It’s what’s outside that counts: Finding credibility metrics through non-message related Twitter features

Social media data, such as Twitter, enables crisis response personnel and civilians to share information during a crisis situation. However, a lack of information gatekeeping processes also translates into concerns about both content and source credibility. This research aims to identify Twitter metrics which could assist with the latter. A 2 (average number of hashtags used) x 2 (ratio of tweets/retweets posted) x 2 (ratio of follower/followee) between-subjects experiment was conducted to evaluate the level of influence of Twitter broker metrics on behavioral intention and the perception of source credibility. The findings indicate that follower/followee ratio in conjunction with hashtag usage approached a significant effect on perceived source credibility. In addition, both Twitter awareness metrics and dispositional trust played an important role in determining behavioral intentions and perceived source credibility. Implications and limitations are also discussed.