This presentation to the American Marketing Association Services Conference in 2010 profiles users of 4 social media sites and tests their positioning and customer value.

1. The relationship between strategic positioning and perceived value of social networking sites Associate Professor RebekahRussell-Bennett and Dr Larry Neale Queensland University of Technology, Australia American Marketing Association ServSig 2010 Porto, Portugal

2. Social Networking SNS is all about connections and relationships (Neale and Russell-Bennett 2009) There are many SNS, some of which offer connections as a benefit and some do not. Social networking sites have a strong social aspect: the medium allows people to link to other people in an interactive way (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010) But what value do people derive from these social connections? Does the perceived positioning match the strategic positioning of the site? Does willingness to disclose information (privacy) vary for different SNS? How do value, positioning and privacy influence key marketing outcomes?

3. Research Questions What is the value users derive from four different SNS site; facebook, twitter, youtube and myspace? What is the perceived position of the SNS sites and how does this compare with the strategic positioning? What is the relationship between value, privacy and positioning and; WOM Preference Future Patronage

4. Method Online survey of 395 Australian adults 18 – 45 FB 152, MS 56, Twitter 42, Youtube 145 Randomly selected from a major Australian email list 20% opened the email, 50% responded (n = 623) and of these, 395 had used the site specified in the email. Measures: Value (Mathwick et al 2001) Privacy (Barnes 2006), preference and repatronage intent (Mathwick et al 2001) Sample Profile Gen X and Y, mean age 30.36 years, 56% male, 73% Australian, length of time using SNS 3 yrs, mean 174 Friends on SNS, 30% access SNS multiple times a day 90% access SNS each week spending mean 4.5 hours per week 35.1% of users allow open access 25% access SNS site several times per week, mean of 4.39 hours per week 78% view other peoples content rather than upload their own 96% access SNS at home, 97% use SNS for personal use

5. Profile of SNS users

6. Value in Social Networking Social networking sites exchange is not currency but time and information value is inherent in the customer-to-customer interactions and not the customer-organisation interactions, customers co-create value (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004), Prior research of Facebook applications found four types of value (Holbrook1994, 2006); functional, social, emotional and altruistic with social value the most prevalent (Neale and Russell-Bennett 2010) Experiential value (Mathwick et al 2001) is a more fine-grained approach to delve into components of social and emotional value Playfulness, aesthetics, customer ROI, service excellence

7. Value for each of the SNS sites Red sites are significantly different from the highest scoring site Facebook and youtube offer different types of value (green = FB)

10. Positioning of Facebook: Actual vs perceived  “Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected”

11. Positioning of Myspace: Actual vs perceived  “Social entertainment experience ”

12. Positioning of Youtube: Actual vs perceived  “Broadcast yourself”

13. Positioning of Twitter: Actual vs perceived  “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”

14. Privacy – Willingness to Disclose Mean I like to reveal information about myself to others through [SNS] I trust the people I interact with on [SNS] I am willing to share my personal thoughts with others on [SNS] I have included personal information in my profile Everybody should know everything about everyone else Restricting access to my information via [SNS] is important to me FB 2.70 MS 2.38 TW 2.08 YT 1.92 People more willing to reveal info about themself on Facebook and Myspace (closed system) compared to Twitter and Youtube (open) I reveal information about myself Equally online and offline 20.6% More offline 69.5% More online 9.9%

15. Impact of Value, Positioning and Privacy on WOM Social Intrinsic Enjoyment Functional Excellence as a SNS export R2 0.50 Value WOM Positioning Sharing Information Connecting R2 0.28 Reveal information Trust people I interact with Willing to share personal thoughts R2 0.40 Privacy Red = strongest impact

16. Impact of Value, Positioning and Privacy on Preference for site Social Intrinsic Enjoyment Functional Excellence as a SNS export Adj R2 0.50 Value Efficient Sharing Connecting Information Adj R2 0.28 Preference Positioning Like to reveal information Trust people I interact with Adj R2 0.42 Privacy Red = strongest impact

17. Impact of Value, Positioning and Privacy on Repeat Patronage Entertainment Intrinsic Enjoyment Escapism Functional Excellence as a SNS export Adj R2 0.55 Value Fun Sharing Connecting Information Adj R2 0.41 Repeat Patronage of SNS Positioning Like to reveal information Trust people I interact with Willing to share personal thoughts Restricting access R2 0.30 Privacy Red = strongest impact

18. Discussion and Implications Value across SNS sites Value appears to be either hedonic or utilitarian with FB more utilitarian and YT more hedonic So social media sites offer different types of value as perceived by consumers What is the perceived position of the SNS sites and how does this compare with the strategic positioning? Facebook and YT had alignment between perceived and strategic positioning. This reflects the value scores and marketshare Trust is a common driver for all marketing outcomes. Consumers determine who links to their site which influences their trust levels. Wom is related to value – excellence as SNS site, perceived positioning on information (knowing what’s going on) and the level of trust consumers have with online friends/followers Preference for a specific site is related to functional value, perceived positioning of ability to share with others and information, and, the level of trust consumers have with online friends/followers. Future patronage is related to entertainment and functional value, sharing, and, the level of trust consumers have with online friends/followers.