the online personal networks of foodbloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in time of...

THE ONLINE EGO-NETWORK OF FOODBLOGGERS: THE RISE OF AMATEUR PROFESSIONALISM IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC CRISIS

Ivana Pais ([email protected]) Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan Cecilia Manzo ([email protected]) Universita’ di Firenze Riccardo De Vita ([email protected])

University of Greenwich Business School, London

The online ego-network of foodbloggers

Agenda

•  Theoretical framework

•  The research project

•  Methodology

•  The food industry: first results

•  Conclusions

•  Q&As


Theoretical framework


Sociology of professional

groups

Social network analysis

Sociology of social media

The research project

•  Sociology of professional groups o  High occupational mobility o  Expansion of knowledge-based work and hybrid professional groups à The emergence of pro-am

•  Sociology of social media o  Social network sites as intentional organizations vs appropriable social

organisations o  The boundaries between private and public sphere are collapsing;

diffusion of reputational systems à Social media as a new “working space” and a new setting for studying professional groups

•  Social network analysis o  Emphasis on online large networks and overall network structures o  Difficulty of collecting data (in particular about professional) and limited

presence of mixed-method approaches à Collection and analysis of data already available online, deep analysis of limited number of selected actors and integration of different research techniques



Our study aim to analysis the role of online ego-network in professional life. o  RQ1 - What are the individual characteristics and the

motivations of professionals who use SNSs? o  RQ2 – What are the characteristics of the online ego-network? o  RQ3 – What are the differences between ego-network on

different social network sites? o  RQ4 -What are the differences between online and offline ego-

network?

o  RQ5 - What are the differences between professional groups online?


Research Questions



Research objectives

Characteristics of prominent actors online

Online networks of prominent

actors

Professional group

Background, motivations, use of

social media

Ego-network analysis on different SNS

Overall network structure (different

approaches)


•  Scientific partners o  Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore o  University of Greenwich

•  Media: o  Gummy Industries

o  La Nuvola del Lavoro (Corriere.it)

o  Trovolavoro.it (Rcs)

•  Data management and IT: o  Basili.co

o  Reputation Manager

The research team




Communication and media

Methodology


The empirical setting/professional groups

Food

Construction Engineers - TBC

Law/Legal professions

Finance

Formal professional

groups

Informal professional

groups

Service

Product

Methodology


The data collection process

Define" Search" Rank"

Online Questionnaire"

Social Network Analysis"F2F interview"

Facebook

Methodology


The identification of online prominent actors

Twitter

Linkedin

Connections Contents

Social Networks

Methodology

•  Personal background

•  Professional activity

•  Use of the web

•  Online networks

•  Objectives and achievements through the use of social media

•  Reputation in the professional group


The online questionnaire

Methodology

•  Online ego-networks collected through an online application o  Facebook o  Twitter

o  Linkedin

•  Ego to alter connections and alter to alter connections

•  When available alters’ basic attributes collected (e.g. Age, location, bio)


The Ego-network data collection

Methodology

•  Data interpretation and sense making of online networks o  Facebook

o  Twitter

o  LinkedIn

•  Comparison o  Online

o  Offline


The face to face interview – From ego-network to personal network

FOODBLOGGER

FIRST RESULTS


Results


Online videos - Top 20 on YouTube

Titolo Visualizzazioni Commenti Preferiti Durata -‐min UtenteRicetta:Decorare con semplicita' una torta 756728 446 454 00:04:30 GreedywebImpasto per la pizza, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 576910 238 791 00:02:46 GialloZafferanoTVTiramisù, la ricetta di Giallozafferano. 479750 157 730 00:02:55 GialloZafferanoTVLe zeppole fritte graffe napoletane dalle ricette di Nonna Anna semplici, economiche, gustose. 449499 117 548 00:06:37 kayennaMozzarella in Carrozza, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 416397 211 754 00:02:03 GialloZafferanoTVSalame di Cioccolato, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 400494 230 796 00:02:55 GialloZafferanoTVCrepes, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 395017 203 720 00:03:14 GialloZafferanoTVLasagne alla Bolognese, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 285366 223 431 00:03:56 GialloZafferanoTVPropone una ricetta con il gatto, Bigazzi licenziato dalla Rai 276383 1745 108 00:01:04 ristotvLa Video Ricetta Passo-‐Passo della Focaccia Genovese 251595 168 544 00:04:51 vittorioviarengoPollo alla cacciatora, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 245895 56 358 00:02:16 GialloZafferanoTVPenne all'Arrabbiata, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 201231 66 316 00:02:04 GialloZafferanoTVLa ricetta della crema Chantilly HD 187547 77 122 00:02:53 blogdolciRagù alla Bolognese, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 169675 176 346 00:04:08 GialloZafferanoTVRicette:Involtini impanati alla siciliana 147225 167 217 00:05:55 lacucinaitalianaPollo al Curry, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 124677 60 226 00:02:46 GialloZafferanoTVVideo ricetta: Un menù di antipasti al sapore di mare 124614 63 146 00:10:08 sitcomitaliaGnocchi di Patate, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 120456 41 218 00:02:28 GialloZafferanoTVBesciamella, la ricetta di Giallozafferano 117075 45 206 00:02:27 GialloZafferanoTVVideo ricetta: muffin per colazione? 105372 42 156 00:11:45 sitcomitalia

530 videos online, made available by 236 YouTube channels generated 10.5 M. visits and more than 11K comments

Results


Facebook – Top 20 fan pages

53 Fan Pages identified, followed by more than 125K users, who generated about 7K posts and 8.5K comments

NOME FANPAGE NUMERO FAN TOTALE LIKE

POST TOTALI

COMMENTI TOTALI

INTERAZIONE-‐COMMENTI AI POST AMMINISTRATORE

INTERAZIONE-‐COMMENTI AI POST

FAN

INCREMENTO FAN MESE%

Viva la Focaccia 60.733 6.319 405 899 431 468 1%Ricette -‐ Le Gioie del palato 10.619 5.378 244 574 574 0 8%

Sorelle in Pentola 10.480 3.596 330 358 319 39 3%Cake show 5.929 4.487 259 1.208 1.015 193 2%

Dolce Mania per la Pasticceria 3.512 255 48 90 71 19 1%La cuochina sopraffina 3.489 2.461 516 1.075 948 127 5%

Francesca Sugar Art -‐ Le torte di Francesca 2.418 1.607 383 676 252 424 9%Delizie da Gustare 2.346 340 168 150 113 37 4%

FANTASTICARE IN CUCINA 2.313 1.212 74 273 273 0 2%Juls' Kitchen 1.804 1.974 485 552 487 65 4%

L' Arte nelle Mani (di Giuli) 1.770 289 76 66 58 8 2%La cucina di Virginie 1.444 319 276 120 85 35 5%

Fiordifrolla 1.408 1.036 150 243 243 0 2%La CuCiNa Di MaMMiNa GiOvI 1.216 129 55 47 28 19 3%

Mamma Papera's blog 1.015 1.390 480 632 584 48 4%il Blog di Flora 992 247 148 120 63 57 1%

Cucinando in casa 966 281 123 108 104 4 3%Un Pizzico Di Cannella 943 133 54 37 33 4 0%Chef Laura at Home 890 230 74 63 47 16 2%

Results

•  92 accounts identified

•  Followed by almost 340K followers

•  Generated 860K tweets


Twitter – Top 20 accounts

Screen name N° Follower N° Following N° Tweet

PinchMySalt 99646 1210 15829RecipeGirl 14241 1155 32300CannelleVanille 14196 336 10786DineandDish 12033 7433 22300browneyedbaker 10559 4259 11537TwoPeasandPod 9695 2019 33620atablefortwo 8270 414 6750foodblogallianc 8043 1508 113runwithtweezers 6181 1196 8569chrispople 6138 793 31692chowandchatter 5992 4325 71472kalynskitchen 5818 786 14294userealbutter 5769 469 16316cookincanuck 5314 2590 10836FoodforMyFamily 5132 2253 5958toccodizenzero 5009 1169 32686GoodBite 4806 2179 1842TheLittleKitchn 4715 3342 18334eatlivtravwrite 4702 1846 34761JuliaParsons 4613 1174 8455

Results

•  Main characteristics of prominent actors

o  Women

o  Interest/experience in the communication industry

o  Care for the visual aspect of their dishes

o  From hobby to profession

o  Passion for cooking, link with values such as family

and tradition


The presence of foodbloggers online

Results


•  Age range from 24 to 47, with 5 respondents aged 31-39

•  One influential actors living abroad

•  Only one man

A focus on foodblogger (N= 9, r.r. 50%)

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

Facebook (N=8) Twitter (N=7) LinkedIn (N=7) Other Social Networks (N=2)

Blogs (N=8)

Hours per day on social media

Results

Which contents do you publish online?

Sense of belonging to communities


Online activities

•  8 respondents declared to feel part of at least one professional community online (5 of at least two)

•  Only one declared to be part of one (and only one) offline professional community

•  Online communities facilitate access to information, overcoming the problem of physical distance

•  Online influencers say a lot about themselves online

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Often about food, but

sometimes about other

issues

Only about food

NA

Results


The objectives and the results achieved by using social media

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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Objective

Achievement

Results

•  Respondents identified communication and technical skills as the most important factors to develop a positive reputation in the professional group

•  Long presence in the industry and reputation offline or recommendations are not perceived as relevant

•  Clear consensus on the identification of the most important influencers online

•  Lack of consensus and information of people perceived influential offline


Building reputation in the food industry

Results


Foodblogger 1 – Facebook network

Results


Foodblogger 1 – Twitter network

A network approach to the study online influence


Foodblogger 1 - The characteristics of online networks

Connections Density N. groups N. isolates

Facebook 237 0.05 8 14

Twitter 1117 0.10 31 1

LinkedIn 12

Age (avg) Connections (avg)

Location Study Industry

F 28 542 60% Lombardy, 11% abroad

University (86%)

9% food

Tw 1082 21% Lombardy, 4% abroad

L 133 83% Lombardy University (100%)

8% food

Results


Foodblogger 1 – Facebook network/subgroups

University

Food

Friends (fiance)

Friends (dance)

Family

High school

Same surname

Various

Results


Foodblogger 1 – Twitter network/subgroups

Results

Subgroups in Facebook Subgroups in Twitter


Foodblogger 1 - Comparing ego networks online

•  Number of subgroups: 8

•  Clear clustering based on the nature of the relationship. Mainly friendship ties developed in different environments, only one subgroup is “food” related

•  Number of subgroups: 31

•  More difficult interpretation. The interviewed does not know all her followers. However all the subgroups which were identified are “food related”

Results

Twitter Facebook

Degree (n.connectios= 1117)

Info

Degree

(n.connectios= 237)

Info

1 687

food - interviewed

43 her professional

profile

2 653 food 35 friend

3 601 food - interviewed 32 relative

4 538 food 28 university





9 498 food - interviewed 26 university

10 482 food 25 friend


Foodblogger 1 - Comparing ego networks online

Results


Foodblogger 1 – Offline networks

Conclusions

•  Results o  Emergence of new form of professionalism and new way to build a

reputation

o  Technological specialization: different SNS are sources of different types of resources (from emotional support to information)

o  Complexities associated in analyzing online network data o  Importance of a qualitative interpretation of online networks

•  Limitations and open issues o  Size of networks and data coding

o  Technical problems in the mapping of LinkedIn networks

o  Multiplexity and homophily cannot be explored at this stage

o  Multiple profiles


Implications – based on very preliminary results, more to come!

Conclusions

•  Completion of data analysis

•  Comparison across professional groups

•  New measures, e.g. for subgroups

•  Integration of SNA and qualitative analysis with simulation techniques


The next steps

Conclusions


The next steps

Online + offline

offline online

the online personal networks of foodbloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in time of...

Technology

londonthe online egonetwork

mediathe online egonetwork

biothe online egonetwork

resultsthe online egonetwork

offline ego network

online videos

different social network

web online networks