Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Opinions posted via mobile devices are more timely,
shorter, more “to the point” and more negative than
web reviews.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Agenda
Mobile Technology Changes
The Research Study
Findings from the Study
Guidelines for Managing Reputation
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of
User-Generated Content 1/3
 On August 13, 2013, under pressure from its 10.4
million users who access the platform each
month via mobile devices, Yelp allowed users to
post reviews from their mobile devices.
 Up to that date, Yelp had resisted enabling such
reviews, citing concerns about their short length
and overall quality.
 The Yelp example suggests that even firms at the
forefront of technology-mediated interaction
with customers are struggling to manage the
impact of new IT devices.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of
User-Generated Content 2/3
In the past, a brand manager could carefully
craft brand messages that were then
delivered to consumers through television,
print, radio and static websites.
Today, those same brand messages must
compete with user- generated opinions that
are published and distributed around the
world through social media.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Mobile Technology Changes the Nature of
User-Generated Content 3/3
 Publicly expressed
opinions may not
simply reflect the
personal evaluation of
the individual posting a
comment.
 Rather, they are often
influenced by the
opinions of others and
by timing effects.
 “Unbiased hotel
reviews, photos and
travel advice for hotels
and vacations”
 TripAdvisor
 “Unbiased reviews by
real people”
 Epinions
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Agenda
Mobile Technology Changes
The Research Study
Findings from the Study
Guidelines for Managing Reputation
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
The Research Study
 Primary data source for this study was all reviews
posted on a leading online review platform for
travel products in 2012 relating to the 25 largest
U.S. markets (n=293,945).
 From this data, matched samples of all reviews
posted via mobile devices (30,540) and via the
web interface (38,248) for the same product on
the same day are were extracted.
 A machine learning algorithm designed to
establish if a review was posted on the same day
as the service.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Agenda
Mobile Technology Changes
The Research Study
Findings from the Study
Guidelines for Managing Reputation
Page 8/15
Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Findings from the Study 1/5
Reviews Posted via Mobile Devices are
Shorter
reviewers posting via the website use, on
average, 41.3% more text than mobile users.
After excluding emoticons, reviews posted on mobile
devices use less punctuation.
Mobile reviews use more abbreviations and Internet
slang than their web counterparts.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, text written on mobile
devices has fewer misspellings.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Findings from the Study 2/5
 Reviews from Mobile Devices are Posted Earlier
customers who used the mobile- enabled review
system are 2.46 times more likely to contribute their
comments on the same day as the service encounter
compared to those using the website.
individuals commenting in the months following the
service encounter are 1.38 times more likely to do so
via the web- based review system.
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Findings from the Study 3/5
 Reviews Posted from Mobile Devices are More
Negative
Customers posting their commentary through the
mobile platform select the worst evaluation (i.e.,
“terrible”) proportionally 1.66 times more often for
their overall rating
The results are similar for “poor” ratings, albeit of
lesser magnitude (1.27 and 1.35 times for overall and
service ratings, respectively)
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Findings from the Study 4/5
What surprised you the most ?
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Findings from the Study 5/5
Shorter
Earlier
Negative
What caused this?
How to manage it?
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Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Agenda
Mobile Technology Changes
The Research Study
Findings from the Study
Guidelines for Managing Reputation
Page 14/15
Impact of Mobility and Timing on User-Generated Content
Gabriele Piccoli & Myle Ott – September 2014
Guidelines for Managing Reputation
Manage the Essential Nature of Reviews
Posted via Mobile Devices
Recognize the Triggered Nature of
Mobile-Posted Reviews
Managers may be able to stimulate
positive reviews.
How?
Strategy for responding to negative
reviews posted via mobile devices.
Mobile reviews are 2.46 times more
likely to appear on the same day as the
service.
Triggers and caution
Proactively Manage Communication
Channels
Monitor for Early Signs of Customer
Dissatisfaction
Managers should seek to mitigate the
need for customers to vent their
frustration online – with real world
venting options
Complement customer service strategy
with a monitoring system designed to
intercept negative experiences from
digital data flows.
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