The online personal networks of foodbloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in time of economic crisis

THE ONLINE EGO-NETWORK OF
FOODBLOGGERS:
THE RISE OF AMATEUR PROFESSIONALISM IN TIMES
OF ECONOMIC CRISIS

Ivana Pais (ivana.pais@unicatt.it)
Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan

Cecilia Manzo (cecilia.manzo@unifi.it)
Universita’ di Firenze

Riccardo De Vita (r.devita@gre.ac.uk)
University of Greenwich Business School, London

The online ego-network of foodbloggers

Agenda

•  Theoretical framework

•  The research project

•  Methodology

•  The food industry: first results

•  Conclusions

•  Q&As


Theoretical framework

Sociology
of

professional

groups

Sociology
Social

of
social
network

media
analysis


The research project

•  Sociology of professional groups
o  High occupational mobility
o  Expansion of knowledge-based work and hybrid professional groups
à The emergence of pro-am

•  Sociology of social media
o  Social network sites as intentional organizations vs appropriable social
organisations
o  The boundaries between private and public sphere are collapsing;
diffusion of reputational systems
à Social media as a new “working space” and a new setting for studying
professional groups

•  Social network analysis
o  Emphasis on online large networks and overall network structures
o  Difficulty of collecting data (in particular about professional) and limited
presence of mixed-method approaches
à Collection and analysis of data already available online, deep analysis of
limited number of selected actors and integration of different research
techniques


Research Questions

Our study aim to analysis the role of online ego-network in
professional life.

o  RQ1 - What are the individual characteristics and the
motivations of professionals who use SNSs?

o  RQ2 – What are the characteristics of the online ego-network?

o  RQ3 – What are the differences between ego-network on
different social network sites?

o  RQ4 -What are the differences between online and offline ego-
network?

o  RQ5 - What are the differences between professional groups
online?


Research objectives

Characteristics
of prominent
Background,
actors online
motivations, use of
social media

Overall network
structure (different
approaches)
Online
Professional networks of
group prominent
actors
Ego-network analysis on
different SNS


The research team

•  Scientific partners
o  Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
o  University of Greenwich

•  Media:
o  Gummy Industries
o  La Nuvola del Lavoro (Corriere.it)
o  Trovolavoro.it (Rcs)

•  Data management and IT:
o  Basili.co
o  Reputation Manager


Communication and media


Methodology
The empirical setting/professional groups

Formal
Construction Law/Legal
professional
groups Engineers - TBC professions

Informal
professional Food Finance
groups

Product Service


Methodology
The data collection process

Deﬁne" Search" Rank"

Social Network Online
F2F interview" Questionnaire"
Analysis"


Methodology
The identification of online prominent actors

Social Networks

Linkedin

Twitter

Facebook
Connections Contents


Methodology
The online questionnaire

•  Personal background

•  Professional activity

•  Use of the web

•  Online networks

•  Objectives and achievements through the use of social media

•  Reputation in the professional group


Methodology
The Ego-network data collection

•  Online ego-networks collected through an online application
o  Facebook
o  Twitter
o  Linkedin

•  Ego to alter connections and alter to alter connections

•  When available alters’ basic attributes collected (e.g. Age,
location, bio)


Methodology
The face to face interview – From ego-network to personal network

•  Data interpretation and sense making of online networks
o  Facebook
o  Twitter
o  LinkedIn

•  Comparison
o  Online
o  Offline


FOODBLOGGER

FIRST RESULTS


Results
Online videos - Top 20 on YouTube

530 videos online, made available by 236 YouTube channels generated
10.5 M. visits and more than 11K comments

Titolo Visualizzazioni Commenti Preferiti Durata
-‐min Utente
Ricetta:Decorare
con
semplicita'
una
torta 756728 446 454 00:04:30 Greedyweb
Impasto
per
l a
pizza,
l a
ricetta
di
Giallozafferano 576910 238 791 00:02:46 GialloZafferanoTV
Tiramisù,
l a
ricetta
di
Giallozafferano. 479750 157 730 00:02:55 GialloZafferanoTV
Le
zeppole
fritte
graffe
napoletane
dalle
ricette
di
Nonna
Anna
semplici,

economiche,
gustose. 449499 117 548 00:06:37 kayenna
Mozzarella
i n
Carrozza,
l a
ricetta
di
Salame
di
Cioccolato,
l a
ricetta
di
Crepes,
l a
ricetta
di
Lasagne
alla
Bolognese,
l a
ricetta
di
Propone
una
ricetta
con
i l
gatto,
Bigazzi
l icenziato
dalla
Rai 276383 1745 108 00:01:04 ristotv
La
Video
Ricetta
Passo-‐Passo
della
Focaccia
Genovese 251595 168 544 00:04:51 vittorioviarengo
Pollo
alla
cacciatora,
l a
ricetta
di
Penne
all'Arrabbiata,
l a
ricetta
di
La
ricetta
della
crema
Chantilly
HD 187547 77 122 00:02:53 blogdolci
Ragù
alla
Bolognese,
l a
ricetta
di
Ricette:Involtini
i mpanati
alla
siciliana 147225 167 217 00:05:55 lacucinaitaliana
Pollo
al
Curry,
l a
ricetta
di
Video
ricetta:
Un
menù
di
antipasti
al
sapore
di
mare 124614 63 146 00:10:08 sitcomitalia
Gnocchi
di
Patate,
l a
ricetta
di
Besciamella,
l a
ricetta
di
Video
ricetta:
muffin
per
colazione? 105372 42 156 00:11:45 sitcomitalia


Results
Facebook – Top 20 fan pages

53 Fan Pages identified, followed by more than 125K users, who generated
about 7K posts and 8.5K comments

INTERAZIONE-‐ INTERAZIONE-‐
TOTALE
POST
COMMENTI
INCREMENTO
FAN

NOME
FANPAGE NUMERO
FAN COMMENTI
AI
POST
COMMENTI
AI
POST

LIKE TOTALI TOTALI MESE%
AMMINISTRATORE FAN
Viva
l a
Focaccia 60.733 6.319 405 899 431 468 1%
Ricette
-‐
Le
Gioie
del
palato 10.619 5.378 244 574 574 0 8%
Sorelle
i n
Pentola 10.480 3.596 330 358 319 39 3%
Cake
show 5.929 4.487 259 1.208 1.015 193 2%
Dolce
Mania
per
l a
Pasticceria 3.512 255 48 90 71 19 1%
La
cuochina
sopraffina 3.489 2.461 516 1.075 948 127 5%
Francesca
Sugar
Art
-‐
Le
torte
di
Francesca 2.418 1.607 383 676 252 424 9%
Delizie
da
Gustare 2.346 340 168 150 113 37 4%
FANTASTICARE
IN
CUCINA 2.313 1.212 74 273 273 0 2%
Juls'
Kitchen 1.804 1.974 485 552 487 65 4%
L'
Arte
nelle
Mani

(di
Giuli) 1.770 289 76 66 58 8 2%
La
cucina
di
Virginie 1.444 319 276 120 85 35 5%
Fiordifrolla 1.408 1.036 150 243 243 0 2%
La
CuCiNa
Di
MaMMiNa
GiOvI 1.216 129 55 47 28 19 3%
Mamma
Papera's
blog 1.015 1.390 480 632 584 48 4%
il
Blog
di
Flora 992 247 148 120 63 57 1%
Cucinando
i n
casa 966 281 123 108 104 4 3%
Un
Pizzico
Di
Cannella 943 133 54 37 33 4 0%
Chef
Laura
at
Home 890 230 74 63 47 16 2%


Results
Twitter – Top 20 accounts

Screen
name N°
Follower N°
Following N°
Tweet
PinchMySalt 99646 1210 15829
RecipeGirl 14241 1155 32300
CannelleVanille 14196 336 10786
DineandDish 12033 7433 22300
browneyedbaker 10559 4259 11537 •  92 accounts identified
TwoPeasandPod 9695 2019 33620
atablefortwo 8270 414 6750
foodblogallianc 8043 1508 113 •  Followed by almost 340K
runwithtweezers 6181 1196 8569
chrispople 6138 793 31692
followers
chowandchatter 5992 4325 71472
kalynskitchen 5818 786 14294
userealbutter 5769 469 16316 •  Generated 860K tweets
cookincanuck 5314 2590 10836
FoodforMyFamily 5132 2253 5958
toccodizenzero 5009 1169 32686
GoodBite 4806 2179 1842
TheLittleKitchn 4715 3342 18334
eatlivtravwrite 4702 1846 34761
JuliaParsons 4613 1174 8455


Results
The presence of foodbloggers online

•  Main characteristics of
prominent actors

o  Women
o  Interest/experience in the
communication industry
o  Care for the visual aspect of
their dishes
o  From hobby to profession
o  Passion for cooking, link
with values such as family
and tradition


Results
A focus on foodblogger (N= 9, r.r. 50%)

•  Age range from 24 to 47, with 5 respondents aged 31-39

•  One influential actors living abroad

•  Only one man

3
Hours per day on
2,5 social media
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
Facebook (N=8) Twitter (N=7) LinkedIn (N=7) Other Social Blogs (N=8)
Networks (N=2)


Results
Online activities

Which contents do you publish Sense of belonging to
online? communities

7 •  8 respondents declared to
6 feel part of at least one
professional community
5
online (5 of at least two)
4 •  Only one declared to be part
3 of one (and only one) offline
professional community
2
•  Online communities facilitate
1 access to information,
0 overcoming the problem of
Often about Only about NA physical distance
food, but food
sometimes •  Online influencers say a lot
about other about themselves online
issues


0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Meeting interesting people
Results

Accessing useful
Information
Establish new relations
Tell the others about my
daily life
Communicate my feelings

Be considered influential
Spend my time without
getting bored

Be up-to-date
Maintain relationships with
acquaintances
Have fun
Objective

Meeting influential people
Achievement

Communicate my ideas
Maintain relationships with
my closest friends
Be considered an
The objectives and the results achieved by using social media

interesting person
Meeting knowleadgable
people
Find collaborators
Be considered
knowledgeable
Find a job

Find customers

Results
Building reputation in the food industry

•  Respondents identified •  Clear consensus on the
communication and identification of the most
technical skills as the most important influencers online
important factors to develop
a positive reputation in the
professional group •  Lack of consensus and
information of people
perceived influential offline
•  Long presence in the
industry and reputation
offline or recommendations
are not perceived as relevant


Results
Foodblogger 1 – Facebook network


Results
Foodblogger 1 – Twitter network


A network approach to the study online influence
Foodblogger 1 - The characteristics of online networks

Connections Density N. groups N. isolates
Facebook 237 0.05 8 14
Twitter 1117 0.10 31 1
LinkedIn 12

Age (avg) Connections Location Study Industry
(avg)
F 28 542 60% Lombardy, University 9% food
11% abroad (86%)
Tw 1082 21% Lombardy,
4% abroad
L 133 83% Lombardy University 8% food
(100%)


Results
Foodblogger 1 – Facebook network/subgroups

Family

Friends
(fiance)
Various

Food High Friends
school (dance)

University Same
surname


Results
Foodblogger 1 – Twitter network/subgroups


Results
Foodblogger 1 - Comparing ego networks online

Subgroups in Facebook Subgroups in Twitter

•  Number of subgroups: 8 •  Number of subgroups: 31

•  Clear clustering based on the •  More difficult interpretation.
nature of the relationship. The interviewed does not
Mainly friendship ties know all her followers.
developed in different However all the subgroups
environments, only one which were identified are
subgroup is “food” related “food related”


Results
Foodblogger 1 - Comparing ego networks online
Twitter Facebook

Degree Degree
(n.connectios= 1117)
Info Info
(n.connectios= 237)

her professional
1 687 food - interviewed 43
profile

2 653 food 35 friend

3 601 food - interviewed 32 relative

4 538 food 28 university





9 498 food - interviewed 26 university

10 482 food 25 friend


Results
Foodblogger 1 – Offline networks


Conclusions
Implications – based on very preliminary results, more to come!

•  Results
o  Emergence of new form of professionalism and new way to build a
reputation
o  Technological specialization: different SNS are sources of different
types of resources (from emotional support to information)
o  Complexities associated in analyzing online network data
o  Importance of a qualitative interpretation of online networks

•  Limitations and open issues
o  Size of networks and data coding
o  Technical problems in the mapping of LinkedIn networks
o  Multiplexity and homophily cannot be explored at this stage
o  Multiple profiles


Conclusions
The next steps

•  Completion of data analysis

•  Comparison across professional groups

•  New measures, e.g. for subgroups

•  Integration of SNA and qualitative analysis with simulation
techniques


Conclusions
The next steps

Online
+

oﬄine

oﬄine
online


The online personal networks of foodbloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in time of economic crisis

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