Theories Of Social Media

Frameworks and Theories Surrounding Social Media Uptake The overwhelming success of social media has been to date continuously investigated by academic researchers and practitioners. Several existing theories from various fields in social science such as information technology, economics and social psychology have been extended in the area of social media to explain its adoption. Here we discuss some of the key theories and frameworks frequently mentioned in social media literature:

One of the earliest social science theory applied is the Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) Theory first developed by E. M. Rogers in 1962. He defined diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time, among members

McKinsey (2012) reports that it took 13 years for television to reach 50 million users while the internet took 3 years but social media, such as Facebook, took only 1 year and Twitter only 9 months to reach the same number of users. Indeed, the rapid increase in its user base is incomparable. . Another widely accepted theory on widespread usage of social media and how users come to embrace it was derived from the field of information technology research called the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) introduced in 1986 by F. Davis (Davis, 1986; Rauniar, Rawski, Yang & Johnson, 2014). Originally applied in information system (IS) and software application research, the theory was extended in the area of social media to try to explain usage behavior (Rauniar, Rawski, Yang & Johnson, 2014). According to the model, when a user is introduced to a new technology, his or her overall attitude towards using the said technology is a major determinant as to whether or not the user will actually

information systems to improve job efficiency). Applied to social media, the model fails to take into account characteristics specific to social media such as the “entertainment” component and it being used primarily in an individual, personal, voluntary and non-organizational setting (Rauniar et al., 2014). This is rather logical as the model was developed before the advent of social media. Consequently, a more unified model called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was formulated by Venkatesh, Morris, G. Davis & F. Davis (2003) to address the shortcomings of the theoretical models before including TAM. The UTAUT model has been adjusted to better fit today’s various technological contexts. disregards social interaction / Insert: UTAUT theory, planned theory, diffusion of innovation, network externalities theory (?). One theory suggests that users of social media benefit from positive network externalities (Lin & Lu, 2011) or the ‘network effect’, which suggests that the value of a service increases to a user as the number of users increase (Hendler & Golbeck, 2008). Another useful framework proposed by Kietzman, Hermkens, McCarthy