Developing a classification of motivations for consumers’ online brand-related activities

With the advance of new and highly interactive media technologies, internet users have become active seekers and producers of content (Livingstone, 2004). Social media provide internet users with unparalleled opportunities and completely different ways to interact. Myriad so-called social media platforms, popular examples of which are YouTube, Facebook and Epinions, facilitate a multitude of online activities based on communicating, interacting, expressing, sharing, creating, and publishing user-generated content about anything, including brands (Hawkes and Gibbon 2008). For instance, people watch videos on Absolut Wodka’s YouTube channel, talk about IKEA on Twitter, or upload pictures of their new Converse sneakers to Facebook.