Pictures Speak Louder than Words: Motivation for Using Instagram

1. Pictures Speak Louder than
Words: Motivation for Using
Instagram
+ Cyberpsychology, Behavior,
and Social Networking
-Lee et al.
/유혜수
x 2015 Autumn

2. Why this paper
A picture is worth a thousand words

3. Why this paper

4. Authors
Eunji Lee, Jung-Ah Lee
Department of Psychology,
Korea University
Jang Ho Moon, Yongjun Song
Department of Public Relations and Advertising,
Sookmyung Women’s University

5. Introduction
• simplicity & creativity
• share and acknowledge each others lives through photos
• “image first, text second” - strong visual oriented culture and enhanced
editing features
• all-in-one package
• allowed celebrities & commercial brands to engage with their consumers

6. Research Question
What are the underlying psychological and social motives
for using Instagram?
What are the relationships between identified motivation
and attitudes toward and intention to use Instagram?

7. Methods
Participant

8. Methods
Measures 7 point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)
- how often they logged on to Instagram
- how long they had been using Instagram
- how long they stayed on their account per visit
- their number of followers
- their number of followings
- the number of pictures they uploaded
Three 7 points semantic differential scales
Instagram usage variables
Descriptive purposes
primary activities on Instagram
- favorable/ unfavorable
- good/ bad
- pleasant/ unpleasant
- likely/ unlikely
- probable/ improbable
- possible/ impossible

9. Results
PCA: Principal component Analysis
to determine what underlying structure exists for motive

10. Results

11. Results

12. Result

13. Discussion
Social Interaction
Escapsim & peeking
-escape from their real lives and engage with friends, family, and other people they have never
met offline before
- connect with like-minded others (followers)
- ex. parasocial relationship with celebrities
- a channel through which users peek at what other ppl have to say via images rather than texts
Archiving & peeking
- record their daily events & traces —> create own personal cyber documentary though fancy photos
- both attitudes toward and intention to use Instagram
- forms + attitude toward Instagram
- increase likelihood of their regular visits + future intention
- reinforce a variety of social relationship online
- establish & maintain social relationships with other users
- dispel their loneliness, meet other and earn social support
- actively seek our social relationships with other user who share similar interests & needs (feel “connection”)
Self- expression
- utilize pictures of all sorts of things to present their personalities
- Instagram = empowering, new, self representation medium especially among the young

14. Discussion: Implication
Useful implications for marketers
Marketing communication tool
-Marketers should understand what specific motive and needs consumer
have regarding their use of Instagram (new form of SNS)
-Satisfy brand managers & marketers
-Reinforce the consumer brand relationship
PR & Advertising Perspective: