Beyond the privacy paradox: The relevance of a uses and gratifications approach to social media

This research draws on and develops U &G theory to explain digital identity sharing in the context of social network consumption. The research uses a survey of 249 individual to examine how privacy protection behaviours vary according to the motivations for brand engagement on a social networking site. Our findings identify three clusters “Brand Skeptics” who do not engage in commercial interaction, “Brand Value Seekers” who are inclined to interact with brands for economic reasons and “Brand Enthusiasts” who have hedonic motives. Further analysis finds that those who are Brand Value Seekers are less likely to share personal information. The findings have important implications the social media marketing of commercial brands.