Riana Byrd

#PowerUser

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Executive Summary

My research question is "what motivates a social media power user?" My hypothesis was that power users are motivated by being perceived as a significant figure to others on their social media accounts. For my research methods, I read journal articles, took a survey, conducted four interviews, and a focus group. For my survey, I sent out the link online using Facebook. For my interviews, I chose 4 students, 2 women, 2 men, who I found fit the profile of a power user. With my focus group, I had a range of user types. I had 8 members, half men, half women, and there was a mix of power users, normal users, and low users, or people who barely used their social media accounts. My data answered both questions by providing evidence that power users are influenced by rewards that come along with self-disclosure. For social media, some of these rewards can come as qualitative aspects, like positive comments from people, or a like on a post. Other rewards can be quantitative, like the number of favorites/likes, or amount of friends a person has. Power users are driven by the positive feelings that come along with interacting on social media. The difference between them and normal users is that power users are constantly seeking these rewards, while normal users take them as they present themselves.