Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

8-2013

Abstract

Given that users are simultaneously connected in multiple communication channels in a social networking service site (e.g., chat, message, and group message), we explore user's collective networking behavior. We collected the data from a mobile social networking site with 4.8 million registered users. The empirical estimation shows interesting results: (1) there are cross-effects across the communication channels: substitute effects for "chat and message" and complementary effects for "message and group message" and "chat and group message" (2) there is significant local network effect but global network effect is not observed, (3) users utilize communication channels for different purposes according to their networking activity level (conveying simple information vs. building sophisticated inter-relationship), and (4) we identify the distinct evolutionary trajectories of an individual user's networking behavior by channel: negative slopes for chat and message vs. upward trend for a group message. Our experimental study shows that we can better predict the word of mouth (WOM) effects by understanding users' collective networking behavior across diverse channels.

Keywords

Mobile Social Network, Multiple Communication Channels, Evolution of Networking Behavior, Cross-Effects

Discipline

Computer Sciences | Social Media

Research Areas

Information Systems and Management

Publication

SNA-KDD 2013: Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Social Network Mining and Analysis, August 11-14, Chicago, IL

ISBN

9781450323307

Identifier

10.1145/2501025.2501037

Publisher

ACM

City or Country

New York

Copyright Owner and License

LARC

Additional URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2501025.2501037

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