Typical Innovative and Involvement Characteristics of Contributors to Consumer Generated Media

One key impact of consumer generated media on today’s firms is that it has become an increasingly important source of information for consumers in their decision making process. Firms that are able to gather positive messages about themselves and their products or services on consumer generated media can be instrumental to the survival and success of their business. The quality and growth of consumer generated media depend on contributions from the consumer public, and some people are more likely to post their own messages, written or otherwise, on consumer generated media than others. Understanding some typical characteristics of these people, termed active contributors to consumer generated media in this chapter, is beneficial for firms, as they can be more ready to identify them and could do something to turn them in their flavour. Based on literature review, this study has identified a number of hypothetical variables that may influence whether a person is an active contributor to consumer generated media. A questionnaire survey on 430 respondents has shown that global innovativeness, electronic innovativeness and consumer involvement significantly affect contributions to consumer generated media. Active contributors to this new medium are also more likely to be male and of a younger age. This importance of peer recommendations and consumer opinions online justifies the attention marketers continue to pay to the use of social and consume generated media. –From Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey Report (2009) INTRODUCTION Consumer generated media is a collective name applied to different forms of digital communications whereby consumers openly share their opinions and experiences, often about their reacEric Shiu The University of Birmingham, UK