Journal of Consumer Behaviour, J. Consumer Behav.

10: 347–355 (2011)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.377

Influence of social networking site and user access method on social

media evaluation
JOHN H. HEINRICHS1*, JEEN-SU LIM2 and KEE-SOOK LIM3
1
School of Library and Information Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, US
2
Marketing and International Business Department, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, US
3
Information Operations and Technology Management Department, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, US

ABSTRACT

The Internet has expanded rapidly and shifted from being solely an information access tool to being an interaction tool used by individuals
to discover and share content, opinions, and information. To develop information connections, individuals are using a variety of
technologies to access content and join virtual communities on various social networking sites. Of interest to researchers and organizations
is the individuals’ perception of social networking sites using the identified dimensions of ease-of-use, usefulness, information quality,
feeling, and usage intention.
In this Web-based study, 226 participants from a professional discussion group provided information regarding their perceptions of social
networking sites and access tool usage. The differences in these perceptions based upon the various access methods and various social
networking tools are analyzed and reported. The results from simple main effect tests showed that differences exist in both access methods
and social networking tool usage.
The usage patterns based upon the access methods can have an impact on the usage behavior of social network sites. High-usage groups
have the highest mean values for the perception dimension of ease-of-use for both access method and social networking sites. This suggests
that organizations should accommodate and energize mobile users and design changes to their social networking sites to facilitate
interaction and information sharing.
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION
Social networking sites have emerged as important commu-
nication channels used by individual consumers to create
content, distribute materials, share ideas, express opinions,
and use information and knowledge. This emerging channel
is resulting in a power shift between consumers and traditional
producers of messages and information (Denegri-Knott, 2006).
Additionally, these social networking sites contain Web-based
services where individuals can construct dynamic public
profiles about themselves that contain their various interests,
philosophies, educational background, and demographic
information and which are shared with other individuals.
Within the specific social networking site, individuals can
specify their relationship with other users as well as viewing
users who are following their sites (Boyd and Ellison, 2008;
Lange, 2008). These social network sites, such as Twitter and
Facebook, are now designed to permit users to connect with
other users based upon a common interest and form or join
virtual communities. Yet, it takes more than the sheer existence
of a social networking site to encourage or draw users to visit
repeatedly and share content.
To create these virtual communities and encourage active
participation, the social networking site needs to provide the
means and tools to facilitate interaction among users, must
integrate these various components of Web 2.0 technologies
into their sites, and must be of a sufficiently high quality as
defined by the users of that social networking site (Lin,
2007). The focus of this study, then, is on investigating the
*Correspondence to: John H. Heinrichs, School of Library and Information
Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, US.
E-mail: ai2824@wayne.edu
various factors that facilitate the social network site’s use and
examining the various access methods used to access the
various social networking sites.
Type of social networking sites
The existence and use of social networking tools to communi-
cate and share information dates back to 1978, when users
had the ability to email comments and attachments to other
users, to make use of bulletin boards to post content, and to
read or post information or comments to various list servers
(Acar and Polonsky, 2007). The number and availability of
these social networking tools have since grown to include
many additional online activities such as webcasting, blog-
ging, instant messaging, chatting, and gaming (Boyd and
Ellison, 2008).
Three prominent social networking tools currently available
to individuals to share content and comments include
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The first tool, Facebook, is
currently the most commonly used online social networking
tool among adults, with over 73 per cent of adults having a
profile on Facebook, which they use to interact with other users
(Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, and Zickuhr, 2010). The second
social network tool is Twitter. Twitter provides a Web-based
service that enables users to send short messages (140
characters) or to engage in microblogging (Twitter, 2010).
Twitter can be considered as a real-time network driven by
people all over the world that allows individuals to share and
discover the current events. The third tool is YouTube.
YouTube is a public online video-sharing website where many
people can discover, watch, and share user-generated videos.
YouTube provides a venue for individuals to connect, inform,
and interact with others and serve as a distribution platform.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

348 J. H. Heinrichs et al.
Thus, YouTube provides hosting for user-generated content
videos and can support social networking via socialization
(Lange, 2008).
Access method
Individuals can use mobile devices, desktop computers, and/or
notebooks as the access method to reach the social networking
sites, as these information and communication technologies
have become necessary tools to engage in content creation
and information sharing. The usage patterns of the various
access methods can potentially have an impact on the usage
behavior and information sharing of the various social
networking sites. For example, if users believe that mobile
devices are complicated, they will be less likely to use those
devices (Wakefield and Whitten, 2006). Yet, if firms simplify
the operations of new applications and ensure that a significant
number of users have that access method, such as SmartPhones
or iPads, the value and use of that access method increase
substantially (Wang, Lo, and Fang, 2008).
Mobile devices such as iPads, SmartPhones, Kindles, and
tablets have enabled social networking to occur across various
platforms, as mobile devices can be viewed as both pleasure-
oriented and functional-oriented communication devices and
can also be used either way (Lee, et al., 2010). The marketing
strategy that positions the mobile device for use of the social
networks is crucial to optimize the acceptance and use of that
mobile device (Wang, Lo, and Fang, 2008). Social networking
tools have become associated with mobile devices since
mobile devices have moved to the center of how people are
communicating and sharing information with their circle of
friends (Lipsman, 2010). Mobile devices permit users to
communicate by voice, text, or email, or by accessing social
networking sites via mobile Web browsers (Lipsman, 2010).
LITERATURE REVIEW
The use of the Internet for discovering and sharing information
has grown dramatically as the Internet has become ubiquitous.
The overall availability and use of the Internet have risen from
67 per cent of US households in 2000 to 82 per cent of US
households in 2009, with the percentage of users having
broadband access in their homes rising from 10 per cent in
2000 to 82 per cent in 2009 (Center for the Digital Future,
2010), and in 2007, individuals were reported to have been
spending an average of 32 hours per month performing various
activities on the Internet (Lascu and Clow, 2008). Thus, as of
2009, most users are spending significant time on the Internet
and have the appropriate network connections to access rich
Internet applications such as videos, games, and simulations
and to rapidly download and upload information, thus facilitat-
ing the use of various social networking tools.
The Internet enables many rich sources of easily accessible
content for information sharing, and as with social networking
tools, no specific task is required to be performed. The usage of
these social networking sites for information sharing and
content creation is dependent upon the perceived value and/
or perceived quality of the social networking site. Thus, the
usefulness of the information found on the social networking
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
site is determined by the user. However, the usefulness of the
site may also be influenced by the tools and technologies that
the user employs to access the site or by the perceived purpose
of the social networking site.
Various theoretical models have been developed for
studying the determinants of the Internet and website usage,
including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the
Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA), and the Theory of
Planned Behavior. Of these models, TAM has been the most
widely adopted by researchers investigating the determinants
of adoption and usage of technology in various settings (Lim,
Lim, and Heinrichs, 2008). TAM theorizes that the two
external variables labeled perceived ease-of-use and perceived
usefulness are primarily relevant for usage intention and
acceptance behaviors. Teo, Lim, and Lai (1999) expanded
upon TAM by adding perceived playfulness or feeling and
concluded that these factors are positively related to Internet
usage. Another model for exploring an individual’s behavior
is TRA. According to Fishbein and Ajzen, it advocates that
an individual’s behavior is predicted by intentions and that
the intentions are jointly determined by the individual’s
attitude (feelings) and subjective norms concerning his or her
behavior (Hsu and Lin, 2008).
Ease-of-use and usefulness
Perceived ease-of-use has been defined by Davis (1989) as the
extent to which one believes that using a particular system will
be free of effort. Ease-of-use in social networking sites implies
that the user found the social networking site easy to operate
and that the user did not need to expend effort on operating
the social networking site to achieve his or her desired
objective (Lin, 2007). Thus, Web-based applications or social
networking sites perceived to be easier to use than another
Web-based application or social networking site are more
likely to be accepted by users, given that all other factors are
equal (Davis, 1989). Consequently, in general, if a social
networking site is easy to use, requiring less effort on the
part of users, it will have a higher likelihood of adoption
and usage (Heinrichs, Lim, Lim, and Spangenberg, 2005).
Thus, it can be implied that social network sites and Web
2.0 technologies for sharing and content generation that
are easy to use can encourage user participation and sharing
on social networking sites.
Perceived usefulness has been defined by Davis (1989) as
the extent to which the user believes that using a particular
system, application, or Web 2.0 technology will enhance their
performance. When the social networking site or access
method is perceived as easy to use and less complex to operate,
then the particular system, application, access tool, or social
networking site can affect perceived usefulness. A system,
access method, or social networking site that is perceived as
difficult to use is less likely to be perceived as useful (Lim,
Lim, and Heinrichs, 2008; Wang, Lo, and Fang, 2008). For
the social network sites, perceived usefulness indicates that
users are confident in their ability to obtain information, share
experiences, create content, and enhance their performance,
thus resulting in increased participation of the social network-
ing sites (Lin, 2007).
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb

The previous discussion on the concepts of ease-of-use
and usefulness as they relate to social networking sites and
access methods results in the following hypotheses for
perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness.
H1: Perceived ease-of-use of various social networking
sites will be different among the three (low, moderate, and
high) usage groups for the access methods of (i) mobile
devices, (ii) notebooks, and (iii) desktop computers.
H2: Perceived ease-of-use will be different among the
three (low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the social net-
working sites of (i) Twitter, (ii) Facebook, and (iii) YouTube.
H3: The perceived usefulness of various social networking
sites will be different among the three (low, moderate, and
high) usage groups for the three access methods of (i) mobile
devices, (ii) notebooks, and (iii) desktop computers.
H4: Perceived usefulness will be different among the three
(low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the social network-
ing sites of (i) Twitter, (ii) Facebook, and (iii) YouTube.
Information quality
To ensure that individuals would want to visit the social
networking sites requires that users have the ability to easily
learn how to use the site and that the social networking sites
have high-quality features, are usable as determined by the
design of the site, provide accurate and trustworthy informa-
tion, and possess general user satisfaction (Büttner and Göritz,
2008; Lin, 2007; Moss, Gunn, and Heller, 2006). A key, high-
quality feature that the social network site needs to possess is
information quality. Information quality can be thought of
and measured in terms such as accuracy, timeliness, complete-
ness, relevance, and consistency of the information provided
(DeLone and McLean, 2003). It is important that information
quality is measured using these specific attributes, as these
attributes help with information sharing among the partici-
pants. Thus, the content on the social networking site should
be complete, relevant, and easy to understand to ensure that
users continually return to the social networking site (DeLone
and McLean, 2003).
As such, the social networking site that provides a higher
quality of information should result in a greater perceived
usefulness, and the information quality should influence the
ongoing participation on the social networking site (Lin and
Lu, 2000; Lin, 2007). In terms of social networking, informa-
tion quality may be as significant as researchers have previously
argued for organizational websites. This is evident in the growth
of blogs where information and/or opinions are published on
any of a variety of topics (Hsu and Lin, 2008). Thus, the previ-
ous discussion on the dimension of information quality results
in the following hypotheses for information quality.
H5: Perceived information quality will be different among
the three (low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the
access methods of (i) mobile devices, (ii) notebooks, and
(iii) desktop computers.
H6: Perceived information quality will be different among
the three (low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Social networking sites and user access methods 349
social networking sites of (i) Twitter, (ii) Facebook, and
(iii) YouTube.
Feeling
One of the key features of social networking tools is the ability
for the user to blog or share their opinion on any topic. Since
this is an important way to encourage increased and continual
social interaction, intrinsic motivation should have a signifi-
cant impact on the usage of social networking sites (Hsu and
Lin, 2008). Intrinsic motivation refers to the performance of
an activity by the user for no apparent reinforcement other than
the process of performing that particular activity (Teo, Lim,
and Lai, 1999). In this study, the dimension labeled feeling
includes the concepts of enjoyable, pleasurable, fun, exciting,
fascinating, and involving. Users may engage in a particular
behavior if that behavior provides them with a feeling of fun
and enjoyment (Childers, Carr, Peck, and Carson, 2001). This
suggests that users may adopt a particular technology or access
method, or visit social networking sites simply because its use
is enjoyable to them. Playfulness and enjoyment are other
intrinsic motivators that prompt users to engage with technol-
ogy, access methods, or social networking sites just for the
intrinsic benefits (Wakefield and Whitten, 2006). So, when
users perceive that interactions with mobile devices are more
playful, users generally believe that the mobile devices are
more useful and enjoyable. However, it should be noted that
prior studies have found that enjoyment is the weakest intrinsic
benefit in predicting technology acceptance specifically as it
applies to work-related settings. Yet, for Internet-related use
such as visiting social networking sites, enjoyment is a strong
predictor (Van der Heijden, 2004). The previous discussion
on the dimension of feelings results in the following
hypotheses.
H7: Perceived feeling of social networking sites will be
different among the three (low, moderate, and high) usage
groups for the three access methods of (i) mobile devices,
(ii) notebooks, and (iii) desktop computers.
H8: Perceived feeling will be different among the three
(low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the three social net-
working sites of (i) Twitter, (ii) Facebook, and (iii) YouTube.
Usage intention
Usage intention can be viewed as the extent to which the user
would like to revisit the social networking site (Lin and Lu,
2000). So, usage intention can be viewed as a function of
both perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use (Lin
and Lu, 2000; Lin, 2007). However, it must be remembered
that most potential users and users who are early adopters of
technologies are more likely to base their usage intentions on
perceptions, thus integrating their personal sense of image
and opinions from their social network rather than merely
following a fad or merely showing off among friends (Lu,
Yao, and Yu, 2005). Thus, it is believed that enjoyment has
a significant and positive effect on usage intention, although
enjoyment appears to be particularly important as a driver for
using experiential services, such as social network gaming
(Nysveen, Pedersen, and Thorbjørnsen, 2005). The previous
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb
350 J. H. Heinrichs et al.
discussion results in the following hypotheses for usage
intention.
H9: Usage intention of social networking sites will be
different among the three (low, moderate, and high) usage
groups for the three access methods of (i) mobile devices,
(ii) notebooks, and (iii) desktop computers.
H10: Usage intention will be different among the three
(low, moderate, and high) usage groups for the three social net-
working sites of (i) Twitter, (ii) Facebook, and (iii) YouTube.
The identified social networking perception measures of
ease-of-use, usefulness, information quality, feeling, and usage
intention were described. Understanding these dimensions in
the context of using various access methods and social
networking tools provides insights into content creation,
sharing, and usage of information by active participants
engaged in social media. Understanding of the access methods
permits focus on individual active participation in the use and
creation of information connections.
METHODOLOGY
The sample for this study consists of 1589 members of a
profession discussion forum from a Midwest university. The
members of the discussion forum are comprised of alumni,
employers, faculty, graduate students, and practicing
professionals. This professional group was selected because
of the members’ involvement in information literacy issues
and their usage of Web 2.0 technologies.
Sample
The respondents in the study represented various employment
statuses, genders, age groups, and educational achievements.
Regarding the employment status of the respondents to the
survey, 49.5 per cent worked fulltime, 41.8 per cent worked
part-time, and 8.7 per cent were not working. The respondents
were primarily female (80.6%) and ranged in age from 18–25
(20.5%), 26–35 (44.6%), 36–45 (15.6%), 46–55 (13.4%),
56–65 (5.4%), and over 65 years (0.5%). The respondents’
educational achievements were as follows: 41.5 per cent
possessed an undergraduate degree, 56.3 per cent had earned
a master’s degree, and 2.2 per cent had earned a doctoral
degree.
Procedure
The data for this study were collected using an electronic
survey collection form. An invitation to participate in the study
was emailed to each member of the professional discussion
group. Three weeks after the initial email was transmitted,
follow-up email was sent urging the member to complete the
survey. A total of 291 questionnaires were received, resulting
in a response rate of 18.3 per cent. Of the returned question-
naires, 226 surveys were complete and thus were able to be
used for this analysis.
Measurement items
To determine the tools used to access various social network-
ing sites, respondents were asked to indicate their usage of
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
mobile devices, notebooks, or desktop computers using a
five-point scale ranging from not at all (1) to quite frequently
(5). To assess social networking site usage, respondents were
asked to indicate their use of various social networking sites
(Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) using a five-point scale
ranging from not at all (1) to quite a bit (5). To assess
perceptions of the social networking site, multi-item measures
were adapted from previous studies and developed to capture
dimensions of attitude toward social networking sites.
The information quality items were adopted from McMillan
and Hwang (2002) and Song and Zinkhan (2008), where
respondents were asked to indicate their agreement and
disagreement with several statements using a five-point
Likert-type scale ranging from not at all descriptive (1) to very
descriptive (5). The measurement items for perceived ease-of-
use and perceived usefulness were adopted from Davis (1989),
with respondents being asked to indicate their agreement and
disagreement with several statements using a five-point
Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to
strongly agree (5). For the feeling dimension, a five-point
semantic differential scale was utilized, with respondents being
asked to rate the items based on their feelings about social
networking sites. The five items adopted from Lim, Lim, and
Heinrichs (2008) were frustrating–fun, unpleasant–pleasant,
dull–exciting, painful–pleasurable, and unenjoyable–enjoyable.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Factor analysis and reliabilities
Responses to the perception measurement items were varimax
rotated and were factor analyzed using principle component
analysis. Factor analysis was performed to reduce the measure-
ment items to manageable summary scores and ascertain that
the resulting measurement scales were unidimensional and
valid (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, and Black, 1995). Table 1
shows the factor analysis results for this study. Based
upon the factor analysis, social network site perception was
conceptualized into five different factors.
The four items capturing the ease-of-use construct loaded
on the first factor. This factor had a Cronbach’s alpha of
0.949. The second factor was labeled usefulness and included
four items. It had a Cronbach’s alpha rating of 0.902. The third
factor was labeled information quality and included four
statements. This factor had a Cronbach’s alpha rating of
0.919. The fourth factor was labeled feeling and had a
Cronbach’s alpha rating of 0.934. It consisted of six items:
using social media sites is enjoyable, pleasurable, fun, exciting,
fascinating, and involving. The fifth factor was labeled usage
intention, with a Cronbach’s alpha rating of 0.881and
consisted of two items measuring the degree of willingness
and likelihood of social media site usage. The summated
scores of the accepted items measuring each of the scales were
used in the subsequent analysis. The correlations among the
five summated scales ranged from 0.182 to 0.639.
Table 2a presents the cell means for the five summated
social networking site perception measures for the three access
method usage groups. The values for these five perception
measures were shown within the three access methods of
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb
 Social networking sites and user access methods 351

Table 1. Factor analysis results

Social networking site perceptions

Ease-of- Information Usage

Items use Usefulness quality Feeling intention
Ease-of-use
Learning to use social media sites would be very easy 0.913 – – – –
I find it easy to use the social media sites 0.905 – – – –
It is easy to become skillful in using social media sites 0.898 – – – –
I find social media sites easy to use 0.841 – – – –
Usefulness
Using social media sites increases my social interaction and online – 0.910 – – –
communication performance
Social media sites are useful for social networking – 0.862 – – –
Using social media sites enhances my effectiveness in social networking – 0.822 – – –
Using social media sites provides me with information that would lead to – 0.771 – – –
better social networking
Information quality
Provides trustworthy information – – 0.862 – –
Provides accurate information – – 0.825 – –
I can trust the posted information – – 0.819 – –
Provides valuable information – – 0.755 – –
Feeling
Using social media sites is enjoyable – – – 0.886 –
Using social media sites is pleasurable – – – 0.870 –
Using social media sites is fun – – – 0.865 –
Using social media sites is exciting – – – 0.835 –
Using social media sites is fascinating – – – 0.734 –
Using social media sites is involving – – – 0.635 –
Usage intention
How willing are you to use the social media sites – – – – 0.830
How likely is it that you will use social media sites in the next few weeks – – – – 0.734
Eigenvalue 5.08 1.48 8.31 8.76 5.35
Variance explained 63.48% 18.52% 63.95% 43.77% 59.47%
Cronbach’s alpha 0.949 0.902 0.919 0.934 0.881

mobile devices, notebooks, and desktop computers. The mean
values for these perception measures ranged from 2.90 to 4.86.
From the table, it can be seen that the high-usage group for all
the access method types have higher mean values when
compared to either the low-usage group or the moderate-usage
group for all perception factors.
Table 2b presents the cell means for the five summated so-
cial networking site perception measures for the three social
media type user groups. The three groups are low-, moder-
ate-, and high-usage groups classified based upon the five-
point level of usage question item. The values for these five
perception measures were shown within the three social net-
working types of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The mean
values for these perception measures ranged from 2.63 to 4.83.
From the table, it can be seen that the high-usage group for all
the social networking types have higher mean values when
compared to either the low-usage group or the moderate-usage
group for all perception factors.
MANOVA and simple main effect tests
Analysis was performed using the one-way multiple analysis
of variance (MANOVA) procedure for the five social network-
ing site perception factors. The MANOVA tests were used to
evaluate the differences in perceptions among the access
methods of mobile devices, notebooks, and desktop computers
and the various social networking sites. The social networking
tools included Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. For the
dimensions of social networking site perceptions with signifi-
cant MANOVA results, univariate analysis and simple main
effect tests were performed to evaluate which pair of mean
differences contributes to the significant MANOVA results.
Table 3a shows the results for the one-way MANOVA
analysis for the identified social networking site perceptions
measures. MANOVA analysis was performed for each of the
five dependent measures of ease-of-use, usefulness, informa-
tion quality, feeling, and usage intention using the usage rate
group as the independent factor. Multivariate tests of signifi-
cance using Wilks’ lambda are reported in the table, showing
that all tests are significant at the 0.05 level, with one exception
of significance at the 0.10 level. The MANOVA results
showed that all main effects are significant at the 0.05 level,
with the exception of the YouTube usage factor. The YouTube
usage factor main effect was significant at the 0.10 level.
Table 3b shows the univariate analysis results for the five so-
cial media perception variables. The Levene’s test of equality
of error variance indicates that the homogeneity assumption
of error variance was met for most of the cases and with few
exceptions. For the ease-of-use perception measure, five of
the main effects are significant, with the exception of the
desktop computer usage main effect, which was not signifi-
cant. For the usefulness perception measure, five main effects
are significant, with the exception of the YouTube usage main
effect, which was not significant. These results provide support
for H2, H3, and H4 and partial support for H1. For the

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb
352 J. H. Heinrichs et al.

Table 2a. Cell means for the three access method usage groups
Social networking site perceptions

Ease-of-use Usefulness Feeling Information quality Usage intention

Mobile devices
Low-usage group (127) 4.24 3.72 3.64 3.13 4.09
Moderate-usage group (63) 4.28 3.88 3.89 3.14 4.39
High-usage group (22) 4.83 4.49 4.47 3.68 4.86
Total (212) 4.31 3.85 3.81 3.19 4.26
Notebooks
Low-usage group (44) 4.25 3.85 3.70 3.19 4.06
Moderate-usage group (84) 4.06 3.48 3.43 2.90 3.93
High-usage group (95) 4.55 4.12 4.16 3.40 4.60
Total (223) 4.31 3.83 3.79 3.17 4.24
Desktop computers
Low-usage group (27) 4.19 3.42 3.74 3.03 4.11
Moderate-usage group (118) 4.24 3.79 3.74 3.09 4.04
High-usage group (74) 4.45 4.03 3.90 3.36 4.62
Total (219) 4.31 3.83 3.79 3.18 4.25

Table 2b. Cell means for the three social networking site usage groups
Social networking site perceptions

Ease-of-use Usefulness Feeling Information quality Usage intention

Twitter
Low-usage group (118) 4.12 3.67 3.60 3.11 3.93
Moderate-usage group (64) 4.36 3.85 3.84 3.08 4.41
High-usage group (44) 4.76 4.23 4.20 3.48 4.75
Total (226) 4.32 3.84 3.79 3.18 4.23
Facebook
Low-usage group (38) 3.70 2.98 2.88 2.84 2.63
Moderate-usage group (83) 4.34 3.76 3.60 3.02 4.24
High-usage group (107) 4.50 4.17 4.27 3.40 4.83
Total (228) 4.31 3.82 3.79 3.17 4.24
YouTube
Low-usage group (84) 4.13 3.67 3.61 2.95 3.99
Moderate-usage group (83) 4.35 3.87 3.83 3.31 4.31
High-usage group (58) 4.53 4.02 3.99 3.32 4.47
Total (225) 4.32 3.84 3.79 3.18 4.24

information quality perception measure, mobile usage, note- Table 4a shows the results of the simple main effect test for
book usage, Facebook usage, YouTube usage, and Twitter the access method on the social networking site perception
usage main effects are significant while desktop computer measures. These tests were used to evaluate which pair (low
usage is not significant. These results provide partial support usage vs. moderate usage, low usage vs. high usage, and
for H5 and H6. For the feelings perception measure, all main moderate usage vs. high usage) of usage groups is different
effects are significant, with the exception of the desktop in their perception of the five summated perception measures
computer usage main effect. These results provide partial from the access method groups (mobile devices, notebooks,
support for H7 and full support for H8. For the usage intention and desktop computers). The Scheffé method was used to
measure, all six main effects are significant. These results identify differences between individual groups. The Scheffé
provide support for H9 and H10. test can provide tests of each combination of groups whether
the subgroup means are significantly different. The main effect
test provides evidence that there are significant differences
(p < 0.05) between the usage amounts for the access methods
Table 3a. One-way MANOVA results
of the various social networking site perception measures.
Wilks’ lambda F-Value Significance For the mobile devices access method, the mean value
Mobile usage factor effect 0.881 2.61 0.00 shows a consistent pattern suggesting that the high-usage
Notebook usage factor effect 0.816 4.48 0.00 group is more likely to show higher perceived scores in the five
Desktop usage factor effect 0.872 2.93 0.00 perception measures than the low-usage or moderate-usage
Twitter usage factor effect 0.852 3.54 0.00 group, except for the usage intention perception measures,
Facebook usage factor effect 0.375 27.18 0.00 where the high-usage group only shows a significant higher
YouTube usage factor effect 0.924 1.71 0.08
mean score than the low-usage group. The difference between

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb
 Social networking sites and user access methods 353

Table 3b. Univariate analysis results

Social networking site perceptions

Ease-of-use Usefulness Information quality Feeling Usage intention

* ** * **
Mobile usage factor effect 4.39 7.90 4.28 9.96 6.36**
Notebook usage factor effect 5.20** 8.71** 5.38** 11.97** 10.62**
Desktop usage factor effect 1.55 4.76* 2.67 0.91 7.61**
Twitter usage factor effect 9.77** 6.52** 3.63* 8.43** 12.73**
Facebook usage factor effect 13.26** 31.36** 8.74** 61.87** 31.36**
YouTube usage factor effect 3.93* 2.68 4.90** 3.49* 4.27*

Note: F-Values are presented in the table.

*p < 0.05.
**p < 0.01.

the low-usage and moderate-usage groups is not significant for
any of the perception measures. For the notebook access
method, the mean value shows a consistent pattern suggesting
that the high-usage group is more likely to show higher
perceived scores in the five perception measures than the
low-usage or moderate-usage group. For the ease-of use,
usefulness, and information quality measures, the high-usage
group does not show a significantly higher mean score than
the low-usage group. For the desktop computer access method,
all three groups show no significant difference, with two
exceptions. The high-usage group shows higher mean value
than the low-usage group for the usage intention measure and
the high-usage group shows higher mean value than the
moderate-usage group for the usefulness measure.
Table 4b shows the results of the simple main effect test for
social networking tool usage groups (Facebook, Twitter, and
YouTube) on the social networking site perception measures.
For Facebook, the high-usage group shows significantly higher
mean scores than the low-usage group for all perception
measures. The high-usage group also shows significantly
higher mean scores than the moderate-usage group for the
usefulness, feeling, and usage intention perception measures
but not for the ease-of-use and information quality perception
measures. Additionally, the moderate-usage group shows
significantly higher mean scores than the low-usage group
for all perception measures in the ease-of-use and feeling
perception measures.
For Twitter, the low-usage group shows significant differ-
ence with the high-usage group for all the five perception
measures. The low-usage group only shows significant
difference with the moderate-usage group for the usage
intention perception measure. The moderate-usage group only
shows significant difference with the high-usage group for the
ease-of-use perception measure. For YouTube, the high-usage
group shows a significantly higher mean score than the low-
usage group in all the perception measures except usefulness.
The moderate-usage group shows no significant differences
with the high-usage group. The low-usage group only shows
significant differences for the information quality perception
measure.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study investigated the difference in perception of attitude
among the three access method usage groups (mobile devices,
desktop computers, and notebooks) and the three social
networking type groups (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube).
The results of the study show that there exist significant
differences in perception for all five dimensions of social
networking sites for the mobile device and notebook usage
groups. The high-usage group consistently shows much higher
positive perception of the social networking sites for the
dimensions of ease-of-use, usefulness, information quality,

Table 4a. Access method simple main effect test for differences in social network perception measures
Access method Social networking site perceptions Low vs. Mod Low vs. High Mod vs. High
Mobile devices Ease-of-use ns * *
Usefulness ns * *
Information quality ns * *
Feeling ns * *
Usage intention ns * ns
Notebooks Ease-of-use ns ns *
Usefulness ns ns *
Information quality ns ns *
Feeling ns * *
Usage intention ns * *
Desktop computers Ease-of-use ns ns ns
Usefulness ns * ns
Information quality ns ns ns
Feeling ns ns ns
Usage intention ns ns *

Note: Low indicates low-usage group; Mod, moderate-usage group; High, high-usage group; ns, not significant.
*p < 0.05.

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb
354 J. H. Heinrichs et al.
Table 4b. Social network site type simple main effect test for differences in social network perception measures
Social network site Social networking site perceptions
Twitter Ease-of-use
Usefulness
Information quality
Feeling
Usage intention
Facebook Ease-of-use
Usefulness
Information quality
Feeling
Usage intention
YouTube Ease-of-use
Usefulness
Information quality
Feeling
Usage intention
Note: Low indicates low-usage group; Mod, moderate-usage group; High, high-usage group; ns, not significant.
*p < 0.05.
feeling, and usage intention. For the desktop computer users,
the perceived attitude differences for the social networking
sites are not significant, with the exception of usage intention.
This suggests the importance of clearly understanding the
mobile device and notebook users in the ways they access
and use social networking sites.
In 2009, social networking site usage surpassed email
usage. In addition, Morgan Stanley forecasted that there would
be 10 billion devices using the mobile Internet by 2015
(Meeker, Devitt, and Wu, 2010). Given these changes, it is
apparent that the communications format will shift to a sharing,
interaction platform. This interaction platform will enable
users to access information about issues, topics, products,
and services from anywhere at any time and to provide
commentary to other potential users. As the mobile devices
are being adopted by more users, it is important to recognize
the difference among high-usage, moderate-usage, and low-
usage users of mobile devices. As more mobile devices are
adopted, social networking sites should consider changing
the design and layout of the user sites so that they are easy to
use and can be displayed properly to users of mobile devices
(Moss, Gunn, and Heller, 2006). In addition, organizations
interested in using social media marketing and social
networking tools should promote and develop strategies to
accommodate more mobile device users.
This could be indicating that high-usage users find using
social networking tools fun and enjoyable. The user could be
gaining intrinsic value by using these access methods. Thus,
given the expanding power and availability of mobile devices,
as new applications are developed, the developers must
consider the mobile user foremost. When developing mobile
services, developers should pay attention to all aspects of
feeling and enjoyment, especially for experiential services
(Nysveen, Pedersen, and Thorbjørnsen, 2005). Perceived
usefulness is also a relatively strong predictor of both attitude
toward use and intention to use mobile services. This is
contrasted with the desktop computer access method. A
potential explanation for the lack of significance of the desktop
computer access method is that it could be a computer used
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Low vs. Mod Low vs. High Mod vs. High
ns * *
ns * ns
ns * ns
ns * ns
* * ns
* * ns
* * *
* * ns
* * *
* * *
ns * ns
ns ns ns
* * ns
ns * ns
ns * ns
solely at work and perhaps the computer is locked down by
the organizational administrator’s security and usage policies.
The various perceptions of social networking specific sites
are significantly different between the low-usage and high-
usage groups. For the Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube sites,
the three usage groups exhibit significant differences in the
perception of the sites in terms of ease-of-use, usefulness,
information quality, feeling, and usage intention, with one
exception. For the usefulness, Facebook user groups did not
show any significant difference. Interestingly, various research
studies highlight that many frequent social networking users
trust blog posts written by people they know or trust posts from
friends written using social networking tools, whereas only a
few individuals trust organizations’ or independent bloggers’
microblogs (Li and Bernoff, 2008). The usefulness appears to
come largely from the two categories of third party experts
and individuals with similar interests to the user. These studies
further highlight that individuals find blog posts and Facebook
updates useful from individuals they know.
These results show that various usage groups show signifi-
cant difference in their perception of the social networking
sites. The high-usage group shows more positive perception
of the social networking sites than do low-usage groups. It is
important to recognize in the perceptual differences among
the usage groups that organizations utilizing these social
networking sites can encourage the high-usage users to
become opinion leaders and influencers in promoting the social
networking sites. In addition, firms can develop a strategy to
convert the low-usage groups into moderate-usage groups or
high-usage groups to increase the effectiveness of their social
networking strategies.
Twitter usage was significant for all measured social
networking perception dimensions for the low-usage to high-
usage groups. This could indicate that given the microblogging
focus of Twitter, users feel that it is meeting their needs and
that other social networking tools are used for more detailed
explanations, potentially elucidating the lack of significance
between moderate-usage and high-usage users as well as
between low-usage and moderate-usage users.
J. Consumer Behav. 10: 347–355 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/cb

Facebook usage was significant for usefulness, feeling, and
usage intention for all usage levels. Perhaps this is indicating
that a skill difference occurs with high-usage users or that
usage is affected by a critical number of friends/followers.
YouTube usage is significant only for low-usage to high-usage
groups, with the exception of usefulness. This could be
indicating that it is easy for individuals to access, enjoy, and
use the content on YouTube. Since YouTube has no
significance for usefulness, this could be indicating that its
use for networking and trust is currently limited.
This study examined how individuals create, use, and share
information and knowledge from various sources and in
various forms using three identified access methods. Yet, this
study has several limitations. A potential limitation is that the
respondents do not represent a diverse enough audience. The
respondents to this study represent a highly educated group
of individuals (58.5% had earned a master’s degree or higher),
with 49.5 per cent working full-time and were primarily female
(80.6%). The study also focused on the user perceptions of
usage instead of actual usage. Future research in this area
should address these limitations. Since the access method of
desktop computers showed no usage significance, future
research could explore the organizational issues associated
with desktop computer usage and assess whether organizations
are losing a significant benefit of information sharing and
knowledge generation by potentially locking down the use of
the computers.
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