HARNESSING ONLINE COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA: ORDINARY USERS AND INFLUENTIAL USERS

Abstract

The business value of an online community greatly depends on the number of active users in this online community. However, it is never easy to establish and maintain a large user base. In this thesis, I investigate how to motivate users? voluntary contribution by gamification (Study 1), and how to incorporate the interaction between different groups of users to maintain a stable user base (Study 2). In addition to establish a large user base, it is also important for online community, especially those social media sites, to attract a group of influential users. These influential users are used to be celebrities or experts who post contents consumed by a large number of ordinary users, thus helping to maintain an active user base. In this thesis, I examine whether these influential users can obtain economic return from their social media participation (Study 3).