Social media comparative analysis based on multidimensional scaling

Abstract

As social media draws attention as a business tool, organizations, large or small, are trying to exploit social media in their business. However, lack of understanding the characteristics of each social media led them to develop a naive strategy for dealing with social media. Thus, this study aims to deepen the understanding by comparatively analyzing how social media users perceive (the image of) each social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, Communities and Cyworld were chosen for our study and data from 132 respondents were analyzed using multidimensional scaling technique. The results show that there are meaningful differences in users' perception of social media attributes, which are grouped into four; information feature, motivation, promotion tool, usability. It is also analyzed whether such differences can be found between male and female users. (Such differences are also analyzed in both male and female users' perceptions.) Further, we discuss some implications of the research results for both practitioners and researchers.