Influence of friends on undergraduates "Liking" behavior on facebook pages.

• Main Authors: Chee, Ting Feng., Heng, Guo Jie., Chong, Siek Mee.
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Marketing::Communication
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51485
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study aims to find out about Facebook users’ “Liking” behaviour on Facebook brand Pages. This research studies on an individual’s tie strengths with his friends, his level of interest in the brand and the influence of crowd joining behaviour in enhancing the propensity to “Like” the brand Page. Respondents are asked to rate their tie strengths with three groups of friends, namely their university, secondary school and CCA friends. Their interest towards three sports apparel brands, Adidas, Puma and Reebok are also measured. A total of three hypotheses are developed based on the initial literature reviews read. Data collection was done through a systematic network crawling process on the researchers’ Facebook network, using an online survey. 330 completed questionnaires are then used for data analysis. The findings show that an individual has a higher propensity to “Like” a Facebook Page if friends that they have strong tie strengths with have “Liked” it. Being personally interested in the brand enhances this relationship in a positive manner. Individuals also show strong crowd joining behaviour in their Facebook “Liking” behaviour, where they have a stronger tendency to “Like” a Page when multiple friends have “Liked” it as compared to one. Marketers are therefore recommended to leverage on interpersonal influence in their Facebook advertising strategies to garner more “Likes” for their brand Page. Limitations to the study include the technical difficulty in personalising the questionnaire to make it more realistic for each respondent. Future research can develop simulated Facebook profiles in an experimental setting to better observe users’ “Liking” behaviour on Facebook Pages.