Viral Marketing
Seeding Viral Content
The Role of Message and Network Factors
YuPING LIu-THoMPKINS Old Dominion University YxxLiu@odu.edu
Online viral campaigns require a seeding strategy that involves choosing the firstgeneration consumers to spread a viral message to. Building on social-capital theory and social-network analysis, this research examines key aspects of the seeding strategy by tracking the diffusion of 101 new videos published on YouTube. The results show that the need for a “big-seed” strategy (i.e., using many seed consumers) depends on message quality. Furthermore, one should choose consumers who have strong ties with the advertiser and who also have strong influence on others, rather than simply wider reach. Among seed consumers, they should share a moderate amount of interest overlap instead of being too homogeneous or heterogeneous as a group.
INTRoDuCTIoN “Viral marketing” refers to the act of propagating marketing messages through the help and cooperation from individual consumers. It departs from traditional advertising in its reliance on consumer word of mouth (WOM) instead of mass media as the message conveyance vehicle. Compared with traditional advertising, viral marketing enjoys the benefits of lower cost, higher credibility, faster diffusion, and better targeting of consumers (Bampo et al., 2008; Dobele, Toleman, and Beverland, 2005). Furthermore, the emergence of online communities and social media in recent years have vastly extended individual consumers’ influence beyond their immediate circle of close friends to more casual acquaintances and sometimes even strangers (Duan, Gu, and Whinston, 2008). This significantly increased the scale of viral marketing, putting it into a more central position in company strategy (Ferguson, 2008). Despite its increasing use, both marketing practitioners and researchers have pointed out the elusiveness of viral marketing success and a general lack of understanding of what drives the success of viral
The Role of Message and Network Factors
YuPING LIu-THoMPKINS Old Dominion University YxxLiu@odu.edu
Online viral campaigns require a seeding strategy that involves choosing the firstgeneration consumers to spread a viral message to. Building on social-capital theory and social-network analysis, this research examines key aspects of the seeding strategy by tracking the diffusion of 101 new videos published on YouTube. The results show that the need for a “big-seed” strategy (i.e., using many seed consumers) depends on message quality. Furthermore, one should choose consumers who have strong ties with the advertiser and who also have strong influence on others, rather than simply wider reach. Among seed consumers, they should share a moderate amount of interest overlap instead of being too homogeneous or heterogeneous as a group.
INTRoDuCTIoN “Viral marketing” refers to the act of propagating marketing messages through the help and cooperation from individual consumers. It departs from traditional advertising in its reliance on consumer word of mouth (WOM) instead of mass media as the message conveyance vehicle. Compared with traditional advertising, viral marketing enjoys the benefits of lower cost, higher credibility, faster diffusion, and better targeting of consumers (Bampo et al., 2008; Dobele, Toleman, and Beverland, 2005). Furthermore, the emergence of online communities and social media in recent years have vastly extended individual consumers’ influence beyond their immediate circle of close friends to more casual acquaintances and sometimes even strangers (Duan, Gu, and Whinston, 2008). This significantly increased the scale of viral marketing, putting it into a more central position in company strategy (Ferguson, 2008). Despite its increasing use, both marketing practitioners and researchers have pointed out the elusiveness of viral marketing success and a general lack of understanding of what drives the success of viral