Purpose

The integration of social media and e-commerce has resulted in a rising phenomenon among individual content providers (ICPs), who used to offer free content, to provide consumers with paid content, such as online courses, Q&As or consultations. Despite the prevalence of ICPs’ content monetization, empirical research has rarely studied its underlying mechanism. This paper examines how the characteristics of free content contributed by ICPs on social media platforms influence their paid content sales, focusing on the perspective of human brand.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical setting is an online knowledge exchange platform, where users are allowed to provide free content (e.g. answers) on the social media platform and launch paid content (e.g. lectures) on the e-commerce platform. A machine learning technique is employed to construct measures for the characteristics of free content, and fixed-effects estimation is presented to confirm which factors have a significant influence on the sales of paid content.

Findings

The empirical results show that the quality, diversity and expertness of free content have a significant positive impact on the sales of the ICP-paid content, with the brand popularity of ICP playing a mediating role.

Originality/value

This study is the first attempt to demystify the relationship between content contribution and ICPs’ content monetization from the perspective of human brand. The findings validate the effectiveness of the “Selling by Contribution” strategy and provide valuable insights for ICPs and social media platforms.

中文翻译：

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贡献销售：基于人性品牌的个体内容提供商的变现策略

目的

社交媒体和电子商务的融合导致个体内容提供商（ICP）的现象日益增多，他们过去提供免费内容，现在向消费者提供付费内容，例如在线课程、问答或咨询。尽管ICP的内容货币化盛行，但实证研究很少研究其潜在机制。本文从人性品牌的角度探讨了ICP在社交媒体平台上贡献的免费内容的特征如何影响其付费内容的销售。

设计/方法论/途径

实证设置是在线知识交流平台，允许用户在社交媒体平台上提供免费内容（例如答案），并在电子商务平台上推出付费内容（例如讲座）。采用机器学习技术构建免费内容特征的度量，并提出固定效应估计来确定哪些因素对付费内容的销售有显着影响。

发现

实证结果表明，免费内容的质量、多样性和专业性对ICP付费内容的销售有显着的正向影响，其中ICP的品牌知名度起中介作用。

原创性/价值

本研究首次尝试从人类品牌的角度来揭秘内容贡献与ICP内容变现之间的关系。研究结果验证了“贡献销售”策略的有效性，并为 ICP 和社交媒体平台提供了宝贵的见解。