Gift giving and social emotions: experience as content

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to employ an extended notion of gift giving by showing that much of the gifts exchanged in social media are driven by social emotions. We argue that consumers have migrated from the production of services to the production of experiences and that, in social media, the primary experience of value is emotion. Web 2.0 is markedly different compared with its predecessor Web 1.0, in that it empowered social media, the fastest growing phenomenon on the Internet to occur; yet people are struggling to make money from it. Much value is created and exchanged, but most of it escapes monetization. Whereas, consumption on Web 1.0 was mostly goal-oriented, rational, and functional, consumption on Web 2.0 is exploratory, idiosyncratic, and social. Traditional economic paradigms of market exchange have struggled to explain consumer behavior in this new dispensation: most exchange is 'free'. So the question is, what is the currency and motivation driving social relations in Web 2.0? We argue that it is gifts and social emotions. We develop a circumplex of social emotions and show how different organizations utilize these emotions to archive their objectives. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed.

To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing

“…The consumption of viral videos in social media is equated to the consumption of experiences, where different approaches have been used to define these experiences: ‘Experiences can range from social to spiritual and from material to mental’ (Chakrabarti and Berthon, , p. 157). Central to these experiences in social media, however, is the consumption of emotion.…”

“…By looking at positive affect only, our findings cannot be extended to the full emotional spectrum, or the two‐factor structure of affect referred to by Watson and Tellegen (). We also do not look at the possible role that social emotions might play in why videos go viral (Chakrabarti and Berthon, ). However, because so little is known about the effect that emotions have on why videos go viral, the objective of the article was first to obtain an in‐depth understanding of how this complex construct might impact viral media.…”

Emerging segmentation practices in the age of the social customer

“…The potential of these data for segmentation did not go unnoticed. Social media provide a platform for people to share their consumption experiences (Chakrabarti & Berthon, 2012) and, therefore, are a source of rich customer insight (Greenberg, 2010). Following an initial period where social media users resisted interactions with firms, they have come to accept and, under certain circumstances, welcome organisations into their social networks (Canhoto & Clark, in press).…”

An Examination of Emotional Information Management in Gift Giving and Receipt

“…The aftermath of the gift‐giving event is also fraught with emotions; donors are embarrassed and hurt by selecting an inappropriate gift and recipients experience guilt and shame by returning ill‐fitting or inappropriate gifts (Sherry, McGrath, & Levy, ). Beyond personal feelings or basic emotions, such as joy or happiness, Chakrabarti and Berthon () propose a matrix of social emotions associated with gift giving on positive/negative and active/passive axis.…”