Social Network Engagement Research Articles

Student engagement in course-based social networks: The impact of instructor credibility and use of communication

Social network sites provide the opportunity for building and maintaining online social network groups around a specific interest. Despite the increasing use of social networks in higher education, little previous research has studied their impacts on student's engagement and on their perceived educational outcomes. This research investigates the impact of instructors' self-disclosure and use of humor via course-based social networks as well as their credibility, and the moderating impact of time spent in these course-based social networks, on the students' engagement in course-based social networks. The research provides a theoretical viewpoint, supported by empirical evidence, on the impact of students' engagement in course-based social networks on their perceived educational outcomes. The findings suggest that instructors who create course-based online social networks to communicate with their students can increase their engagement, motivation, and satisfaction. We conclude the paper by suggesting the theoretical implications for the study and by providing strategies for instructors to adjust their activities in order to succeed in improving their students' engagement and educational outcomes.

LCP segmentation: A framework for evaluation of user engagement in online social networks

In recent years, online social networks have raised the attention of scholars and practitioners to study different aspects of these huge data resources to provide useful insights. In this study, a novel framework for segmentation of fan page users in online social networks is proposed based on the features of post popularity including Likes, Comments, and Polarity. Authors have used different methods including data mining, sentiment analysis and CRM to develop the proposing framework. A case study has been conducted and a set of 100 post’s data is extracted from a music band fan page in Facebook to evaluate the framework. Results show that user segmentation led to formation of 4 groups of users having interesting interpretations namely, The Apathetic, Staunch, Ordinary, and Lazy fans. Outcomes of this research are useful for every business owner for improving marketing and customer engagement strategies on social networking sites such as Facebook.

Consumers Motives for Conecting with Famous Brands through Social Networks, Case Study of Croatia

Online social networks were in the beginning used for private purposes, and over time were adopted by academic and business users. Thus, they have become an irreplaceable part of life in the modern 21st, 2.0 societies, particularly for the modern consumers. Their comprehensiveness has also been noticed by marketing experts who has led them to an extensive usage of online social networks as a very popular and widely used effective marketing tool. Following those trends, the main research question is: whether users of social networks look for information about the product with the intention of buying it or them some other motives. Every contact with the brand via social networks does not necessarily mean that the user is also an actual buyer or a potential buyer of the product or services. Therefore, traders, marketers, and community managers should focus on better understanding the motives of different groups of social networks users for standing along with their brands in virtual cosmos. In this paper, we present the results of research aimed at determining the primary motives driving the users of social networks to be connected with the brand. According to the research results, the respondents most frequently connected to the brand in order to have real time information about products and events related to the product. In addition, some study observations showed that the respondents were highly motivated to be connected with the brand to obtain certain benefits, while some respondents used social networks for self-presentation. This research has also confirmed that the respondents’ engagement in social networks positively affects self-esteem. However, some respondents are associated with brands because they want to participate in designing and improving products. The survey was undertaken in Croatia 2014 as a part of a research for a bachelor’s degree thesis.

Preventing Unraveling in Social Networks: The Anchored $k$-Core Problem

We consider a model of user engagement in social networks, where each player incurs a cost to remain engaged but derives a benefit proportional to the number of engaged neighbors. The natural equilibrium of this model corresponds to the $k$-core of the social network---the maximal induced subgraph with minimum degree at least $k$. We introduce the problem of “anchoring” a small number of vertices to maximize the size of the corresponding anchored $k$-core---the maximal induced subgraph in which every nonanchored vertex has degree at least $k$. This problem corresponds to preventing “unraveling''---a cascade of iterated withdrawals---and it identifies the individuals whose participation is most crucial to the overall health of a social network. We classify the computational complexity of this problem as a function of $k$ and of the graph structure. We provide polynomial-time algorithms for general graphs with $k=2$ and for bounded-treewidth graphs with arbitrary $k$. We prove strong inapproximability resul...

Extended Implementation Method for Virtual Sensors: Web-Based Real-Time Transportation Data Collection and Analysis for Incident Management

Open data sources and social media data are gaining increasing attention as important information providers in transportation and incident management. In this paper, practical evidence for the emerging potential of online and open data sources is presented. The authors’ previous research on virtual sensors is combined and extended by integrating real-time incident information and social media network engagement. The fundamental contribution of this paper is the development of an extended virtual sensor framework to provide an automated travel time data collection method as incidents occur. In addition, social media data can be useful for more effective real-time incident response. The proposed framework can easily be modified and used to evaluate travel time effects of incidents on roadways and clearance times and to make use of social media data in obtaining time-critical incident-related information.

Social engagement and chronic disease risk behaviors: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

ObjectiveAlthough engagement in social networks is important to health, multiple different dimensions exist. This study identifies which dimensions are associated with chronic disease risk behaviors. MethodsCross-sectional data on social support, loneliness, and neighborhood social cohesion from 5381 participants, aged 45–84 from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis was used. ResultsAfter adjusting for individual characteristics and all social engagement variables, social support was associated with lower smoking prevalence (PR=0.88, 95% CI: 0.82, 0.94), higher probability of having quit (PR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.06) and a slightly higher probability of achieving physical activity recommendations (PR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.06). Neighborhood social cohesion was associated with very slightly higher probability of achieving recommended (PR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.05) or any regular (PR=1.0, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.04) physical activity, and a higher probability of consuming at least five daily fruit and vegetable servings (PR=1.05, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.09). ConclusionsBoth social support and neighborhood social cohesion, a less commonly considered aspect of social engagement, appear to be important for chronic disease prevention interventions and likely act via separate pathways.

How Children with Disabilities Engage in Occupations during a Transitional Phase

This study explored the engagement in occupations of Norwegian children with physical disabilities during a transitional phase between primary and secondary school. Fifteen children described their ordinary day, and we applied a life mode interview method. Three themes were identified: 1) occupations that symbolized the transition to becoming a teenager, 2) expanding possibilities by occupational engagement in social networks and media, and 3) particular challenges when adapting to participation in culturally valued occupations. The children in our study engaged in typical occupations associated with this transitional phase. Some occupations, such as shopping and putting on makeup, symbolized a transitional phase. Engagement in occupations such as using social media, the Internet, and gaming represented expanding possibilities, where children with disabilities could participate without limitations. However, adapting to culturally valued occupations such as sports, which can be particularly challenging, might require a change in how they engaged, for instance by becoming the leader of a cheer group rather than playing soccer. Knowledge of children with disabilities and their engagement in everyday occupations is essential for discussing how they can participate in occupations they find meaningful together with their peer group in their community.

Toward a biometric-aware cloud service engine for multi-screen video applications

The emergence of portable devices and online social networks (OSNs) has changed the traditional video consumption paradigm by simultaneously providing multi-screen video watching, social networking engagement, etc. One challenge is to design a unified solution to support ever-growing features while guarantee system performance. In this demo, we design and implement a multi-screen technology to provide multi-screen interactions over wide area network (WAN). Furthermore, we incorporate face-detection technology into our system to identify users' bio-features and employ a machine learning based traffic scheduling mechanism to improve the system performance.

The social life of divorced parents. Do custody arrangements make a difference in divorced parents’ social participation and contacts?

Social life is fostered by having a partner and children that create interactions and generate new social networks. For divorced parents, the question is whether these positive relationships remain after marital dissolution. Do children form an additional barrier to social interaction, or do new partners present a means to reconstruct divorcees’ social life? In this case, it is important to consider custody arrangements. The research question is how custody arrangements affect divorced parents’ possibilities to participate in outdoor home leisure activities and to maintain their social contacts. Focus is placed on the recent post-divorce parenting model of joint physical custody, taking Belgium as a pioneer case study. Multi-level regressions are conducted, using multi-actor data from the Divorce in Flanders survey (N = 1506 divorced parents). Results show that joint physical custody helps divorced parents to stay socially integrated. Especially for mothers, joint physical custody has a liberating effect. They engage in more outdoor home activities and better maintain their social networks than sole custody mothers. In this way, the positive effects of social interaction can counterbalance other detrimental effects of divorce and contribute to a higher level of their general well-being. While joint custody for fathers means they may spend more time with their children, their engagement in personal leisure activities and social networks is not altered by this custody arrangement.

Health Within Limitations: Qualitative Study of the Social Aspects of Resilience in Old Age

Ageing can be conceptualized as a series of transitions, each bringing about gains or losses. The actual experience of a life event is dependent also on a person’s resilience, which is importantly reflected in his/her subjective health. Although recognizing the importance of personal factors, this article focused on the social resources for resilience. The main aim was to identify the social conditions of resilient healthy ageing that could be promoted among elderly and at the wider societal level. A twelve-week fall prevention training for the elderly recruited from the Pensioners’ Association of Slovenia, senior clubs and day care centres within the Ljubljana region was organized at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences. The convenience sample of 25 relatively healthy and active people (average age 70.1 years) participated and were included also in the qualitative study. They agreed to take part in semi-structured interviews. The suggested themes were ageing, health/illness and healthcare. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcriptions were analysed following the qualitative content analysis. When confronting adversity, the participants’ exposed the importance of socializing, active engagement in social support networks and intergenerational ties. These social coping resources/strategies were analytically identified as thematic categories of the central concept - engagement in social life. Through identified social aspects of resilience, the findings importantly contributed to clarify some of the dimensions of social determinants of health. From the quality of life perspective, it is important that state and community authorities acknowledge the elderly’s perceptions and form policy interventions to secure and enhance circumstances which allow their engagement in social life.

Upstream and downstream correlates of older people's engagement in social networks: what are their effects on health over time?

This study tested the effects of social network engagement and social support on the health of older people moving into retirement, using a model which includes social context variables. A prospective survey of a New Zealand population sample aged 54-70 at baseline (N = 2,282) was used to assess the effects on mental and physical health across time. A structural equation model assessed pathways from the social context variables through network engagement to social support and then to mental and physical health 2 years later. The proposed model of effects on mental health was supported when gender, economic living standards, and ethnicity were included along with the direct effects of these variables on social support. These findings confirm the importance of taking social context variables into account when considering social support networks. Social engagement appears to be an important aspect of social network functioning which could be investigated further.

SNS의 사용이 팀의 협력과 의사결정의 질 및 업무성과에 미치는 영향

스마트폰의 등장으로 인해 언제 어디서나 정보를 누구라도 손쉽게 전달하고 볼 수 있는 시대가 되었다. 과거에는 개인적 홍보나 생각의 나눔을 위한 도구로서 SNS를 사용해 왔지만, 최근 SNS 사용자의 증가와 그 사용속도의 증가 추세에 따라 기업들이 팀의 협력이나 의사결정에 직접 스마트폰을 이용하여 의사결정의 질이나 업무성과를 제고하는 노력이 진행되고 있다. 이처럼 소셜 네트워크 사이트(SNS Social Networking Service)의 활성화는 이미 사람들이 인터넷 매체를 통해 즐거움과 같은 긍정적 경험을 많이 누리고 있음을 제시한다. 그러나 한국의 조직 구성원들을 대상으로 SNS가 구성원들의 업무성과에 미치는 긍정적인 기능에 대한 논의는 부족하였다. 이에 본 연구는 조직구성원들이 실제 SNS을 통한 참여를 통해 기업에서 SNS의 활용과 참여가 업무성과를 향상 시킬 수 있는지를 분석하고자 하였으며, 실제 이들의 영향관계에서 팀의 협력 및 의사결정의 질이 중요한 매개 역할을 하는지를 규명하고자 하였다. 연구의 결과는 SNS의 참여가 높을수록 업무성과에 긍정적인 영향을 미치고 있음을 알 수 있었고 이들의 인과관계에서 팀의 협력과 의사결정의 질이 중요한 매개작용을 하고 있음을 확인하였다. 본 연구의 결과들은 실제 구성원들의 업무성과 향상을 위해서는 직장인들의 사회적 네트워크의 활용도를 높여서 업무의 활용도를 높여야 한다는 시사점을 밝혀낼 수 있었다. 또한 SNS의 참여는 팀의 협력과 의사결정의 질도 높일 수 있는 요인임을 알 수 있었다. Social network services are increasingly being used in organizational settings to improve relationships among employees and enhance prospects for information exchange and cooperative work. Social Networking Service(SNS) has deeply penetrated organizational job settings, influencing multiple aspects of employee's life. This study is designed to explore the impact of SNS engagement on the job performance mediated as team cooperation and decision making quality effects. Data were collected from 146 employees who use organizational SNS in there company. Factor analysis and structural equation method are employed. Results from a survey accompanied by the substantial impacts of organizational employee's social networking engagement on social learning processes and outcomes. SNS engagement not only directly influences organizational employee's job performance, but also helps their team cooperation and decision making quality from others and adapt to organizational culture, both of which play prominent roles in improving their job performance.

Hospital website rankings in the United States: expanding benchmarks and standards for effective consumer engagement.

BackgroundPassage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased the roles hospitals and health systems play in care delivery and led to a wave of consolidation of medical groups and hospitals. As such, the traditional patient interaction with an independent medical provider is becoming far less common, replaced by frequent interactions with integrated medical groups and health systems. It is thus increasingly important for these organizations to have an effective social media presence. Moreover, in the age of the informed consumer, patients desire a readily accessible, electronic interface to initiate contact, making a well-designed website and social media strategy critical features of the modern health care organization.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess the Web presence of hospitals and their health systems on five dimensions: accessibility, content, marketing, technology, and usability. In addition, an overall ranking was calculated to identify the top 100 hospital and health system websites.MethodsA total of 2407 unique Web domains covering 2785 hospital facilities or their parent organizations were identified and matched against the 2009 American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey. This is a four-fold improvement in prior research and represents what the authors believe to be a census assessment of the online presence of US hospitals and their health systems. Each of the five dimensions was investigated with an automated content analysis using a suite of tools. Scores on the dimensions are reported on a range from 0 to 10, with a higher score on any given dimension representing better comparative performance. Rankings on each dimension and an average ranking are provided for the top 100 hospitals.ResultsThe mean score on the usability dimension, meant to rate overall website quality, was 5.16 (SD 1.43), with the highest score of 8 shared by only 5 hospitals. Mean scores on other dimensions were between 4.43 (SD 2.19) and 6.49 (SD 0.96). Based on these scores, rank order calculations for the top 100 websites are presented. Additionally, a link to raw data, including AHA ID, is provided to enable researchers and practitioners the ability to further explore relationships to other dynamics in health care.ConclusionsThis census assessment of US hospitals and their health systems provides a clear indication of the state of the sector. While stakeholder engagement is core to most discussions of the role that hospitals must play in relation to communities, management of an online presence has not been recognized as a core competency fundamental to care delivery. Yet, social media management and network engagement are skills that exist at the confluence of marketing and technical prowess. This paper presents performance guidelines evaluated against best-demonstrated practice or independent standards to facilitate improvement of the sector’s use of websites and social media.

Engagement in Online Social Networks: The Impact of Self-Disclosure and Humor

This study proposes an engagement model that supports acceptance and use of course-based online social networks for engaging student, hence improving the instructor's credibility. This research demonstrates that instructors who create course-based online social networks can increase student engagement in these online social networks and improve the instructor's credibility. This increase in engagement is seen when the instructor posts private information related to the course and when the instructor makes humorous posts. However, it is not seen when the instructor posts private information unrelated to the course. These results should be useful for instructors who are trying to improve student engagement and to enhance their own credibility. This research utilizes communication privacy management theory and instructional humor processing theory to expand our understanding of how instructor self-disclosure and use of humor via a course-based social network impacts student outcomes. The research also contributes to the theory by providing an engagement model that is unique to online educational settings.

El movimiento magisterial de la región Ciénega de Jalisco: en busca de la apropiación de un campo de la historicidad

Ante las crisis economicas del Mexico de finales de los anos setenta y principios de la decada de los ochenta, un grupo de maestros de la region Cienega de Jalisco decidio organizarse como movimiento social para luchar por la reivindicacion de sus derechos laborales y sociales. Desde su origen se ha caracterizado por su intensa participacion politica en favor de la democratizacion del Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educacion (SNTE) y por una serie de estrategias innovadoras, entre las cuales destaca su empleo de las redes sociales. El sustento teorico de esta investigacion radica en los campos de la historicidad de Alain Touraine: formas de organizacion en las cuales la reforma institucional es disputada

Cultural Entrepreneurship: The Impact of Social Networking on Success

Because of the complex structures characteristic of the arts sector and creative industries, it is often thought that external network ties of leading managers are critical to the success of their cultural enterprises. Based on research into entrepreneurship and promoters' activity, this study examines the influence of social network relationships on the success of cultural establishments in Germany. The regression analysis of data from 121 private arts and culture ventures presented here clearly shows that founders as well as managers can overcome numerous barriers through their engagement and activity in social networks, and thereby exercise to a significant degree a positive influence on establishing their enterprise. As expected, this effect is even stronger in cases of low sponsorship of cultural activities on the part of cities and communities. Contrary to expectations, the positive effect of intensive networking activities is not increased by a high intensity of competition; it is worth noting that the effect is strongest in situations of low competitive pressure. The results of this study demonstrate that successful networking expertise, as postulated by research into promoters' activity, is of great importance for overcoming significant barriers in the cultural sector, but that its effectiveness also has limits.

Preventing Unraveling in Social Networks Gets Harder

The behavior of users in social networks is often observed to be affected by the actions of their friends. Bhawalkar et al. (ICALP '12) introduced a formal mathematical model for user engagement in social networks where each individual derives a benefit proportional to the number of its friends which are engaged. Given a threshold degree k the equilibrium for this model is a maximal subgraph whose minimum degree is at least k. However the dropping out of individuals with degrees less than k might lead to a cascading effect of iterated withdrawals such that the size of equilibrium subgraph becomes very small. To overcome this some special vertices called "anchors" are introduced: these vertices need not have large degree. Bhawalkar et al. considered the Anchored k-Core problem: Given a graph G and integers b, k and p do there exist sets of vertices B, H such that B is a subset of H, size of B is at most b and size of H is at least p, and every vertex v which is in H but not in B has degree at least k in the induced subgraph G[H]. They showed that the problem is NP-hard for all k greater equal 2, and gave some inapproximability and fixed-parameter intractability results. In this paper we give improved hardness results for this problem. In particular we show that the Anchored k-Core problem is W[1]-hard parameterized by p, even for k=3. This improves the result of Bhawalkar et al. (who show W[2]-hardness parameterized by b) as our parameter is always bigger since p is greater equal than b. Then we answer a question of Bhawalkar et al. by showing that the Anchored k-Core problem remains NP-hard on planar graphs for all k greater equal 3, even if the maximum degree of the graph is k+2. Finally we show that the problem is FPT on planar graphs parameterized by b for all k greater equal 7.

Well-Being and Recovery Functioning among Substance Users Engaged in Posttreatment Recovery Support Groups

There is a growing literature that seeks to evaluate the role of “recovery capital” in the resolution of substance use disorders. In this study, a structured instrument (the Assessment of Recovery Capital), along with an assessment of social networks among 176 former illicit drug users and drinkers, is measured in three locations in England. There were relationships between recovery capital and vocational activity (training or employment), physical health, psychological health, and overall quality of life, with larger social networks associated with enhanced personal and social recovery capital. The study demonstrates high levels of personal and social well-being—manifesting in engagement in community activities and strong social networks—among persons engaged in recovery support activities that was not linked to time in recovery.

Designing for Social Engagement in Online Social Networks Using Communities-of-Practice Theory and Cognitive Work Analysis

New social networking and social web tools are becoming available and are easing the process of customizing online social environments for enterprises. With these developments, core design efforts have been extending beyond usability for individual users and are beginning to include notions of sociability for the engagement of communities of users. In an effort to make it easier to design for social engagement in an online social environment, the authors developed a domain-community model based on the communities-of-practice concept and the work domain analysis used in cognitive work analysis. Through a case study of University-Community Partnerships for Social Action Research, an international development leadership community of practice, the authors illustrate how the domain-community model could be used to design web components of an online social environment that integrate internal issues of social engagement and external issues of domain effectiveness. It is expected that this model can provide a basis for designers of online communities to more systematically account for social phenomena of collective efforts in a given work domain.

An Empirical Study of Effect of Social Network Service on Individual Learning Performance

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of SNS(Social Network Service) on individual learning performance. To do this, we distribute and collect data by using a survey method. Research results suggest that online social networking engagement and acculturation have an effect on interaction quality with professors. Interaction quality with professors influences individual learning performance as well as collaborative learning. The conclusion and implications are discussed.