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An empirical study of notifications’ importance for online social network users

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Abstract

Over the last decade, online social networks (OSNs) have been growing quickly to become some of the largest systems in use. Their users are sharing more and more content, and in turn have access to vast amounts of information from and about each other. This increases the risk of information overload for every user. We define a set of event types, which can generate notifications to users on an OSN. We survey one set of users to obtain their evaluation of the relative importance of event types. We survey another set of users, to identify the factors, which influence the perception of the relative importance of event types. Both results are relevant for the design of algorithms for the recommendation of content to OSN users.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, University of Namur, Rempart de la Vierge, 8, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Sarah Bouraga, Ivan Jureta & Stéphane Faulkner

  2. PReCISE Research Center, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Sarah Bouraga, Ivan Jureta & Stéphane Faulkner

  3. Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS, Brussels, Belgium

    Ivan Jureta

Authors
  1. Sarah Bouraga
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  2. Ivan Jureta
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  3. Stéphane Faulkner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Bouraga.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Survey on the content of online social networks: part 1

1.1 General information

  1. 1.

    You are a:

    • Female

    • Male

  2. 2.

    For how long have you been using an OSN?

    • I don’t use an OSN

    • Less than a year

    • Between 1 and 2 years

    • More than 2 years

  3. 3.

    How often do you use the following social networks? (everyday—several times a week—once a week—once a month—never)

    • Facebook

    • Flickr

    • LinkedIn

    • MySpace

    • Pinterest

    • Tumblr

    • Twitter

    • YouTube

1.2 Content of online social networks

  1. 1.

    When I log into a social network, I want to see updates and/or new information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • Their name

    • Their birthday

    • Their mother language

    • Their ethnicity

    • Their relationship status

    • Their phone number

    • Their profile picture

    • Their website

    • The school they attend/attended

    • The job they have/have had

    • The industry(ies) they work/want to work in

    • The identification of their parents

    • The identification of their brothers and sisters

    • The identification of their aunts and uncles

    • The identification of their cousins

    • Their religious belief

    • Their political belief

    • The foreign languages they speak

    • Their qualifications—their expertise areas

    • Their résumé

    • The sports, or the instruments they play

    • The youth movements they’re part of

    • The evens they attended

    • Their musical and movie tastes

    • Their favorite quote

    • A little text about them

  2. 2.

    As a general rule, it is important to me to see information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • Information about their profile

    • The links they create on the social network

    • The content they share

    • The way they manage who can see what on their profile and their activity

    • The recommendations they receive

    • If they connect their account to another social network account

Appendix 2: Survey on the content of online social networks—part 2

2.1 General information

Refer to questions 1–3 from “survey on the content of online social networks—part 1”

2.2 Content of online social networks

  1. 1.

    When I log into a social network, I want to see updates and/or new information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • A short text, such as a status on Facebook

    • A long text, such as a note on Facebook

    • A comment on one of their friends’ profile information

    • A comment on a status

    • A comment on a photo or video

    • A comment on a relationship status

    • A “Like” on a status

    • A “Like” on a photo or video

    • A “Share” on a status

    • A “Share” on a photo or video

    • The “Tag” of one of their friends on a status

    • The “Tag” of one of their friends on a photo or video

    • The “Tag” of a photo or video with specific terms

    • The public messages they receive from their contacts

    • The public messages they send to their contacts

    • A group they create

    • A group they join

  2. 2.

    As a general rule, it is important to me to see information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • Information about their profile

    • The links they create on the social network

    • The content they share

    • The way they manage who can see what on their profile and their activity

    • The recommendations they receive

    • If they connect their account to another social network account

Appendix 3: Survey on the content of online social networks—part 3

3.1 General information

Refer to questions 1–3 from “survey on the content of online social networks—part 1”

3.2 Content of online social networks

  1. 1.

    When I log into a social network, I want to see updates and/or new information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • The public figures, the organizations they like, or other OSN users they follow

    • The friend requests they accept, or the contacts they add

    • The connections they make between OSNs, so that they can sign into a social network using another social network’s account

    • The various OSNs on which they share status, photos, etc. simultaneously

    • The precise group of users who has access to their profile elements, or their activity

    • Precisely which elements on their profile, or which activities are visible to all members of the OSN

    • The suggestions they receive about contacts to add on the OSN

    • The suggestions they receive about public figures to like or follow

    • The suggestions they receive about content they could like

  2. 2.

    As a general rule, it is important to me to see information about, and/or created by, my friends about: (strongly agree—agree—undecided—disagree—strongly disagree)

    • Information about their profile

    • The links they create on the social network

    • The content they share

    • The way they manage who can see what on their profile and their activity

    • The recommendations they receive

    • If they connect their account to another social network account

Appendix 4: Survey on the factors influencing the perceived importance of event types

4.1 General information

  • You are:

    • Female

    • Male

4.2 Characteristics of the contact

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If X is a girl, then the status is more important to me

  • If X is a boy, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the gender of X

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If X is a new member of the social network, then the status is more important to me

  • If X has been using the social network for years, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the experience of X on the social network

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If X is shares posts a lot, then the status is more important to me

  • If X is shares posts rarely, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on how often X shares posts

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If X is a member of various social networks, then the status is more important to me

  • If X is a member of only one social network, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the number of social net- works X uses

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • The closer friend X is, the more the status is important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on my relationship with X

A user Y posts a status. This user Y is not one of your friends on the online social network:

  • The more friends Y has, the more Y’s status is important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the number of users Y is friends with

4.3 Characteristics of the content

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If people are tagged on the status, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the presence of tagged people

Your friend X publishes a status and tags people on it:

  • If the tagged people are my friends, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the tagged people

Your friend X publishes a status and tags people on it:

  • The more people are tagged on the status, the more the status is important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the number of tagged people

Your friend X publishes a status and tags 10 people on it:

  • If I directly have access to the name of the 10 tagged people, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the fact that I have direct access to the name of the tagged people

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If the object of the status is about something X and I have in common (the same college, the same sport, the same hobby, etc.), then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the fact that the object of the status is about something X and I have in common

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • The more “Likes” or comments the status has, the more the status is important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the number of “Likes” or comments on it

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If the status is highlighted, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the fact that it is highlighted

Your friend X publishes a status:

  • If emoticons are used, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the use of emoticons

Your friend X publishes a status, and you “Like” this status:

  • If I receive an alert for each other “Like” on the status, then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the status does not depend on the receiving of alerts

Your friend X “Likes” a status:

  • If the “Like” is associated with an icon (for instance, the thumb up on Facebook), then the status is more important to me

  • The importance of the “Like” does not depend on the presence of an icon

Your friends publish several posts:

  • The first posts appearing on the top of the screen are more important

  • The importance of the posts do not depend on the order of their appearance on the newsfeed

Your friend X publishes a photo:

  • If the photo is accompanied by a descriptive text, then the photo is more important to me

  • The importance of the photo does not depend on the presence of a descriptive text

Your friend X publishes a photo:

  • If the photo is accompanied by its localization, then the photo is more important to me

  • The importance of the photo does not depend on the presence of its localization

Your friend X publishes a photo album:

  • If I can see a preview of the photos, then the album is more important to me

  • The importance of the album does not depend on the presence of a preview

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Bouraga, S., Jureta, I. & Faulkner, S. An empirical study of notifications’ importance for online social network users. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 5, 51 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-015-0293-x

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