Presentation at IFKAD2017 conference.

1. Advocator, Jester,
Spokesperson, Provocateur or
Boundary spanner?
Exploring different communication styles
at Twitter
Sanna Ketonen-Oksi*, Tampere University of Technology
Harri Jalonen, Turku University of Applied Sciences

2. WHY THIS STUDY?

3. 3
DATA, EMOTIONS, EXPERIENCE
in value creating novel ecosystems
www.deeva.fi

4. MOTIVATION FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
ANALYSIS
• Collaboration with a company in the energy industry.
• Focus on improving the company´s customer service
through social media.
Understanding their customers through following
discussions in social media
Creating a taxonomy for different social media
communication styles.
This early phase taxonomy for different social media
communication styles used in Twitter.

5. DATA COLLECTION / SELECTION
• Altogether 58 192 Tweets (27 881 retweets)
• Collected in Feb2016-Feb2017
• List of 25 keywords of interest
Selection of 10 130 Tweets from 357 individuals
A sample of 2100 tweets (every 1:5) for analysis

6. CHOOSING A THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK?

7. Source: Jalonen 2017
7

8. THEORY OF LIVING,
SELF-PRODUCING SYSTEMS
• None of the qualities exist alone, but in interaction
with the other / the surrounding world.
• Strong emphasis on systems thinking.
• PROCESS OF INTERACTION
a. Receiving information or COUPLING
b. Processing information or EMERGENCE OF MEANING
c. Adapting to information or TRANSFORMATION (learning)
Sources: Maturana ja Varela 1974, 1980, 1987.
Maula 2005. (Organisations as learning systems)

9. PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
OCEAN / THE BIG FIVE
• Five main characteristics, hundreds of subtraits
• Dynamic, stable traits
• Universal, regardless of language or culture.
• Context-dependent and therefore difficult to predict.
Sources: Katz, Cattell 1946 / Diener 2009

10. THEORY OF USES AND
GRATIFICATION
• ”Why do people use a certain media?”
• ”What do they use it for?”
• Gives perspective on choices of media, on media
consumption and on the impacts of media.
1) Information seeking (news and events)
2) Entertainment (of self)
3) Social interaction(making friends and socialising with them)
4) Self-expression
5) Impressions management
Sources: Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch 1973
Gao and Feng 2016 (Branding with social media)

11. ANALYSING THE DATA,
RESULTS

12. THEMES OF ANALYSIS
– Function (informing/connecting/collaboration/challenging/profiling)
– Style (descriptive/editorialising/criticism/supportive/entertaining)
– Argumentation (reason or emotions)
– Target (individual or organisation)
– Links and pictures (yes/no)
– Number of hastags
– Attitude towards climate change (fearfulness, faith, ?)
– Criticism (.. towards a) energy industry, b) public servants and politicians, c)
environmental organisations (blaiming/defending/?)

14. 14

15. ADVOCATOR
• Contributes to knowledge sharing (41 %)
• Socially active in interaction (41 %).
• Reasons with ration (77 %).
• Often targets individuals (39 %), not organisations (7 %).

16. 16
!

17. JESTER
• Interacts in emotional ways (90 %).
• Mostly targets to individuals (29 %).
• Often challenges in interaction (68 %),
but can be very positive too.
• Majority of jesters are men (88 %).

18. 18

19. SPOKESPERSON
• Most often shares information (82 %).
• Prefers adding links to his/her messages (74 %).
• Compared to other communication styles, often interacts as an expert
(38 %).
• Reasons his/her messages strongly (95 %).

20. 20

21. PROVOCATEUR
• Often challlenging in his communication(52 %),
but is equally interested in social interaction (24 %).
• Arguments both with emotions (59 %)
and with reason(41 %).
• Mostly targets individuals(38 %).

22. 22

23. BOUNDARY SPANNER
• Just like the spokesperson likes interacting
in the role of an expert (34 %).
• Reason based communication style (63 %), but rarely
has any links to enhance his/her communication (94 %).
• Shares information (36 %) but also likes building social
contacts (37 %).
• Acts as a boundary spanner in uniting people.

24. 24
FIRST ATTEMPT FOR TAXONOMY

25. - These categorisations by styles do not refer to individuals
as such.
- They are not stable and linked to a tweeting person, but
on the context of the discussions and on the role the
person takes regarding the matter being discussed. =
A person may appear in several categories depending on
his/her role and context.
NOTE:

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QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
Contact: sannaketonenoksi@icloud.com
ketonenoksi @ Twitter, LinkedIn