The Influence Of The Strength Ties On Information Diffusion In Social Media

According to the theory of the strength of ties, weak ties and strong ties playdifferent roles in the relationship between the individuals, the individual and the socialsystems. The effect of information diffusion has difference with different strength of tiesbetween actors. Research shows that, strong ties between the two sides trust andconcern each other. Therefore, the strong ties communicate and exchange information.Weak ties are inclined to take a more conservative interaction and behavior.The purpose of this study is to explore that how this factor act on informationdiffusion process. This Empirical study used social network analysis (UCINETsoftware) and SPSS to find the characteristics of the network structure and thecorrelation between the strength and the diffusion.The results of this study indicate that enterprise, star enterprise and associatedmedia are at the center position in micro-blog network. This three actors controled theinitiative in information exchange. Others play the role of message receiver. Informationdiffusion process has affected by four factors:(1) Relationship role,(2) Contact number,(3)Comment support,(4) strength of ties.Fans are more willing to forward information.Those who are not fans are morewilling to comment, particularly faced with enterprise crisis and may give negativecomments. Strong ties are more willing to forward information, particularly theinformation about products and enterprise. Weak ties are more willing to forward theinformation not directly related to product and enterprise, the negative information andthe information of sales.