Sharma Nikhil, Butler Brian S, Irwin Jeannie, Spallek Heiko
Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, 268 Mervis Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. {nsharma, bbutler}@katz.pitt.edu.
J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol. 2011 Nov;62(11):2106-2120. doi: 10.1002/asi.21624.
Many information portals are adding social features with hopes of enhancing the overall user experience. Invitations to join and welcome pages that highlight these social features are expected to encourage use and participation. While this approach is widespread and seems plausible, the effect of providing and highlighting social features remains to be tested. We studied the effects of emphasizing social features on users' response to invitations, their decisions to join, their willingness to provide profile information, and their engagement with the portal's social features. The results of a quasi-experiment found no significant effect of social emphasis in invitations on receivers' responsiveness. However, users receiving invitations highlighting social benefits were less likely to join the portal and provide profile information. Social emphasis in the initial welcome page for the site also was found to have a significant effect on whether individuals joined the portal, how much profile information they provided and shared, and how much they engaged with social features on the site. Unexpectedly, users who were welcomed in a social manner were less likely to join and provided less profile information; they also were less likely to engage with social features of the portal. This suggests that even in online contexts where social activity is an increasingly common feature, highlighting the presence of social features may not always be the optimal presentation strategy.
许多信息门户网站都在添加社交功能，以期提升整体用户体验。邀请加入以及突出这些社交功能的欢迎页面有望促进用户使用和参与。虽然这种方法很普遍且看似合理，但提供并突出社交功能的效果仍有待检验。我们研究了强调社交功能对用户对邀请的反应、加入决定、提供个人资料信息的意愿以及与门户网站社交功能互动的影响。一项准实验的结果发现，邀请中对社交功能的强调对接收者的反应没有显著影响。然而，收到突出社交益处邀请的用户加入该门户网站并提供个人资料信息的可能性较小。网站初始欢迎页面中对社交功能的强调也被发现对个人是否加入该门户网站、他们提供和分享的个人资料信息数量以及他们与网站社交功能的互动程度有显著影响。出乎意料的是，以社交方式受到欢迎的用户加入的可能性较小，提供的个人资料信息也较少；他们参与门户网站社交功能的可能性也较小。这表明，即使在社交活动日益普遍的在线环境中，突出社交功能并不总是最佳的呈现策略。
