Relatedness need and users´ satisfaction with social network sites: A self-determinant perspective

As social network sites become quite popular and more people begin to participate in the social network sites (e.g., Facebook), practitioners are interested in how to make participants satisfied and keep them using the sites. This study applies Self-Determination Theory and it tries to understand the relationship between relatedness need satisfaction, level of relatedness need and users´ satisfaction with social network sites. Using Facebook as the context, we test our hypotheses with students sample from a large state university in the U.S. The results confirm our hypotheses. We then discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study.