ABSTRACT The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social... more ABSTRACT The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks substitute real life social connections and cause loneliness while relieving feelings of loneliness. The current study examines the relationship between the level of social connections in the real world and the usage level of Facebook (The biggest social network in 2010). The intention was to find some characteristics of the heavy users in Facebook and segmentation information which will be useful for marketers and other people interesting in targeting the right social network users. In this research, 58 people (all users of Facebook) filled out a questionnaire regarding characteristics of their social life. Data was also collected from Facebook regarding their level of usage of the social network. Despite the difference found in the level of usage of Facebook among users with different levels of social connections, it was found that the group with the medium level of social engagement was significantly the most active as Facebook users. People with very low levels of social engagement or very high levels intend to use social networking much less. This can be explained by a lack of need of those with high levels of social connection and by the lack of interest by those with low levels of social connection.
In this study we present and empirically examine a new phenomenon related to social networking si... more In this study we present and empirically examine a new phenomenon related to social networking sites, such as Facebook, the “false Facebook-self. ” Arguably false self-presentation on Facebook is a growing phenomenon, and in extreme cases; i.e., when ones Facebook image substantially deviates from their true image, it may serve as a gateway behavior tomore problematic behaviorswhichmay lead to psychological problems and even pathologies. In this study we show that certain users are more vulnerable to such false self-presentation than others. The study involved 258 Facebook users. Applying ANOVA and SEM analyses we show that users with low self-esteem and low trait authenticity are more likely than others to present a Facebook-self which deviates from their true selves. These social-interaction-related traits are influenced by one’s upbringing and the anxious and avoidant attachment styles he or she has developed. Several cases (7.5%) with large gaps between the true and false Facebo...
Addiction symptoms in relation to the use of social networking sites (SNS) can be associated with... more Addiction symptoms in relation to the use of social networking sites (SNS) can be associated with reduced wellbeing. However, the mechanisms that can control this association have not been fully characterized, despite their relevance to effective treatment of individuals presenting SNS addiction symptoms. In this study we hypothesize that sex and neuroticism, which are important determinants of how people evaluate and respond to addiction symptoms, moderate this association. To examine these assertions, we employed hierarchical linear and logistic regression techniques to analyze data collected with a cross-sectional survey of 215 Israeli college students who use SNS. Results lend support to the hypothesized negative association between SNS addiction symptoms and wellbeing (as well as potentially being at-risk for low mood/ mild depression), and the ideas that (1) this association is augmented by neuroticism, and (2) that the augmentation is stronger for women than for men. They dem...
Online social networks and Facebook as the shining leader are among the mostpopular websites. As ... more Online social networks and Facebook as the shining leader are among the mostpopular websites. As aresult, they became a fascinating infrastructure for businesses that arewilling to leverage this tremendous opportunity. Although the vast majority of marketersare using Facebook as a marketing tool, most of the current efforts have not yet yielded the desired ROI. In this research the researchers analyzed the main factors that expedite commercialword-of-mouth in Facebook and figured out how companies can leverage the realpotential commercial value of the network. In order to do that, the technologyacceptance model (TAM) and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) were used, in thecontext of the social networks. Results show that self-expressiveness seems to be the most influencing factor thataffects the perceived usefulness, the attitude towards the social network and theinformation reading activity, and is highly correlated with both the perceived ease ofuse and the attitude towards the commercial information shared in the social network.Perceived usefulness is affecting theinformation reading activity. Out of the two measured activities, information reading activity is affected by self-expressivenessand perceived usefulness and commercial information sharing areaffected by the attitude towards the shared commercial information and by the intention to share commercial information. Consequently, companies that would like to encourage commercial-oriented word-of-mouthshould improve the usefulness of the social network for their customers, and theability of these to self-express themselves. Keywords: Social Networks, Facebook, Word-of-Mouth,Facebook’s Commercial value.
This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that compani... more This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that companies should take in order to get into consumers’ conversations within Facebook (and the other social networks) in a way that will benefit both sides. Encouraging and influencing this electronic World of Mouth can generate substantial commercial value. The commonly-used “push” approaches that are currently used by most of the vendors in the online social networks are creating negative responses and this research is looking for the expeditors that will make the social networkers willing to participate in a commercial electronic Word of Mouth. This research is focused around service companies, since eWOM is much more critical for these companies.
זאת לא סדרת טלוויזיה, אלא מסעדה שבמחקר יוצא דופן נעשה ניסיון לקדם את שיווקה באמצעות "פייסבוק... more זאת לא סדרת טלוויזיה, אלא מסעדה שבמחקר יוצא דופן נעשה ניסיון לקדם את שיווקה באמצעות "פייסבוק" • בתוך זמן קצר גילו עניין במסעדה עשרות רבות של ישראלים, שאלמלא הרשת החברתית ספק אם היו שומעים עליה ומנסים את מאכליה • הרדיו המציא את "פלאפל מוסקו" - אך מסעדת כרמים קיימת והיא לא המצאה • הפיכתה של המסעדה למפורסמת נעשה תוך מה שמכונה "קידום שירותים תוך שימוש בשיווק ויראלי ברשתות חברתיות"
The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks... more The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks substitute real life social connections and cause loneliness while relieving feelings of loneliness. The current study examines the relationship between the level of social connections in the real world and the usage level of Facebook (The biggest social network in 2010). The intention was to find some characteristics of the heavy users in Facebook and segmentation information which will be useful for marketers and other people interesting in targeting the right social network users. In this research, 58 people (all users of Facebook) filled out a questionnaire regarding characteristics of their social life. Data was also collected from Facebook regarding their level of usage of the social network. Despite the difference found in the level of usage of Facebook among users with different levels of social connections, it was found that the group with the medium level of social engagement ...
Online social networks in general and Facebook, as the biggest network, in particular, became a v... more Online social networks in general and Facebook, as the biggest network, in particular, became a very attractive platform for many companies in the last couple of years. Most companies are using today traditional push strategies in order to distribute their advertisement messages to the social networkers. These approaches are not very successful as the networkers perceive the social network space to be vendor-free.The use of viral marketing and electronic word of mouth is the main strength of the social networks as members are connected to each other in a way that increase the trustworthiness of the messages that are transferred among friends. In this paper, an experiment of the usage of viral marketing in Facebook was used in order to analyze the possibility of generating demand using this approach. The experiment included a promotion of a restaurant group page to a pre-defined group of 20 Facebook users and measurement of the development of this group within a month after the initi...
Pricing decisions take a major part in the daily work of the marketing and general management tea... more Pricing decisions take a major part in the daily work of the marketing and general management teams within many companies. The price of the products and services is not a stand alone decision and it’s very much dependant and influencing many different factors within the company and its product mix. This paper will describe the major decisions that should be taken during the pricing process and will analyze the influence of the Internet world on these decisions over the last decade with the flourishing of web-based services and web-based sales channels. The examples that will be given will also be targeted to this new space, that include not only the traditional internet sites, but also the new popular sites of the Online Social Networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and others. On the face of it, a radical change as the introduction of the internet should change the pricing area, although today, 10-15 years after the introduction of the internet, it’s almost completely a common agreeme...
This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that compani... more This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that companies should take in order to get into consumers’ conversations within the modern “culture” of Facebook, in a way that will benefit both sides. Encouraging and influencing this electronic World of Mouth can generate substantial commercial value. The commonly-used “push” approaches that are currently used by most of the vendors in the online social networks are creating negative responses and this research is looking for the expeditors that will make the social networkers willing to participate in a commercial electronic Word of Mouth.
The case of the economic crisis in Iceland that started in 2008 has to be learned carefully by pe... more The case of the economic crisis in Iceland that started in 2008 has to be learned carefully by people all over the world, since its scope is much wider than the small country of Iceland. The economic crisis in Iceland showed the economic world how dependant each economy is on other economies in the world, and how fragile the overall global economy is. It has obviously more direct implications to the analysis of smaller countries that are presenting dramatic growth (such as Estonia these days) but the established economies worldwide shouldn't think that this incident might only happen in small countries.
ABSTRACT The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social... more ABSTRACT The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks substitute real life social connections and cause loneliness while relieving feelings of loneliness. The current study examines the relationship between the level of social connections in the real world and the usage level of Facebook (The biggest social network in 2010). The intention was to find some characteristics of the heavy users in Facebook and segmentation information which will be useful for marketers and other people interesting in targeting the right social network users. In this research, 58 people (all users of Facebook) filled out a questionnaire regarding characteristics of their social life. Data was also collected from Facebook regarding their level of usage of the social network. Despite the difference found in the level of usage of Facebook among users with different levels of social connections, it was found that the group with the medium level of social engagement was significantly the most active as Facebook users. People with very low levels of social engagement or very high levels intend to use social networking much less. This can be explained by a lack of need of those with high levels of social connection and by the lack of interest by those with low levels of social connection.
In this study we present and empirically examine a new phenomenon related to social networking si... more In this study we present and empirically examine a new phenomenon related to social networking sites, such as Facebook, the “false Facebook-self. ” Arguably false self-presentation on Facebook is a growing phenomenon, and in extreme cases; i.e., when ones Facebook image substantially deviates from their true image, it may serve as a gateway behavior tomore problematic behaviorswhichmay lead to psychological problems and even pathologies. In this study we show that certain users are more vulnerable to such false self-presentation than others. The study involved 258 Facebook users. Applying ANOVA and SEM analyses we show that users with low self-esteem and low trait authenticity are more likely than others to present a Facebook-self which deviates from their true selves. These social-interaction-related traits are influenced by one’s upbringing and the anxious and avoidant attachment styles he or she has developed. Several cases (7.5%) with large gaps between the true and false Facebo...
Addiction symptoms in relation to the use of social networking sites (SNS) can be associated with... more Addiction symptoms in relation to the use of social networking sites (SNS) can be associated with reduced wellbeing. However, the mechanisms that can control this association have not been fully characterized, despite their relevance to effective treatment of individuals presenting SNS addiction symptoms. In this study we hypothesize that sex and neuroticism, which are important determinants of how people evaluate and respond to addiction symptoms, moderate this association. To examine these assertions, we employed hierarchical linear and logistic regression techniques to analyze data collected with a cross-sectional survey of 215 Israeli college students who use SNS. Results lend support to the hypothesized negative association between SNS addiction symptoms and wellbeing (as well as potentially being at-risk for low mood/ mild depression), and the ideas that (1) this association is augmented by neuroticism, and (2) that the augmentation is stronger for women than for men. They dem...
Online social networks and Facebook as the shining leader are among the mostpopular websites. As ... more Online social networks and Facebook as the shining leader are among the mostpopular websites. As aresult, they became a fascinating infrastructure for businesses that arewilling to leverage this tremendous opportunity. Although the vast majority of marketersare using Facebook as a marketing tool, most of the current efforts have not yet yielded the desired ROI. In this research the researchers analyzed the main factors that expedite commercialword-of-mouth in Facebook and figured out how companies can leverage the realpotential commercial value of the network. In order to do that, the technologyacceptance model (TAM) and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) were used, in thecontext of the social networks. Results show that self-expressiveness seems to be the most influencing factor thataffects the perceived usefulness, the attitude towards the social network and theinformation reading activity, and is highly correlated with both the perceived ease ofuse and the attitude towards the commercial information shared in the social network.Perceived usefulness is affecting theinformation reading activity. Out of the two measured activities, information reading activity is affected by self-expressivenessand perceived usefulness and commercial information sharing areaffected by the attitude towards the shared commercial information and by the intention to share commercial information. Consequently, companies that would like to encourage commercial-oriented word-of-mouthshould improve the usefulness of the social network for their customers, and theability of these to self-express themselves. Keywords: Social Networks, Facebook, Word-of-Mouth,Facebook’s Commercial value.
This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that compani... more This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that companies should take in order to get into consumers’ conversations within Facebook (and the other social networks) in a way that will benefit both sides. Encouraging and influencing this electronic World of Mouth can generate substantial commercial value. The commonly-used “push” approaches that are currently used by most of the vendors in the online social networks are creating negative responses and this research is looking for the expeditors that will make the social networkers willing to participate in a commercial electronic Word of Mouth. This research is focused around service companies, since eWOM is much more critical for these companies.
זאת לא סדרת טלוויזיה, אלא מסעדה שבמחקר יוצא דופן נעשה ניסיון לקדם את שיווקה באמצעות "פייסבוק... more זאת לא סדרת טלוויזיה, אלא מסעדה שבמחקר יוצא דופן נעשה ניסיון לקדם את שיווקה באמצעות "פייסבוק" • בתוך זמן קצר גילו עניין במסעדה עשרות רבות של ישראלים, שאלמלא הרשת החברתית ספק אם היו שומעים עליה ומנסים את מאכליה • הרדיו המציא את "פלאפל מוסקו" - אך מסעדת כרמים קיימת והיא לא המצאה • הפיכתה של המסעדה למפורסמת נעשה תוך מה שמכונה "קידום שירותים תוך שימוש בשיווק ויראלי ברשתות חברתיות"
The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks... more The use of social networks has become very popular in recent years. These virtual social networks substitute real life social connections and cause loneliness while relieving feelings of loneliness. The current study examines the relationship between the level of social connections in the real world and the usage level of Facebook (The biggest social network in 2010). The intention was to find some characteristics of the heavy users in Facebook and segmentation information which will be useful for marketers and other people interesting in targeting the right social network users. In this research, 58 people (all users of Facebook) filled out a questionnaire regarding characteristics of their social life. Data was also collected from Facebook regarding their level of usage of the social network. Despite the difference found in the level of usage of Facebook among users with different levels of social connections, it was found that the group with the medium level of social engagement ...
Online social networks in general and Facebook, as the biggest network, in particular, became a v... more Online social networks in general and Facebook, as the biggest network, in particular, became a very attractive platform for many companies in the last couple of years. Most companies are using today traditional push strategies in order to distribute their advertisement messages to the social networkers. These approaches are not very successful as the networkers perceive the social network space to be vendor-free.The use of viral marketing and electronic word of mouth is the main strength of the social networks as members are connected to each other in a way that increase the trustworthiness of the messages that are transferred among friends. In this paper, an experiment of the usage of viral marketing in Facebook was used in order to analyze the possibility of generating demand using this approach. The experiment included a promotion of a restaurant group page to a pre-defined group of 20 Facebook users and measurement of the development of this group within a month after the initi...
Pricing decisions take a major part in the daily work of the marketing and general management tea... more Pricing decisions take a major part in the daily work of the marketing and general management teams within many companies. The price of the products and services is not a stand alone decision and it’s very much dependant and influencing many different factors within the company and its product mix. This paper will describe the major decisions that should be taken during the pricing process and will analyze the influence of the Internet world on these decisions over the last decade with the flourishing of web-based services and web-based sales channels. The examples that will be given will also be targeted to this new space, that include not only the traditional internet sites, but also the new popular sites of the Online Social Networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and others. On the face of it, a radical change as the introduction of the internet should change the pricing area, although today, 10-15 years after the introduction of the internet, it’s almost completely a common agreeme...
This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that compani... more This paper is describing an ongoing research that intends to analyze the best routes that companies should take in order to get into consumers’ conversations within the modern “culture” of Facebook, in a way that will benefit both sides. Encouraging and influencing this electronic World of Mouth can generate substantial commercial value. The commonly-used “push” approaches that are currently used by most of the vendors in the online social networks are creating negative responses and this research is looking for the expeditors that will make the social networkers willing to participate in a commercial electronic Word of Mouth.
The case of the economic crisis in Iceland that started in 2008 has to be learned carefully by pe... more The case of the economic crisis in Iceland that started in 2008 has to be learned carefully by people all over the world, since its scope is much wider than the small country of Iceland. The economic crisis in Iceland showed the economic world how dependant each economy is on other economies in the world, and how fragile the overall global economy is. It has obviously more direct implications to the analysis of smaller countries that are presenting dramatic growth (such as Estonia these days) but the established economies worldwide shouldn't think that this incident might only happen in small countries.
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