Purpose

Understanding leadership in newly created online social spaces, such Facebook communities, is an important new area of study within leadership research. This study explores an existing leadership model in offline environments by analyzing leadership strategies used by Facebook community leaders.

Design/methodology/approach

By using both quantitative and qualitative methods, data were collected through a survey from 94 Facebook community leaders about their leadership strategies.

Findings

Findings show that the framework of leadership behavior in offline groups can also be observed in Facebook communities. The content analysis of the open-ended questions reveals new categories reflecting unique leadership strategies in online environments. Leaders that participated in the study focused on strategies of content and team management, provided their groups with relevant content and personal stories to engage their members and strived to lead both offline and online-related social spaces to build a sense of community.

Originality/value

The growing number of Facebook community leaders and their key role in social media communities raise new questions about their position in light of what is already known about traditional leadership. Since social media occupies a central place in almost every aspect in everyday life, understanding the way that leaders manage these online communities is ever more important, and it can lead to an advancement in online communications.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2020-0034.

中文翻译：

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Facebook社区领袖的领导策略探索

目的

了解领导力研究中新创建的在线社交空间（例如Facebook社区）中的领导力是重要的新研究领域。这项研究通过分析Facebook社区领导人使用的领导策略，探索了离线环境中的现有领导模型。

设计/方法/方法

通过使用定量和定性方法，通过对94位Facebook社区领导人的一项调查收集了有关其领导策略的数据。

发现

研究结果表明，离线社区中领导行为的框架也可以在Facebook社区中观察到。开放式问题的内容分析揭示了新类别，反映了在线环境中独特的领导策略。参与研究的领导者专注于内容和团队管理的策略，向他们的小组提供相关的内容和个人故事，以吸引其成员，并努力领导离线和在线相关的社交空间以建立社区意识。

创意/价值

鉴于越来越多的传统领导者，越来越多的Facebook社区领导者及其在社交媒体社区中的关键作用提出了有关其职位的新问题。由于社交媒体几乎在日常生活的各个方面都占据着中心位置，因此了解领导者管理这些在线社区的方式变得越来越重要，并且可以促进在线交流的发展。

同行评审

本文的同行评审历史记录可在以下网址获得：https：//publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2020-0034。