Personality and content preferences on social network sites in South Africa

Abstract

Worldwide, visual content, such as photos and videos, have increased dramatically on social network sites (SNS), with South Africa being no exception. Due to these developments, marketers are increasingly interested in the factors that impact the usage of these sites, in order to develop branded content that will attract and engage users. However, there is a lack of academic research revealing how individual consumer factors, such as personality, influence SNS users’ preferences for different types of content on SNS, particularly within an emerging market such as South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two personality traits – need for cognition (NFC) and need for affect (NFA) – and visual and verbal content preference on SNS in South Africa. The study also briefly examined whether demographic variables (gender and age) and SNS usage factors had an impact on the relationships between these variables. An online survey and pen-and-paper questionnaire were conducted. 307 social network site users were obtained primarily from two South African universities through convenience sampling. Data was analysed using correlation analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and standard multiple linear regression on SPSS. The main findings showed that personality does have an influence (albeit small) on SNS users’ preference for visual or verbal content, and warrants consideration by marketing organisations in the design of SNS content. Visual content preference on SNS was found to have a positive relationship with NFA and a negative relationship with NFC. Verbal content preference had a positive relationship with NFC but no significant relationship with NFA. Demographic and SNS usage variables showed mixed results in their impact on SNS content preference. It was recommended that future studies include other variables that could affect SNS content preference, as well as use more objective measures (rather than self-reporting) to determine SNS users’ actual behaviour. Key words: Social network sites, personality traits, need for cognition, need for affect, visual content, verbal content, South Africa, emerging market