Social Media Mavenism and Metrics: An Action-Driven Exemplary for Knowledge Dissemination on Social Networks

Research is yet to address market mavenism and knowledge sharing in the age of new media. Firms’ exploitation of social media to connect with consumers is becoming the norm. Hinging on product imagery, and led by such platforms as Pinterest, Wanelo, and WeHeartIt, a breed of social media is gaining ground by attracting female consumers. Accordingly, there is a need to (1) conceptualize social media mavenism in a way that deliberates the specificities of these media, (2) theorize about its relationship with the social commerce-related behaviors consumers conduct on these networks, and (3) investigate its attitudinal and experiential determinants. With Pinterest as a case in point, this research fills these gaps by conceptualizing social media mavenism and placing it in nomological network using interviews and data from 528 consumers. The results supported our thesis that the social network’s utilitarian attitude, role in decision making, and digital virtual consumption generate maven-like behavior by fueling three social commerce-related behaviors (network expansion, social privatization, and knowledge creation). The maven-like behavior, which amounts to knowledge dissemination on the social network, strongly predicts the network’s opinion leadership and account attachment. Post-hoc analysis reveals that individual factors help discriminate social media mavens, showing predictive validity and drawing parallel with market mavenism. The results thus lay the groundwork for a measure (the SMM metric) that reflects knowledge dissemination on a social network, enticing the practitioners eager to capture the potential of a network’s influencers to not only target mavens but also discern the social commerce-related behaviors the members conduct, which can be nurtured by enhancing the network’s attitudinal and experiential factors.