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Effect of Media Usage Selection on Social Mobilization Speed: Facebook vs E-Mail

Author

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  • Jing Wang
  • Stuart Madnick
  • Xitong Li
  • Jeff Alstott
  • Chander Velu

Abstract

Social mobilization is a process that enlists a large number of people to achieve a goal within a limited time, especially through the use of social media. There is increasing interest in understanding the factors that affect the speed of social mobilization. Based on the Langley Knights competition data set, we analyzed the differences in mobilization speed between users of Facebook and e-mail. We include other factors that may influence mobilization speed (gender, age, timing, and homophily of information source) in our model as control variables in order to isolate the effect of such factors. We show that, in this experiment, although more people used e-mail to recruit, the mobilization speed of Facebook users was faster than that of those that used e-mail. We were also able to measure and show that the mobilization speed for Facebook users was on average seven times faster compared to e-mail before controlling for other factors. After controlling for other factors, we show that Facebook users were 1.84 times more likely to register compared to e-mail users in the next period if they have not done so at any point in time. This finding could provide useful insights for future social mobilization efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Wang & Stuart Madnick & Xitong Li & Jeff Alstott & Chander Velu, 2015. "Effect of Media Usage Selection on Social Mobilization Speed: Facebook vs E-Mail," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0134811
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134811
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jeff Alstott & Stuart Madnick & Chander Velu, 2014. "Homophily and the Speed of Social Mobilization: The Effect of Acquired and Ascribed Traits," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-9, April.
    2. Alex Rutherford & Manuel Cebrian & Iyad Rahwan & Sohan Dsouza & James McInerney & Victor Naroditskiy & Matteo Venanzi & Nicholas R Jennings & J R deLara & Eero Wahlstedt & Steven U Miller, 2013. "Targeted Social Mobilization in a Global Manhunt," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-8, September.
    3. Robert M. Bond & Christopher J. Fariss & Jason J. Jones & Adam D. I. Kramer & Cameron Marlow & Jaime E. Settle & James H. Fowler, 2012. "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7415), pages 295-298, September.
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