Posting, Lurking, and Networking: Behaviors and Characteristics of Consumers in the Context of User-Generated Content

While user-generated content (UGC) and social media have generated interest from researchers and practitioners, many facets of users and producers of such content remain undocumented. This research presents a classification of UGC participants, which includes posters, lurkers, and networkers, identified by their behavior patterns at UGC-based websites. By performing a post hoc analysis, similarities and differences among the three UGC user types in demographics, personality types, and key consumer characteristics are uncovered. Implications for advertisers are noted.