Abstract
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn let people broadcast messages to their entire network of contacts all at once. As the number of users and the amount of information they broadcast grow, platform managers face an increasingly pressing problem - which broadcasts should they show their users? To address this question, I study the database of a social media company that started charging its users to receive broadcasts about their contacts. By relating purchase rates to properties of users' social networks, I identify which ties are most valuable to maintain through broadcasts. I find that strong ties increased purchase rates more than weak ties. However, purchase rates also increased with the structural diversity of users' ties. Social media platforms should thus prioritize broadcasts from ties that are either strong or structurally diverse.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | 35th International Conference on Information Systems "Building a Better World Through Information Systems", ICIS 2014 |
| Publisher | Association for Information Systems |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781634396943 |
| State | Published - 2014 |
| Event | 35th International Conference on Information Systems: Building a Better World Through Information Systems, ICIS 2014 - Auckland, New Zealand Duration: Dec 14 2014 → Dec 17 2014 |
Other
| Other | 35th International Conference on Information Systems: Building a Better World Through Information Systems, ICIS 2014 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | New Zealand |
| City | Auckland |
| Period | 12/14/14 → 12/17/14 |
Keywords
- Broadcasts
- Social media
- Social networks
- Structural diversity
- Tie strength
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Computer Science Applications