The impact of the Ephemeral Content on Social Media Consumer Engagement

Abstract

Ephemeral content is a novice concept, it has taken social media platforms by a storm after it was first introduced by the infamous Snapchat, its full potential is yet to be accurately shaped due to the lack of academic interest that is keeping us from exploring the user altering effect possibilities that we could reach using the different tools that yield ephemeral content as a concept. The research topic further focuses on identifying the different motivations of the use of ephemeral content that could potentially influence social gratification. Therefore, this thesis aimed to understand the impact of these motivations on consumer engagement highlighting the mediation effect of social gratification, while taking into account the multi-dimensionality of consumer engagement as a construct, namely the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects. Aiming to investigate the relationships between the different variables of the research model, an online questionnaire was conducted on 125 participants. They were initially asked to recall their last interaction with ephemeral content if they had any, or how they would imagine their behavior to be in regards to the different feelings they get during the period of time when they are experiencing ephemeral content on a daily basis while knowing in the back of their heads that the content they are consuming will disappear after a certain period of time and will not likely be available for them to re-consume ever again. An in-depth quantitative analysis of the results of the questionnaire was conducted proving that indeed the motivations impact the consumer engagement with the mediating effect of social gratification. Fear of missing out, trust and immediacy appeared to be strong predictors of social gratification, this later when positive, increases the consumer engagement with the content and drives it towards the same direction. However, the study revealed that the impact of social pressure on social gratification was irrelevant and not significant due to the volume of the responses denying any kind of cognitive, emotional or behavioral effect or influence that social pressure have applied upon their decision-making process of consuming ephemeral content. However, investigating the impact of social pressure under different conditions could have given different results. Finally, the results of the study confirmed that social gratification does not only impact the behavioral engagement but also effects the cognitive and emotional engagement of social media users and drives them towards the same direction through the use of ephemeral content. Generally speaking, the stimulation of the social gratification through the creation and/or consumption of ephemeral content does indeed result in an increase when it comes to social media users’ engagement with a particular content, type or creator.