Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science
Master’s Thesis
The Influence of Social Media Attributes on Football Fans’ Interactivity: The Role of Emotional Processing
Lucas de Campos Pinto 11351438
Dr. Johanna M.F. (Annemarie) van Oosten June 29th, 2017
Abstract
Research on how social media users perceive certain attributes on social media pages and how this influences their interactivity on these social media is very limited. Apart from that, little is known about the influence of emotional processing on the fans’ interactivity. Using data from a survey conducted among football fans that are also social media users, a multiple regression showed that the perception of the social media attribute information had a positive relationship with the fans’ passive interactivity on their club’s social media. Further, there was not a moderation effect of the fans’ emotional motivations on the relationship between the perception of the social media attributes (authenticity, engagement, information and emotionality) and interactivity. However, the direct relationship between the fans’ emotional motivations and interactivity was highly significant. The findings suggest that the emotional stage a fan is has a more relevant role on how they interact on their club’s social media than the perception of the attributes of a social media page.
Introduction
Social media has given new opportunities for their users to establish communities based on shared interests, meet other users and express their opinions (Leung, 2013).
Especially in the case of football supporters, social media can be seen as a venue for them to elicit the emotions and feelings they have for their clubs. This can be supported by the Uses and Gratifications theory, that claims that individuals will seek out media that fulfils their needs and leads to ultimate gratifications (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Since football supporters feel the need of exposing how they feel regarding their clubs, it is expected that social media is the media they will select, since social media allows them to express these emotions and feelings, leading to different forms of interaction. One possible type of interaction is in a more active way, that usually occurs through the participation and production of content, usually by posting comments and sharing contents (Khan, 2016). Another type of interaction is the passive one, that usually occurs by reading and observing the content, and not by creating it. Passive users usually consume the content, and do not participate or produce it (Khan, 2016).
Moreover, it is known that the relationship between a team and their supporters involves much more than transaction-based customer relationships (Healy and McDonagh, 2012), as there are several feelings and emotions attached to the club by their fans, apart from a strong sense of community amongst sports and football fans (McCarthy, Rowley, Ashworth and Pioch, 2014). Also, in the supporters’ point of view, football is not only a social
experience, but it is also a highly personal one, often bound up with identity and self-image (Abosag, Roper & Hind, 2012). However, besides the previous arguments, and the knowledge that social media represent a venue where people connect and interact concerning shared identity (Wellman, 2001), much is still unknown regarding the perception of social media attributes and how they predict interaction on social media pages. Apart from that, there is
also not enough literature on emotional processing in this context, even though emotions might play an important role on the fans’ engagement with their clubs. Previous research found that a person’s emotional state can influence various aspects of information processing, such as evaluations and judgments (Kwak, Hirt & Kim, 2011). Thus, considering that people can differ in their emotional engagement with their clubs, it is expected that this could also influence the relationship between the perception of the social media attribute and
interactivity on social media, what would imply in a moderation effect of emotional processing.
Therefore, based on the findings and arguments previously mentioned, and on the fact that there is limited research that examined social media use in sports, particularly from the fan perspective (Stavros, Meng, Westberg & Farrelly, 2013), this study aimed to clarify how the perception of the social media attributes affect interactivity, and what is the role of emotional processing on this relationship.
RQ: How are the perceptions of social media attributes (i.e., authenticity, information, engagement and emotionality) related to the football fans’ interactivity with their team’s social media and what is the role of emotional processing?
In the following sections the hypothesis will be provided, along with the operationalization of each social media attribute, and a theoretical explanation of why emotional processing should be considered as an important moderator between the fans’ perception of the social media attributes previously mentioned and their interactivity with their club’s social media page.
Theoretical Background
Previous Research on Attributes of Social Media Pages and User’s Interactivity
Previous research has identified which types of content affect the way social media users interact on their club’s social media page. For instance, Pronschinske, Groza and
Walker (2012) identified that, a social media page with engaging and authentic attributes leaded to a higher interactivity among the users on their club’s social media page. Apart from that, other researches have stated that, nowadays, social media are one such technology that has seen increased usage as an information source (Westerman, Spence & Van Der Heide, 2014). Thus, the search for information might be another reason for football fans to use their club’s social media. Moreover, Stavros et al. (2013) identified that passion and hope were motivations for football fans to use their club’s social media, showing that contents with an emotional approach might be appealing for them. However, considering the fact that individuals have their own needs and that they will seek out media that fulfils their own demands (Whiting & Williams, 2013), it is expected that each individual will interact on their club’s social media in a different way. They might interact with social media by consuming, by participating or by producing (Shao, 2009) for instance, showing that they can interact with their club’s social media in a more active or in a more passive way. Therefore, based on the arguments and on the researches previously mentioned, the attributes authenticity,
engagement, information and emotionality were the ones to be analysed, as well as the users’ passive and active interactivity.
The Attributes of Social Media Pages
Social media has not only enabled its users to access different contents online, but it has also allowed them to create new contents themselves (Lu, Hao & Jing, 2016). Although user-generated content creates enormous opportunities, it also represents an interesting challenge for social media firms (Zhang & Sarvary, 2015). In professional sport, many fans have created fake team pages, thereby compromising the number of potential fans drawn to the actual team site. This represents a critical barrier to fan participation for the authentic team social media page (Pronschinske et al., 2012), specially because the contents from the club’s official social media page and from the club’s unofficial social media pages are not exactly
the same, creating the possibility for the fans to build a preference for the unauthentic pages from the club.
Previous researches have claimed that trust has been most commonly considered as a critical component of a successful relationship (Kim & Trail, 2011). However, considering the high number of unofficial social media pages, and the high number of followers these pages have, it is possible to observe that the fans usually do not perceive their club’s official social media page as completely trustworthy and capable of providing all the necessary information and content they seek for, affecting the social media page’s authenticity. This latter concept is defined as the degree to which an object is real or genuine, and the degree to which an object is a representation of its true nature (Wymer & Akbar, 2016), and previous research showed that the authenticity of a social media page has an influence on how sports fans interact with it. According to Pronschinske et al. (2012), the social media’s attribute authenticity showed a significant influence on the number of Facebook fans a sport page has, showing that this feature might be relevant for sports fans’ interactivity with social media pages. Moreover, the perception of the attribute authenticity might increase the page’s legitimacy (Pronschinske et al., 2012), what would increase the social media’s role as a trustful source of information and relevant content for the fans. Therefore, it is expected that the perception of the attribute authenticity on a club’s social media might lead to a higher interactivity with their club’s social media page.
Moreover, social media is becoming a reliable platform for sharing information
(Osatuyi, 2013), specially among sports clubs, since many sports fans now look to the Internet to provide the most up-to-date and detailed information on teams and organizations with which they have a high degree of affinity (Pronschinske et al., 2012). According to
Witkemper, Lim and Waldburger (2012), information is one of the main motivating factors for fans to follow athletes’ pages on Twitter, and is expected that this finding can also be
applied for sports’ entities and organizations. The high number of teams’ unofficial social media pages that are available are also created in order to provide the latest news regarding the club for the fans, since the club’s official social media page might not provide all the necessary information about the club. Thus, the attribute information would be defined through the exposure of news, photos, videos and other sources of information on the club’s social media. Furthermore, previous research has identified that users are driven by different motivations, and that people usually consume social media content in order to obtain
information (Shao, 2009). Thus, as some users access their club’s social media in order to acquire new information about the club, it is expected that the perception of the social media attribute information on their club’s social media page, might lead to a higher interactivity on their page.
Apart from the attributes authenticity and information, the attribute engagement might also be relevant for this study. Loyal football fans usually engage with their teams in different manners, such as by attending sporting events, watching games on television, purchasing team products, reading sport magazines and newspapers, and talking with others about sport (Yoshida, Gordon, Nakazawa & Biscaia, 2014). Social media have created new opportunities for these fans to connect and interact with the sports’ clubs they like and follow, apart from a new venue for the sports organizations to stimulate their fans to engage with the clubs they support, since social media activities can be used to increase brand awareness, brand liking, promote customer loyalty and engagement (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Engagement, which accounts for consumers’ interactive brand-related dynamics (Hollebeek, Glyn & Brodie, 2014), was shown to eventually lead to channel loyalty via increased channel commitment (Lim, Hwang, Kim & Biocca, 2015). In the case of sports organizations, a strategy that allows for fan engagement should contribute significantly to relationship building for sport teams (Pronschinske et al., 2012), and considering the fact that football fans are already loyal and
highly committed to the clubs they support, engagement stimulation is even more important on this case.
Pronschinske et al. (2012) identified that the attribute engagement has a significant influence on the number of fans a sports’ social media page has, allowing to conclude that, as the attribute engagement affects the way a sports’ fan interacts with their club’s social media, this is a feature that should be stimulated. On the present study, engagement accounts for whether or not the club’s social media encourages the fans to actively interact on it, through the development of discussion boards for the fans or through comments and answers provided by the club’s official profile, for instance. Therefore, it is expected that the perception of the attribute engagement would positively affect the fans’ interactivity, since it would be
stimulating the fans to interact with other users, or with the club’s social media page. Apart from the attributes previously described, the attribute emotionality should also be considered, even though it has not been analysed in other studies. A previous research that analysed the social sharing of emotion, diagnosed that emotional experiences are shared in 88 to 96% of the cases in social situations, and these proportions are independent of age, gender or culture (Rimé, Finkenauer, Luminet, Zech & Philippot, 1998). Moreover, Stavros et al. (2013) identified that passion, defined as an emotional demonstration of affection for the team, and hope, defined as a highly emotive category that exudes yearning, ambition and anticipation, are some of the key motivations that sports’ fans have to interact on social media, showing that the presence of attributes with emotional characteristics in a club’s social media might be relevant for the supporters. Furthermore, Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan (2014) showed that the likelihood of articles to be shared is positively related to the emotions expressed therein, and that emotionally charged tweets are more likely to be disseminated in comparison to neutral ones. This shows that the impact of written expression of emotions on human information sharing behaviour also applies to the social media context.
Based on that, it is possible to observe that contents fulfilled with emotion can elicit different feelings and reactions on football fans, since emotion acts both as a motivator for using social media, as well as a predictor for interacting on the same platform. Also, as previously mentioned, contents charged with emotion are more likely to be disseminated or shared, therefore, a more active way of interacting on social media. Thus, it is expected that the fans’ perception of the attribute emotionality will also be positively related to the fan’s interactivity on their club’s social media page.
The User’s Interactivity
Social media includes countless sites with very different functions or uses that fulfil different personal needs (Brandtzaeg & Heim, 2009). According to the Uses and
Gratifications theory, people seek for media that fulfil their needs, and they also seek for receiving satisfaction when this need is met (McQuail, 2005). For instance, people might use social media in order to seek for social interactions, entertainment, relaxation, communicatory utility, convenience utility, expression of opinion and information sharing (Whiting &
Williams, 2013). However, even though previous research analysed the users’ motivations and how they influence the users’ interaction with social media pages, little is known about other aspects that might influence how users interact with a social media page, such as the perception of social media attributes.
As a theoretical concept, interactivity has been defined in different ways, such as the extent to which media would let the user exert an influence on the content and form, or as the responsiveness of the medium toward a user (Sundar, Xu & Bellur, 2010), for instance. Nevertheless, even though different definitions have been linked to the concept of interactivity, little is known regarding the influence of the media itself on the way users interact on it, and specially on the case of social media pages, which vary in terms of their scope and functionality (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre, 2011). For instance,
users can interact in a more passive way, by merely consuming, watching or reading (Shao, 2009). On the other hand, users can also interact with social media pages in a more active way, usually by participating, that is, by posting comments and sharing contents, or even producing content themselves (Shao, 2009). Even though previous literature has made the distinction between active and passive forms of interaction on social media, it is still not possible to make clear expectations about how these different types of interactivity would be differently influenced by the perception of the attributes in a social media page. Thus, the influence of the perception of the social media attributes on the users’ active and passive interactivity with their club’s social media should be considered, in order to see if there are different results on both interactions.
H1: The perception of the attributes authenticity, information, engagement and
emotionality will be positively related to the fans’ interactivity on their club’s social media.
The Moderating role of Emotional Processing
In sports, all different kinds of emotions are elicited from the fans, especially from those that are faithful and highly committed with the club. Sport is a personal experience, often consumed in an irrational, rather than a rational, economic way (Abosag, Roper & Hind, 2012). Kwak, Kim and Hirt (2011) identified that emotion is a motivator of information processing, and it was demonstrated that a person’s emotional state can influence various aspects of information processing, such as evaluation and judgements. The same researchers stated that it is essential to consider not only the emotions that the club’s social media page might naturally elicit from the supporters, but also their emotional stage while they are interacting with their club’s social media, since emotion is fully involved in the relationship between the fans and their clubs.
Apart from the findings previously mentioned, the Social Sharing of Emotion Theory can also assist in the better comprehension regarding the role of emotion in the relationship between the fans’ perception of the social media attributes and the way they interact on their club’s social media. According to this theory, people who experience an emotion evidence an imperious need to share it and talk about it (Rimé et al., 1998). In other words, the social sharing of emotion occurs when individuals communicate openly with one or more persons about the circumstances of the emotion-eliciting event and about their own feelings and emotional reactions. Thus, not only the inner feelings the individual possess might affect how they interact on their club’s social media, but also the motivations that led the individual to do it. This was also confirmed in a previous study from Stavros et al. (2014), that identified passion and hope as motivators for football fans to follow their club’s social media page.
Based on that, it is possible to conclude that, not only how emotionally charged the content they observed is matters, but also the motivations that led the football fan to interact on their club’s social media on the way they did. It was expected that the fans’ emotional motivations would affect the relationship between the perception of the attributes engagement and emotionality and their interactivity on their club’s social media, since the two mentioned attributes are more emotionally charged than the attributes authenticity and information. Thus, the emotional motivations would act as a moderator on the relationship previously described, as can be seen on the following hypothesis.
H2: The fans’ emotional motivations influence the relationship between the perception
of the attributes engagement and emotionality and their interactivity on their club’s social media.
Method
The data was obtained from an online survey among social media users that like or support a football club (N = 237). A survey was the selected method in order to obtain a representative sample of the population, apart from the fact that the study aimed to identify an association, and not a causation (Sedgwick, 2014). The survey made it possible to measure the respondents’ perception of the social media attributes engagement, authenticity,
information and emotionality. Apart from that, the survey allowed the respondents’
interactivity on their club’s social media to be measured, and also, the influence of the fans’
emotional motivations on the relationship between the respondents’ perception of the
previously mentioned attributes and their interactivity on their club’s social media. The survey was conducted among a very broad and diverse sample regarding age (aged 15-69 years), but not regarding gender, since the majority was male (76.44% male and 23.56% female). The survey was fielded between April 10th 2017 and May 1st 2017, and the respondents were sampled through two different social media platforms: Facebook (through public posts on different groups) and on the online forum Reddit (also through public posts on groups formed by football fans).
Institutional approval and informed consent of all respondents were obtained before the start of the survey. The study consisted of an online questionnaire, and all the respondents were aware of the questionnaire’s topic beforehand. Moreover, the respondents were told that their participation was anonymous and that they could quit the study at any time. Completing the entire questionnaire took around 5-7 minutes.
A total of 237 respondents answered the online questionnaire after agreeing with the informed consent form, and the response rate was 95.36%. Therefore, only 11 respondents didn’t agree to participate in the study. From the original sample, only football fans that are social media users were analysed. Considering that only the answers from football fans that are social media users should be analysed, some filter questions were applied in order to
select the most appropriate sample. From the 226 respondents that agreed to participate in the survey, 205 had a football club they like, representing 90.71% of the total sample, and among the 205 football fans, 192 were social media users.
Measures
Perception of attributes. In order to measure the respondent’s perception of the
attributes authenticity, engagement, information and emotionality, four yes or no questions per attribute were developed. The questions used to measure the perception of the first three attributes were based on a previous study from Pronschinske et al. (2012), and the ones utilized to measure the fans’ perception of the attribute emotionality were mostly based on a study from Stavros et al. (2014), that had the intention to analyse the fans’ motivations to follow their clubs on social media.
A value representing the respondents’ perception of each attribute was addressed according to the answers the respondent provided. If the answer was no, the value of 0 was assigned, while the value of 1 was assigned in case the answer was yes. In order to obtain the final value representing the perception of the attribute, the individual values were summed. Therefore, the minimum possible value representing the respondents’ perception of each attribute was 0, and the maximum was 4.
Authenticity. In order to measure the respondents’ perception of the attribute
authenticity on their club’s social media, four questions were developed. The questions aimed
to identify whether or not the respondent was able to find on their club’s social media page 1) the club’s official logo, 2) an official page statement, 3) a statement that the site is monitored with security measure descriptions and 4) the club’s official website address. The item measuring the perception of the club’s official logo was removed because of low factor loadings in an exploratory factor analysis (< .40). The remaining items loaded in one factor, with factor loadings ranging from .49 to .77, and with an explained variance of 78%.
Moreover, Guttman’s Lambda was .50, and this scale had a high mean (M = 2.18, SD = .77).
Engagement. The measurement of the respondent’s perception of the attribute
engagement was similar to the measurement of the latter attribute. The questions developed
aimed to identify whether or not the respondent was able to find on their club’s social media page 1) a list of the club’s next events, 2) a discussion board for the fans, 3) the club’s profile answering or commenting the fan’s posts, and 4) other applications, such as ticket and
merchandise sales portals. The item measuring the perception of a discussion board for the fans was removed because of low factor loadings in an exploratory factor analysis (< .40). The remaining items loaded in one factor, with factor loadings ranging from .52 to .79, with an explained variance of 79%. Guttman’s Lambda was .50., and this scale had a mean of 2.20 and a standard deviation of .91.
Information. The perception of the attribute information was measured through four
questions. The questions were developed in order to identify whether or not the respondent managed to find 1) photographs posted by the organization, 2) videos uploaded by the organization, 3) notes from the organization and 4) news links from the organization on their club’s social media page. A factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the items loaded on one factor with factor loadings ranging from .46 to .84, with an explained variance of 93%. Guttman’s Lambda was .55, and apart from that, this scale had a mean of 3.76 and a standard deviation of .59.
Emotionality. The measurement of the respondent’s perception of the attribute
emotionality was also done through four questions. The questions aimed to identify whether
or not the respondents were able to find on their club’s social media 1) content with an emotional demonstration of affection for the team, 2) content encouraging or motivating the team or the supporters, 3) content that showing fidelity or loyalty with the team and 4) content displaying memorable and important moments of the club. A factor analysis with varimax
rotation showed that the items loaded on one factor with factor loadings ranging from .50 to .76, and with an explained variance of 86%. Furthermore, Guttman’s Lambda was .57, the mean was 3.78 and the standard deviation was .60.
Social Media Interactivity. Two different types of interactivity were measured.
Firstly, the passive interactivity, that accounted for the fans’ frequency of accessing their club’s social media page and liking the posts on the same page. Secondly, the active
interactivity was also measured, and this variable accounted for the fans’ frequency of sharing
the posts on their club’s social media and commenting on the same posts. This criterion of division was established since sharing and commenting are much more interactive than simply liking or accessing the page. Thus, both types of interaction should be analysed separately.
For both interactivities, a value was assigned for each possible answer. Considering that each question had seven possible answers, the values from 0 to 6 were applied. Therefore, considering the answers for all questions, the respondents’ passive and active interactivity would be translated into a coefficient, that would range from 0 to 6. The response categories were 0 (never), 1 (at least once every three or four weeks), 2 (at least once every two weeks), 3 (1 or 2 days a week), 4 (3 or 4 days a week), 5 (5 or 6 days a week) and 6 (every day)
Regarding the passive interactivity, a factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the items loaded on one factor with factor loadings ranging from .89 to .90. The two items showed a significant relationship, r (146) = .61, p < .001. Moreover, the mean was 6.75 and the standard deviation was 3.60. Furthermore, regarding the active interactivity, a factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the items loaded on one factor with factor loadings ranging from .89 to .90. The two items showed a significant relationship, r (146) = .60, p < .001. Also, the mean was 1.82 and the standard deviation was 2.58.
Emotional Motivations. The fans’ emotional motivations were measured through
three questions. They asked to what extent did the fan agree with the fact that they access their club’s official social media in order to check contents that would 1) elicit their feelings for their clubs, 2) make them feel different kinds of emotions for their clubs and 3) show their club’s good moments and glories. Considering that each question had seven possible answers, the values from 0 to 6 were applied. Therefore, considering the answers for all three
questions, the respondents’ emotional motivations would be translated into a coefficient, that would range from 0 to 6. The response categories were 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (somewhat disagree), 3 (neither agree nor disagree), 4 (somewhat agree), 5 (agree) and 6 (strongly agree).
A factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the items loaded on one factor with factor loadings ranging from .84 to .90. Cronbach’s alpha was .84. Apart from that, the mean was 13.19 and the standard deviation was 3.77.
Data Analysis
To test the first hypothesis, which predicted the influence of the perception of the attributes authenticity, engagement, information and emotionality on football fans’
interactivity on their club’s social media, two multiple regression analysis were conducted. On this analysis, the perception of the attributes entered as predictors, therefore, as
independent variables, while the fan’s active interactivity was the dependent variable in one regression, and the fan’s passive interactivity was the dependent variable in the other regression.
The second hypothesis stated that the fans’ emotional motivations would influence the relationship between the perception of the attributes engagement and emotionality and their interactivity on their club’s social media. In order to test this hypothesis, the Model 1 on PROCESS 2.17 macro for SPSS was adopted. The perception of the attributes engagement
and emotionality were considered as the predictor, the fans’ interactivity the outcome, and the effect of the emotional motivations was considered as the moderator.
The model was utilized four times in total. The first two analysed the influence of the
emotional motivations on the relationship between the fans’ perception of the attribute
engagement and the fans’ active interactivity, as well as on the relationship between the fans’
perception of the attribute emotionality and the fans’ active interactivity. Afterwards, the model was used to analyse the influence of the emotional motivations on the relationship between the fans’ perception of the attributes engagement and emotionality, and the fans’
passive interactivity.
Results
In order to examine whether the perception of the attributes authenticity, engagement,
information and emotionality influences the fans’ interactivity on their club’s social media,
two multiple regression were conducted. The first one considered passive interactivity as the dependent variable, while the second one considered active interactivity as the dependent variable.
Passive Interactivity
In order to test the hypotheses, firstly a regression model with passive interactivity as dependent variable and the perception of the attributes authenticity, information, engagement and emotionality as independent variables was conducted. The regression model is significant,
F (4, 147) = 2.89, p = .02. Although this regression model can be used to predict football
fans’ passive interactivity on their club’s social media, the strength of the prediction is weak. Only 7.5 percent of the variation in passive interactivity can be predicted on the basis of the perception of the four attributes (R2 = .07).
The perception of the attribute authenticity, b = -.27, t = -.69, SE = .38, p = .49, and the perception of the attribute emotionality, b = .29, t = .60, SE = .49, p = .55, showed a
non-significant association with the fans’ passive interactivity on their club’s social media. However, the perception of the attribute engagement, b = .64, t = 1.96, SE = .32, p = .052, was marginally significant, while the perception of the attribute information, b = 1.23, t = 2.45, SE = .50, p = .016, showed a significant association with the fans’ passive interactivity on their club’s social media.
Active Interactivity
In order to see if the perception of the attributes authenticity, information, engagement and emotionality was positively related to the fans’ active interactivity on their club’s social media, another multiple regression was conducted. The regression model considered the fans’
active interactivity as the dependent variable and the perception of the attributes authenticity, information, engagement and emotionality as independent variables.
The regression model is non-significant, F (4, 147) = .83, p = .50, and the strength of the prediction is weak, since only 2.3 percent of the variation in active interactivity can be predicted on the basis of the perception of the four attributes (R2 = .02). The perception of the attributes authenticity, b = -.09, t = -.30, SE = .29, p = .76, engagement, b = .31, t = 1.28, SE = .24, p = .20, information, b = .33, t = .90, SE = .37 p = .37, and emotionality, b = .27, t = .75,
SE = .36, p =. 45, showed a non-significant association with the fans’ active interactivity on
their club’s social media.
The Moderating Role of Emotional Processing
The Model 1 of the statistical tool PROCESS 2.17 macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2013) was used to investigate the hypothesis that the fans’ emotional motivations would influence the relationship between the perception of the attributes engagement and emotionality and their interactivity on their club’s social media (H2). Results had indicated that the moderation effect
of emotional motivations on the relationship between the perception of the attribute
b = -.01, t = -.15, SE = .06, p = .88. Also, only 8,8 percent of the variance in active
interactivity was accounted by the predictors (R2 = .088). The results had also indicated that the moderation effect of emotional motivations on the relationship between the perception of the attribute emotionality and the fans’ active interactivity on their club’s social media was non-significant, b = .06, t = 1.13, SE = .05, p = .26. Furthermore, only 8,5 percent of the variance in active interactivity was accounted by the predictors (R2 = .085).
Regarding the moderation effect of the fans’ emotional motivations on the relationship between the perception of the attribute engagement and their passive interactivity, the results showed that the effect was non-significant, b = -.09, t = -.71, SE = .13 p = .47, and 13,3 percent of the variance in passive interactivity was accounted by the predictors (R2 = .133). The moderation effect was also non-significant when the perception of the attribute
emotionality was considered, b = -.04, t = -.12, SE = .31, p = .90, and 10,6 percent of the
variance in passive interactivity was accounted by the predictors (R2 = .106).
Nevertheless, even though the moderation effect of the fans’ emotional motivations was non-significant, the direct effect of the fans’ emotional motivations was significant. Regarding the active interactivity, prediction by the fans’ emotional motivations was highly significant. Moreover, regarding the passive interactivity, prediction by the fans’ emotional
motivations was also highly significant.
Discussion
The present study investigated whether the perception of the attributes authenticity,
engagement, information and emotionality on a club’s social media was related to the football
fans’ interactivity on their club’s social media. Previous research has shown that social media attributes can catalyse fan engagement in an online community (Pronschinske, et al., 2012), and even more specifically, the same research identified that the features authenticity and engagement had an influence on the number of fans a social media page has. Supporting these
findings, McCarthy et al. (2014) showed that the way a social media is developed provides interaction, community growth and engagement on the same social media. However, the present study’s results showed that the perception of the attributes authenticity, information,
engagement and emotionality did not significantly predict the way the football fans actively
interact on their club’s social media.
Even though these findings don’t support the first hypothesis, they can be linked with the Uses and Gratifications theory, that claims that individuals will seek out media that fulfils their needs (Whiting & Williams, 2013). By observing the study’s findings, it can be seen that the perception of the attributes itself doesn’t have an influence on how they interact on their club’s social media. Nevertheless, an explanation for this finding might be that each fan has individual motivations and needs regarding their relationship with the club they support, and this might have a higher association with their interactivity than the mere perception of the attributes.
Nevertheless, the current study identified that the perception of the attribute
engagement had a week influence on the fans’ passive interactivity, while the perception of
the attribute information had a significant influence on the fans’ passive interactivity on their club’s social media. This finding suggests that one of the main reasons football fans’ access and interact on their club’s social media is to obtain information and to be updated about the club they support. This finding can be supported by a previous study, that stated that social media is becoming a reliable platform for sharing information to target audiences (Osatuyi, 2013). Moreover, Pronschinske et al. (2012) identified that the ability to use social media for disseminating real-time information to fans provides the team with an added communication strategy. Another study identified that information is one of the main motivating factors for fans to follow athletes’ pages on Twitter, and that these findings can also be applied for sports’ organizations (Witkemper, Lim & Waldburger, 2012).
Finally, this finding can also be linked to the Uses and Gratifications theory, since we can imply that one of the football fans’ main motivations to interact on their club’s social media is to acquire new information about the club, and this theory states that one will search for media that satisfy their needs (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Therefore, based on the present study’s findings, it is suggested for sports clubs to develop a strategy focusing on the disclosure of accurate and real-time information about the club, what would eventually lead to a higher flow on the club’s official social media and, consequently, decrease the fans’
preference for non-official social media pages.
The Moderating Role of Emotional Processing
The present study also aimed to investigate which was the role of emotional processing on the relationship between the perception of the attributes engagement and
emotionality and the fans’ interactivity on their club’s social media. A moderation effect of emotional motivations on the relationship previously described was expected, since a person’s
emotional state can influence various aspects of information processing (Kwak, Kim & Hirt, 2011), apart from the fact that those who experience an emotion evidence a need to share it and talk about it, as discussed on the Social Sharing of Emotion Theory (Rimé et al., 1998). However, the results showed that, for both attributes and for both types of interactivity, there was a non-significant moderation effect of emotional motivations, resulting in the rejection of the last hypothesis.
Even though the moderation effect was non-significant, the study’s findings showed that, there was a highly significant direct relationship of emotional motivations on the fans’
passive interactivity and active interactivity on their club’s social media. This finding shows
that when football fans process the information and content they are exposed to in a more emotional way, they will be more involved with the content, regardless of whether they perceive the specific attributes of that content. Therefore, the content itself, and its attributes,
might not have a very high relevance, but instead, the emotional stage users are in is what actually affects how the fans interact with their club’s social media.
Although identifying that there is a direct relationship between emotional motivations and the fans’ interactivity was not the initial aim of this study, this finding should be relevant since the literature previously cited can also be linked to these results. Previous research identified that passion and hope are motivations for football fans to follow their club’s social made page (Stavros et al., 2014). Moreover, emotion was also identified as a motivator of information processing, and it was demonstrated that a person’s emotional state can influence various aspects of information processing (Kwak, Kim and Hirt, 2011). Therefore, finding that football fan’s emotional motivations have a direct relationship with the fan’s interactivity on their club’s social media support the findings obtained by the two latter researches, since they claimed that someone’s emotional state affects the way the fans process the information they obtained and also the way they use their club’s social media.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
One limitation of the present study relates to the measurement of the fans’ emotional
motivations. The measurement of this variable resulted in significant results, however, since
the fans’ emotions were being measured, it would be recommended for an experiment to be conducted, since the fans’ natural reactions would be observed. On a survey, the fans’ answers might not represent the real emotional state they are in, apart from their real motivations to interact on their club’s social media. However, a survey was the selected method due to the fact that it would be relevant to know if the fans recall seeing and perceiving the social media attributes in a setting that would more accurately represent the real situation where they would access and interact on their club’s social media. On the other hand, as the perception of the social media attributes might be subtle and implicit, this might have resulted in an unreliable recall of the attributes. Thus, it would be recommended for a
future study to investigate the perception of the attributes in an experimental setting by manipulating specific attributes and directly measuring their effects.
Another limitation was regarding the study’s sample. Since most of the respondents were recruited through the social media Facebook, this study mostly analysed the fans’ interaction on this platform. Nevertheless, there are other social media that allow the users to have different types of interactions and that should also be considered, such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube for instance, in order for the study’s results to be
generalized to social media platforms in general. Moreover, as the final sample had not many respondents, the non-significance of most of the hypothesis can also be attributed to this. If the final sample was consisted of more than 200 respondents, the chances of significant results to be obtained would increase.
Despite the shortcomings of the present study, the results might have relevant implications for future studies on this subject. The findings showed that the fans’ emotional
motivations have a direct relationship with the fans’ interactivity on their club’s social media.
Considering that, it would be relevant for future researchers to investigate whether certain social media attributes can increase the fans’ emotional motivations, which in turn would influence their interactivity on their club’s social media. Thus, an indirect relationship between attributes and interactivity through the users’ emotional processing could be
considered. Moreover, the study’s cross-sectional design didn’t allow a mediated relationship to be tested, what could have been done through a longitudinal or an experimental research.
Furthermore, this study didn’t consider the fans’ different feelings they have towards the club. Football is a personal experience for the fans, often bound up with their identity and self-image (Abosag et al., 2012). Thus, the way a fan feels towards the club should be
can attach different meanings to this relationship that might result in different behaviours and, consequently, in different types of interactions.
Conclusion
This study’s findings provided new insights regarding the influence of the fans’ emotional stages when interacting on their club’s social media platform. Even though a moderation effect of the fans’ emotional motivations on the relationship between their perception of the social media attributes and their interactivity was expected, the results showed that actually, there is a direct relationship of their emotional motivations on how they interact and use their club’s social media, showing that their feelings and emotions have a strong direct influence in comparison to what they observe on their club’s social media. Moreover, the results also showed a highly significant relationship between the perception of the attribute information and their passive interactivity, indicating that football fans also seek for their club’s social media to obtain news and information about the club they support, what is in line with previous researches on this field.
In conclusion, even though there has been little research regarding how football fans perceive their favourite team’s social media pages and how this influences the users’
participation, this study’s findings showed that the personal characteristics of the football fans that are social media users might predict the way the fans interact with their club’s social media, rather than the perception of the attributes of social media pages.
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Appendix Table 1.
Regression Analysis of Social Media Attributes Predicting Passive Interactivity
Coefficients Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients 95.0% Confidence Interval for B
Model B Std.Error Beta t Sig.
Lower Bound Upper Bound 1 (Constant) .203 2.675 0.76 .940 -5.086 5.491 Authenticity -.272 .394 -.058 -.690 .491 -1.051 .507 Engagement .637 .325 .162 1.963 .052 -.004 1.279 Information 1.233 .504 .202 2.446 .016 .237 2.230 Emotionality .292 .490 .049 .596 .552 -.676 1.260
Table 2.
Regression Analysis of Social Media Attributes Predicting Active Interactivity
Coefficients Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients 95.0% Confidence Interval for B
Model B Std.Error Beta t Sig.
Lower Bound Upper Bound 1 (Constant) -.937 1.974 -.475 .636 -4.840 2.965 Authenticity -.089 .291 -.026 -.305 .761 -.663 .486 Engagement .308 .240 .109 1.284 .201 -.166 .781 Information .334 .372 .076 .899 .370 -.401 1.070 Emotionality .270 .361 .063 .748 .456 -.444 .984
Table 3.
Moderation by Emotional Motivations of the relationship between Engagement and Active Interactivity
Model Summary
R R2 MSE F df1 df2 p
.2968 .0881 6.2278 5.8234 3.0000 144.0000 .0009 Model
Coeff SE t p LLCI ULCI
Constant 1.8272 .2064 8.8529 .0000 1.4192 2.2352 Emotional Motivations .2106 .0603 3.4898 .0006 .0913 .3298 Engagement .2555 .2018 1.2661 .2075 -.1434 .6545 Interaction -.0094 .0632 -.1494 .8815 -.1344 .1155
Table 4.
Moderation by Emotional Motivations of the relationship between Emotionality and Active Interactivity
Model Summary
R R2 MSE F df1 df2 p
.2924 .0885 6.2453 3.8852 3.0000 144.0000 .0105 Model
Coeff SE t p LLCI ULCI
Constant 1.8019 .2036 8.8480 .0000 1.3993 2.2044 Emotional Motivations .2341 .0723 3.2390 .0015 .0912 .3769 Emotionality .1235 .2343 .5271 .5990 -.3396 .5865 Interaction .0605 .0537 1.1273 .2615 -.0456 .1666
Table 5.
Moderation by Emotional Motivations of the relationship between Engagement and Passive Interactivity
Model Summary
R R2 MSE F df1 df2 p
.3647 .1330 11.4866 7.6782 3.0000 144.0000 .0001 Model
Coeff SE t p LLCI ULCI
Constant 6.7775 .2931 23.1259 .0000 6.1982 7.3567 Emotional Motivations .3368 .1114 3.0237 .0030 .1166 .5569 Engagement .5999 .2913 2.0595 .0412 .0241 1.1756 Interaction -.0901 .1268 -.7104 .4786 -.3407 .1605
Table 6.
Moderation by Emotional Motivations of the relationship between Emotionality and Passive Interactivity
Model Summary
R R2 MSE F df1 df2 p
.3258 .1062 11.8417 2.1282 3.0000 144.0000 .0992 Model
Coeff SE t p LLCI ULCI
Constant 6.7641 .2907 23.2704 .0000 6.1896 7.3386 Emotional Motivations .3388 .1373 2.2686 .0147 .0675 .6102 Emotionality .2204 .5197 -.4240 .6722 -1.2476 .8068 Interaction -.0380 .3149 -.1206 .9042 -.6603 .5844
