Political segmentation based on pictorial preferences on social media

Abstract

Social media platforms, which are accepted as a channel for selling, listening and receiving continuous feedback from customers, have the opportunity to expand beyond the limits of traditional mass media channels. Social media mechanisms work well if the right message is delivered to the right person, so knowing the person concerned is a prerequisite for communication. This article aims to explore the potential of photos shared, liked and commented on social media as a consumer segmentation tool. The findings of study should help understand customer segments and deliver customized products, services, and advertisements. An online survey consisting of pictures and items was conducted in Turkey. The aim was to evaluate users' pictorial preferences to identify different consumer segments. The Support Vector Machine procedure revealed the existence of two clusters. It enables them to recognize different segments, to see marketers as individuals in order to communicate with themselves and to understand world views from a variety of perspectives. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature.