Two Formulas for Success in Social Media: Social Learning and Network Effects

Author

Liangfei QIU, University of Texas at Austin
Qian TANG, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Andrew B. Whinston, University of Texas at Austin

Publication Type

Conference Paper

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

12-2013

Abstract

This paper examines social learning and network effects that are particularly important for online videos, considering the limited marketing campaigns of user-generated content. Rather than combining both social learning and network effects under the umbrella of social contagion or peer influence, we develop a theoretical model and empirically identify social learning and network effects separately. Using a unique data set from YouTube, we find that both mechanisms have statistically and economically significant effects on video views, and which mechanism dominates depends on the specific video type.

Keywords

Social Learning, Network Effects, User-Generated Content, Social Contagion, Social Media

Discipline

Communication Technology and New Media | Databases and Information Systems

Publication

Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, 19-20 December, Milan

City or Country

Milan, Italy

Citation

QIU, Liangfei; TANG, Qian; and Whinston, Andrew B.. Two Formulas for Success in Social Media: Social Learning and Network Effects. (2013). Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, 19-20 December, Milan.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/2195

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.