Previous fndings in social media studies indicate a shortage of investigations regarding the role of personal factors, such as personalities and psychological status in use and effect of social media. Therefore, in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of social media effect, the current study adopts an approach from media psychology and attempts to fll the gap of early research by examining the moderating role of personality traits in the relationship between social media usage and perceived social capital. Specifcally, the moderation effects of personality traits were investigated by analyzing data collected from 821 Chinese microblogging users. Results of hierarchical regression suggested that personality traits, including extraversion, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness, have potential power to determine the degree of relational benefts gained from social media use. Keyword