Analyzing Brand Personalities and Social Media Practices of College Athletic Twitter Accounts

by

Simran Dave

A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for Barrett, the Honors College

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

April 2018

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 Table of Contents

List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 4

List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 4

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 5

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 6

Literature Review .......................................................................................................................... 7

Brand Equity ...................................................................................................................... 7

Managing a Team Brand .................................................................................................. 7

Fan vs. Consumer .............................................................................................................. 8

Social Media Branding .................................................................................................... 10

Brand Personality ............................................................................................................ 12

Social Media Brand Personality versus Team Brand Personality .............................. 15

Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 17

School Selection ............................................................................................................... 17

Data Collection................................................................................................................. 18

Content Analysis .............................................................................................................. 19

Findings ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Brand Personalities ......................................................................................................... 24

Social Media Practices .................................................................................................... 25

Relationships Between Social Media Practices and Personality Types ...................... 29

Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 32

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 36

Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 36

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 Future Research............................................................................................................... 37

References .................................................................................................................................... 39

Appendix A................................................................................................................................... 44

Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 46

Conscientiousness Coding Sheet .................................................................................... 46

Extraversion Coding Sheet ............................................................................................. 47

Open-Mindedness Coding Sheet .................................................................................... 48

Social Media Practices Coding Sheet ............................................................................. 49

Appendix C................................................................................................................................... 50

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 List of Figures

Figure 1. Tweet #1 ......................................................................................................................... 27

Figure 2. Tweet #2 ......................................................................................................................... 28

List of Tables

Table 1. Brand Personality Traits .................................................................................................. 21

Table 2. Social Media Practices Used in Coding .......................................................................... 22

Table 3. Conscientiousness Frequencies ....................................................................................... 24

Table 4. Extraverted Frequencies .................................................................................................. 24

Table 5. Open-Mindedness Frequencies ....................................................................................... 25

Table 6. Media Frequencies .......................................................................................................... 25

Table 7. Information Frequencies.................................................................................................. 26

Table 8. Links Frequencies............................................................................................................ 26

Table 9. Retweets Frequencies ...................................................................................................... 29

Table 10. Conscientiousness*Information Crosstabulation .......................................................... 29

Table 11. Links*Information Crosstabulation ............................................................................... 31

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 Abstract

This study examined the brand personality types and social media practices of six college athletic

Twitter accounts. Specifically, this study investigated whether certain brand personalities

corresponded with specific social media practices on Twitter. The author conducted a content

analysis of each school’s tweets to measure brand personality and scraped data in order to collect

social media practice information. Results suggest that brand personality and social media

practices are distinct. Extraversion was the most common personality type among all schools. In

addition, schools that tweeted less frequently than others exhibited more brand personality and

used more visual media.

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 Introduction

In recent years, sports has become a multi-billion-dollar industry (Hillman &

Butterworth, 2015). However, researchers predicted that sports organizations will become

challenged to create profit in the future (Gladden, Irwin & Sutton, 2001). For example, a

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) study in 2013 found that although college

athletic revenues rose, expenses exceeded revenue at all but 20 schools in the Football Bowl

Subdivision, with the average loss being $17.6 million (Burnsed, 2014). Universities in particular

rely on their athletics department to bring in revenue (Simplicio, 2011).

Researchers suggested that managers of any sports organizations will be interested in

managing their team brand so that they may create positive views of their brand and influence

the behavior of their consumers (Gladden et al., 2001). Creating and maintaining a favorable

brand image in the mind of consumers is important because sports and revenues are driven

directly by consumers. Social media has emerged as a way for organizations to reach their

consumers and maintain brand perception and personality (Keller, 2009; Thompson, Martin, Gee

& Eagleman, 2014).

This study investigates whether there are any relationships between certain sport brand

personalities and specific social media practices on Twitter. A content analysis of six college

athletic Twitter accounts was conducted to determine if any relationships exist between

personalities and practices.