Bonding and spreading

Abstract

Purpose: Although social media proficiency and use are key business and marketing practices in today's digital environment, research has failed to offer sufficient insights into what drives small firms to use social media and how they vitalise co-creative social media environments with consumers. In response, we conducted a qualitative research study to examine how small firms utilise social media to interact and build bonds with consumers.These bonds become an important tool in the development of successful, profitable businesses and marketing practices in the digital age.Design/methodology/approach: To examine how small firms use social media to engage with consumers and vice versa, we utilised a case-study approach and collected qualitative data by conducting semi-structured interviews. Findings:Our results showed that the small firms in this research seek to establish relationships and facilitate interactions with their core consumers in order to co-create value.In particular, our data demonstrate that producers engage in two distinctive practices: bonding (i.e. cultivating emotional ties with music fans) and spreading (i.e. encouraging expressive circulation by fans). Altogether, our findings indicate that the representative firms in this research use social media to develop synergistic relationships with consumers and to tap into the collective energy of consumers in their business environments. Originality/value:We show that small companies use social media to establish relationships and interact with fans in order to co-create value and vitalise collective consumption, engagement and participation. The case blurs the traditional distinction between production 4 and consumption and suggests that the value of goods is a social creation, not merely a manufactured product.

Value Co-Creation Through Social Media: A Case Study of a Start-Up Company

“…They assert that although "stickiness" offers a company an easier way to measure statistics, such as views or visits, it does not reflect the true use of digital media today. Therefore, rather than trying to confine user activity through its website content, a company should encourage open participation and the dissemination of its material across diverse social media platforms (Choi & Burnes, 2017;Green & Jenkins, 2011). When the user relationship and media are both interconnected and networked, digital content can unexpectedly reach large numbers of people.…”

Music in business and management studies: a systematic literature review and research agenda

“…Hiring a community manager who conducts research on social media and promotes events depending on the participants’ preferences can be a strategic factor in improving the quality of integrated communication between organizations and consumers and in increasing loyalty among attendees (Llopis-Amorós et al 2018 ). Moreover, managers should go beyond adapting their organizations to the changes related to social media platforms and should build solid relationships with their customers, thus increasing the opportunity to achieve greater loyalty and improving their opportunity to involve consumers in the process of co-creation (Choi and Burnes 2017 ).…”

“…This behavior allows Spotify to take over the market demand, reducing its dependency on major labels (Prey et al 2020 ). Choi and Burnes ( 2017 ) studied the impact of using social media in the music industry and confirmed that social media have a considerable impact on fans’ engagement. Therefore, building solid and durable relationships and vitalizing participation should be considered a strategic focus for these firms.…”

Estéticas da existência indie: articulações em torno da concepção do mainstream

“…A despeito do escopo da presente pesquisa, esse aspecto tem validade ampla para o tipo de abordagem aqui realizada. Se é verdade que a música indie vem se tornando tema de discussões promissoras (Choi & Burnes, 2017;Gu, Domer & O'Connor, 2021), isso também vale para tópicos emergentes da indústria do entretenimento, como é o caso de produções realizadas em meio a culturas orientais (e.g., Coreiana, Chinesa, Japonesas), que têm crescido exponencialmente no meio mainstream (Chen, 2021;Matsunobu, 2018;Sugihartati, 2020), Nesse sentido, é válido destacar que o estudo realizado tem como limite e limitação a comunidade virtual observada. É uma limitação por se focar apenas nos fãs de música indie que interagem no fórum investigado, buscando elaborar suas experiências de consumo produtivas através de troca de mensagens com membros desta plataforma.…”