The statistics of Instagram share of usage also show the significant growth in the past 4 years, for instance, the number of users in 2013 was 90 million, while in 2017 is 800 million people.
Finnish statistics shows that only 14% of 1005 respondents use Instagram daily and about 54%
do not use it at all.
YouTube analysis worldwide have results that people use in 65% Youtube daily or more than once a day. The results presented in Finland limited in research as well and the survey presented in Statista (2018) shows that 38% of respondents use Instagram one, two or more times per day and only 18% do not use it at all.
Therefore, Facebook and Youtube are the most popular platforms in both cases, the Instagram is popular as well worldwide, but the Finnish investigations had obtained lower results.
However, this fact cannot be taken into account due to the limitation of respondents, thus these three platforms are the most interesting for people, where advertisement for the business development could be placed in order to get benefits from these activities.
2.5 Media richness theory
The Theory of Media Richness (MRT) created by Richard Daft and Robert Lengel in 1986. It is a communication theory that explains the relationship between the content of a transmitted message and the means of communication through which the message is transmitted. According to the media richness theory, this relationship is directly proportional, that means - the more important and complex for understanding and interpretation the transmitted message the richer in its capabilities should be the chosen means of communication (Daft & Lengel 1986). In other words, “the theory indicates the richer the media is the richer the communication and better results in consumer-company relations” (Daft, Lengel & Trevino 1987).
According to the theory, there are two major assumptions. The first one represents that organizations process information in order to as much as possible reduce uncertainty and equivocality. The second assumption means that certain means of communication and information transfer work better for certain types of communication. The choice is effective
when the wealth of the capabilities of the chosen mean of communication corresponds to the complexity of the task.
In this concept, uncertainty is the difference between the existing information and the information that is need to complete the task by organization (Galbraith 1977). The next term - equivocality means “ambiguity, the existence of multiple and conflicting interpretations about an organizational situation” (Weich, 1976). In other words, equivocality means a “confusion and lack of understanding”. Therefore, it brings problems in understanding of the whole picture about given information. The figure below (FIGURE 1) is presented by Daft and Lengell in their article (1986) in order to represent the relations between high/low uncertanty and equivocality. For instance, when there is a high uncertainty – people know usually understand which questions should be asked but they do not have needed information, and vice, versa, when there is a high equivocality-people do not know the question. (Daft & Lengel 1986).
Thus, when solving the set of communicative task, it is necessary to reduce the level of uncertainty (find the right answer to a question) or ambiguity (to determine the correct question, to which answer should be found).
FIGURE 5. Hypothesized Framework of Equivocally and Uncertainty on Information Requirements. (Daft & Lengell 1986, 557).
According to the Daft and Lengell (1986) media richness hierarchy explains in accordance with four criteria. There are following:
• The possibility of instant feedback: communication is considered as completed when a feedback is received on the transmitted message. Feedback can also show whether the
message was correctly understood. The presence of feedback allows correct errors when sending a message.
• The ability to transmit multiple cues: information can be transmitted in various forms, for example, as text, audio or video messages. The more types involved in the transmission of a message, the more information will reach the recipient of the message.
• Language variety used: Daft and Lengel divide languages into two types: high and low degree of diversity languages. Languages with a high degree of diversity are not limited to the use of symbols, provide a wide range of ideas and are open to interpretation, for example, natural languages, music or art. Languages with a low variety include restrictive symbols, provide a narrower range of ideas and not open to interpretation (such as mathematics or statistics). The richer means of communication, according to theory, will be those which use languages of a high degree of diversity.
• Focusing media on the individual or Personal focus: each channel of communication has a different degree of focus on the person. Thus, the higher focus, the more information in the message will be transmitted (share with emotions and feelings)
Therefore, if the more of the above characteristics are presented at the communication channel, the richer in its capabilities is. According to the Hierarchy of media richness theory presented by Daft, Lengel and Trevino in 1987 there are following types of communication: “face-toface, telephone, written documents, unaddressed documents” (FIGURE 6). The scale is made in accordance with the wealth of the type of communication from the highest (face-to-face communication) to the lowest (unaddressed documents). The table shows that personal or faceto-face communication is high in media richness since oral communication allows to react instantly to a message, while unaddressed documents are low in personal communication and does not serve as a rich capability.
FIGURE 6. Hierarchy of Media Richness (Daft, Lengel & Trevino 1987, 358).
At the present time, Media Richness Theory should be complemented with online interaction through social media regardless the location of parties, because social media serves as one of the richest media source and includes video, conversations, texts, different additional information at the same time. Thus, this point will be stated as the highest level of the model and means the most effective and rich method of Media Richness Model, which is used by people and popular nowadays. The example of the new Media Richness Model that could be represented at the present time.
FIGURE 7. Example of Media Richness model for online and social media time of 2019 year.
Furthermore, there is a “Guide to evaluating enterprise social networks” created by Sharpe T., where social presence theory describes how “media has different levels of interpersonal capability; the more intimate, synchronous, direct the media then the higher the corresponding social presence” (2012). Using the social presence and media richness definitions - the social capability of a large amount of platforms “can be plotted” as presented below. According to the table, there are different groups formed by types of social media, where the most visible and useful for the projects is Social Organization, which indicates one of the most popular social media platform – Facebook. Social Organization is High and Social in uncertainty, while in the middle of equivocality and Media, which emphasis is made generally on relationships, activity ranking and users’ grouping. On this stage, “the social organization platforms have meaning of making existing processes frictionless, incorporating rich media sharing and communications
“(Sharpe 2012).
That is why social media platforms are presented as a rich source for interactions with people and firms all over the world and considered as a useful tool for company’s promotion.
FIGURE 8. Hypothesized Framework of Equivocally and Uncertainty on Social Media platforms. (Sharpe T 2012).
The media richness theory is relevant at the present time, however it has been criticized because it was created before appearing social media and internet as a whole. Nevertheless, the theory is used as a basis for different projects and serves as a main evidence that new social media is high in media richness and suitable for advertisement as it combines all necessary criteria provided by Daft and Lengel in their article (1986).