From Need Satisfaction to Identity Expression: Self-Presentation Strategies in Travel Experience Sharing on Social Media

Although prior work primarily examines identity construction on social media, it remains unclear how digital identity accumulates into a personal brand through platform-mediated self-presentation strategies. Building on self-determination theory and uses and gratifications theory, our study develops a conceptual model to explore how psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) shape self-presentation strategies for personal branding. Using well-established measurement scales, our study adopts a quantitative survey approach and conducts two independent studies (Study 1: N = 273; Study 2: N = 265). The results show that perceived competence and relatedness are influential drivers of self-presentation strategies on social media, which subsequently enhance users’ enjoyment and sharing confidence. Perceived autonomy only positively affects positive self-presentation, which is contingent on contextual factors (i.e., gender and education). This study offers a more nuanced account of how digital identity develops through travel-facilitated self-presentation strategies, advancing human–computer interaction research and providing actionable practical implications.