Got Trolls?: Understanding and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Virtual Brand the Abstract and References

Popular Culture Association 2018 National Conference 

Popular Culture Association

Indianapolis, Indiana

Got Trolls?: Understanding and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Virtual Brand

Abstract

The creation of a virtual identity for self-promotional purposes requires strategic and intentional development. The resulting ‘brand’ serves a purpose unique from a casual or personal online presence. Evaluating the effectiveness of an individual, sole person, virtual brand requires a specific understanding of how singular brands are created and perceived. The creation of an effective brand depends on the creator’s willingness and ability to efficiently fragment and abstract their identity. One-person, virtual identities are received differently than identities resulting from corporate or institutional brands. This complicates on-line interactions. A consideration of the two primary user needs met by social media, belonging and self-presentation, as identified by Nadkami & Hofmann (2012), can assist in creating, negotiating, and evaluating the effectiveness of a singular virtual brand.

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TOPIC AREAS

Virtual identity, self-promotion and individual branding.

Trolls, cyberbullies and silence.

“Best practices” and implications.

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Topic area: Virtual identity, self-promotion and individual branding.

Correa, Teresa, Amber Willard Hinsley, and Homero Gil de Zuniga. "Who Interacts on the Web?: The Intersection of Users' Personality & Social Media Usa." Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 26, Oct. 2010, pp. 247-53.

Meredith, Finonola. "Keep You Sad Windbaggery to Yourself: Why I've Little Time for Social Media Self-Promotion." Belfast Telegraph, 29 Sept. 2017, p. 26. Accessed 7 Jan. 2018.

Nadkarnu, Ashwini, and Stefan G. Hofmann. "Why do People Use Facebook?" Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 52, Feb. 2012, pp. 243-49.

Swani, Kunal, George R. Milne, Brian P. Brown, A. George Assaf, and Naveen Donthu. "What messages to post? Evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer markets." Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 62, Apr. 2017, pp. 77+. Accessed 6 Mar. 2018.

Topic area: Trolls, cyberbullies and silence.

Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Trolls just want to have fun." Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 67, Sept. 2014, pp. 97-102. Accessed 12 Jan. 2018.

Cheng, Justin, Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Jure Leskovec, and Michael Bernstein. "Anyone Can Become a Troll." American Scientist, vol. 105, no. 3, May 2017, pp. 152-55. Accessed 11 Jan. 2018.

Craker, Naomi, and Evita March. "The dark side of Facebook®: The Dark Tetrad, negative social potency, and trolling behaviours." Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 102, Nov. 2016, pp. 79-84. Accessed 9 Mar. 2018.

March, Evita, Rachel Grieve, Jessica Marrington, and Peter K. Jonason. "Trolling on Tinder® (and other dating apps): Examining the role of the Dark Tetrad and impulsivity." Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 110, May 2017, pp. 139-43. Accessed 11 Feb. 2018.

Zezulka, Lauren A., and Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar. "Differentiating Cyberbullies and Internet Trolls by Personality Characteristics and Self-Esteem." Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, vol. 11, no. 3, Jan. 2016, pp. 7-25. Accessed 13 Feb. 2018.

Topic area: “Best practices” and implications.

Coles, Linda. Social Media for Business: Foolproof Tips to Help You Promote Your Business or Your Brand. Milton, John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2018.

Holt, Douglas. "Branding in the Age of Social Media." Harvard Business Review, Mar. 2016, pp. 41+. Accessed 11 Mar. 2018.

Kerpen, Dave. Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Amazing on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, and More. New York, McGraw Hill Education, 2015.

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For the full paper, see this post.