Identity Cues Can Cause Biased and Inaccurate Market Intelligence
Identity Cues Can Cause Biased and Inaccurate Market Intelligence Among Marketers
Taylor, S., Muchnik, L., & Aral, S. (2019). What’s in a Username? Identity Cue Effects in Social Media. Management Science, 1-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2538130
This article focuses on the impact of identity cues in social networking websites and their implications for organizations, businesses, and people. This article explores the extent to which online users’ interactions with different content on a social media platform are influenced by the identity of the user who originally posted the content rather than the message itself. Notably, the research reveals that identity effects can cause marketers to obtain biased and inaccurate market intelligence since most online users ignore the content but pay attention to the profile associated with given content. For instance, a person might view, like, or share content on social media because of associating the content with the sender. This article can be useful in explaining why engagement metrics such as likes and dislikes, shares, views, and mentions can be used as accurate predictors of the strength of a leader’s online persona.
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