This article investigates why consumers use social media. It relies on the well documented communications theory of Uses and Gratifications to base its research strategy and method. Given the limited literature on why consumers use social media, the design of the study was exploratory. The researcher utilized the qualitative methodology of in-depth face-to-face interviews to collect the data necessary for the analysis. Williams concluded that there are “ten uses and gratifications for using social media. The ten uses and gratifications are: social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility, convenience utility, expression of opinion, information sharing, and surveillance/knowledge about others.”
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First, social interaction refers to communicating in anyway with others using a social media platform. Second, information seeking represents another possible use of social media. Consumers may look for helpful information that help them make a decision to buy a product or service. Third, many users of social media simply would like to pass time. They have extra time to invest in some activity, and they prefer to use social media for that. Fourth, many users of social media utilize them for entertainment reasons. Many watch, share and comment on entertaining videos and that of itself is a gratification. Fifth, many users opt to use social media to relax. Relaxation serves as another gratification users may invest in social media to fulfill. Sixth, social media facilitates communication in many instances. Communicatory utility then becomes another use as to why users opt to partake in the utilization of social media. Finally, consumers use social media for business reasons. They want to advertise, sell or buy goods and services via social …show more content…
First, the sample size is small. 25 interviews do not give us a wide picture of why consumers may use social media. This is especially if the sample was a group of individuals living in the same area, having similar ethnic/racial background or proximate socio-economic status. We know that peoples’ consumptions’ preferences vary widely. Therefore, a bigger sample is required for this type of research. Second, the method of data analysis suffers from conceptual stretching. While implicit in the analysis, the researcher conducted qualitative content analysis. This method is most effective when the coding scheme is parsimonious allowing the grouping of responses into few comprehensible categories. The researcher developed a scheme with ten categories making it difficult to collapse responses into three or four categories. This result leads to confusion rather than clarity. If I have 25 respondents with 10 uses and gratifications, will I have 100 uses and gratifications if I interview 250 respondents. Information seeking was similar to communicatory utility and information sharing. Those three should have been collapsed into one. This would have resulted in eight categories. Two more similar decisions would have reduced the ten to six, which is a significant
First, social interaction refers to communicating in anyway with others using a social media platform. Second, information seeking represents another possible use of social media. Consumers may look for helpful information that help them make a decision to buy a product or service. Third, many users of social media simply would like to pass time. They have extra time to invest in some activity, and they prefer to use social media for that. Fourth, many users of social media utilize them for entertainment reasons. Many watch, share and comment on entertaining videos and that of itself is a gratification. Fifth, many users opt to use social media to relax. Relaxation serves as another gratification users may invest in social media to fulfill. Sixth, social media facilitates communication in many instances. Communicatory utility then becomes another use as to why users opt to partake in the utilization of social media. Finally, consumers use social media for business reasons. They want to advertise, sell or buy goods and services via social …show more content…
First, the sample size is small. 25 interviews do not give us a wide picture of why consumers may use social media. This is especially if the sample was a group of individuals living in the same area, having similar ethnic/racial background or proximate socio-economic status. We know that peoples’ consumptions’ preferences vary widely. Therefore, a bigger sample is required for this type of research. Second, the method of data analysis suffers from conceptual stretching. While implicit in the analysis, the researcher conducted qualitative content analysis. This method is most effective when the coding scheme is parsimonious allowing the grouping of responses into few comprehensible categories. The researcher developed a scheme with ten categories making it difficult to collapse responses into three or four categories. This result leads to confusion rather than clarity. If I have 25 respondents with 10 uses and gratifications, will I have 100 uses and gratifications if I interview 250 respondents. Information seeking was similar to communicatory utility and information sharing. Those three should have been collapsed into one. This would have resulted in eight categories. Two more similar decisions would have reduced the ten to six, which is a significant