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Optimal Matching Model of Social Support: An Examination of How National Product and Service Companies Use Twitter to Respond to Consumers Martha Knight and Serena Carpenter This research examines how four product and service-oriented companies use Twitter to engage with consumers through a quantitative content analysis of tweet threads (n=431). This analysis specifically examines whether company type (product vs. service) and consumer tone (negative vs. positive) are related to company social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental). Results indicate that variations in company type and tone related to variations in social support. The results also show national companies do not use Twitter to promote community, but rather use it to enhance customer service.

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witter was first established in March 2006 and launched publicly in August 2006 (www.twitter.com/about). Twitter is a real-time microblogging (short messaging) service that works from devices including computers and mobile phones. About 13 percent of the online adult population in the United States uses Twitter (Smith, 2011). From April 2008 to April 2009, the number of Twitter accounts rose from 1.6 million to 32.1 million (Vascellaro, 2009). As social media use continues to grow among internet users, U.S. companies have recognized that the use of communication tools such as Twitter may improve customer service and promote brand loyalty. Studies have shown blogging communication tools are useful for encouraging dialogue and feedback with consumers (Yang & Lim, 2009). Due to the growth and response from the public on social media channels, companies have had to develop strategies to address public feedback (Botan & Taylor, 2004, Gilpin, 2011). The emphasis is on the sharing of co-creational messages rather than private organizational-controlled communication. However, minimal research has been conducted in analyzing Twitter correspondence between consumer and company. And most focuses on responses to negative or crisis situations. This research examines both positive and negative interactions with companies on Twitter to determine how they have adapted to this media landscape. This research has four goals: 1) add to research on an understudied area of online communication, 2) understand how communication professionals from four national companies use Twitter to interact with consumers, 3) identify whether company type (product vs. service) and user post tone (negative vs. positive) are related to forms of social support (informational, emotional, instrumental) by users and company posters, and 4) apply the Optimal Matching Model of Social Support, which has been applied primarly in health communication and psychology, to identify whether a stressor

Martha Knight was a master’s student in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Serena Carpenter is an Assistant Professor in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Optimal Matching Model of Social Support: How Companies Use Twitter to Respond to Consumers

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is related to how companies respond to consumers. This research addresses these goals through a quantitative content analysis of tweet threads from four national companies over a two-month period. Literature Review Social media is a form of computer-mediated communication (CMC). People invite one another to participate and contribute to conversations asynchronously without geographic constraints (Boyd, Golder, and Lotan, 2010). Social media includes social networks, blogs, content sharing communities, and microblogs that allow users to post content, communicate with one another, and build communities based on similar interests and goals. One subset of social media applications is social networks, including web-based services such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Social networks allow individuals to create a profile within specific constraints and share content with friends within their network (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Compared with social networking, blogging communities are more public and users tend to share original content in a longer format with links. A blog is defined as a website frequently updated by a specific user or user group with content ordered in a reverse chronological order (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004). Danah Boyd (2006) argued blogs are more than just frequently updated websites, but are applications that allow people to extend themselves into a digital network and further express themselves to others who are interested. Additionally, there are several forms of content sharing sites that allow for collaboration including social bookmarking and social news sites. Social bookmarking sites include sites such as Delicious and StumbleUpon. Social bookmarking sites allow bookmarks to be shared with the public (Golder & Huberman, 2006). Social news sites such as Digg and Reddit allow people to publicly share and rank the value of original and unoriginal content. Microblogging is another form of social media. Broadcast in nature and similar to text messaging, microblogging platforms let users share short pieces of information, usually in under 200 characters, to friends and followers from multiple sources including websites, third-party applications, or mobile devices (DeVoe, 2009). Popular microblogging applications include Twitter, FriendFeed, and Jaiku. This research paper focuses on Twitter due to its emphasis on public interaction. People can subscribe to or follow posts from other Twitter users as well as have other Twitter users subscribe to or follow their Twitter account. Individual messages are referred to as tweets or posts. Because the system was originally designed to share information through mobile text messaging, tweets are limited to 140 characters in length. Tweets are published by a single person, but are read by many. A key feature of Twitter is that one user can follow another user without the action reciprocated (Boyd, Golder, & Lotan, 2010). Similar to content sharing communities, many users share links and other information with other users. A Twitter user is any account holder who posts a tweet. Similar to blogs, tweets are shown in a user’s account in reverse chronological order, but unlike blogs there is no way to respond to a specific tweet in the form of a comment. Rather users must use an at-reply sign “@” or mention before the handle, or unique username, to signify that a public post is directed at a specific person (Boyd, Golder, & Lotan, 2010). 22

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Tweets are further disseminated when a person’s followers retweets a message to their own followers. Private conversations with other individual Twitter users are possible by means of direct message (DM). For many Twitter users, sharing information is a primary utility of the service. The majority of people who use a microblogging service such as Twitter tend to use it to talk about their daily activities (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2009). Furthermore, people use blogging or other forms of social media to document their life, provide commentary and opinions, express deeply felt emotions, articulate ideas, as well as inform and maintain community forums (Jansen, Zhang, Sobel, & Chowdury, 2009; Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004). Although the account creation of Twitter is growing at rapid rates, the actual use of Twitter is low (Lenhart, 2009). Sysomos, a social media analytics company, conducted a study on Twitter growth, studying 11.5 million Twitter accounts. They found 85.3 percent of all Twitter users post less than once a day and 21 percent have never posted a tweet. A small group of Twitter users account for the bulk of activity conducted on Twitter. Sysomos discovered the top 30 percent account for 97.4 percent of the activity (Cheng, Evans, and Sing, 2009). The median age of a Twitter user is 31 (Lenhart, 2009). Organization-Public Relationships. Businesses are exploring Twitter as an additional application for building relationships with publics. Publics can be defined as “cocreators of meaning and communication as what makes it possible to agree to shared meanings, interpretations, and goals” (Botan & Taylor, 2004, p. 652). Blogs have been considered as a useful tool for fostering dialogue and feedback between organizations and publics (Yang & Lim, 2009). Two-way communication is a key component in public relations because it can be mutually beneficial (Grunig, 2001), which leads to the cultivation of relational trust (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier, 2002; Ha & Pratt, 2000; Nel, Nieker, Berthon, & Davis, 1999). Relational trust is a key variable in evaluating the effectiveness of blog-mediated communication, and dependability is typically achieved through regular updates, truthful information, and sincere responses to consumers (Yang & Lim, 2009), as well as direct and candid communication with organizations (Scoble & Israel, 2006). Many researchers believe the primary function of company public representatives is to identify, establish, and maintain relationships that benefit both the organization and its publics (Bruning & Ledingham, 1999; Bruning & Ralston, 2000; Culpit, Center, & Broom, 1985; Grunig & Huang, 2000; Heath, 2001; Ledingham & Bruning, 2000). This research attempts to understand whether and how Twitter company publishers are handling Twitter communication directed at their companies. Twitter and Company Relations. Through social media applications such as Twitter, communication professionals have an additional outlet to reach online users. Yet some public relations professionals have been slow to embrace it as a medium for customer service. Eyrich, Padman, and Sweetser (2008) found in a survey of public relations practitioners that nearly 42 percent of those surveyed identified blogs as an accepted form of communication, whereas microblogging (1.7%) was far less adopted. However, data were collected several years ago, and as Twitter usage continues to grow among internet and mobile phone users (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2009), it is important for company leaders to understand how to use Twitter to reach consumers. The customer service component of complaint communications is no longer confined to the customer service call center. Jansen, Zhang, Sobel, and Chowdury (2009) Optimal Matching Model of Social Support: How Companies Use Twitter to Respond to Consumers

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found microblogging is a tool used for customer electronic word of mouth (eWOM) after analyzing more than 150,000 Twitter posts made by consumers mentioning 50 different brands. They found 22 percent of the sampled Twitter posts contained an opinion about one of those brands. In the tweets where sentiment was expressed about a brand, the researchers found—using the site Summize—that brands had fewer negative (22%) opinions expressed about them than positive (61%) ones. Another study on Twitter users posting on the recent earthquake in Haiti indicated that Twitter was employed to criticize organizational commitment to helping people who were affected by the quake (Smith, 2010). Public complaints may have a detrimental impact on a company if the communications professional does not appropriately address the situation. Although most posts were found to be positive in the previously mentioned study (Jansen, et al., 2009), previous research conducted on impression formation suggests negative comments tend to have a greater impact on consumers than positive comments (Skowronski & Carlston, 1989). For example, Park and Lee (2009) examined negative and positive comments about various product-driven companies including how those comments affected the overall word of mouth. They reported negative postings had a greater effect on consumer perceptions of a brand than positive postings. Previous research supports that negative comments can have a stronger influence on customers’ brand evaluations (Richins, 1983; Wright, 1974) and purchase intentions (Brown & Reingen, 1987; Doh & Hwang, 2009) than positive comments. Companies need to take a proactive approach to conversations surrounding their brands by maintaining a presence in these channels (Jansen, et al., 2009). Although Jansen et al. make a case companies should use Twitter and other social media applications to control their image, build relationships, and increase brand loyalty, little is known on how to best use blogging applications to reach their goal (Kent, 2008; Waters, Burnett, Lamm, & Lucas, 2009). Optimal Model of Matching Social Support. Social support research has been focused primarily in the area of health communication and psychology (Buis, 2007; Buis, 2008; Cutrona & Suhr, 1992; Cutrona, et al., 2007). Users form online health communities to cope with similar ailments (Thrasher, Campbell, & Oates, 2004). The same forms of social support found in online health communities and in relationships may be found in communication concerning experiences with a brand. This research seeks to understand whether companies and users offer support when discussing a company on Twitter. The Optimal Matching Model of Social Support argues support is most beneficial when it matches a person’s stressor (Cutrona & Russell, 1990). When support matches the goals of the support seeker, the individual perceives that the support provider understands their individual needs (Cutrona, Shaffer, Wesner, & Gardner, 2007). Social support is the idea that people give assistance to each other through emotional and tangible means during times of need. Social support is a multifaceted concept (Wilcox & Vernberg, 1985). Through the optimal matching model (OMM), five major types of support have been identified: emotional, network, esteem, instrumental, and informational (Cutrona, 1990; Cutrona & Russell, 1990; Cutrona & Suhr, 1992). The effectiveness of the social support type is dependent on how well it addresses the specifications of the stressor. In the Optimal Matching Model of Social Support (Cutrona, 1990; Cutrona & Russell, 1990), the controllability of the stressful event or situation is of prime importance in determining the type of social sup24

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port that will be most beneficial. Specifically, Cutrona (1990) proposed that in the context of controllable events, supportive acts that are directed at eliminating the source of stress or decreasing its severity are most useful, including information and tangible assistance. In the context of uncontrollable events, support components that diminish the severity of aversive emotions are most beneficial, which can be categorized as emotional support. In a study done by Buis (2008), she found that in an uncontrolled situation such as a hospice care, OMM aligns with the same findings initially proposed by Cutrona and Russell (1990). Hospice patients are terminally ill and in the study she found patients were more likely to receive emotional rather than informational support. She explained that emotional support makes the most sense given the extremely uncontrollable nature of terminal illness. This research specifically examines emotional, informational, and instrumental support present in Twitter threads based on research conducted and definitions created by Buis (2008) and Cutrona and Suhr (1992), and examines under what conditions consumers and companies provide each support type. Emotional support refers to what one says and does to another to make them feel loved and bolster their sense of self-worth. Such support frequently takes the form of non-tangible types of assistance. Informational support refers to the help other members may offer through the provision of actual information to people in need of assistance. Instrumental support refers to tangible help that others may provide such as doing a task for someone. Individuals join online communities because they are seeking information, empowerment, encouragement, and empathy regarding a specific concern (Hamilton, 1998; Mickelson, 1998; Scheerhorn, Warisse, & McNeilis, 1995; Sharf, 1997; Turner, Grube, & Meyers, 2001). Twitter may prove to be an effective tool for building a community around a brand. Previous research shows that blogging facilitates relationships (Yang & Lim, 2009). It could also be used to develop community around a brand. An online community is a group of people who use computer-mediated communication to share similar interests and goals (Hew, 2009; Lazar & Preece, 2002; Wellman, 1997). This exploratory research identifies whether and how companies provide social support based on the type of stressor. This research examined whether negative and positive comments were related to the social support (emotional, information, and instrumental) provided by the four national companies. The Optimal Matching Model of Social Support argues that stressor type is related to specific social support offered. In public relations research, Image Restoration Theory (also known as Image Repair Theory) has been used to explain how an individual or company responds to a public relations crisis situation (e.g., acts of omission, untrue information) that is detrimental to a person or company’s image. This theory states an individual or company works to restore its image after negative publicity by following specific strategies including denying the event, shifting blame, dodging responsibility, reducing offensiveness, taking corrective actions, or asking for forgiveness (Benoit, 1995; 1997). Although this theory addresses negative publicity that may form around a company it does not address how company professionals communicate with consumers when comments are positive or even neutral. OMM addresses different types of stressors including positive and negative stressors encompassing all conversation types rather than just negative publicity. Positive comments could turn into negative comments or perceptions if companies do not engage the commenting Twitter users. Optimal Matching Model of Social Support: How Companies Use Twitter to Respond to Consumers

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Research Questions This research seeks to identify how company public representatives use the Twitter application to reach out to consumers. Social support literature and more specifically OMM were used to evaluate communication messages between consumers and companies. Informational, instrumental, and emotional support was conceived based on social support literature conducted on previous online community studies. This research seeks to understand whether the social support provided varies depending on whether the company is a product-oriented company (tangible goods provider) or service-oriented company (accommodation or activity provider). To address whether differences in content exist, research questions rather than hypotheses were posed because there has been little research conducted on Twitter. RQ1: How is company type (product vs. service) related to company social support type (emotional, informational, and instrumental)? As seen with the optimal matching model, specific types of social support are hypothesized as more appropriate for handling specific incidents or stressors allowing for a greater understanding in which the relationship building process happens (Turner, Grube, and Meyers, 2001). This research study measured stressor tone (positive vs. negative) expressed by the consumer and how the company responds to their comments via Twitter. RQ2: How is consumer initiated tone (positive vs. negative) related to company social support type (emotional, informational, and instrumental)? It is important to understand, whether a sense of community can be formed through the consumer-company relationship building process. This research study measured the extent to which other Twitter users provided social support to other users within each thread. RQ3: To what extent do Twitter users offer social support to other Twitter users when commenting on a brand on Twitter? Method A quantitative content analysis was used to examine tweet threads (n=431) from four company Twitter accounts. Two of the companies were product-driven and two of the companies were service-driven. For purposes of this study, a product-driven company was defined as providing tangible goods to consumers, which consumers can take with them. According to BusinessDictionary.com (operated by education-focused WebFinance, Inc.), a product is a commercially distributed good that is (1) tangible, (2) results from fabrication, manufacturing, or production process, and (3) passes through a distribution channel before being consumed or used. For example, Whole Foods provides groceries and Starbucks provides coffee. A service-driven company is a provider of an accommodation or activity. Southwest Airlines provides a way to get from point A to point B, and Marriott provides a place to sleep. Consumers in essence are utilizing or borrowing the service for a period of time. The four national companies were selected based on their activity as Twitter users within the Twittersphere. They have been ranked as top Twittering companies by various publications and social media companies. One instance was an analysis of the top 40 Twitter brands by Mashable.com, the world’s largest blog focused on Web 2.0 and 26

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Social Media news (Van Grove, 2009). Another instance was an analysis of the best practices for brands on Twitter by Ignite Social Media, a company specializing in helping corporations use social media tools, sites, and applications to connect with customers and prospects (Groner, 2009). The four companies were monitored over the course of one month to ensure each company had similar Twittering patterns. It was determined through this initial analysis that all four companies post tweets regularly, have large follower numbers, and actively respond to consumers. Whole Foods (Product): http://twitter.com/WholeFoods Starbucks (Product): http://twitter.com/Starbucks Southwest Airlines (Service): http://twitter.com/SouthwestAir Marriot International (Service): http://twitter.com/MarriottIntl The unit of analysis was the tweet thread. For purposes of this paper, a tweet thread was defined by a compilation of tweets that come together to create a conversation, in the case of this study, typically between a Twitter user and one of the four companies being analyzed. A thread can be initiated by a Twitter user or by the company. Tweets not leading to a conversation, or thread, were not included in this study because this study focused on conversations between companies and consumers. Threads were tracked over 21 randomly selected days representing three constructed full weeks over the course of two months from Sept. 8, 2009 through Nov. 8, 2009. These dates reflected periods when there was not any known reason there would have been a spike in activity due to a specific event such as travel. Threads were collected using the search function built into Twitter rather than an outside application such as TweetDeck because outside applications only keep tweets for a short period of time. On the designated randomly selected day all “@replies” addressed to each company were tracked, copied to a word document as well as all company’s Tweets for the specific day. If a conversation started prior to the date tracked or continued onto the following day it was kept and tracked through its completion as the majority of conversations spanned several days. In compiling conversations between company and Twitter user, only “@ replies” were collected. The four companies in this study only respond to “@reply” postings by Twitter users. For example, if a Twitter user said “Got my usual at @Starbucks and it was horrible,” and Starbucks did not respond, it was not classified as a thread. On the other hand it was classified as a thread if the Twitter user said “Got my usual at @ Starbucks and it was horrible,” and Starbucks did respond. Operational Definitions. For purposes of this study, a consumer-initiated thread was defined as a thread that was started by the Twitter user and the company followed up with a response. For purposes of this study, a company-initiated thread was documented only when a Twitter user responded and then the company responded to that specific user creating a consumer-company conversation. The study assessed the tone of the user-generated tweets. Only the initial tone of the first user initiating the conversation was categorized. All threads were designated as having one of three tone types. Tone was designated based on the connotations related to the character of the company: 1) neutral tone was identified as tone that signifies impartial feelings toward the company; 2) positive tone was identified as a tone that puts the company in a positive light; and 3) negative tone was identified as a tone that has harmful connotations toward the company. In its simplest form social support is the general term for people who support one Optimal Matching Model of Social Support: How Companies Use Twitter to Respond to Consumers

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TABLE 1 Company Response Time Company Response Time

n=431

Less than 15 minutes 16 minutes – 1.5 hours 1.6 hours – 5.5 hours 5.6 hours – 12.5 hours 12.6+hours

15.7% 20.2% 14.6% 11.2% 38.3%

another through emotional and tangible means during times of need whether good or bad. Each posting within a thread was evaluated for the presence or absence of emotional, informational, and instrumental social support. A thread could contain more than one of these support types. Within the emotional support measure, the attributes measured were general, validation, and motivational support. Within the informational support measure, attributes evaluated were general information and company specific information. Instrumental support had no sub-categories (Buis, 2008). Coder Reliability. To ensure intercoder reliability two separate people coded ten percent (n=40) of the threads separately. Scott’s Pi computation was selected for the nominal level variables. Reliability of nominal-level variables was .91 or greater. Results Of 431 threads, 362 were from product-driven companies (84%) while 69 (16%) were from service driven companies – Whole Foods: 242; Starbucks: 119; Marriott International: 48; and Southwest Airlines: 22. Furthermore, 47 percent of Twitter users either starting a thread or commenting on one of the company’s threads were female, while 35 percent were male and 18 percent were made up of unknown identities. This research also measured how long it took the company to respond to the initiating Twitter users. When a Twitter user posted a tweet about one of the four companies, almost forty percent (38.3%) of the companies’ responses were posted more than 12 hours later (See Table 1). Overall, companies provided more informational (65.9%) than emotional (50.8%) and instrumental (20.0%) support. RQ1 asked whether provided social support differed dependent upon company type. A difference in proportions test showed product and service companies significantly differed only in how much informational support they provided to Twitter users TABLE 2 Social Support Provided by Product and Service Companies Product

Service

Social Support

n=362

n=69

Emotional

51.5%

49.3%

Informational*

70.2%

43.5%

Instrumental

20.7%

15.9%

*p < .01, difference in proportions tests 28

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TABLE 3 Tweet Tone and the Social Support Positive

Negative

Neutral

Social Support

n=71

n=114

n=246

Emotional**

54.9%

62.3%

Informational*

32.4%

62.3%

Instrumental*

8.5%

36.0%

44.3% 77.2%

15.9%

*chi-squares significant at p