Dimensions of Leadership and Social Influence in Online Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the communication behaviors of online leaders, or those who influence other members of online communities in triggering message replies, sparking conversation, and diffusing language. It relies on 632,622 messages from 33,450 participants across 16 discussion groups from Google Groups that took place over a 2-year period. It utilizes automated text analysis, social network analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling to uncover the language and social behavior of online leaders. The findings show that online leaders influence others through high communication activity, credibility, network centrality, and the use of affective, assertive, and linguistic diversity in their online messages.

You Get What You Give: Understanding Reply Reciprocity and Social Capital in Online Health Support Forums

“…For example, a self-initiated post often includes a description of the problem for which support is being sought. Replies to an original post from other online users can indicate attention, engagement, and responsiveness to the post (Himelboim, 2008;Huffaker, 2010;Zhang & Yang, 2015). Seen in this light, social networks based on reply relationships offer a fruitful venue for studying the interactive and reciprocal nature of communication in online support forums.…”

“…Research has shown that individuals' participation in online communities promotes reciprocal engagement from other members of the community (Kobayashi, Ikeda, & Miyata, 2006). Huffaker (2010), for example, found that in online discussion groups, users' number of received replies was positively associated with their frequency of posts.…”

Generative models of online discussion threads: state of the art and research challenges

“…In contrast, a study of different blogging platforms found that community identification might be the motivation of users to participate in blogs, while the influence of social norm was not relevant [53]. A later study of the messages by thousands of participants across 16 Google Groups concluded that activity and tenure of discussion within a group were related to the ability to influence others [54].…”

The Learning Exchange, a Community Knowledge Commons for Learning Networks: Qualitative Evaluation to Test Acceptability, Feasibility, and Utility (Preprint)

“…Actions by people "…who have the ability to trigger feedback, spark conversations within the community, or even shape the way that other members of a group ''talk'' about a topic…" [28] are necessary. To that end, the design team enlisted the commitment of key leaders in the community to actively contribute content, comment on contributions by others, and encourage this same behavior in other members of the community.…”