A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on Twitter

► Social media network information impacted perceived source credibility. ► Following too few people led to lower judgments of expertise and trustworthiness. ► Following too many people also led to lower judgments of these impressions. ► A narrow gap between followers and follows led to higher competence. ► Neither the number of followers nor the gap between followers and follows impacted perceptions of goodwill. Social media have gained increased usage rapidly for a variety of reasons. News and information is one such reason. The current study examines how system-generated cues available in social media impact perceptions of a source’s credibility. Participants were asked to view one of six mock Twitter.com pages that varied both the number of followers and the ratio between followers and follows on the page and report their perceived source credibility. Data indicate that curvilinear effects for number of followers exist, such that having too many or too few connections results in lower judgments of expertise and trustworthiness. Having a narrow gap between the number of followers and follows also led to increased judgments of competence. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations of the current study and directions for future research.