An empirical analysis on the behavioral differentia of the “Elite-Civilian” users in Sina microblog

Abstract

The human dynamics of online social networks have been studied broadly. However, few works have been done on the behavioral differentia of different categories of users. In this paper, we analyze the user characteristics and post behaviors from the aspect of “Elite”(verified users) and “Civilian”(unverified users) in Sina microblog. We find the follower number distribution of elite users does not fit power law while civilian users’ fits. We also find the civilian users need to be more diligent than elite users to maintain the same level of influence. Besides, there is a linear correlation between users’ influence and post behavior when influence is relatively low. And the inter-tweeting time distributions of the two categories of users have significant difference on day scale while they are similar on minute scale. Furthermore, we propose a modified interest model that could explain why the long-range post behavior of civilian users fits power low with cut-off. Findings provide notable insights for understanding the behaviors of different “social strata” in virtual social space.