Understanding verified users' posting behavior from the perspective of human dynamics: a case study of Sina micro-blog

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a new human dynamics model to explain the process of verified users' (VUs) posting on Sina micro-blog.

Design/methodology/approach

A common human dynamics research method with three steps is applied. Firstly, a large-scale behavioral dataset is collected involving 495 VUs and five topics on Sina micro-blog. Second, five important indicators that reveal the characteristics of posting behavior are analyzed. Then, a quantitative model is constructed to describe the process of posting behavior, and its validity is verified by simulations.

Findings

Three important characteristics of VUs' micro-blog posting behavior are observed: fat-tailed distribution, fluctuation and periodicity. These characteristics do not fit the assumption of interest-driven models proposed by previous literature. An optimized task-driven model is introduced to describe this complex phenomenon mathematically. The model is verified on empirical data, confirming that task-driven models can be optimized to explore information behavior on social media.

Originality/value

Being different from previous studies that mainly describe common users' posting behavior on social media by applying interest-driven models, this paper customizes an optimized task-driven model for VUs, who mainly treat social media as a platform for work and play a crucial role in information creation on social media.

Citation

Yi, M., Lu, Y., Deng, W., Kun, L. and Zhang, Z. (2021), "Understanding verified users' posting behavior from the perspective of human dynamics: a case study of Sina micro-blog", Aslib Journal of Information Management, Vol. 73 No. 2, pp. 221-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2020-0069