Q: One of your findings was that certain types of group members are more influenced by social pressure than others. Can you discuss the distinctions among user groups and how they influence buying?

A: We found three distinct groups. Low-status members (48 percent of the users in our sample), who are not well connected to others, are generally unaffected by the purchases of other members. Middle-status members (40 percent of the users) are moderately connected and show a strong and positive effect due to friends’ purchases. In other words, this group shows strong “keeping up with the Joneses” behavior.

Members of the high-status group (12 percent of the users) are well connected and are very active on the site. However, these users show a negative effect due to friends’ purchases because they want to remain distinct. Instead of buying items like the other members, this group tends to pursue non-purchase-related activities (e.g., uploading their own content).

I’m not sure what the low/middle/high really means, but this info on social buying behavior is interesting.