Social media, new digital technologies and their potential application in sensory and consumer research

Summary

New digital technology has made the exchange of user generated content on internet possible and turned the web into a very popular social medium. Facebook alone has over one billion active users and many people spend today more than one third of their waking day consuming social media content [1]. People share life stories and personal opinions in blogs, write short comments on Twitter, chat with their friends on Facebook, post pictures in Instagram and Flickr, watch other peoples’ videos on You Tube and send small snaps of what they are doing on Snapchat. They share information and express their emotions. They tell life stories and give advice. They brag and they complain. People are no longer only passive consumers of professional internet content; they participate actively in creating and sharing their own content. This interactivity creates a lot of opportunities and challenges, so also for sensory and consumer science. Social media makes global, one-to-one communication easier and cheaper than ever, makes the voice of the consumer much stronger, and allows a dissatisfied costumer not only to complain to her friends but to post negative comments to millions of people [2]. The aim of this paper is to review recent literature and present the opportunities and challenges social media offers for sensory and consumer science. After defining the term social media and giving a short overview of the different types, the focus will be on two specific aspects: crowdsourcing and communication of health and food safety