# Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Social media engagement motivation

* [Multimedia link goes here Multimedia presentation (3 min)]

## Overview

* Define social media* *Statement about the ubiquity of social media in modern society*. *Social media usage statistics*. *Brief mention of social media engagement tools- like, share, comment, subscribe, create* The success of social media sites and communications efforts by companies and civil society organisations depends on the continued use of the engagement tools offered. Therefore, the focus of this chapter will be on what motivates individuals to engage in different ways with content on social media.
Social media engagement tools have changed the way we provide content and feedback about ourselves and the world around us. These tools are frequently embedded in websites to facilitate the evaluation and dissemination of information; for instance, Facebook Like and Share buttons appear on around 905m sites. Every minute, 1.7m pieces of content are shared across Facebook, 66k photos and videos are shared on Instagram, 500 hours of content is added to YouTube (https://web-assets.domo.com/miyagi/images/product/product-feature-22-data-never-sleeps-10.png?lb-height=100%25&lb-mode=overlay&lb-width=100%25&utm_medium=website&utm_source=domo.com&utm_term=PF) and 167m videos are watched on Tiktok (https://localiq.com/blog/what-happens-in-an-internet-minute/). Given the vast amounts of content available, generating an understanding of the motivations that guide our responses to content could have valuable implications for marketers, content creators and users alike. What motivates us to click on content, like it, comment on it, share it, save it, or perhaps even go on to create our own original derivative content inspired by it? Read on to find out.
* Focus questions:
* What motivates people to click on a link to external content? (Clickbait, information gap etc.)
* What motivates people to "like" content? (Reciprocity, relatedness, interest)
* What motivates people to comment on content? (Relatedness, Arousal from conflict/controversy)
* What motivates people to "share" content? (Related question: Does truth matter?)
* What motivates people to subscribe to content creators?
* What makes content go viral? (Berger's STEPPS Framework: Social currency + environmental cues that stimulate thought about the product + emotional responses + content characteristics + relevance to target audience + stories ==>> motivation to share) + algorithms = virality
* What motivates people to create derivatives of content?
* What motivates people to engage with content? (click, like, comment, share, subscribe)
* What motivates people to create derivatives of content?
* Using Berger's STEPPS framework, what makes content go viral? (such as social and environmental cues)

## Taxonomy of social media engagement types

Several studies conceptualise the social media engagement behaviours into a hierarchy from passive spectating through various levels of active contribution (Muntinga, Moorman & Smit, 2011; Swani & Labrecque, 2020). Each engagement behaviour is weighted within recommendation algorithms according to the amount of effort required to perform it (Kim &Yang, 2017) with the act of liking requiring the least amount of cognitive effort (Alhabash et al, 2015). This often leads to a typical pattern of engagement with more likes than comments and shares etc.
The Social Technographics Profile (Li & Bernoff, 2011) is one tool that can be used to classify types of engagement with content.
Creators- generate original content
Conversationalists- update personal statuses
Critics- review products, edit wikis etc
Collectors- e.g. Pinterest/Tumblr users- curation of content- once weekly
Joiners- maintain profile, but don't update statuses
Spectators- passively consume content e.g. read blogs, forums, tweets etc.
Inactives
Hierarchy of effort in engagement - doesn't necessarily have to tie back to a model

## Major theoretical perspectives
### Uses and Gratifications Theory

The Uses and Gratifications theory examines patterns of usage of different media in relation to the needs fulfilled by that usage. Many studies of social media engagement have taken this perspective.

### Information Gap Theory

Information gap theory (Loewenstein) presents the desire for knowledge as a deficiency need, and posits that curiosity is aroused when people are made consciously aware of gaps in their knowledge.

### Cognitive Dissonance

Identity- Discrepancy between actual and perceived self

### Impression Management Theory

Impression management theory (Goffman, 1959) refers to conscious and deliberate filtering and selection of information in order to portray a desired self-image.

### Self-Determination Theory

The self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, YEAR) identifies three core needs that an activity should be designed to fulfil in order to encourage engagement: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

## Relevant actions
### Click

Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
The action of clicking a link to external content is generally motivated by curiosity, a deficiency-based motive described in Loewenstein's (1994) "information gap model" as arising from the need to reduce a perceived gap between one's current and desired knowledge. The model distinguishes between the reasons why people become aware of these gaps; voluntary curiosity occurs when a person seeks out curiosity-inducing situations for the relief that comes from their resolution, whereas involuntary curiosity arises when a person becomes aware of a gap between their actual and desired knowledge due to situational cues. These cues, which are often incorporated into article headlines, can include:
Implied or direct questions:
"Which Zodiac Sign Should You Date Based On Your Favorite Color?"
Unresolved sequences of events, especially those with expected or desired outcomes:
"This is what happens when molten lava goes head-to-head against ice"
"A Tea Partier Decided To Pick A Fight With A Foreign President. It Didn't Go So Well."
Events that violate expectations, which can then cause the person to formulate causal attributions (Hastie, 1984, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994) and lead to deeper information processing, regardless of the perceived importance of the information (Maheswaran & Chaiken, 1991, as cited in Loewenstein, 1994):
"This street art in Seoul is only visible when it rains!"
Knowledge of others, where people are motivated through social comparison to seek information known by others- the examples given are the desire to know the sex of one’s unborn child after the doctor finds out, or to find out what someone else is laughing about.
"7 Signs You Smell Bad And People Aren't Telling You"
Prior knowledge or exposure, where people are motivated to remember or relearn what they once knew about a topic. Loewenstein (1992, cited in Loewenstein, 1994) observed increased levels of curiosity about definitions of words that were familiar but inaccessible to short-term memory as opposed to unfamiliar words. This is related to the mere exposure effect (maybe elaborate if you have time).
"39 Awesome Things Only ’90s Kids Will Remember"
Content creators use referential linguistic devices like deixis and cataphora in clickbait to accentuate the information gap (Blom & Hansen, 2015).
The primary motive leading people to click on online content is curiosity, which has been classified and measured using a variety of metrics and models.
Motive: Curiosity
Models: Perceptual-diversive etc. model (Berlyne), Information Gap (Loewenstein, 1994), Interest-Deprivation Model (Litman, 2015), Interesting Content (Davis, 1971), Arousal (Berger)
Information Gap: Gap between actual and desired knowledge, requires awareness of the gap- can be induced through grammatical constructions in headlines
Perceptual-diversive (Berlyne):
Interest-Deprivation (Litman):
Interesting Content (Davis):
Arousal (Berger):

### Like

Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
The existing literature on why we "like" content on social media is based on uses and gratifications theory, which assumes that all media usage is goal-directed and seeks gratifications through the fulfilment of certain needs, the nature of which will be accessible to the user. As such, studies utilising this theory rely on self-reporting of motives.
ADD SOME FINDINGS

### Comment

Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
Tenenboim & Cohen (2015) analysed correlations between two aspects of content engagement (clicking and commenting) and content characteristics using 15 341 news articles posted on a single well-known Israeli website in January and June from 2006-2011. They found only 41-60% concordance between the most clicked and most commented list, suggesting a disconnection between the acts of viewing and engaging with content. So what caused this disconnect? A subsequent content analysis of the headlines from the five most commented and five most liked articles in each month found that in general, the majority of articles pertaining to sociopolitical tensions attracted more comments than views. Conversely, the majority of most-viewed articles with fewer comments contained no expressions of conflict.

### Share

Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-
Identity (ideal vs actual self)
Du Preez & Lombard- The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae
Berger- STEPPS Framework
Social currency- Content that makes oneself look good to others
Triggers- Content that has strong associations with frequently encountered environmental cues
Emotion- Content that elicits high arousal emotions
Public- Content that contains a specific call-to-action
Practical value- Content with relevance to the lives of audience members
Stories- Content packaged as stories rather than advertisements

### Create/Remix

Intrinsic-
Extrinsic-

## Learning Features
### Sample table (will probably be used for multimedia)

| Type of Engagement | Relevant theories | Motivation |
| Click | Information gap theory (Loewenstein, 1994) | Curiosity |
| Like | Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan) | Relatedness |
| Share | Impression management (Goffman), self-schemas | |
| Comment | | |
| Remix | Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan), Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964) | Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness (intrinsic); financial incentives (extrinsic) |

### Sample quiz (edit later)

Try applying the knowledge that you've just learned with this quiz: