MAASH Research Group

Objectives Achieved:
With this survey, MAASH effectively accomplished the objective of gaining more insight and collecting data concerning the consumer thought process in relation to small businesses and social media. We learned which social media platforms consumers prefer, and how much time we spent on the. We gathered information about which types of ads consumers are most likely to respond to and which types of content they prefer to see on social media. We also learned which social media platforms might be preferred for advertising or promotional messages. The survey acted as a more in-depth extension of the findings from the focus groups. The focus groups gave us an initial idea of what customers do and do not like to see from businesses on social media, and we used those findings to build our survey. The survey allowed us to quantify and expand upon some of the information learned during the focus groups.

Procedures followed:
Our recruitment strategy was mainly to post the survey on our various social media accounts to solicit participants. This was our strategy because we were not looking for specific demographics to take the survey; our only requirement was consumers who have some knowledge of social media. This was a non-random convenience sample. We also asked people in person to participate in the survey, another non-random sampling technique. The survey method we utilized was an electronic survey. We hosted the survey through Qualtrics, a brand of online survey software. We disseminated the link to the survey through social media and class email lists, and gathered the response data directly from Qualtrics once the survey-taking period was over.

Description of Participants:
Our survey was taken by both male and female participants ranging in age from 18-58.

Participants by Gender Male Female Klingon 17 102 1

Most of our participants are Caucasian, but we also had African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American participants.

Participants by Ethnicity White/Caucasia n 107 75.4% Black/Africa n American 10 7% Hispanic/ Latino 4 2.8% Asian 3 2.1% Native American 1 0.7% Other 1 0.7% Prefer Not to Answer 1 0.7%

The most common employment status for our participants is student at 45.8%, followed by 31.7% employed.

Employment Status Employed SelfEmployed 2 Unemployed Student Retired Other Prefer Not to Answer 23

45

65

31.7%

1.4%

1.4%

45.8%

1.4%

2.1%

16.2%

The most common highest level of education completed by 59.9% of our participants is some college, followed by 14.1% with a Bachelors Degree, 8.5% with a high school diploma or GED, 0.7% with a Masters Degree, and 0.7% with a Professional Degree.

Highest Level of Education Completed High School/GED 12 8.5% Some College 85 59.9% Bachelors Degree 20 14.1% Masters Degree 1 0.7% Professional Degree 1 0.7% Prefer Not to Answer 23 16.2%

Results:
The majority of the respondents participated in Facebook (95.8%), Instagram (80.3%), Twitter (70.4%), and blogs (33.8%). The respondents that spent more time on social media platforms on a daily basis found it more difficult to give them up. Platform F Facebook 11.96*** Twitter 29,21*** Instagram 13.71*** FourSquare 4.32* Blogs 24.09***
***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05

Out of the 142 respondents sampled, 82.4% followed small businesses on social media. Respondents also spent more time interacting with businesses on Facebook (M=3.15, SD= 1.24) than any other social media platform. When asked how likely they were to respond to promotions on social media on a scale of 1 (very likely) to 5 (very unlikely), participants were likely to respond. (M= 2.42, SD= 1.19). There was a significant positive correlation between interaction with businesses on social media and participants willingness to share brand-related content with friends, followers, etc.

Platform Facebook Twitter Instagram FourSquare Blogs

***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05

r 0.525*** 0.67*** 0.486*** 0.532*** 0.417***

Respondents were most likely to respond to posts that contained pictures (88.7%) and special offers/coupons (65.6%). Participants were shown screen shots of business promotions. They were asked how likely they were to respond to the promotions. Women were more likely to respond to the promotions than men, but the association was not significant. Respondents were most likely to this Vertage Clothing promotion (M=2.93, SD= 1.28).

Most participants found social media to be useful (64.8%), easy (62%) and informational (61.3%).

Recommendations/implications for message strategy:

When it comes down to platforms, our research shows that these following are the top 3 used platforms (in numerical order) between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Blogs and Other: 1) Facebook 2) Instagram 3) Twitter Based on our survey, between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Blogs and Other, the top three platforms that consumers interact with businesses on are (in numerical order): 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) Instagram Our research suggests that users frequent and share content with other users on these platforms. Because of this MAASH Research Group advises small businesses to reach their target consumer through establishing a social media presence on one, two or all of these platforms. We have found a significant relationship with interaction with businesses on Facebook and sharing content on Facebook. When companies post ads through various platforms, our research shows that there is a statistical significance with the consumer, business interaction and sharing brand-related content. We have found this significant in the following platforms (in numerical order): 1) Blogs

2) Instagram 3) Facebook 4) FourSquare 5) Twitter MAASH Research group suggests the better relationship that a company establishes with their consumer through social media platforms, the more their consumers will share the companys content through their social media platforms. Consumers respond to these three types of posts the most on social media out of Pictures, Videos, Text, Polls, Special Offers/coupons and Events (in numerical order): 1) Pictures 2) Special Offers/Promotions 3) Text If a company is looking to engage consumers, companies should make a variety of posts with pictures, special offers/promotions and texts.

Appendix:

Recruitment messages: Hello everyone, were conducting a survey on consumer behaviors on social media and the implications those behaviors have on small businesses. We would really appreciate it if you took our survey, thank you!