The Role of Sense of Belonging in Social Media Usage: A Tale of Two Types of Users

Social media websites have continued to proliferate, and the way in which people stay connected has also evolved. The issue of user loyalty a website remains crucial given that the competition is severe. Websites need loyal users who continue to use their sites to survive and be successful. In this research, we applied self-regulation framework to investigate the factors leading to user loyalty to a social media site. In particular, the role of sense of belonging, which is a common emotional reaction to a social media site, is examined. A survey of users in a popular social media site in Taiwan was conducted. Results show that both sense of belonging and service quality have direct effect on loyalty, whereas trust affects loyalty indirectly by fostering a sense of belonging. Service quality affects loyalty through trust and sense of belonging. Notably, trust has insignificant effect on loyalty as originally proposed. Users are then classified into two groups, namely, heavy and light users, based on their usage. Among light users, service quality has no direct effect on loyalty. Therefore, sense of belonging has sole direct impact on loyalty. Both service quality and sense of belonging contribute to loyalty in users who spend more time online. Implications of this study are also discussed.