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DIGITAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF FACEBOOK

Wurood Shaher

Liberty University

DIGI 710

October 7th, 2022

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Section 1: 

One of the world's leading manufacturers of electronic products, Samsung is a South Korean

corporation that produces a broad range of consumer and industrial electronics, including

appliances, digital media players, semiconductors, memory chips, and integrated systems. It now

ranks among the most famous brands in technology and contributes to nearly one-fifth of all

exports from South Korea. They are a worldwide conglomerate of manufacturers with its main

office in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. The vast Samsung Empire, the biggest South

Korean chaebol, comprises multiple related enterprises, most of which are unified under the

Samsung name. As of 2020, Samsung has the eighth-highest global brand value.

This paper will conduct a digital ethnography (netnography) on the interactions of Samsung's

followers and their responses to Samsung’s Facebook posts, as Samsung is considered active in

posting. This Digital Ethnography of Facebook aims to understand the characteristics and

attitudes of individuals who follow a particular organization, especially Samsung's follower

attitudes towards their brand. As this paper is being written, Samsung has 161,401,591 followers

on Facebook. Archival data elicited data and field note data are the three main methods of data

gathering that may be used in ethnographic research, according to Kozinets (2010). Social

networking site interactions from the past are preserved in archival ethnographic data. Field note

data are observations made by the researcher, while elicited data are new data produced by the

interaction between the researcher and participant.

The field note data and historical ethnographic data will be used in this essay. Although the

phases of data gathering and data analysis are distinct in this process, it is crucial to stress that

they are not carried out independently of one another. For example, using the data collection

method described in Kozinets (2010), Facebook posts of Samsung will be examined and then
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categorized based on the following factors: themes of the followers' interactions, tones of their

messages, perspectives on the topic, and whether or not the followers agreed or disagreed with

the organization themselves or other followers of the same organization, as well as whether or

not they liked the post.

The rationale behind selecting Samsung as the subject of this analysis paper is simply because

they are a massively successful organization that relies on having a massive following to profit.

Because they have been massively successful in the past, even branching out to several different

technological industries and making an impact on those industries by revolutionizing the

products of that sector with their own, it would be beneficial to understand the perspectives and

beliefs that Samsung followers have towards Samsung themselves, and understanding whether or

not their followers seem satisfied with their products and are planning to be loyal repeat

customers or if they are a onetime consumer that would not repeat their purchase. This paper will

pay particular attention to the standard views of Samsung customers. It should be mentioned that

although Facebook is not the sole factor in their success in gathering and interacting with such a

fan base, it is undoubtedly one of the most important.

The trending topic currently being discussed by Facebook users is the upcoming Black

Friday. The day following the American Thanksgiving holiday, known as Black Friday, has

historically been a holiday in and of itself for many workers. It is often a day chock full of

exclusive sales and deep discounts and is regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season.

The issue with Samsung, however, is that they have been rumored to provide absolutely 0

successful customer service to their consumers. This, in turn, has caused much distrust in the

company because when a consumer may require assistance using their product, regardless of

what the consumer may need help with, no customer service is available. This is mainly due to
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Samsung shutting down its central over-the-phone helpline for these consumers. These rumors

surrounding Samsung have caused many people to stop using Samsung as many begin to shy

away from using their products and attempt to find another successful brand name.

Unfortunately, Samsung has not responded to any rumors and has yet to take a position on the

issue. 

The date range of posts included in this analysis will be September 1 to October 5, 2022.

Different objectives and topics from the investigation of the online community were organized

using archival and field notes. Techniques for qualitative and ethnographic theme content

analysis were used to study the data. Qualitative content analysis broadens the scope of the

investigation by examining meanings, themes, and patterns that may be either obvious or hidden

in a text (Grbich, 2013). Thematic content analysis was accepted as a technique for a textual

investigation since ethnography uses an inductive approach to examine qualitative data

(Silverman, 2006). The extensive investigation of classifying and categorizing textual data into

its component consensus patterns is known as thematic content analysis (Grbich, 2007; Kozinets,

2010). In line with Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-step analysis methodology, a thematic content

analysis was used in this study.

Section 2:      

The results of the analysis conducted on Samsung followers' interactions with Samsung's

Facebook page indicate that there are three main types of interactions with Samsung's Facebook

posts on their page. One of the types of interactions with Samsung's Facebook page is Facebook

users who post on Samsung's Facebook page asking for updates on announced and upcoming

technological advancements by the company; these people appear to be loyal to the brand and

quite excited for upcoming releases and are planning on purchasing them. For example,
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Facebook users commented to ask when Samsung's next phone model would be released.

Another type is the interactions by people who seem very disappointed with Samsung's customer

service and are attempting to call out the company on social media, hoping that the company

would fix the problem with their supposedly terrible customer service. The last type of

interaction is consumers who appear to be loyalists to the Samsung brand and are complimenting

or attempting to spread their happiness with the quality of their product. 

           Type one consumer interactions often have a commonality of simply asking Samsung

themselves through their Facebook page posts when they plan to launch their following product.

The tone of their messages often looks pretty excited and ecstatic as they have heard of Samsung

announcing their next product launch but without giving a date when this product will be

available in stores. Their perspective towards Samsung appears to be very happy with this

specific brand, and they chose to affiliate themselves with it. However, they appear to have no

issues because Samsung does not usually respond to customers' complaints. However, most of

these interactions by Facebook users on Samsung’s Facebook page are entirely off-topic. They

are not interactions related to what Samsung themselves is posting. 

           Type two consumer interactions are mostly complaints or very aggressive messages

towards Samsung, with these interactions trying to get the message across that they are not happy

with the current state of their product. These interactions almost always tend to be related to

Samsung’s lack of customer support or customer service when it comes to dealing with Samsung

product-related issues. The tones of these types of interactions are always very aggressive and

appear angry. None of the Facebook users behind these interactions are happy. To address the

perspective of people with this type of interaction, they are furious that Samsung is refusing to
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help them address the issues they are finding with their products. These comments sometimes

contain threats, for example, the Facebook user threatening to switch to another brand.

           Type three consumer interactions have the commonality of their interactions simply

saying or discussing their status of loyalty to the brand that is Samsung. These interactions are

never aggressive and have a very happy, upbeat, or excited tone. They almost always express

their happiness with their Samsung brand products and swear their alignment with the brand. The

tones of these comments or messages are always happy or cheerful. They express the idea that

they are satisfied with their brand and the products and service that their brand provides. The

perspective of these consumers when it comes to the topic of a lack of customer service by

Samsung is that they do not seem to be aware of such issues as they have never had any

experience with this brand. 

Section 3:      

When all of these Facebook user interactions are considered together, they show a bad company

image. While there are loyalists, many more comments were ranting about Samsung's lack of

customer service with genuine anger and fury, along with various discussions about how

Samsung fails to address its shortcomings and instead deletes messages or threads that talk about

their shortcomings. They would rather hide the issue than face and address the issue head-on. On

the other hand, most of these posts demonstrate how disappointed the brand's followers feel.

They trusted that they would be buying a good quality product and were promised quality

customer service when they ran into an issue with this product they purchased. However, as

aforementioned, Samsung fails to keep their end of the promise as they appear to delete the

comments of users calling them out and delete threads related to their lack of customer service. 
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Many examples of comments demonstrate that Samsung does not provide customer service to

consumers who may experience issues with their products. For instance, this comment by a

Facebook user on one of Samsung's recent posts advertising their upcoming black Friday sales

states, "I am interested in purchasing two bespoke refrigerators. I love that we can change colors

in the future. I also love the kimchi fridge. I see this option in Korea, but I do not see the color

options available here. Moreover, the new French door is a different height than the 4-door flex

so I can't place them next to each other. And as of October 1, there is no longer an appliance

helpline. The chat option has been slow and not super helpful. Would love feedback." While this

comment itself does not depict the anger of many other comments, it still demonstrates the

disappointment of this Facebook user with the fact that there is no longer an appliance helpline

for Samsung consumers who may require assistance with their Samsung-branded appliances.

This same comment was replied to by another Facebook user who follows the brand, and their

reply does demonstrate anger and fury with the brand and how they handle things, as the reply

states, "hopefully you never have to deal with them. However, if you have an issue, no one will

be willing to help you. As you can already tell before even buying them." This comment

demonstrates the main issue that Samsung is failing to address: the fact that Samsung fails to

assist users with their products after purchasing them. 

These posts and interactions with the brand depict the user's attitudes towards it, as it is easy to

determine their attitudes with the tone they use in their posts about the bran Mostity of these

interactions are angry consumers who are disappointed with the lack of customer service brand

had promised them when they purchased their product. Another example of comments that

portray the users' anger states, "So mad! Imagine purchasing a new Samsung TV. It works for a

year and a couple of months. It quits working, and you call Samsung and they agree to repair it
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and will cover parts and labor. Great! Then I get a call several weeks later that parts are taking

too long to get in so they are canceling the ticket, and I am sent to the Exchange dept. for an

exchange. Then I am told they cannot do the exchange because it is out of warranty. Spoke with

two managers Jean-3514 and Daniel-0885 and still are told not to and that I would have to wait

for parts to come in. Another ticket was created and I have to wait all over again. Now I got a

notification that the ticket is canceled again. Still waiting on a call back from a manager. Do not

buy Samsung products." This comment on one of Samsung's Facebook posts demonstrates the

consumer's frustration with this brand. The tone of this message is evident; this specific

consumer is not happy with the customer service they have received regarding their Samsung

television. 

Another comment by a Facebook user made an exciting claim. However, the validity of this

claim is still unconfirmed, even though many others have stated the same thing. This specific

Facebook user stated, "SAMSUNG DELETES POSTS THAT CRITICIZE CUSTOMER

SERVICE!" While this may be a preposterous claim, there is a chance that it may be true, as

several other companies in the past have been accused of doing such a thing. The attitude and

perspective of this specific Facebook user demonstrate that they are done affiliating with this

brand and depict their frustration caused by Samsung's inability to address the issue and by their

resorting to, rather than addressing the issue, attempting to hide it from the general public so that

their image is not tarnished. 

While the validity of the previous comments statement remains unconfirmed, another commenter

has questioned why Samsung does precisely what the previous comment in this paper has

accused them of doing, which is deleting posts and threads that attempt to criticize their poor

customer service. This Facebook user says, "How about doing timely monthly updates for your
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most expensive device? And not deleting posts/ threads on your member's apps, when people ask

about a security update on this same $2000.00 device. The update support (lack thereof) is

horrendous and an insult to purchasers. If you want to be pro future, be proactive in also

supporting those same devices "you as a producer" command the highest dollar for.. Some of us,

so need up-to-date devices for our profession." This comment demonstrates that not only is this

user disappointed in the brand's lack of customer service, but also their lack of updates and

security issues that have been found associated with Samsung branded products.
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References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in
Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Grbich, C. (2007). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction. London EC1Y: SAGE

Publications Ltd.

Grbich, C. (2013). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Introduction (2nd Ed.). New York: Sage.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in
Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Kozinets, R. (2010). Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. London: SAGE

Publications Ltd.

Silverman, D. (2006). Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analyzing talk, text, and
interaction. London: SAGE Publications.