Research On The Relationship Between User Satisfactions And Behaviors: The Case Of Sina-microblog

Microblogging, as a social media, which has emerged as new and popular tool forshort and frequent communication, is increasingly influential in today’s businesses andsociety. Microblogging is developing rapidly in China, with over200million registersof Sina-microblog and Tencent-microblog. It has social and media attributes,nevertheless, properties of microblogging is still in discussion in academic and business,and understanding of property will impact microblogging promotion and enterprises’marketing strategy. Thus, this study investigates properties of microblogging from viewof user satisfactions.This study researches on university students in China, applies uses andgratifications (U&G) theory to explore the relationship between motives, satisfactionsand user behaviors in the context of Sina-microblog, to identify its social and mediaattribute. The author conceptualizes motive as gratifications sought, satiscations asgratifications obtained, and user behaviors as composed of amount of microbloggingusage and microblogging network. The amount of usage is indicated by time andfrequency of use, and microblogging netwok is indicated by the number ofmicrobloggers a user follows and the followers a user has.This paper adopts questionnaire survey to do empirical study of relationshipbetween user satisfactions and behaviors. Scoail satisfaction refers to microbloggingsatisy user’s needs in communicating and contacting with others. Media satisfactionrefers to microblogging satisfy users’ needs in acquiring information. Data of215university students were collected, with164valid left.The results show that media satisfaction is positively related to amount ofmicroblogging usage; social satisfaction is not significantly related to microblog use. SoSina-microbolg is stronger in media attribute than social attribute, and users use it inorder to acquire information. Besides, microblogging network has positive influence onamount of microblogging usage. This study also compares satisfactions and motives andfind Sina-microblog meets users’ needs of participate in discussion, seek and offer help,various forms of content on microblogging.This paper applies uses and gratifications theory to explore the propertiesof microblogging by researching on relationship between user satisfactions and behaviors. This study will pave the way for subsequent research, and also have astrong practical significance for microblogging promotion and enterprises’designing marketing strategy.