total of 434 samples was collected using purposive sampling. The data were then analysed using SmartPLS 3.0.FindingsThe analysis showed that firm-generated content appeared to have a stronger positive relationship on perceived quality and brand trust than on user-generated content. Brand trust and perceived quality are found to influence brand loyalty positively. However, pandemic fears only moderate the relationship between firm-generated content and brand trust and perceived quality. This study revealed that the main components in social media communication do not influence perceived quality and brand trust to the same extent.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the knowledge of social media communication during the pandemic period that has not been studied empirically in the Malaysian context. The main components in social media communication were delineated and the impact of pandemic fears on how they would possibly affect the established relationships in the literature were examined. This study enables the researchers and practitioners to take a closer look at how the pandemic crisis could provide a shift on what has been understood so far.

Analyzing the Enablers of Customer Engagement in Healthcare Using TISM and Fuzzy MICMAC

The spike in internet users led healthcare companies to confer their agile presence on various digital platforms and engage customers online to increase their viability amid the rising competition. Online customer engagement takes place through branded content, i.e., the content provided by the brand or the company. Healthcare companies can leverage customer engagement by focusing on various crucial enablers. Therefore, this study explores the enablers of customer engagement for branded content in healthcare and devises a model depicting interrelationships among them. The enablers were ascertained using the literature review and validated by experts. Further, the interrelationship among the enablers was analyzed using TISM (Total Interpretive Structural Modeling) approach, and Fuzzy MICMAC (Cross-impact matrix multiplication) classified the enablers into different clusters. Results exhibited that informativeness is the most significant enabler, deriving other enablers. In contrast, shareability and co-creation of content are the most dependent and strategic enablers in the model hierarchy. The outcomes of this research will aid healthcare companies in knowing and prioritizing the enabler's contribution in engaging customers towards branded content.

Exploring mobile banking adoption and service quality features through user-generated content: the application of a topic modeling approach to Google Play Store reviews

PurposeThe primary purpose of this research is to analyze the online user reviews, where real customer experiences can be observed, with text mining and machine learning approaches, which are seen as a gap in the related literature. This study aims to compare the latent themes uncovered by the topic modeling approach with studies focused on both mobile banking (m-banking) adaptation and service quality features, suggest new aspects and examine the effect of latent topics on customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzed 21,526 reviews posted by customers of private and state banks operating in Türkiye. An unsupervised machine learning method, Latent Dirichlet algorithm (LDA), was conducted to reveal topics, and the distribution of all reviews was visualized with the t-SNE algorithm. Random Forest, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors (kNN) and Naive Bayes algorithms were utilized to predict user satisfaction through the given score.FindingsIn total, 11 topics were revealed by considering user reviews based on their experience. Among these topics, perceived usefulness and convenience and time-saving are much more important in the scoring given to m-banking apps. Furthermore, in more detail, seven topics have been identified related to technical and security problems related to m-banking apps.Originality/valueThis paper is a pioneer study regarding the method used and sample size reached in the m-banking literature. The findings also provide fresh insight into the post-Covid-19 era, both academically and practically, by providing new features for mobile bank adoption.

Traditional media or social media? Corporate green media communication and consumer intention to cocreate green value in post-COVID-19 China

PurposeThis study investigated whether there are differences in the effects of green traditional media communication (GTMC) and green social media communication on consumers' intention to cocreate green value (ICGV) in post-COVID-19 China. The authors further tested the chain mediating role of cocreation efficacy and cocreation outcome expectation and the moderating role of perceived CSR image.Design/methodology/approachUsing a survey, we collected a dataset of 683 consumers through stratified random sampling in main shopping malls in four Chinese cities. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual framework and hypotheses, and bootstrapping was used to estimate the mediated standardized regression coefficients. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the moderating effect.FindingsGTMC, firm-created content (FCC), and user-generated content (UGC) all had positive effects on ICGV. Cocreation efficacy and cocreation outcome expectation had a chain mediation effect in GTMC and ICGV, UGC, and ICGV. Perceived CSR image positively moderated the effects of both GTMC and FCC on ICGV. However, perceived CSR image did not significantly moderate the relationship between UGC and ICGV.Originality/valueThis study contributes to our understanding of the effect of green media communication on consumers' ICGV in post-COVID-19 China. It also develops the concepts of cocreation efficacy and cocreation outcome expectation. Moreover, analyzing the chain mediating role of cocreation efficacy and cocreation outcome expectation in green media communication and ICGV extends social cognitive theory to the context of green value cocreation. Finally, examining the moderating role of perceived CSR image provides a basis for understanding the boundary conditions of green media communication's effect on ICGV.

Revealing industry challenge and business response to covid-19: A text mining approach

Purpose: This study aims to conduct a "real-time" investigation with user-generated content on Twitter to reveal industry challenges and business responses to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Specifically, using the hospitality industry as an example, the study analyses how Covid-19 has impacted the industry, what are the challenges and how the industry has responded. Design/methodology/approach: With 94,340 tweets collected between October 2019 and May 2020 by a programmed Web scraper, unsupervised machine learning approaches such as structural topic modelling are applied. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on business response during crises providing for the first time a study of using unstructured content on social media for industry-level analysis in the hospitality context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)