A Taxonomy of Social Networking Site Users: Social Surveillance and Self‐surveillance Perspective

ABSTRACT Since social networking sites (SNS) are widely used in modern society, users increasingly use SNS to manage or maintain their existing social relationships and form new ones. This research applies social surveillance and self‐surveillance to classify SNS user types and explores each type's effect on SNS’ marketing performances. Three hundred three online questionnaires are collected to test the research questions. The results of cluster analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) reveal the following four user types based on the different degrees of social surveillance and self‐surveillance: versatile users , self‐expression users , pass‐along users , and introvert users . Further, the introvert users have the least impact on product‐related information sharing, perception of social presence, purchase intention toward offers on SNS, and emotional experiences in social shopping among the four SNS user types.