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Paper presented at Chaire de recherchesur les réseaux sociaux à Télécom Ecole de Management. May 3, 2012. Paris
Citation preview
THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF ONLINE INFLUENCERS:
EVIDENCE FROM THE FOOD INDUSTRY
Riccardo De Vita ([email protected])
University of Greenwich Business School, London
Ivana Pais ([email protected])
Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan
Cecilia Manzo ([email protected])
Universita’ di Brescia
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Agenda • The research project
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology
• The food industry: first results
• Conclusions
• Q&As
Paris, May 3rd 2012
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
2/37
The research project
• Scientific partners
o Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
o University of Greenwich
• Media:
o Gummy Industries
o La Nuvola del Lavoro (Corriere.it)
o Trovolavoro.it (Rcs)
• Data management and IT:
o Basili.co
o Reputation Manager
The research team
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
3/37
The research project
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Communication and media
4/37
The research project
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Research objectives
Characteristics of influential actors online
Online networks of influential
actors
Professional group
Background,
motivations, use of
social media
Egonetwork analysis on
different SNS
Overall network
structure (different
approaches)
5/37
The research project
• Growing theoretical and empirical evidence of the topic
• Emphasis on online “large networks” and overall network
structures
o Deep analysis of limited number of selected actors
• Conflicting and not standard approaches in the literature
o Empirical approach to the identification of prominent actors online
and subsequent analysis of their characteristics
• Prevalence of quantitative studies, limited presence of mixed-
method approaches
o Integration of different research techniques
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The contribution of our study
Bellotti, 2008; Fuhse and Mützel, 2011
6/37
Theoretical background
• Sociology of professional
groups:
o Problematic, rising or hybrid
groups
o Work activities
• Professionalism:
o Expansion of knowledge-
based work and occupations
o Organizational/occupational
professionalism
o Changing conditions of
trust, discretion, cooperation
and competence
• Social visibility social
network
• Discourse of… social
media
• Technological development online social capital
• Social network sites as intentional organizations vs appropriable social organisations (Coleman, 1990)
• Social media as a new space where professional groups can build their identities and can achieve social visibility
• Social media as a new setting for studying professional groups
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Social media and professional groups
Demazière and Gadéa 2009; Evetts and Svensson, 2010
7/37
Theoretical background
• Opinion leaders as intermediaries between the mass media and
society influence is not an atomistic process (Katz and
Lazarsfeld, 1955)
• Opinion leaders as brokers across groups (Burt, 1999)
o Contagion by cohesion, information to groups
o Contagion by equivalence, adoptions within the group.
• Relevance of easily influenced actors instead of influential actors
• Influence as local, dynamic process which can then result in
global transformation (Watts and Dodds, 2007)
• However different processes exist to identify opinion leaders
(Valente and Pumpuang, 2007)
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influence, a network approach
8/37
Theoretical background
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The identification of online influencers
Connections Contents
Social Networks
9/37
Methodology
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The data collection process
Define Search Rank
Online
Questionnaire Social Network
Analysis
F2F
interview
10/37
Methodology
• Personal background
• Professional activity
• Use of the web
• Online networks
• Objectives and achievements through the use of social media
• Reputation and influence in the professional group
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The online questionnaire
11/37
Methodology
• Online ego networks collected through an online application
o Facebook
o Twitter
o Linkedin
• Ego to alter connections and alter to alter connections
• When available alters’ basic attributes collected (e.g. Age,
location, bio)
• Ego network measures: size, subgroup, density
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The Egonetwork Analysis
12/37
Methodology
• Relevant professional networks
o Online
o Offline
• Data interpretation and sense making of online networks
o Facebook
o Twitter
o LinkedIn
• Importance of a mixed method approach to the interpretation of
social networks
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The face to face interview – Influential actors’ social networks
Bellotti, 2008; Fuhse and Mützel, 2011
13/37
Methodology
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The empirical setting/professional groups
Elaboration of the Authors
Food
Construction
Engineers - TBC
Law/Legal
professions
Finance
Formal
professional
groups
Informal
professional
groups
Service
Product
14/37
Results
• Main characteristics of
influential actors
o Foodbloggers
o Women
o Interest/experience in the
communication industry
o Care for the visual aspect of
their dishes
o From hobby to profession
o Passion for cooking, link
with values such as family
and tradition
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The presence of foodbloggers online
Reputation Manager, December 2011
15/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Online videos - Top 20 on YouTube
Reputation Manager, December 2011
Titolo Visualizzazioni Commenti Preferiti Durata -min Utente
Ricetta:Decorare con semplicita' una torta 756728 446 454 00:04:30 Greedyweb
Impasto per la pizza, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 576910 238 791 00:02:46 GialloZafferanoTV
Tiramisù, la ricetta di Giallozafferano. 479750 157 730 00:02:55 GialloZafferanoTV
Le zeppole fritte graffe napoletane dalle ricette di Nonna Anna semplici,
economiche, gustose. 449499 117 548 00:06:37 kayenna
Mozzarella in Carrozza, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 416397 211 754 00:02:03 GialloZafferanoTV
Salame di Cioccolato, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 400494 230 796 00:02:55 GialloZafferanoTV
Crepes, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 395017 203 720 00:03:14 GialloZafferanoTV
Lasagne alla Bolognese, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 285366 223 431 00:03:56 GialloZafferanoTV
Propone una ricetta con il gatto, Bigazzi licenziato dalla Rai 276383 1745 108 00:01:04 ristotv
La Video Ricetta Passo-Passo della Focaccia Genovese 251595 168 544 00:04:51 vittorioviarengo
Pollo alla cacciatora, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 245895 56 358 00:02:16 GialloZafferanoTV
Penne all'Arrabbiata, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 201231 66 316 00:02:04 GialloZafferanoTV
La ricetta della crema Chantilly HD 187547 77 122 00:02:53 blogdolci
Ragù alla Bolognese, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 169675 176 346 00:04:08 GialloZafferanoTV
Ricette:Involtini impanati alla siciliana 147225 167 217 00:05:55 lacucinaitaliana
Pollo al Curry, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 124677 60 226 00:02:46 GialloZafferanoTV
Video ricetta: Un menù di antipasti al sapore di mare 124614 63 146 00:10:08 sitcomitalia
Gnocchi di Patate, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 120456 41 218 00:02:28 GialloZafferanoTV
Besciamella, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 117075 45 206 00:02:27 GialloZafferanoTV
Video ricetta: muffin per colazione? 105372 42 156 00:11:45 sitcomitalia
530 videos online, made available by 236 YouTube channels generated
10.5 M. visits and more than 11K comments
16/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Online videos – Top channels (videos generated and comments received)
Reputation Manager, December 2011
17/37
Results
• Name: thecrazycake
• Video published: 90
• Channel views: 192.164
• Video views: 1.849.402
• Comments to channel: 1381
• Comments to videos: 8640
• Strategy based on the active
involvement of visitors, also
with constant links to the
facebook profile
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The most commented channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/thecrazycacke)
Reputation Manager, December 2011
Sono un Ingegnere, ma la mia
passione è sempre stata la cucina e
adoro fare torte,potete dare uno
sguardo alle mie creazioni sul
profilo di Facebook!!!!!!!!!!!!
18/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Facebook – Top 20 fan pages
Reputation Manager, December 2011
53 Fan Pages identified, followed by more than 125K users, who generated
about 7K posts and 8.5K comments
NOME FANPAGE NUMERO FANTOTALE
LIKE
POST
TOTALI
COMMENTI
TOTALI
INTERAZIONE-
COMMENTI AI POST
AMMINISTRATORE
INTERAZIONE-
COMMENTI AI POST
FAN
INCREMENTO FAN
MESE%
Viva la Focaccia 60.733 6.319 405 899 431 468 1%
Ricette - Le Gioie del palato 10.619 5.378 244 574 574 0 8%
Sorelle in Pentola 10.480 3.596 330 358 319 39 3%
Cake show 5.929 4.487 259 1.208 1.015 193 2%
Dolce Mania per la Pasticceria 3.512 255 48 90 71 19 1%
La cuochina sopraffina 3.489 2.461 516 1.075 948 127 5%
Francesca Sugar Art - Le torte di Francesca 2.418 1.607 383 676 252 424 9%
Delizie da Gustare 2.346 340 168 150 113 37 4%
FANTASTICARE IN CUCINA 2.313 1.212 74 273 273 0 2%
Juls' Kitchen 1.804 1.974 485 552 487 65 4%
L' Arte nelle Mani (di Giuli) 1.770 289 76 66 58 8 2%
La cucina di Virginie 1.444 319 276 120 85 35 5%
Fiordifrolla 1.408 1.036 150 243 243 0 2%
La CuCiNa Di MaMMiNa GiOvI 1.216 129 55 47 28 19 3%
Mamma Papera's blog 1.015 1.390 480 632 584 48 4%
il Blog di Flora 992 247 148 120 63 57 1%
Cucinando in casa 966 281 123 108 104 4 3%
Un Pizzico Di Cannella 943 133 54 37 33 4 0%
Chef Laura at Home 890 230 74 63 47 16 2%
19/37
Results
• 92 accounts identified
• Followed by almost 340K
followers
• Generated 860K tweets
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Twitter – Top 20 accounts
Reputation Manager, December 2011
Screen name N° Follower N° Following N° Tweet
PinchMySalt 99646 1210 15829
RecipeGirl 14241 1155 32300
CannelleVanille 14196 336 10786
DineandDish 12033 7433 22300
browneyedbaker 10559 4259 11537
TwoPeasandPod 9695 2019 33620
atablefortwo 8270 414 6750
foodblogallianc 8043 1508 113
runwithtweezers 6181 1196 8569
chrispople 6138 793 31692
chowandchatter 5992 4325 71472
kalynskitchen 5818 786 14294
userealbutter 5769 469 16316
cookincanuck 5314 2590 10836
FoodforMyFamily 5132 2253 5958
toccodizenzero 5009 1169 32686
GoodBite 4806 2179 1842
TheLittleKitchn 4715 3342 18334
eatlivtravwrite 4702 1846 34761
JuliaParsons 4613 1174 8455
20/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
• Age range from 24 to 47, with 5 respondents aged 31-39
• Two influential actors living abroad
• Only one man
A focus on online influencers (N=10, r.r. 50%)
Elaboration of the Authors
0
1
2
3
4
The onlyindustry in
which I operate
The mainindustry in
which I operate
One of theindustries in
which I operate
The industry inwhich I wouldlike to operate
An hobby NA
Food is…
21/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Online influencers and social media
Elaboration of the Authors
0
2
4
6
Less than 2 years From 2 to 5 years From 6 to 10years
More than 10years
NA
How long have you been active in the food industry?
How long have you been using the web to maintain or develop professional relationships?
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Facebook (N=8) Twitter (N=7) LinkedIn (N=7) Other SocialNetworks (N=2)
Blogs (N=8)
Hours per day on social media
22/37
Results
Which contents do you publish
online?
Sense of belonging to
communities
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Online influencers and their online activities
Elaboration of the Authors
• 8 respondents declared to
feel part of at least one
professional community
online (5 of at least two)
• Only one declared to be part
of one (and only one) offline
professional community
• Online communities
facilitate access to
information, overcoming the
problem of physical distance
• Online influencers say a lot
about themselves online
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Often aboutfood, but
sometimesabout other
issues
Only aboutfood
NA
23/37
Results
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The objectives and the results achieved by using social media
Elaboration of the Authors
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10M
eeti
ng in
tere
sti
ng p
eople
Accessin
g u
sefu
lIn
form
ati
on
Esta
blish
new
rela
tion
s
Tell t
he o
thers
abou
t m
ydaily life
Com
mu
nic
ate
my feelin
gs
Be c
on
sid
ere
d in
flu
en
tial
Spen
d m
y t
ime w
ith
ou
tgett
ing b
ore
d
Be u
p-t
o-d
ate
Main
tain
rela
tion
sh
ips w
ith
acqu
ain
tan
ces
Have fu
n
Meeti
ng in
flu
en
tial people
Com
mu
nic
ate
my ideas
Main
tain
rela
tion
sh
ips w
ith
my c
losest
frie
nds
Be c
on
sid
ere
d a
nin
tere
sti
ng p
ers
on
Meeti
ng k
now
leadgable
people
Fin
d c
ollabora
tors
Be c
on
sid
ere
dkn
ow
ledgeable
Fin
d a
job
Fin
d c
usto
mers
Objective
Achievement
24/37
Results
• The influencers identified
communication and
technical skills as the most
important factors to develop
a positive reputation in the
professional group
• Long presence in the
industry and reputation
offline or recommendations
are not perceived as relevant
• Clear consensus on the
identification of the most
important influencers online
• Lack of consensus and
information of people
perceived influential offline
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Building reputation in the food industry
Elaboration of the Authors
25/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 – Facebook network
Elaboration of the Authors
26/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 – Twitter network
Elaboration of the Authors
27/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 - The characteristics of online networks
Elaboration of the Authors
Connections Density N. groups N. isolates
Facebook 237 0.05 8 14
Twitter 1117 0.10 31 1
LinkedIn 12
Age (avg) Connections
(avg)
Location Study Industry
F 28 542 60% Lombardy,
11% abroad
University
(86%)
9% food
Tw 1082 21% Lombardy,
4% abroad
L 133 83% Lombardy University
(100%)
8% food
28/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 - Comparing ego networks online
Elaboration of the Authors
29/37
Twitter Facebook
Degree (n.connectios= 1117)
Info
Degree (n.connectios= 237)
Info
1 687
food - interviewed
43 her professional profile
2 653 food 35 friend
3 601 food - interviewed 32 relative
4 538 food 28 university
5 537 food 28 university
6 527 food 27 university
7 524 food 27 university
8 506 food 27 university
9 498 food - interviewed 26 university
10 482 food 25 friend
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 – Facebook network/subgroups
Elaboration of the Authors
University Food
Friends (dance)
30/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 – Twitter network/subgroups
Elaboration of the Authors
31/37
A network approach to the study online influence
Subgroups in Facebook Subgroups in Twitter
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 - Comparing ego networks online
Elaboration of the Authors
• Number of subgroups: 8
• Clear clustering based on the
nature of the relationship.
Mainly friendship ties
developed in different
environments, only one
subgroup is “food” related
• Number of subgroups: 31
• More difficult interpretation.
The interviewed does not
know all her followers.
However all the subgroups
which were identified are
“food related”
32/37
A network approach to the study online influence
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Influencer 1 – Offline networks
Elaboration of the Authors
33/37
Conclusions
• For theory development
o Importance of openness, honesty and trust deeper analysis of
reputation (at least in the food industry!!)
o “Online born influencers”?
o Differences in on and offline interactions
• For industry actors
o Technological specialization (on SNS or by profile)
o Different SNS are sources of different types of resources (from
emotional support to information)
• For methodology
o Complexities associated in analysing online network data
o Importance of a qualitative interpretation of online networks
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Implications – based on very preliminary results, more to come!
34/37
Conclusion
• Theoretical
o We focus on “potential influential actors”, but influence analysis
would require a dynamic analysis
• Data analysis
o Size of networks and data coding
o Technical problems in the mapping of LinkedIn networks
o Multiplexity and homophily cannot be explored at this stage
o A fourth dimension of influence: multiple profiles
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
Limitations and open issues
35/37
Conclusions
• Completion of data analysis
• Comparison across professional groups
• New measures, e.g. for subgroups
• Integration of SNA and qualitative analysis with simulation
techniques
The Social Capital of Online Influencers
The next steps
Tubaro and Casilli, 2010
36/37
THE SOCIAL CAPITAL OF ONLINE INFLUENCERS:
EVIDENCE FROM THE FOOD INDUSTRY
Riccardo De Vita ([email protected])
University of Greenwich Business School, London
Ivana Pais ([email protected])
Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan
Cecilia Manzo ([email protected])
Universita’ di Brescia
The Social Capital of Online Influencers