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'Who Knows What': Audience Targeting for Question Asking on Facebook

Published: 04 January 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular venues for seeking information. To the extent that users can understand who knows what in their networks and target those friends appropriately, they can make effective use of the site as a knowledge base of information. This paper explores how targeting one's Facebook network when asking questions influences the breadth and quality of answers they receive. An experiment (N = 64) was conducted in which participants posted questions to their Facebook networks in four broadcast level conditions: status update to their full networks, status update to a custom subset of their networks, posting on a friend's Timeline, and sending a direct message. Results indicate that posting a question more broadly results in more information, which is moderated by perceptions of Facebook as a transactive memory system and as a source of social capital. However, informational and social value of responses is greatest when posting to a custom subset of their network. These results suggest that while targeting specific individuals may be the most effective means of gathering information in offline networks, the broadcast affordance of Facebook may be a more useful way to gather information on the site.?

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    cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 4, Issue GROUP
    GROUP
    January 2020
    405 pages
    EISSN:2573-0142
    DOI:10.1145/3378060
    Issue’s Table of Contents
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    Publication History

    Published: 04 January 2020
    Published in PACMHCI Volume 4, Issue GROUP

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    Author Tags

    1. broadcast level
    2. facebook question asking
    3. social capital
    4. status message question asking
    5. transactive memory system

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    View all
    • (2024)Exploring the Role of Social Support When Integrating Generative AI in Small Business WorkflowsCompanion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing10.1145/3678884.3681895(485-492)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
    • (2021)The Unique Challenges for Creative Small Businesses Seeking Feedback on Social MediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34490895:CSCW1(1-27)Online publication date: 13-Apr-2021
    • (2021)Understanding Gender Differences in Pricing Strategies in Online Labor MarketplacesProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445636(1-16)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
    • (2020)Context in Social Media Question Asking: A Practice Approach2020 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT)10.1109/WIIAT50758.2020.00137(901-908)Online publication date: Dec-2020

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