Managing reputation by generating followers on Twitter

Abstract

It can be observed that online communities recently have a great attractiveness to users. But what motivates them to engage that intensively? Most systems offer mechanisms that show the ‘rank’ or ‘social reputation’ users have earned within this environment. The paper describes the results of a survey that has been conducted with about 220 users of Twitter in order to find out how important it is for users to gain ‘followers’. Within this paper we outline a theoretical model that explains why users try to gain social reputation in different virtual worlds. For this, a typology of virtual worlds has been developed based on possible spill-over effects of social reputation that can be gained in virtual and real worlds. Furthermore, the implications for collaborative learning are discussed.