What makes online content viral? The contingent effects of hub users versus non-hub users on social media platforms

摘要

Extant research has focused on the role of hub users (e.g., individualswith a large number of ties to other people) in social media-based productadoption or information diffusion processes to the neglect of non-hub users.Drawing on the strength-of-weak-ties perspective and social capital theory, we (1)reveal systematic differences in characteristics of hub users vs. non-hubusers in terms of user type, follower type, as well as user-followerrelationships and (2) demonstrate differential effects of non-hub usersversus hub users contingent upon contextual factors. Using a dataset collected froma popular Chinese micro-blog website, we find that hub users are more likelyinformation disseminators than non-hub users, that followers of hub users aremore likely information disseminators themselves than followers of non-hubusers, and that there are more reciprocal ties between non-hub users andtheir followers than relationships between hub users and their followers. Moreimportantly, results confirm contingent effects of hub users vs. non-hubusers on reposts. Specifically, relative to hub users, the effect of non-hubusers on reposts becomes much less weak whencontent topics are of high personal relevance to followers' lives or whencontent has high emotional valence. By contrast, hub users, relative tonon-hub users, become even more impactfulwhen many of their followers happen to be active online when an original post isseeded.