2010 - Public Relations Society of America

This question did not look at the social media usage from each particular brand as in
research question two, but instead Millennials’ social media usage in general. The significant
correlations support the idea that the more these technological Millennials interact with social
media, the more they tend to favor the top 10 social companies/brands. Based on the results from
research question two, this positive correlation was somewhat expected. The companies/brands
that were selected as the top 10 most social brands were selected because of their innate use of
engaging audiences with social media. Those Millennials who use social media should
seemingly positively correlate with these brands based on the simple fact that they are engaging
with tools that have made these companies/brands rise to the top of the list. The more tools with
which Millennials engage, the more opportunity they have to exposure to one or more of these
companies. Furthermore, the more social media tools that Millennials use, the more comfortable
they likely are with interacting with each company/brand because of the company’s/brand’s
extensive use of the social media.
Hypothesis #3. The third hypothesis in the current study states, “Millennial students’
satisfaction with the relationship they have with one of the top 10 social brands will be positively
associated with the company/brand through a social media outlet.” A correlation analysis was
run for the number of social media tools (e.g., 0 = no tools, 1 = 1 social media tool contact, etc.)
to which participants were exposed by each company/brand and wanting their relationship to
continue for a long time (1 = strongly agree to 7 = strongly disagree) with each respective
company/brand. Results indicated no significant correlations for the number of social media
tools that participants were exposed to by each company/brand and wanting their relationship to
continue with that company/brand for a long time. As indicated from the results in Table 6
(Appendix F), the number of social media tools Millennials were exposed to by each of these
companies did not relate to those same Millennials wanting to maintain a relationship with the
company/brand for a long time.
Although the results for Sony reached significance, none of the other companies/brands
indicated a significant correlation between the number of social media tools that participants
were exposed to by each company/brand and a desire for their relationship to continue with that
company/brand for a long time. This finding supports the literature (Flanagin and Metzger, 2008:
Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, & Smith, 2007; Mazzarella, 2006) on the Millennials in regard to
finding the fine line between engaging and tuning out completely. Attracting and maintaining
their attention continues to be a challenge for public relations practitioners who are desperately
trying to reach this key market. While Millennial students have a more favorable perception of
most of the top 10 social companies/brands if they have had relationship with them through a
social media tool, as borne out by hypothesis two, as those social media tool interactions
increase, it does not necessarily increase their satisfaction with that particular company/brand.
Data from the current study support the idea that more types of social media usage does not
increase user satisfaction with the relationship with a company/brand. These results are
consistent with existing research that encourages public relations practitioners to engage in only
those social media tools that they are willing to devote the time, resources and effort into making
succeed (Gillin, 2007; Li and Bernoff, 2008; Scott, 2007). This study further supports the
recommendation of engaging in only those social media for which public relations practitioners
are ready because engaging in multiple social media tools does not seem to increase the chances
of successfully establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the Millennial Generation.
Research Question #4. Research question number four asked, “To what extent, if any, is
there a difference between gender and each social media tool?” A chi-square test was run for
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