Does the Number of Likes and Views Matter?:

An Experimental Study of the Influence of SNS Majority Users

Abstract

In an online platform, most users often lurk the contents, and these lurkers are believed not to have any power. However, social media makes it possible to examine such lurkers by showing their viewing and liking behavior as numbers. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to empirically reveal the power of lurkers (majority users) using an experimental design. Two-way ANOVA (number of majority users/number of followers of the sender) and a t-test were used to prove that the number of majority users have positive power over other social media users. The results showed that majority users have a significant positive influence on liking and sharing of contents, as well as on intention to participate in and buy the brand. In particular, majority users have the same significant influence, even if they are gathering the contents from ordinary senders who are not influencers.