Who drives successful online conversations? Unveiling the role of first user response

Purpose With the rapidly improving communication technologies, a growing number of people communicate with each other in online environments. In particular, social networking services (SNSs) are one of the widely used and common places that enable active communication among users. To understand what drives successful online conversations in SNSs, this study aims to explore the roles of posts and first comments in successful online conversations. Design/methodology/approach To address the purpose, the data of news-related channels in Reddit were collected and analyzed. Findings The study found that successful conversations tend to have the post and first comment with high scores. Also, the first comments in successful online conversations tend to be easier than those in other conversations. Originality/value The results reveal that successful online conversations can be generated not only with empathic posts but also with touching or attractive first comments. In other words, users are likely to participate in an online conversation that starts with an empathic post and first comment. Moreover, both practical and theoretical implications are presented.