社交互动情境下的信息传播效果研究

Research on information spreading effects in the social interaction context

本研究探讨了社交网络中互动行为、不同行为的转变以及网络特征等因素如何影响信息传播效果。根据用户互动特征,社交网络中的行为可以被分为社会关注(如浏览信息)、边缘互动(如点赞、收藏信息)、焦点互动(如评价信息)和公开互动(如转发、创造信息)。基于此,本文借鉴SIR模型构建了包含潜在用户、评价者、分享者、收藏者、潜水用户的PRSCL模型,通过仿真得出如下结论:(1)社交互动行为会提高信息传播范围、速度和持续时间。(2)当更多用户从边缘互动和焦点互动转变为公开互动时,传播范围和速度会提高,但持续时间不会受影响;当更多用户从边缘互动和焦点互动转变为社会关注时,传播范围和速度会降低,但持续时间不会受影响;当更多用户长期保持公开互动,或者从不对信息做出反应重新转变为互动行为时,传播范围、速度和持续时间都会提高。(3)更大的用户规模会降低传播速度,但不影响范围和持续时间;更高的网络平均节点度会提高传播速度、降低持续时间,但不影响范围。

Nowadays,firms are increasingly leveraging social networking platforms(e.g.,WeChat,Weibo,Tik Tok,and Facebook)to engage in marketing communication.Different from the traditional media(e.g.,broadcasting and newspaper),users on a social networking platform usually engage in various kinds of activities such as browsing,liking,collecting,commenting,forwarding/sharing,and/or generating information.During this process of social interaction,users exchange information with others,thereby promoting the spreading and diffusion of information.This paper aims to study how enterprises could improve information spreading effects in such a social interaction context.In this paper,we measure the so-called information spreading effects from three aspects:scope,speed,and duration.In contrast to the simple“broadcasting”of information in the traditional media,information spreading in a social network is achieved through social interaction.In particular,two types of factors may affect the information spreading effects:(1)users′online activities and evolvement of activities;(2)the characteristics of the social networks.For example,some users may only browse information;while others are willing to forward information after browsing it.It is interesting to understand how these different social interaction activities and corresponding evolvement,if any,could influence information spreading scope,speed and duration,respectively.On the other hand,the characteristics of the social networks such as the network size and network average node degrees,a measure of the strength of users′connectivity on the network,stand as other important factors that may have an impact on the information spreading effects.Although there exists numerous research examining the mechanisms underlying the information spreading,little research so far has studied information spreading effects in a social interaction context,especially from the theoretical perspective.This research is an attempt to fill in this gap.Specifically,this paper raises the following three research questions:(1)How does social interaction influence the information spreading effects compared to the traditional media?(2)How do users′social interaction activities and activity evolvement influence the information spreading effects?(3)How do the characteristics of social networks influence the information spreading effects?In the first part,we review the previous literature on social interaction and information spreading.Based upon the literature,we categorize users′online activities into four general categories:social attention(e.g.,browsing),unfocused interaction(e.g.,liking and collecting),focused interaction(e.g.,commenting)and impersonal interaction(e.g.,forwarding/sharing).We then build upon theories regarding herding effects,exposure effects,as well as networking theories,and generate corresponding hypotheses.In the second part,based on the traditional SIR model,we establish the PRSCL model that incorporates potential users,reviewers,sharers,collectors and lurkers.This model describes detailed process of information spreading in the context of social interaction.Then,we clarify the assumptions and evolution rules for the proposed model.The third part summarizes our findings.Through numerical simulations,we find that(1)compared with the traditional media,social interaction can significantly improve the scope,speed and duration of information spreading in the social networks.(2)When more users transform unfocused and focused interaction into impersonal interaction,the scope and speed of information spreading increase.However,the information duration is not affected.Conversely,when more users turn unfocused and focused interaction behavior back into social attention,the scope and speed of information spreading decrease,while again the duration is not affected.It is worth noting that more users′long-term impersonal interactions would significantly increase the information spreading from all three aspects.Besides,when more users change their inactive status(such as lurking)and engage in social interaction activities again,the scope,speed and duration of information spreading will increase a lot.(3)The size of social networks negatively affects the speed of information spreading,but does not influence the scope or duration.Meanwhile,network average node degrees positively affect the speed while negatively affect duration,but do not have any impact on the information spreading scope.To sum up,this study enriches the theoretical knowledge regarding the relationship between social interaction and information spreading.We improve the traditional SIR model,and establish the PRSCL model that is more in line with the information spreading in the social network context.At the same time,it has practical significance for enterprise to improve information spreading effects.