Information Needs in Online Social Networks

This article examines the relationship between perceived benefits and participation in an online travel community, of representative social networking sites on the Internet, to understand what actually makes actors participate in social networks. Findings reveal that three factors (information acquisition, social-psychological, and hedonic) are main benefits influencing participation and attitude towards an online travel community. In addition, the multiple regression analysis indicates that information acquisition benefits are perceived as the most important influential elements. Some of the results are found not to be consistent with the findings of previous research. This study provides tourism-related organizations with useful information on how to utilize online communities for their marketing strategy.