Profiles of social networking sites users in the Netherlands

Abstract

Online social networking has become a reality and integral part of the daily personal, social and business life. The extraordinary increase of the user numbers of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the rampant creation of online communities presents businesses with many challenges and opportunities. From the commercial perspective, the SNS are an interesting and promising field: online social networks are important sources of market intelligence and also offer interesting options for co-operation, networking and marketing. For SMEs especially the Social Networking Sites represent a simple and low cost solution for listening the customer’s voice, reaching potential customers and creating extensive business networks. This paper presents the results of a national survey mapping the demographic, social and behavioral characteristics of the Dutch users of SNS. The study identifies four different user profiles and proposes a segmentation framework as basis for better understanding the nature and behavior of the participants in online communities. The findings present new insights to marketing strategists eager to use the communication potential of such communities; the findings are also interesting for businesses willing to explore the potential of online networking as a low cost yet very efficient alternative to physical, traditional networking.

Adoption of Online Social Media Innovation

“…The study was conducted on the Dutch users of OSM. Constantinides et al (2009) concluded that socio-demographic characteristics are not suitable segmentation criteria for this market; the best criteria are criteria related to behavior and motivation of SNS users when using such applications Constantinides et al (2009). The study reveals in this sense the specific behavioral characteristics of these segments and provides marketers with important information as to designing marketing programs making use of SNS Constantinides et al (2009).…”

“…Given that only recently SNS have been actively engaged in business marketing and active online social networking there is less attention so far on the users of these applications (Constantinides et al, 2009). More specifically there is little known about the adoption process of SNS and user behavior, personality and actual use of these tools (Constantinides et al, 2009).…”

“…Given that only recently SNS have been actively engaged in business marketing and active online social networking there is less attention so far on the users of these applications (Constantinides et al, 2009). More specifically there is little known about the adoption process of SNS and user behavior, personality and actual use of these tools (Constantinides et al, 2009). Identification of users' profiles through market segmentation is the first step in the direction of mapping the online behavior of this category of consumers (Constantinides et al, 2009).…”

“…More specifically there is little known about the adoption process of SNS and user behavior, personality and actual use of these tools (Constantinides et al, 2009). Identification of users' profiles through market segmentation is the first step in the direction of mapping the online behavior of this category of consumers (Constantinides et al, 2009).…”

“…However it does not say any criteria or dimension on which this category of OSM users has been made. Constantinides et al (2009) used level of user participation in OSM to classify the OSM users. After analyzing different sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics to gauge their level of participation in OSM, Constantinides et al (2009) identified four differentiated OSM user segments which they titled as "Beginners", "Habitual Users", "Outstanding Users" and "Experts".…”