Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by
Simran Dave
April 2018
1
Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 6
Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Data Collection................................................................................................................. 18
Findings ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 32
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 36
Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 36
2
Future Research............................................................................................................... 37
References .................................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix A................................................................................................................................... 44
Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 46
Appendix C................................................................................................................................... 50
3
List of Figures
List of Tables
4
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
5
Introduction
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
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
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