Research on Patterns of User Interactions and Media Popularity on Online Social Networks

In the past eight years, online social networking sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. The advent of online social networks (OSNs) not only provides more chances for people to enjoy entertainment and conduct business but also drives a novel way for researchers to study social interactions. In this paper, we conducted a data-driven investigation in the interactions between the Google Buzz users. We have several interesting findings from the investigation. First, we found that even though Google Buzz provides a platform for users to import posts from other online social networks like Twitter and YouTube, the majority activities happened directly on Google Buzz platform. Second, we found that the user activities are highly skewed, with a few users account for the most majority posts and comments, while the rest majority users account for a small fraction of user activities. Third, we found that the commenting on a self-posted post is of high importance, since it will promote the user interactions with more comments and longer active period. Our findings in the patterns of user interactions and media popularity on OSNs provide several key insights for promoting advertisement and business on OSNs.