Social Media Affordances and Constraints: Design, Use and Implications for Enterprises

Abstract

In this paper we focus on social media use at the individual and organizational level, and we adopt an impression management lens (i.e., Goffman). We aim to single out practices of social media use (i.e., performances), which underpin knowledge sharing (or retention). We analyzed 85 interviews with social media users and focused on space and time, which are two dimensions affecting the choice of a specific medium, because of the available/potential audiences. We illustrate how impression management strategies relate to patterns of social media use (and intensity of use) and suggest implications for enterprise social media (ESM) use.