EPJ Data Sci. (2014) 3: 5
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds30

Regular article

Modeling dynamics of attention in social media with user efficiency

¹ Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci, 32, Milan, Italy
² Yahoo Labs, Av. Diagonal 177, 08018, Barcelona, Spain
³ FIEC, Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Km 30.5 via Perimetral, Guayaquil, Ecuador

^* e-mail: cvaca@fiec.espol.edu.ec

Received: 19 December 2013
Accepted: 13 February 2014
Published online: 4 March 2014

Abstract

Evolution of online social networks is driven by the need of their members to shareand consume content, resulting in a complex interplay between individual activity andattention received from others. In a context of increasing information overload andlimited resources, discovering which are the most successful behavioral patterns toattract attention is very important. To shed light on the matter, we look into thepatterns of activity and popularity of users in the Yahoo Meme microblogging service.We observe that a combination of different type of social and content-producingactivity is necessary to attract attention and the efficiency of users, namely theaverage attention received per piece of content published, for many users has adefined trend in its temporal footprint. The analysis of the user time series ofefficiency shows different classes of users whose different activity patterns giveinsights on the type of behavior that pays off best in terms of attention gathering.In particular, sharing content with high spreading potential and then supporting theattention raised by it with social activity emerges as a frequent pattern for usersgaining efficiency over time.