Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2022
Publisher
Elsevier
Source Publication
Telematics and Informatics
Source ISSN
0736-5853
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1016/j.tele.2022.101854
Abstract
The informational and social impacts of tags on forming networked publics have drawn extensive scholarly attention. However, existing literature lacks systematic and longitudinal accounts of how trending tags garner community interest and facilitate the promotion of user-generated content. This study addresses this issue by explicating the structures and functions of social tagging, showing how users employed certain tags to improve performance. To provide empirical evidence, we tracked and analyzed social tagging activities in an online community from its early stage for seven years. Over this time frame, very few tags emerged as core tags--the consensus choices that both occurred and co-occurred frequently. Furthermore, the application of core tags, which can represent the tacit rules and platform vernaculars co-defined by the community members, improved performance noticeably more than using peripheral tags. Interestingly, among the core tags, those that possessed linguistic idiosyncrasies particularly contributed to high performance. The findings highlight the complex contingencies of social tagging structures and functions and provide practical implications for users and platforms to strategically manage tag-based networked publics.
Recommended Citation
Xu, Larry Zhiming; Sargent, Matthew; Xu, Yu; Sun, Jingyi; Li, Yiqi; and Fulk, Janet, "The Emergence of Core (Hash)Tags and its Effects on Performance" (2022). College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications. 590.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/comm_fac/590
Comments
Accepted version. Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 72 (August 2022): 101854. DOI. © 2022 Elsevier. Used with permission.