  The identification of distinct user roles is an important theme in social
media research. However, for Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), the use of
social media within organisations, research identifying such roles is still
lacking. Yet, understanding user roles, in particular regarding their knowledge
contributions and communication behaviour, might usefully support companies in
managing critical knowledge resources. Against this backdrop, in this
research-in-progress paper we derive 16 metrics characterising the
participation behaviour, message content and structural position of ESN users
of an Australian professional services firm. Based on a factor analysis, we
identify four distinct dimensions of ESN user behaviour: Contribution &
networking, information provision, contact dispersion and invisible usage. With
this research we contribute to the literature by transferring concepts and
methods of organisation science and social media research to an ESN context.
Further, our approach forms the basis for the identification of different types
of knowledge actors, which might ultimately help to improve organisational
knowledge transparency.
