Poster Session #2: UC South Ballroom
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Craig Ravesloot
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Rural Institute
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Analysis of Factors Contributing to a Facebook Presence
Individuals living with a disability may have trouble finding the resources they need when living in rural communities. Offering another way to access these resources would help many, and now we have the technology to do so. Through today’s technology, online communities can help bring people with disabilities from rural areas together (Dobransky). There are many factors that go into building and maintaining an online community. Through analyzing literature, I have developed the following hypotheses.
I specifically looked at Facebook as a platform for social media and compared followers, reactions, comments, shares, and tags that occur through certain posts and interventions. Followers are people who have liked our page, and therefore see our posts. Reaction, comments, shares and tags occur on individual posts and the more we have of each of these the more reach our posts get. The reach is the audience each post is made available to.
Possible interventions that could help with further growth of our online community include utilizing Facebook “boosts”. Facebook boosts exist for those who are administrators of a page, who pay a set fee, Facebook will advertise your page to specified members in the community (demographics such as age, race, list more, social networks) who have had activity on similar pages.
I hypothesize that there will be more activity on a status update with videos rather than just text alone (Luarn). Videos can provide more visual cues for viewers and therefore can provide information in different ways. Videos are more likely to be viewed rather than just a plain status with text because it is something different. To measure this, I will compare the amount of activity of a status with text, a status with a photo, a status with a link, and status with a video. Progressive activity
I hypothesize that there will be more activity when an outside organization or individual is tagged in the post. When someone else is tagged in a post, they are more likely to react to it (Rossmann). This also “shares” with other followers of that organization’s page, therefore creating increased opportunity for others to interact with it. To measure this, I will look at posts which have tags and compared the amount of activity to those posts without tags. To measure this, I will look at posts with tags of outside organizations.
So far, the results have shown that pictures include the most activity, along with having more activity if there are tags within the post. This research is still on going and more data will continue to be monitored. By knowing what people like to see on social media platforms, we can figure out what to post to spread information faster and gain community support. The results of this study can help to provide an example of how to start on online community for nonprofit organizations and research studies.
Works Cited
Dobransky, K., & Hargittai, E. (2006). The disability divide in internet access and use. Information, Communication & Society,9(3), 313-334. doi:10.1080/13691180600751298
Luarn, P., Lin, Y.-F. and Chiu, Y.-P. (2015) ‘Influence of Facebook brand-page posts on online engagement’, Online Information Review, 39(4), pp. 505–519. doi: 10.1108/oir-01-2015-0029.
Rossmann, D. and Young, S.W.H. (2015) ‘Social media optimization: Making library content shareable and engaging’, Library Hi Tech, 33(4), pp. 526–544. doi: 10.1108/lht-05-2015-0053.
Category
Social Sciences
Analysis of Factors Contributing to a Facebook Presence
UC South Ballroom
Analysis of Factors Contributing to a Facebook Presence
Individuals living with a disability may have trouble finding the resources they need when living in rural communities. Offering another way to access these resources would help many, and now we have the technology to do so. Through today’s technology, online communities can help bring people with disabilities from rural areas together (Dobransky). There are many factors that go into building and maintaining an online community. Through analyzing literature, I have developed the following hypotheses.
I specifically looked at Facebook as a platform for social media and compared followers, reactions, comments, shares, and tags that occur through certain posts and interventions. Followers are people who have liked our page, and therefore see our posts. Reaction, comments, shares and tags occur on individual posts and the more we have of each of these the more reach our posts get. The reach is the audience each post is made available to.
Possible interventions that could help with further growth of our online community include utilizing Facebook “boosts”. Facebook boosts exist for those who are administrators of a page, who pay a set fee, Facebook will advertise your page to specified members in the community (demographics such as age, race, list more, social networks) who have had activity on similar pages.
I hypothesize that there will be more activity on a status update with videos rather than just text alone (Luarn). Videos can provide more visual cues for viewers and therefore can provide information in different ways. Videos are more likely to be viewed rather than just a plain status with text because it is something different. To measure this, I will compare the amount of activity of a status with text, a status with a photo, a status with a link, and status with a video. Progressive activity
I hypothesize that there will be more activity when an outside organization or individual is tagged in the post. When someone else is tagged in a post, they are more likely to react to it (Rossmann). This also “shares” with other followers of that organization’s page, therefore creating increased opportunity for others to interact with it. To measure this, I will look at posts which have tags and compared the amount of activity to those posts without tags. To measure this, I will look at posts with tags of outside organizations.
So far, the results have shown that pictures include the most activity, along with having more activity if there are tags within the post. This research is still on going and more data will continue to be monitored. By knowing what people like to see on social media platforms, we can figure out what to post to spread information faster and gain community support. The results of this study can help to provide an example of how to start on online community for nonprofit organizations and research studies.
Works Cited
Dobransky, K., & Hargittai, E. (2006). The disability divide in internet access and use. Information, Communication & Society,9(3), 313-334. doi:10.1080/13691180600751298
Luarn, P., Lin, Y.-F. and Chiu, Y.-P. (2015) ‘Influence of Facebook brand-page posts on online engagement’, Online Information Review, 39(4), pp. 505–519. doi: 10.1108/oir-01-2015-0029.
Rossmann, D. and Young, S.W.H. (2015) ‘Social media optimization: Making library content shareable and engaging’, Library Hi Tech, 33(4), pp. 526–544. doi: 10.1108/lht-05-2015-0053.