Profiles of social networking sites users in the Netherlands

Efthymios Constantinides, Maria del Carmen Alarcón del Amo, Carlota Lorenzo Romero

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademic

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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.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 18th Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference and Doctoral Workshop 2010
EditorsGloria Rossini
Place of PublicationEnschede
PublisherUniversity of Twente
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9789036530316
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 May 2010
Event18th Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference, HTSF 2010 - University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Duration: 27 May 201028 May 2010
Conference number: 18

Conference

Conference18th Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference, HTSF 2010
Abbreviated titleHTSF
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityEnschede
Period27/05/1028/05/10

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