"Power users" do most of the "liking" and commenting on Facebook, a study says.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Facebook users "like" content on about 14 times, while their content is "liked" about 20 times
- This discrepancy exists because certain "power users" dominate one kind of action
- Power users make up between 20% to 30% of the Facebook population
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Projectstudy, which looks at Facebook activity of users over a one-month period, shows that users "like" content on their News Feed about 14 times, while their content is Liked about 20 times. Users send about nine personal messages and receive 12.
This discrepancy exists because certain "power users" dominate one kind of Facebook action. Meaning everyone has friends that excessively tag photos, send messages or "like" things all the time. Others obsessively "friend" people.
Power users -- specializing in one of the activities describes above -- make up between 20% to 30% of the Facebook population.
"The striking thing is that there are different power users depending on the activity in question," says Keith Hampton, the study's lead author. "One group of power users dominates friending activity. Another dominates 'liking' activity. And yet another dominates photo tagging."
The research was conducted by a national phone survey targeting adults and teenagers in America who use Facebook.
This adds to a long list of things we learned about Facebook after the company filed its long-awaited initial public offering. This news sheds light on how users use the $5 billion-dollar company.