Viral Marketing
global scale in a very short period (Van der Lans and Van Bruggen, 2011).
In modern life, sharing content online is something which happens every day. Allsop, Bassett and Hoskins (2007) outlined that 59% of people frequently share online content with others. Harris (2010) outlined that someone tweets a link to a New York Times story every four four seconds.
Sharing online content has significant impact upon consumers, and brands. It is clear that this sharing is both frequent and often (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006), however, it is not clear as to why certain pieces of information are more viral than others. Businesses who create online campaigns often try to encourage consumers to share the content, some efforts work, however, some do not (Berger and Milkman, 2011). This blog is looking to address the question of why certain pieces of online content are more viral than others, is it random as Cashmore (2009) argues, or is there a specific reasoning behind why people share certain content?
What Influences People to Share Certain Content?
According to Botha and Reyneke (2013) emotions are central to the actions of marketing managers and marketing teams. Chakrabarti and Berthon (2012) outlined that emotions regarding social emotions, are central to various exchanges on social media in today’s modern society. It was argued that the emphasis has shifted from the production of services to the production of experiences (Chakrabarti and Berthon, 2012). Dobele et al., (2007) argued that people pass on viral messages because they are connected emotionally. Dobele and his team (2007) went on to argue that the viral marketing messages must build an emotional connection between the campaign and the viewer to ensure that the message gets spread. Phelps et al., (2004) support this point, by sating that users forward emails when they experience positive emotions, such as ‘happy’, ‘brightens’, ‘excited’, ‘connected’, and ‘inspired’. Thus suggesting that positive content is more likely to be shared. However, Godes et al., (2004) suggest that people are more likely to pass along negative news.
Aside from emotions, it can be observed that another reason share content online is because it contains useful information (Berger and Milkman, 2011). Consumers may also share practically useful content for reasons to help others or for self enhancement purposes (Wojnicki and Godes, 2008).
Conclusion
On review of the literature above it is still unclear on the most significant factor which encourages a user to share content online. It is likely that each sector differs, i.e., in some markets a negative emotion inflicted in the person will have more chance of a successful viral marketing campaign, in comparison to another viral marketing campaign where a positive emotional reaction will be more successful.
References
Wojnicki, Andrea C. and Dave Godes (2008), “Word-of-Mouth as Self-Enhancement,” working paper, University of Toronto.
Godes, David and Dina Mayzlin (2004), “Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication,” Marketing Science, 23 (4), 545–60
Berger, J. and Milkman, K. (2012). What makes online content viral?. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(2), pp.192–205.
Chakrabarti R, Berthon P. 2012. Gift giving and social
emotions: experience as content. Journal of Public Affairs
12(2): 154–161.
Phelps PH, Lewis R, Mobilio L, Perry D, RamanN. 2004.Viral
marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: examining
consumer responses and motivations to pass along
email. Journal of Advertising Research, 44(04): 333–348.
Allsop, Dee T., Bryce R. Bassett, and James A. Hoskins (2007), “Word-of-Mouth Research: Principles and Applications,” Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (4), 388–411.
Cashmore, Pete (2009), “YouTube: Why Do We Watch?” CNN. com, (December 17), (accessed April, 27, 2015), [available at http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/17/cashmore.youtube/ index.html].
Chevalier, Judith A. and Dina Mayzlin (2006), “The Effect of Word-of-Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews,” Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (August), 345–54.
Harris, Jacob (2010), “How Often Is the Times Tweeted,” New York Times Open Blog, (April 15), [available at http://open.blogs. nytimes.com/2010/04/15/how-often-is-the-times-tweeted/]
Botha, E & Reyneke, M. (2013). To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing. Journal of Public Affairs. 13 (2), 160-171.
Van der Lans R, Van Bruggen G. 2011. Viral marketing:
what is it, and what are the components of viral success?
In The Connected Customer: The Changing Nature
of Consumer and Business Markets, Wuyts S, Dekimpe
MG, Gijsbrechts E, Pieters R (eds). Routledge Taylor
and Francis: NY, USA.
Dobele A, Lindgreen A, Beverland M, Vanhamme J, Van
Wijk R. 2007. Why pass on viral messages? Because
they connect emotionally. Business Horizons 50: 291–304.