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The surge of interest in big social data has led to growing demand for social media analytics (SMA). Having robust SMA can help firms create value and achieve competitive advantages. However, most firms do not always know how to embrace big social data to establish a path to value. This study addresses this key question to deepen our understanding of how different types of SMA can be applied to create value. Specifically, the findings show the significant uses of opinion mining or sentiment analysis, topic modeling, engagement analysis, predictive analysis, social network analysis, and trend analysis. Finally, the study provides directions for the challenges and opportunities of SMA to maximize value.

This research demonstrates how the directness of a persuasion attempt by a sales agent, in this case flattery, changes how source cues influence consumers’ evaluation of the shopping experience. When the persuasion attempt is direct, source cues do not influence consumer evaluations. However, when an indirect persuasion attempt is used, it is only effective when positive source cues are present. In particular, when the persuasion attempt is indirect, evaluations are more effective when the sales agent is attractive to or shares similar opinions with the consumer. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accuracy goals are central to communication theory. Consistent with this perspective, a comprehensive review suggests that rumors are spread largely for accuracy reasons-either because transmitters, in fact, believe the rumors are true or for the purpose of verification through sense-making (DiFonzo and Bordia 2007). This literature also suggests that rumors can be spread in service of social goals such as affiliation (Rosnow 1991), for instance, by passing on social rumors about disliked out-groups to strengthen ties with the in-group. Our own research focused on brand rumors and suggests that entertainment is a common reason that such rumors are shared. Moreover, we show entertaining rumors serve social affiliation goals, and that the social benefits of spreading entertaining rumors can dominate private concerns about their inaccuracy. Social goals also led consumers to embellish the rumors they spread in order to make them more entertaining and to share rumors over factual brand information. These entertainment effects are shown to be independent of any alternative sense-making or affect sharing explanations for transmitting questionable rumors. Theoretically speaking, the entertainment effects identified here offer a novel explanation for the spread of questionable or implausible rumors. That is, we show consumers will knowingly spread implausible rumors just because they offer a good story for entertaining others. This idea has important practical implications for brand strategies dealing with misleading rumors.

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