3. Methods
The purpose of this study was to assess social media participants’ perception of authenticity and trustworthiness
of online advertising versus the authenticity and trustworthiness of respective brand communities. We were
looking furthermore at differences and similarities of those perceptions across national or cultural borders. For that
purpose we distributed a questionnaire to 400 participants in France and the USA. The questionnaire contained a
total of 21 items with a focus on the perceptions of reliability, credibility, and accuracy of both brand communities and advertising on social media. The questions focused on trust in Facebook brand communities and their perception
toward online advertising. The objective was to collect data from two countries and statistically analyze it. The
authors are fluent in both English and French. They translated the English version into the French version. A local
translation service in France was used to fine-tune the translation. This multilingual approach helps assuring the
translation is accurate and valid in both languages. A cohort of students in France was given the document to pilot
for consistency with the original version of questionnaire in English. After obtaining the IRB approval, two of the
authors reviewed the questionnaires and disseminated them to students in the classrooms at their respective
universities. A total of 200 students were targeted in each country. Out of 400 students who received survey, 355
provided valid responses to all survey questions. Students were not required to respond to the questionnaire as
outlined in the IRB document. Nevertheless, most students responded and did not have any questions to the
administrators of the instruments or the clarity of the questions in the instrument. The principal investigator was
present in France at the time the survey was distributed there and then in US when the participants were taking the
survey. The full process of obtaining survey responses started in 2012 and finished in 2013. To ensure the integrity
of the data all the data was stored on the PI's department’s secured server, only the PI and co-authors had access to
the questionnaires and the database.
After the data was obtained and the analysis was done, In order to assert the reliability of the survey, Cronbach’s
Alpha test was conducted on the data set. The questions used in the survey were consistent and had the responses in
the form of Likert scale with the format in form of strongly disagree, disagree undecided, agree and strongly agree
which play a key factor in assessing the scale is one-dimensional. The scores obtained by the survey were correlated
and the variability present in individual scores was tested using SPSS. The alpha (α) value in the test is 0.926 which
indicated that the results of the questions asked in the survey demonstrated a high internal consistency. The result of
the analysis is depicted in the table 1.1, where “N” indicates the total number of questions asked to each participant
of the survey and the corresponding value obtained is 0.926.