What’s all the messaging about? An Analysis of Advertising Professionals’ Usage

of Social Media

Emily Mabry

Independent survey research project conducted in Fall 2009

The Growth of Social Media

Literature

• Academician-Practitioner Gap (Hunt, 2002)

▫ Past literature

• Nyilasy and Reid (2007, 2009)

▫ Call for additional research

• Social Media

Literature cont.

• Social Media and eWOM▫ Networks for sharing word

of mouth messages

▫ Measureable and traceable online

Research Questions

• H1: Advertising practitioners’ personal social media usage will be positively correlated with their professional social media usage.

• RQ1: For what professional purposes do advertising professionals use social media?

▫ For what external purposes ?

▫ For what internal purposes ?

• RQ2: What are advertising practitioners’ attitudes toward social media usage for professional purposes?

Research Questions

• RQ3: When do advertising practitioners believe social media are effective and ineffective message platforms?

▫ This question will be evaluated from responses to two open-ended survey questions.

• RQ4: Is there a relationship between job position and frequency of social media usage?

• RQ5: Is there a relationship between job position and attitudes toward social media?

Method

• Statewide online survey of American Advertising Federation members

• 21 questions measuring:▫ Personal and professional usage of SM▫ Professional purposes of SM ▫ Attitudes toward the role of SM in advertising▫ Demographic information including job position

• 19.6% response rate• Sample

Results

• H1- Significant correlations (in decreasing strength) between personal and professional usage of Twitter, Vimeo, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Facebook. Not significant for YouTube.

Results- RQ1

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45

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Internal Uses of Social Media

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External Uses of Social Media

Results- RQ2• Common platform- 76.5% agree

• Online presence- 68.1% agree

• Keep up with trends- 68.1% agree

• Passing fad- 79.8% disagree

• Mixed results▫ Reach consumers more easily▫ Control the message▫ Keep up with competition▫ Consumers more responsive to SM

Results- RQ3

• Effective:

▫ Direct, personal communication

▫ Awareness tool as part of integrated campaign

• Ineffective:

▫ Excessive, annoying messaging

▫ Direct Sell/Traditional Messaging

Results

• RQ4- Significant only for job position and YouTube personal use, with Creatives using it the most

• RQ5- No significant relationships

Discussion

• Advertising professionals use social media

• Agreement within industry about role of SM in advertising

• To be effective- understand culture of platform, build personal relationships

• Still uncertain about its effectiveness on consumers

Conclusion

• Evidence for advertising practitioners autonomous knowledge (Nyilasy and Reid, 2009)

• Provides a foundation for future studies

• Better understanding of a population who holds an expertise about a new form of communication

Thank You.

Questions?

Emily Mabry, emabry1@tigers.lsu.edu