Abstract:

This paper aims to identify the major motivations of users to be active members of Facebook community and determine whether these motivations depend on the demographic factors. Quantitative research presented in this paper consisted in an analysis of data collected during an online survey that was carried out in the spring of 2016. Overall, 749 respondents who were selected on the basis of quota sampling participated to the survey. Age, gender and education of the respondents were selected as quota parameters respecting the same proportions as they are represented on Facebook in the Czech Republic. The results of the analysis show that most people use Facebook to maintain contact with their friend and receive up to date information about public affairs. As the weakest motivators were identified the prestige gained by being part of the social network and the ability to communicate with company websites. Using and analysis of variance (ANOVA), individual hypotheses were tested for each age, gender and education group of parameters. The aim was to determine differences in preferences between various categories of users.