Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo
The boom in social media with regard to producing and consuming information simultaneously implies the crucial role of online user influence in determining content popularity. In particular, understanding behavior variations between the influential elites and the mass grassroots is an important issu...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Entropy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/24/5/664 |
| _version_ | 1797500070424215552 |
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| author | Bowen Shi Ke Xu Jichang Zhao |
| author_facet | Bowen Shi Ke Xu Jichang Zhao |
| author_sort | Bowen Shi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The boom in social media with regard to producing and consuming information simultaneously implies the crucial role of online user influence in determining content popularity. In particular, understanding behavior variations between the influential elites and the mass grassroots is an important issue in communication. However, how their behavior varies across user categories and content domains and how these differences influence content popularity are rarely addressed. From a novel view of seven content domains, a detailed picture of the behavior variations among five user groups, from the views of both the elites and mass, is drawn on Weibo, one of the most popular Twitter-like services in China. Interestingly, elites post more diverse content with video links, while the mass possess retweeters of higher loyalty. According to these variations, user-oriented actions for enhancing content popularity are discussed and testified. The most surprising finding is that the diverse content does not always bring more retweets, and the mass and elites should promote content popularity by increasing their retweeter counts and loyalty, respectively. For the first time, our results demonstrate the possibility of highly individualized strategies of popularity promotions in social media, instead of a universal principle. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:56:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e358cdb799dc48a28a773d7f33ff2108 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1099-4300 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:56:34Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Entropy |
| spelling | doaj.art-e358cdb799dc48a28a773d7f33ff21082023-11-23T10:55:22ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002022-05-0124566410.3390/e24050664Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on WeiboBowen Shi0Ke Xu1Jichang Zhao2State Key Lab of Software Development Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, ChinaState Key Lab of Software Development Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, ChinaSchool of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, ChinaThe boom in social media with regard to producing and consuming information simultaneously implies the crucial role of online user influence in determining content popularity. In particular, understanding behavior variations between the influential elites and the mass grassroots is an important issue in communication. However, how their behavior varies across user categories and content domains and how these differences influence content popularity are rarely addressed. From a novel view of seven content domains, a detailed picture of the behavior variations among five user groups, from the views of both the elites and mass, is drawn on Weibo, one of the most popular Twitter-like services in China. Interestingly, elites post more diverse content with video links, while the mass possess retweeters of higher loyalty. According to these variations, user-oriented actions for enhancing content popularity are discussed and testified. The most surprising finding is that the diverse content does not always bring more retweets, and the mass and elites should promote content popularity by increasing their retweeter counts and loyalty, respectively. For the first time, our results demonstrate the possibility of highly individualized strategies of popularity promotions in social media, instead of a universal principle.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/24/5/664social mediauser behaviorposting entropyelitesuser influencepopularity promotion |
| spellingShingle | Bowen Shi Ke Xu Jichang Zhao Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo Entropy social media user behavior posting entropy elites user influence popularity promotion |
| title | Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo |
| title_full | Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo |
| title_fullStr | Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo |
| title_full_unstemmed | Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo |
| title_short | Behavior Variations and Their Implications for Popularity Promotions: From Elites to Mass on Weibo |
| title_sort | behavior variations and their implications for popularity promotions from elites to mass on weibo |
| topic | social media user behavior posting entropy elites user influence popularity promotion |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/24/5/664 |
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