BLOGGERS’ MOTIVATIONS TO PRODUCE CONTENT – A
GRATIFICATIONS THEORY PERSPECTIVE
Introduction
To date, we know little about what drives bloggers to produce content, although
understanding blogger motivations is important, since it allows marketers to address bloggers
in a more relevant and efficient way. Bloggers influence readers and become important parttime marketers (Gummesson, 1991) by spreading word-of-mouth (Fong & Burton, 2006;
Kozinets, de Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Smith, Coyle, Lightfoot, & Scott, 2007).
Their influence is based on their position in the social network built around the blog. People
who have a central position tend to become opinion leaders and have influence on the
decisions of others (Merwe & Heerden, 2009). Bloggers inform readers about tastes and
preferences (Casteleyn, Mottart, & Rutten, 2009), as well as spread product information
(Bhagat, Klein, & Sharma, 2009). Furthermore, blogs are often used for advertising and
promotion (Mustonen, 2009).
To study blogger motivations, we draw upon the theory of uses and gratifications (Katz, G, &
Gurevitch, 1974; Ruggiero, 2000) which is based on the assumption that consumers use a
medium (in this case a blog) to receive gratifications. It has been employed to explain why
people use the Internet (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004),
participate in online communities (Grace-Farfaglia, Dekkers, Sundararajan, Peters, & Park,
2006), and participate in, or produce content to discussion boards (Nonnecke, Andrews, &
Preece, 2006). Our study is a reply to the call for research by Shao (2008) to explore the
motivations of content producers, in our case, personal bloggers.
The aim of this study is to explain what motivates people to blog by investigating the
gratifications they receive from blogging. The study was conducted as a qualitative study of
12 experienced bloggers and is delimited to non-commercial, non-professional bloggers.
Use and gratifications theory applied to blogging
Use and gratification theory builds upon the assumption that people select the medium that
best fulfils their needs (Katz, et al., 1974). In the present context, use refers to writing a blog.
Gratification is in turn the outcome that people seek to obtain when they use the medium, in
this case, the positive consequences, or perceived benefits of blogging. According to Katz et
al. (1974) a gratification is a goal-directed, subjective evaluation that can be self-reported and
assessed by the active audience or user. Stafford, Stafford and Schkade (2004) describe it as a
paradigm that helps to assess consumer motivation for media usage and access. The theory
has been successfully applied in numerous studies of internet research. For example
Papacharissi & Rubin (2000) and Stafford, Stafford & Schkade (2004) employed it on
Internet use in general, Grace-Farfaglia et al. (2006) applied it to online discussion board
members, and Raacke and Bonds-Raacke (2008) used it on social networking sites such as
Facebook and MySpace.
Three studies directly discuss blogging. Chung and Sujin (2008) examined cancer patients’
and their companions’ uses and gratifications of blogs and blogging activities. The study
combines general gratifications, such as emotion management and information sharing, with
more cancer specific ones such as prevention and care (Chung & Kim, 2008). Nardi et al
(2004) found motives, such as life-documenting, commenting, expressing feelings, using
blogs as a muse and a community forum. Huang et al. (2007) added information seeking.
These studies investigated motivations for blogging, similar to gratifications, but were not
limited to writing blog content. For example, Chung and Sujin’s (2008) study included
gratifications from both reading and writing blogs.
A preliminary framework was formed by combining studies on blogging gratifications
(Chung & Kim, 2008; Huang, et al., 2007; Nardi, et al., 2004) with internet gratifications
(Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000) motivations for posting to discussion boards (Lee, C, Lim, &
Sia, 2006) and gratifications from participating in online communities(Grace-Farfaglia, et al.,
2006; Nonnecke, et al., 2006). Furthermore, gratifications were categorized according to the
gratification types found by Stafford et al. (2004), into content, process and social
gratifications. Process gratifications come from the action of writing a blog. Content
gratifications represent the outcomes that are sought by writing and sharing texts, and involve
the message. Social gratifications derive from interaction and connections with other people.
Self-presentation strategies have normally been investigated separately from uses and
gratifications research. However, we assumed that the self-presentation strategies of bloggers
may be closely linked to the gratifications that bloggers perceive to get from the blogging
activity. Self-presentation is part of the blogging activity and helps the blogger achieve
gratifications. Shau and Gilly (2003) found that self-presentation strategies have a direct
impact on the motivations to construct a personal web site. From this we infer that selfpresentation strategies may also affect bloggers motivations to blog, and thus achieve the
sought for gratifications.
Self-presentation strategies in blogging
Self-presentation is defined as “the process by which individuals attempt to control the
impressions others have of them” (Dominick, 1999, p. 647). In terms of blogging, McCullagh
(2008, p. 3) suggests that blogging gives people “a unique opportunity to work on their selfidentity via the degree of self-expression and social interaction that is available in this
medium”. Virtual self-presentation studies give insights to additional gratifications sought by
bloggers, by describing what motivates a blogger to publish blog content.
Dominick (1999) summarizes five strategies of self-presentation that can be found for
personal web pages: Ingratiation is used in order to be liked by others. Trammell and
Keshelashvili (2005) found that the most influential bloggers (A-list bloggers) engaged in
ingratiation by addressing the audience directly, praising others and paying attention to
other’s comments and opinions. Competence reflects a person’s abilities, accomplishments,
performance and qualifications. Intimidation is used to demonstrate power by threats,
statements of anger and potential unpleasantness. Exemplification has the goal of being
perceived as possessing high moral standards. Studies show that this strategy is of little
importance. Supplication is used to receive help from others. Other strategies have been
proposed, such as Social association, for example, manifested by the number of posted links
(Dominick, 1999), and Disclosure of personal information to create more meaningful
relationships (Bortree, 2005). Self-presentation strategies can enhance different gratifications,
for example, ingratiation can result in emotion management gratifications, competence may
enhance gratifications of self-improvement and life-documenting, whereas social association
and disclosure of personal information may result in various social gratifications.
Method
Studies on uses and gratifications have mostly been quantitative (Ruggiero, 2000), Internet
research being no exception (Grace-Farfaglia, et al., 2006). Both Stafford, Stafford & Schkade
(2004) and Ruggiero (2000) suggest that because we do not know the gratifications of new
media, it is better to start with composing a suitable set of gratifications through qualitative
research. We chose personal interviews to get an understanding of what motivates bloggers to
produce content to their blog, what gratifications do they perceive to get from it.
Interviews were conducted with twelve Estonian bloggers (6 male, 6 female) with substantial
blogging experience, age 22-50, and the focal blogs initiated in 2001-2007. Information-rich
cases were chosen, by combining intensity sampling, maximum variation sampling and
snowball sampling (Patton, 2002).
Spiggle’s (1994) procedure of categorisation and abstraction was followed. All passages of
text that involved a mention of motivation or gratification related to blogging were
highlighted and moved to a separate file. These passages were divided into rough inductive
categories with descriptive names. Each new meaning was evaluated on whether it was
similar to any of the previous, or if it should be moved to a new category. These steps resulted
in 51 categories describing different gratifications. As a next step the initial categories were
revised and provided with as accurate a description as possible. The categories were further
refined, compared with existing gratification categories, and organised according to type
(social, process or content).
Findings
The framework that summarizes bloggers’ motivations to blog is presented in Figure 1. The
figure draws upon the model of personal websites presented by (Schau & Gilly, 2003) in that
it includes the initial impetus for blogging and self-presentation strategies, but adds the central
concept of gratifications and presents new sub-categories applied to blogging. The framework
is presented in brief, omitting citations and descriptions of all elements due to space
limitations
Initial Impetus to Start a Blog
Moving to other
town or country
Trying out
new things
Influence of
other people
Gratifications from Blogging
Process
Emotion management
Self-improvement
Enjoyment
Content
Advocacy
Advertising
Entertain others
Enlight others
Life-documenting
Commenting
Social
Discussion
Communication
Find friends
Image management
Satisfy one’s vanity
Get help
Self-Presentation Strategies
Ingratiation
Competence
Supplication
Avoidance of supplication
Linking
Figure 1. Gratifications from blogging.
Technical features and
aestethics
Disclosure of personal
information
Three main reasons were found for starting a personal blog: moving to another town or
country, trying out new things, and the influence of other people. They fall within the
triggering events described by Schau and Gilly (2003), including changes in status or an
external prompt. The other categories mentioned by Schau and Gilly were not found in our
study (i.e., desire for personal growth and advocacy).
The gratifications depicted in Figure 1 comprise the most important gratifications found in the
study. The gratifications vary between bloggers and change over time. Some gratifications do
not apply to certain bloggers but are important to others.
Process gratifications are sought to benefit the blogger rather than the audience. Feedback is
not important in connection to these gratifications. People use blogging for emotion
management, for example, with the emphasis on releasing negative emotions and for sorting
out their feelings. In addition, regular blogging supports self-improvement, such as improving
one’s writing skills. However, it is also an enjoyable activity and pastime. Process
gratifications give the blogger immediate value, rather future value. An exception is selfimprovement gratifications, which are acquired over a longer period.
Content gratifications shed light on how and why the blogger chooses the content. One major
content gratification is traditional journal-keeping in order to keep track of one’s activities.
Content gratifications have a longer time value since the blogger gets benefits from having the
content available from the moment it is put on, and because content creation is central to
blogging. Bloggers are usually well aware of how many readers they have and may use some
space for advertising. The advertising, or advocacy, that is performed in personal blogs was
mostly about things that the blogger likes or is interested in. One blogger advocated a training
programme because he felt that he owed it to the organiser, and advertising took the form of
word-of-mouth advertising of goods and services. With the increased media attention of
bloggers who earn substantially from advertising on their blog, some bloggers also considered
earning money through advertisements.
Social gratifications were the most frequently mentioned type of gratifications. These include
interaction, such as starting a discussion or communicating with other people. The
communicative aspect of blogging was found to be important, and blogging helped to find
new and old friends. Satisfying one’s vanity was also considered a social gratification as it
includes recognition by other people. Blogging was also perceived as a form of self-branding
and self-presentation that form part of image management and affects how others perceive the
blogger.
The bloggers’ self-presentation strategies were found to affect the gratifications and vice
versa. How you present yourself affects what others perceive about you and thereby the
gratifications. Thus, people also create characters through blogging, to achieve certain
gratifications. For example, the gratification of image management is related to practical
aspects of self-presentation and showing competence.
Social gratifications are closely related to the existence of feedback mechanisms in the blog.
Aesthetics and technical features are therefore important strategies to achieve the social
gratifications of communication and discussion.
Ingratiation was used by mentioning other people, saying good things about them, but also
through self-humour. This was related to both social gratifications and content gratifications
(e.g. entertain others). Supplication was used to receive social gratifications from readers.
However, privacy was important and therefore writing about other people was often avoided.
Some bloggers had disclosed very personal information previously but the outcome had been
mostly negative, leading to negative feedback rather than positive gratifications.
Demonstrating competence by expressing own viewpoints, commenting on current events,
sharing expertise and mentioning professional accomplishments were widely used to get
content gratifications.
Conclusions
Our study shows that bloggers get a wide range of gratifications from blogging and that these
gratifications are supported by the blogger’s self-presentation strategies. The study found
three categories of process gratifications and six categories respectively of content and social
gratifications. Thus the study supports the suggestion by Stafford et al. (2004) to add social
gratifications to the traditional process and content gratifications. The interviews revealed that
the gratifications are not static but evolve over time and bloggers may end blogs and start new
ones to seek different gratifications. This supports the findings of Schau and Gilly (2003),
who found that personal websites constantly evolve.
The personal bloggers that were interviewed for our study did not have economic motives for
starting the blog and they used their blog only rarely for word-of-mouth about goods or
services. Thus a study of different types of bloggers may reveal economic gratifications, as
well as other gratifications not found here.
Many of the gratifications that were found have been mentioned in previous studies of
motivation or gratification, but not all of them in relation to blogging. For example, advocacy
and image management are new for blogging. The gratification of writing a blog as an
enjoyable activity is a new process gratification for blogging, although a similar gratification,
enjoy oneself, can be found in previous research on using the internet (Grace-Farfaglia, et al.,
2006; Nonnecke, et al., 2006). In internet research it refers to seeking a medium to have fun,
whereas in the blogging context it refers to the pleasure of writing. Satisfying one’s vanity
was also new to blogging. It was mentioned by several bloggers, demonstrating that the
attention that one gets from blogging is an important gratification in itself.
The current study can be used as a basis for designing a survey to gather more generalized
information on bloggers’ gratifications, for example, in order to segment bloggers on their
sought gratifications.
Managerial implications
This study offers important insights about the motivations of private bloggers, and thereby
guides companies to communicate more efficiently with such bloggers. They blog primarily
for their own benefit and thereby advertising somebody else’s product is not of primary
interest to them. However, advertising might be attractive to the bloggers if it were in a form
that would provide content or social gratification. For example, bloggers might be receptive
towards advertising that is perceived as entertaining or informative, or that helps initiating
discussions on the blog. Furthermore, bloggers might be willing to post links to other pages if
this fits with the topic of their blog. The finding that bloggers crave the attention that they get
from the blog also suggests that marketers that wish to advertise on the blog, or initiate
blogger word-of-mouth, should try to boost bloggers’ vanity, showing how the marketing
activity could further increase the blogger’s ratings. Future studies should look into bloggers’
motivation to act as part-time marketers, what gratifications it might give them, and how it
could be encouraged.
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