The dynamics of online social interactions

As new technologies became an increasingly greater part of people’s lives, consumers started to share their opinions, and experiences on the internet. This participatory culture generates a constant flow of a large volume of data on customers’ activities, behavior, and attitudes towards products and brands, which provides marketers with the opportunity to conduct qualitative research online. Based on this context, this dissertation has as its main objective to understand the working dynamics of virtual communities of consumption while simultaneously exploring the applicability of netnography for the practice of marketing and its strategic benefits. Through an extended literature review, it was possible to establish that there is a direct correlation between the diffusion of information technologies and deep changes in consumers’ behavior that compelled changes in market research towards computer-mediated social interactions. In order to expand the proposed investigation, a research was conducted through a netnographic analysis and an online survey in order to gather practical evidence on the nature of members’ relationship with virtual communities of consumption. Results show that online reference groups are considered to be valuable sources of information on products and services and that members tend to trust their peers, which corroborates that there is great value for marketing in investing in netnography with the aim to better understand consumer behavior. Additional questions were also raised regarding the conditions that motivate consumers to actively engage in virtual communities and what leads members to developing a high level of involvement with them