Research shows that you should let consumers’ photos speak for your business

 The advance of technology and the widespread adoption of smartphones and handheld devices in recent years have enabled us to publish our experience about a product or service through online photo or video sharing and provide a review.

Online review websites have also updated their features, making it easier for consumers to attach pictures or videos to their reviews. As both consumers and businesses adapt to the new photo-sharing trend, it becomes crucial to expand our knowledge regarding user-generated photos’ (UGPs’) effect on online reviews.

An empirical study about user-generated photos

I worked with a research team in an interdisciplinary project to assess UGPs’ effects on the helpfulness of hotel reviews. We published our findings in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. The paper is entitled “Let photos speak: The effect of user-generated visual content on hotel review helpfulness.”

The hypotheses

We drew from the media richness theory and advanced five hypotheses for statistical analysis, including:

1. Online reviews attached with UGPs have significant positive effects on review helpfulness.
2. Online reviews attached with UGPs containing more guestroom objects are rated as more helpful than those containing fewer guestroom objects.
3. Online reviews attached with UGPs containing more F&B (food & beverage) objects are rated more helpful than those containing fewer F&B objects.
4. UGPs’ positive effect on review helpfulness is stronger for lower-priced hotels than higher-priced hotels.
5. UGPs’ positive effects on review helpfulness are stronger for negative reviews than positive reviews.

The data and the analysis

We used a Python-based web crawler to collect the data needed for hypothesis testing from Qunar.com, one of the largest online travel agent (OTA) sites in mainland China. The data covered 12,138 hotels in Beijing, with about 1.16 million valid reviews and over 464,000 photos published by close to 900,000 users between January 2014 and April 2018. In this sample, about 9.84% (114,000) reviews were attached with UGPs.

We adopted YOLOv3 (You Only Look Once version 3), a real-time object detection algorithm, to identify the guestroom and F&B objects in UGPs. The top 10 guestroom objects identified include bed (15.34%), chair (14.55%), TV (6.23%), sink, toilet, couch, clock, remote control, refrigerator, and laptop.

The top 10 F&B objects included bottle (8.45%), cup (4.39%), bowl (2.82%), dining table, microwave, spoon, wine glass, oven, cake, and knife. Compiling with other numerical data, such as the number of helpfulness votes a review received, star rating of a review, etc., we then tested the hypotheses in a series of linear regression models.

The results

Our analyses confirmed the user-generated visual content’s positive effects on review helpfulness. Moreover, consumers rated UGPs with more product-specific images more helpful than those with fewer product-specific images (guestroom or F&B objects for a lodging product in this case). Such a positive effect becomes more salient for lower-priced hotels (than higher-priced hotels) and reviews with lower ratings (than reviews with higher ratings).

What do the research findings mean?

Besides this study’s theoretical contributions, the research findings provide a few specific practical implications for hotel managers, web admins managing online review platforms, and the consumers relying on online reviews for decision-making. Here, it is imperative to note that the following actionable suggestions are exclusive content only available in this viewpoint article but not in the original journal publication.

Hotel managers

• Strategically respond to selected reviews with UGPs.
• Respond to most, if not all, reviews with more guestroom objects in UGPs.
• For hotels with various F&B offerings, respond to the reviews with more F&B objects in UGPs.
• It is unnecessary for hotels with limited F&B offerings to pay attention to the reviews with F&B objects in UGPs.
• For hotels of a lower price, make every attempt to answer reviews with UGPs.
• Make sure to respond to reviews of lower ratings and with UGPs.

Web admins in online review platforms

• List those consumer reviews with UGPs at the top, allowing easy access for potential customers.
• Promote the reviews with more guestroom objects in UGPs, regardless of how many F&B offerings a hotel has.
• Promote the reviews with UGPs containing more F&B objects for the hotels with various F&B offerings.
• Cross-list or promote the reviews with more F&B objects in UGPs for the hotels even when internet users search for restaurant reviews.
• It is unnecessary to promote reviews with F&B objects in UGPs for the hotels with minimal F&B offerings.
• Highlight the reviews with UGPs, especially for the hotels of a lower price.
• Display the ones with UGPs first when internet users want to check out the negative reviews.

Consumers using online review websites

• Pay attention to the information conveyed in the reviews with UGPs in general.
• Pay even more attention to the reviews with UGPs that show more guestroom objects.
• Quickly skip the online reviews with UGPs showing more F&B objects if a hotel has limited F&B offerings or if the traveler does not plan to use the F&B services offered in the hotel.
• Pay attention to the reviews with UGPs that show more F&B objects only when the traveler also wants to use the hotel’s F&B services.
• In a search for hotels of a lower price, make sure to check out the reviews with UGPs carefully.
• When browsing through a hotel’s reviews for decision-making, pay special attention to those reviews of lower ratings and with UGPs.

The conclusion

Although our work is not without limitations, our analysis with an integrated analytical model that incorporates both econometric analysis and image-processing techniques yielded additional insights about user-generated visual content’s effect on online reviews. Once again, this study shows that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

How much attention do you pay to the pictures or videos attached to online reviews? Are those reviews attached with pictures or videos more influential in your decision-making? If so, in what way?

Note: This post was first published on MultiBriefs.com; The picture was also downloaded from MultiBriefs.com. 

Documenting the Changes of B2C Communications on Facebook from 2010 to 2014

Last, I published a research study in Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, and I shared a brief discussion about this study on MultiBriefs.com.  In this study, I led a research team to investigate how restaurants' B2C communication strategies evolved on Facebook over time and how consumers' reactions to a variety of Facebook messages changed over time. 

We analyzed 2,463 Facebook messages initiated by 10 restaurant chains in the fourth quarter of 2010, 2012, and 2014.  We have found status updates experienced a substantial decrease by restaurants while usage of photo updates increased dramatically in the same period.  Photo remained to be the most "popular" media type, receiving most "Likes," comments, and shares from consumers.  Video was not "popular" at all in 2010 but experienced a slight increase in usage and slowly emerged in 2012 and 2014 as another "popular" media. 

Drawing from the research findings, I made the following recommendations to businesses: 

1. Engage with Facebook users in a consistent manner. We found that companies could win more customers over time by posting about the same amount of messages over the years.
2. Post high-quality photos. Because it seems "everyone" knows the power of photos on Facebook, now it may take more than just a regular photo to catch people's attention.
3. Use other picture-based social media tools to engage customers, such as Instagram and Pinterest.
4. Choose an eye-catching screen shot for a video cover.

If you are interested in reading more of our findings and implications, please email me for a desk copy of the article for personal usage or download the article online on Emerald Insight.

Have you observed any changes among organizations' or people's behavior on Facebook? Would you mind sharing your observations with us?

#B2C #Communications #Facebook #Research #Longitudinal

Online Albums: The Scrapbook 2.0

Did you have a fun night out with your friends? You typically post a picture. Have a really delicious looking meal? You probably posted a picture. Our personal lives are typically closely tied with our online world, and sometimes even overlap our professional lives. Photo-sharing is often how we keep friends and family both far and near in the loop about our lives. It is like a real snapshot of lives followed by hashtags. However, these regular updates of pictures can have a harmful effect on our lives.

With all of these things that seem normal or just life, there are people who want to use them to make advertisements more personal and less picture-esq. Instagram recently released new terms and conditions that allowed them to harness these pictures for third party use without consent or compensation. The outrage of new terms lead to Instagram losing half of their daily uses a month after they were released. Even though Instagram retracted the new terms many people felt like their personal lives, and up close and personal moments were violated. Even though Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said that they would be changing a clause of the new terms and replacing it with the original terms. They have decided to gear away from marketing and come back to it at a later date. However, this cut was already too deep and many people moved to photo-sharing sites such as Yahoo!'s Flickr which was created to rival Instagram with similar features, including being an app and having filters.

Many large companies and celebrities stopped using Instagram with the new terms, including National Geographic and Kim Kardashian. The number of users went from 16.35 million users to 8.42 million users in a week. 

Ironically, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook is allowed to access your photos much like Instagram intended to. However, Facebook has always been able to access photos.

A new app allows people to share photos for limited amounts of time, Snapchat. You take a picture and it is gone in seconds once opened, and you even get a notification if your photo was screenshotted by the receiving end. While this technology is new, many arguments against it include that it is the new way to "sext" AKA "sexual texting" or sending inappropriate pictures. Snapchat does not hold pictures so it is still under investigation.

Inappropriate pictures often effect job prospects for people. Many people's personal lives overlap with their professional because they post pictures of them getting drunk. There have been instances when a woman was depressed and took a leave of absence from work. She then posted pictures of her "having
fun and being happy" forcing her to lose benefits. It is still in litigation.

What are your thoughts? What do you think of using an individual's photos for advertisements? How about that Facebook can and Instragram cannot?


References

Bosker, Bianca. "Nathalie Blanchard: Depressed Woman Loses Benefits Over Facebook Photos." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2013.

"Instagram Loses Users in Photo Rights Backlash." TVNZ. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2013.

Kelly, Heather. "Instagram Backtracks on Terms of Service." CNN. Cable News Network, 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Jan. 2013.

Drawing Facebook Users’ Attention by Posting “Popular” Social Media Messages

Facebook has become one of the most important means for B2C (business-to-consumer) communications. When a Facebook user likes, posts comments, or shares content with their Facebook credentials, an update will appear on this person’s wall, helping companies rapidly spread information. Companies must pay close to attention to Facebook users’ reactions to the messages they send on Facebook because Facebook users’ endorsement of a message can be very important in indicating the effectiveness of a company’s social media strategy.

In one of my recent studies (co-authored with Dr. Bei Yu), we adopted the text mining techniques to identify the type(s) of Facebook messages that are endorsed (and thus propagated) by Facebook users. We analyzed 982 Facebook messages initiated by 10 restaurant chains and two independent operators and found the following results:

• The “more popular” messages, which receive more “Likes” and comments, contain keywords about the restaurants (e.g., menu descriptions).
• The “less popular” messages seem to involve with sales and marketing.
• Dividing the messages into four media types (i.e., status, link, video, and photo), photo and status receive more “Likes” and comments.
• In terms of the content of the messages, we coded the messages into two message types, namely sales/marketing and conversational messages, which do not directly sell or promote the restaurants. As compared to sales and marketing messages, conversational messages receive more “Likes” and comments even though they only account for 1/3 of the messages in the study.
• There is also a cross-effect of media type and message type on the number of comments a message received.

Based on the research findings, we outlined several practical tactics in this paper to help companies improve their use of Facebook. They include:

• Use the eye-catching keywords when writing a social media message.  
• Focus more on sharing status and photo rather than links or videos.
• Provide a brief description when sharing links or videos so that Facebook users are informed about the content without clicking the links or watching the videos.
• Engage with Facebook users with conversational messages rather than just selling or promoting a product, service, or the company.
• Learn from the best examples (i.e. Starbucks and Chick-fil-A in this study) and see how they engage with their Facebook users.

To read more about this study and the findings’ managerial implications, please access the full-text article online at SAGE Publication.

If you are a social media manager or an expert in the field, do you think our research provide any useful insight? What suggestions will you make to help other practitioners better engage on social media sites? For future studies, what important (research) questions do you want me or other researchers to answer?

Relevant discussion:

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words 

References:

Kwok, Linchi, and Yu, Bei (In press). Spreading the social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of restaurant business-to-consumer communications. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, special issue on Information-Based Strategies in the Hospitality Industry. (DOI: 10.1177/1938965512458360)
The picture was downloaded from Ignitesocialmedia.com.

Relevant publications:
Yu, Bei, Chen, Miao, and Kwok, Linchi (2011). Toward predicting popularity of social marketing messages. In J. Salerno, S.J. Yang, D. Nau, & S.K. Chai (Ed.), Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling and Prediction: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 317-324). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Yu, Bei, and Kwok, Linchi (2011, July). Classifying business marketing messages on Facebook. Empirical full paper presented in the Internet Advertising (IA 2011) Workshop at the 34^th Annual International ACM SIGIR (Association for Computing Machinery; Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval) Conference, Beijing, China. 

Is It a Good Business Strategy to Offer Phone-Free Discount?

A restaurant is offering 5% discount to customers who leave their cellphones at the door during the meal. The restaurant owner wants his customers to enjoy the dining experience and food without getting distracted by their cellphones, according to this Fox News video. Is this phone-free strategy well received and working?

It works very well for this restaurant. Over 50% patrons have chosen discount over cellphones. Moreover, it gave the restaurant about three minute free media exposure on Fox News, with additional conversations on social media.

Honestly, this is not the first time I heard of such incident. There are resort hotels encouraging guests to lock up their cellphones during their stay because they want their guests to truly enjoy the beauty of nature.

Will this “phone-free” advocate become a trend? More importantly, is it a good idea for business to promote a “phone-free” policy?

In my opinions, unless you are the first one who initiates a “phone-free” policy and gets some free media exposure, it is probably not a good idea to discourage cellphone usage. Furthermore, I argue that business should do the opposite by encouraging customers to use mobile devices, including cellphones. My reason is simple. We are now living in the “SoLoMo” world, where everything goes “Social, Local, and Mobile.” Business must embrace the “SoLoMo” movement. If mobile devices are prohibited, how can customers capture their wonderful experience and then immediately share it on the internet? It seems to me that many customers only use mobile devices for pictures and videos these days. Many customers also want to share updates as soon as they capture a memorable moment. We cannot expect this group of customers to write long reviews and edit/upload their pictures/videos after the experience is over, can we?

What are your thoughts? Should companies promote “SoLoMo” or “phone-free” policy?

Relevant discussions:

No Texting, Tweeting, or Facebooking?! 

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

References:
The picture was downloaded from NewMediaTravel.com

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Even though the London 2012 Olympic Games have drawn to a conclusion, many dramatic moments remain vivid in our minds. We must owe thanks to the digital photography technology, which allows us to capture images that we cannot see otherwise with our naked eyes, as suggested in this Wall Street Journal video.

Indeed, visual effect has become very important for internet users --- “A picture is worth a thousand words.” No wonder those photo-based social media apps, such as Pinterest and Instagram, are widely adopted. 

As a matter of fact, I also found supporting evidence in that regard in a recent study of mine (Kwok & Yu, in press). Our analysis of 982 Facebook messages that were initiated by 10 restaurant chains and two independent operators reveals that Facebook messages can be divided into four media types, namely status (with text only), link (containing a URL), video (embedding a video), and photo (showing photos). Statistically, photo and status receive more “Likes” and comments than the other two types.

What do these research findings mean to business then? I suggest the
following:

·         Focus on short status updates and photo posting rather than hyperlinks and videos.  

·         If a hyperlink or a video is shared, make sure to provide a brief description of the content. A description will probably help “drive” the attention from the audience. It is also hoped that Facebook users will “Like” or post comments solely based on a good description.

Going beyond the research findings, I also feel that forward-thinking companies need to consider the following:  

·         When everyone knows the “tricks” about photos and updates, companies may have to post professional and high quality pictures in order to stand out from the crowd. Most of all, high quality content is also a good indicator for the level of service a company provides. It becomes necessary to hire professional photographers to do the job.

·         “Tell” a story with a series of pictures. It is nice to have a lot of good pictures, but a good story can hook the audience.

·         Provide free WiFi and encourage customers to share updates and photos on social media. I understand that many hotels and convention centers are still charging high price for internet service, but not every customer wants to pay extra fees just to post updates on social media.  

Do you see the importance of photos in business communication? What additional comments and suggestions will you make?

If you are interested in more findings and more business implications of my study, please stay tuned and I will provide the hyperlink of the publication as soon as it becomes available online.

References:

Kwok, Linchi and Yu, Bei (In press). Spreading the social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of the restaurant industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, special issue on Information-Based Strategies in the Hospitality Industry. 

The picture was downloaded from Robinadelson.blogspot.com

Newly Released Statistics: How Big Is Social Media Now?

It is no doubt that social media will be here to stay, but do you know how big social media has become? This MSNBC news video shares some updated statistics with us.

Twitter 

Sixty-seven percent (67%) NBA players are on Twitter. Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, for example, have 26+ million and 23+ million followers respectively as of June 24, 2012, more than the population of Australia (22 million).

I (@LinchiKwok) have to admit that I like Twitter even more after I use it as a teaching tool in my social media class. Twitter makes it easier for me to communicate with students and other industry professionals. As a matter of fact, Twitter is also very helpful for travelers. When my flight was delayed due to a storm in May, I tweeted to @AmericanAir and got prompt responses and assistance. What a great testimonial for the power of Twitter complaints!

YouTube 

There are over three billion hours of YouTube videos being watched every month, 500 years of YouTube videos being watched on Facebook every day, and 700 YouTube videos being shared on Twitter every minute.

Facebook

About 80% of its monthly active users live outside of the U.S.A. Americans spend more time on Facebook than another other websites. Every day, there are over 300 million photos uploaded on Facebook.

LinkedIn 

There are 161 million active users. Every second, there are two new members signing up on this site.

Flickr

Users upload 2,500 images to Flickr every minute. Every day, there are more than 3 million images posted on the site.

We should all embrace new technologies and learn how to use social media for our advantages. Would you agree?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

References:

The picture was downloaded from blog.mcf.org.