Impression management through people tagging in the enterprise: Implications for social media sampling and design

Abstract

People tagging allows a person to tag one’s self or others; it is reciprocal and therefore has social implications. The main uses of corporate people tagging systems are for building internal social networks, solving problems, and seeking expertise. We explored the statistical and terminological relation between self-presentation and perception by others as reflected by the use of tags in a people tagging system within a large enterprise. Due to the features of the power law distribution of the data, two different samples were analyzed. Using content analysis, we found that when there are few self or social tags, users prefer to use tags from the Environment and Technology categories, providing tags that tend to be objective or factual. When tagging approaches saturation, it becomes more subjective and social, using tags from the Individual category. Self-tags tend to be more factual describing technology expertise while social tags augment the individual tags by adding a personal dimension. The more people tag and get tagged, the more terminological overlap develops. We conclude by providing practical advice on how to create a sustainable system by balancing originality and duplication using interactivity and feedback.