ABSTRACT

Driven by the need to enhance user traffic on social media (SM) platforms for increasing their advertising revenues, SM platforms are experimenting with new content creation features. However, it is unclear if such initiatives are also beneficial for SM profile owners such as influencers, who are the prime content creators on the SM platforms who use SM posts to build their influence within their network of followers. Our study investigates the effect of introducing one such new SM feature: the “story” on the creation and consumption of SM posts. Leveraging social penetration theory, we hypothesize the influence of introducing story feature on (1) the frequency of SM post creation by profile owners and (2) the extent of follower engagement with SM posts. Employing a quasi-experimental design, we find that the introduction of the story feature reduces the frequency of SM post creation, but the enhanced self-disclosure through the story feature increases follower engagement with the SM posts. However, these effects are moderated by the situating culture of the SM communities: while low-power-distance cultures value profile owners’ self-disclosure, high-power-distance cultures exhibit a mixed influence. Advancing literature on social penetration theory and SM user engagement, our study demonstrates that new self-disclosive SM content creation features do not necessarily benefit all the concerned stakeholders and that the effectiveness of such features might vary from one community to another. Hence, the intended impact of introducing new SM features needs to be carefully evaluated by SM platforms in a holistic manner.

摘要

由于需要增加社交媒体 (SM) 平台上的用户流量以增加其广告收入，SM 平台正在尝试新的内容创建功能。但是，尚不清楚此类举措是否也对 SM 个人资料所有者（例如影响者）有益，他们是 SM 平台上的主要内容创建者，他们使用 SM 帖子在其追随者网络中建立影响力。我们的研究调查了引入这样一项新的 SM 功能的影响：“故事”对 SM 帖子的创建和消费的影响。利用社会渗透理论，我们假设引入故事特征对（1）个人资料所有者创建 SM 帖子的频率和（2）追随者参与 SM 帖子的程度的影响。采用准实验设计，我们发现故事功能的引入降低了 SM 帖子创建的频率，但通过故事功能增强的自我披露增加了追随者对 SM 帖子的参与度。然而，这些影响被 SM 社区所处的文化所缓和：虽然低权力距离文化重视个人资料所有者的自我披露，但高权力距离文化表现出混合影响。推进关于社会渗透理论和 SM 用户参与的文献，我们的研究表明，新的自我披露的 SM 内容创建功能不一定会使所有相关利益相关者受益，并且这些功能的有效性可能因社区而异。因此，引入新的 SM 功能的预期影响需要 SM 平台以整体方式仔细评估。