| MicroBlog is a new social media.Data show that domestic MicroBlog users have grown explosively in the first half of2011,so far, the total number of registered users is very considerable. Because of the value of MicroBlog,the major operators have begun to explore the marketing opportunities. However,there are some obstacles behind the amazing development.First,growth in the number of users has become stable, and increase of the number of users is no longer the biggest point of competition.Second,User activity is not high. Not only MicroBlog but also traditional SNS has the phenomenon of continuous loss of registered users,and real-name system will reduce the active participation of users.Third,MicroBlog sites are serious homogenization and lack of core competitiveness.Therefore,how to keep users, how to cultivate and enhance the user loyalty is very important.Starting from the concept and features of MicroBlog,reviewing and analyzing the related literature at home and abroad, integrating a variety of theories and models of user loyalty, this research constructed MicroBlog users’loyalty model and proposed the hypothesis, considering the comprehensive effect of satisfaction, perceived value, switching costs,adding social capital based on the community characteristics of MicroBlog.This research mainly used questionnaire survey.First, the initial questionnaire was designed by the reference to maturity scales of previous studies and combination of MicroBlog.Then,it was modified through the pre-test and a formal questionnaire was formed to carry out a survey and collect data. At the stage of data analysis, there was descriptive statistics on the overall situation of the questionnaire.Then, reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested.Last,structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the relationship between the variables and verify the hypothesis made in the conceptual model.This research drew the following main conclusions:(1)The factors affecting customer loyalty in different areas have different emphasis.In general, There are mainly satisfaction,perceived value,switching costs and so on,which are equally applicable in the MicroBlog environment.(2)Perceived value on the one hand indirectly affect user loyalty by positive effect on satisfaction, on the other hand directly and positively affect user loyalty.Among them,perceived value has the most significant effect on satisfaction, followed by the perceived value’s effect on behavioral loyalty.(3)Satisfaction has significant and positive effect on behavior loyalty and attitude loyalty(4)Switching costs are divided into procedural switching costs and relational switching costs.Among them,relational switching costs’positive effect on behavior loyalty is the most significant. In addition,both procedural switching costs and relational switching costs have significant and positive effect on attitude loyalty.(5)Social capital are divided into structural capital,relational capital and cognitive capital.Among them,only cognitive capital(common language and shared vision) has significant and positive effect on satisfaction.This paper has several innovations as below.(1)Based on the existing theory,introducing social capital theory,this research constructed improved model of influence factors.(2)This research tested model through empirical research and drew MicroBlog users’loyalty model.Furthermore,this paper has several research significance as below.In theory/this research applied user loyalty theory to the study of MicroBlog so as to expand the scope of application of user loyalty theory,introduced social capital theory to deeply understand the social characteristics of the new generation of social media such as MicroBlog,and provided a reference for subsequent research on social media user loyalty.In practice,this research found the main factors affecting user loyalty by empirical analysis,and presented suggestions to cultivate and maintain active users,which are reference to the development and promotion of MicroBlog sites. |
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