Study: Facebook Users Who Feel Good About Themselves Feel Good About Ads

[![][1]][2]Consumers are more likely to identify with [brands' ads][3] when placed next to personal information on their Facebook pages, compared with on strangers' pages, finds a new _Journal of Consumer Research_ study. What's more, the higher the Facebook user's self-esteem, the more positive his or her attitudes are likely to be toward the brand (if, that is, the ad relates to the self).

"Consumers are increasingly comfortable posting a wealth of personal information online, and such digital extroversion certainly creates opportunities for marketers to effectively target and embed their appeals," said [study][4] author Andrew W. Perkins, a professor of marketing at the University of Western Ontario, in a press release.

In the concept studied, known as implicit self-referencing, the positive sensations a person with high self-esteem  experiences when viewing his or her Facebook page can translate into a positive experience with the brands placed near the personal information on that page, especially when brand concepts tie into consumers' self-concepts.

"The vast majority of marketing exposures are experienced under conditions of low attention and little cognitive involvement," said study author Mark R. Forehand, a professor of marketing at the University of Washington, Seattle, in a press release. "The current research demonstrates that brand identification can form even in these low-involvement conditions if the brand is merely presented simultaneously with self-related information."

Among the experiments, one found that participants related more positively to brand names related to "self," compared with those related to "other" on Facebook; another found that the higher the person's self-esteem, the more powerful the effect. A third experiment found that the effect occurs when brands are presented near consumers' personal content on the social-networking site.

"The brands did not benefit from Facebook directly, but rather from their proximity to the consumers' personal content," Forehand added.

The study, titled "Implicit Self-Referencing: The Effect of Non-Volitional Self-Association on Brand and Product Attitude." will appear in the June 2012 issue of the _[Journal of Consumer Research][5]_. It has been published online already.

Readers: Do you think you would be more likely to respond to an ad placed near your personal content on Facebook?

[![][6]][7]
[![][8]][9]

[![][10]][11] [![][12]][13] [![][14]][15]

![][16]

[1]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SelfEsteem.jpg (SelfEsteem)
[2]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SelfEsteem.jpg
[3]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-sponsored-stories-move-beyond-the-like-2011-12 (Facebook Sponsored Stories Move Beyond The Like)
[4]: http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/faculty/directory/andrew-perkins/
[5]: http://ejcr.org/
[6]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/901iyJGFhm0Ebzk2kJiOSTt8l_E/0/di
[7]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/901iyJGFhm0Ebzk2kJiOSTt8l_E/0/da
[8]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/901iyJGFhm0Ebzk2kJiOSTt8l_E/1/di
[9]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/901iyJGFhm0Ebzk2kJiOSTt8l_E/1/da
[10]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[11]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=IlgLEiwZrwk:l_7F69TUI-A:pnQdOprp5To
[12]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[13]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=IlgLEiwZrwk:l_7F69TUI-A:qj6IDK7rITs
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=IlgLEiwZrwk:l_7F69TUI-A:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=IlgLEiwZrwk:l_7F69TUI-A:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/IlgLEiwZrwk

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/IlgLEiwZrwk/study-facebook-users-who-feel-good-about-themselves-feel-good-about-ads-2011-12