Using values to segment virtual consumers on social networking sites

Purpose – Although social networking sites (SNS) are providing marketers a lot of information, it is also providing consumers with the ability to present their virtual identities, limiting the benefit of such information. The purpose of this paper is to understand how marketers can segment virtual consumers. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature is first conducted. Followed by a survey method, data from 258 consumers were analyzed using a combination of scales including best-worst scaling. Classes and other demographics, behavioral and psychographic covariates were determined using latent-class analysis. Findings – Findings show there exist three different segments based on values: self-conservers, social entertainers, and achievers. The results show how SNS consumers differ in their motivation to use social media, even when there is similarity in the uses (virtual behaviors) of SNS. Research limitations/implications – Analyzing behavior of virtual consumers can be limited by the fact that they are presenting their virtual identity. Psychographic metrics should be the focus of future research when dealing with online consumers, values and motivations provide a better way as they are more consistent than the virtual behavior. Practical implications – Practitioners should look for more ways to integrate SNS segments with traditional segments, values-segmentation can aid in this. Additionally, practitioners should maximize the information access benefits of SNS by focussing also on underlying motives to certain behaviors on SNS. Originality/value – This research value is derived from the fact that it is the first to perform values-segmentation on SNS. The results show that it is reliable and necessary when segmenting consumers on SNS.