DOCSLIB.ORG

A Theory of Viral Growth of Social Networking Sites

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Theory of Viral Growth of Social Networking Sites A THEORY OF VIRAL GROWTH OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES by MICHAEL T. FISHER Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Committee: Kalle J. Lyytinen, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University (chair) Dick Boland, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Jerry Kane, Ph.D., Boston College Rakesh Niraj, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Toni M. Somers, Ph.D., Wayne State University Weatherhead School of Management Designing Sustainable Systems CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2013 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Michael T. Fisher candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree* (signed) Kalle Lyytinen (chair of the committee) Richard J. Boland Gerald Kane Rakesh Niraj Toni Somers (date) November 29, 2012 * We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ ix Abstract .............................................................................................................................. xi Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Motivation and Outline ................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review.................................................................................................................5 Defining Platforms ........................................................................................................ 6 The Nature of Growth on SNS Platforms ..................................................................... 8 Co-creation and Co-production Processes on SNS Platforms .................................... 13 Individual Motivations for UGC ................................................................................. 15 Individual Attitudes towards SNS .............................................................................. 17 Two-Sided Markets ..................................................................................................... 21 Theoretical Framing ...........................................................................................................25 What Is Known ........................................................................................................... 28 What Is Not Known .................................................................................................... 29 Research Methodology ......................................................................................................31 Research Design.......................................................................................................... 31 Qualitative Strand ....................................................................................................... 37 Quantitative Strand ..................................................................................................... 38 Overview of Main Results .................................................................................................40 Paper 1: The Co-Production of Viral Growth: A Comparative Analysis of Two Social Networking Sites ........................................................................................ 40 Paper 2: The Antecedents of Viral Growth on Social Networking Platforms ............ 41 iii Perceived ease of use. ........................................................................................... 43 Page load time. ...................................................................................................... 43 Co-production. ...................................................................................................... 43 Self-identity........................................................................................................... 44 Paper 3: The Influence of User Mix on the Viral Growth of Social Networking Sites .................................................................................................................... 44 Summary of Findings .................................................................................................. 45 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................46 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 46 Understanding self-identity and social behaviors. ................................................ 47 Reciprocity of user generated content................................................................... 49 Differences in platform behaviors and learning.................................................... 50 Social exchange model. ........................................................................................ 52 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic. ............................................................................................ 53 Implications for Practitioners ...................................................................................... 54 Misuse or bricolage. .............................................................................................. 55 Motivations of users. ............................................................................................. 56 Limitations and Future Research ................................................................................ 57 Qualitative strand. ................................................................................................. 58 Quantitative strand. ............................................................................................... 59 Mixed methods research design. ........................................................................... 60 Future research. ..................................................................................................... 62 iv Appendixes Appendix A: Alexa Ranking .................................................................................65 Appendix B: The Co-Production of Viral Growth: A Comparative Analysis of Two Social Networking Sites ....................................................................66 Appendix C: The Antecedents of Viral Growth on Social Networking Platforms99 Appendix D: The Influence of User Mix on the Viral Growth of Social Networking Sites ......................................................................................175 References ........................................................................................................................225 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Unknowns Mapped to Research Questions ........................................................ 31 Table 2: Quality Criteria ................................................................................................... 58 Table 3: Model Comparison by Age ................................................................................. 64 Table B1: Sharing and Usage Distribution ....................................................................... 70 Table B2: Original and Selected Themes ......................................................................... 72 Table B3: Social Processes of Selves, Viral Equation, and p-values ............................... 90 Table C1: Demographics ................................................................................................ 126 Table C2: EFA & CFA Summary ................................................................................... 130 Table C3: Correlation Matrix.......................................................................................... 133 Table C4: Model Fit Statistics for Structural Analysis ................................................... 136 Table C5: Hypotheses Summary .................................................................................... 139 Table C6: Indirect Effects of Voyeurism and Exhibitionism on Fan Out and Retention ............................................................................................................. 143 Table C7: Summary of Model Differences ..................................................................... 144 Table C8: Model Comparison ......................................................................................... 145 Table C9: Control Effects ............................................................................................... 146 Table D1: Within User Voyeur to Exhibition Ratio ....................................................... 186 Table D2: Between Users Voyeur to Exhibition Ratio ................................................... 186 Table D3: Demographics ................................................................................................ 197 Table D4: Summary of Clustering Models for Within Users ......................................... 199 Table D5: Clustering for Voyeurism & Exhibitionism within Users ............................. 201 Table D6: Summary of Clustering Models for Exhibitionism between Users ............... 201 vi Table D7: Summary of Clustering Models for Voyeurism between Users .................... 201 Table D8: Clustering Between User ............................................................................... 202 Table D9: EFA & CFA Summary .................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Unethical Viral Marketing in Social Network Service
    International Journal of Entrepreneurship Volume 24, Issue 1, 2020 UNETHICAL VIRAL MARKETING IN SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICE Seungho Cho, Soongsil University ABSTRACT The current research investigates how marketing professionals perceive an ethical issue of viral marketing and what factors are associated with their moral judgment on an ethical problem of a power blogger. In specific, this research considered organizational factors and individual factors of marketing professional affecting judgment on an ethical issue of a power blogger. To answer the research questions, online survey was taken by marketing professionals found in the list that the Korean Economic Institute. Ninety four marketing professionals participated in the online survey. The research found that marketing professional had strong utilitarian perspective on the ethical issue of viral marketing through a power blogger. Individualism among individual factors was significantly associated with deontology, relativism, and utilitarianism, and sense of rivalry was also significantly associated with justice and relativism. However, there were no significant organizational factors associating with each ethical perspective. Keywords: Viral Marketing, Ethical Perspectives, Power Blogger, Marketing Professionals. INTRODUCTION Viral marketing, or word-of-mouth marketing, refers to marketing techniques that recently use social networks to acknowledge products, advertise brands, or to achieve other marketing objectives through social networking such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. The immense benefit of using such social networks in viral marketing is that the message whether it is about a product, brand, or service can be rapidly spread by highly connected social individuals. The purposes of the current study are to ascertain whether viral marketing has been done unethically through power bloggers in Korea, and how marketing practitioners morally perceive such unethical viral marketing and what factors are associated with their moral judgment on the ethical issue of a power blogger.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media and Its Implications for Viral Marketing
    Social media and its implications for viral marketing Rohan Miller The University of Sydney Natalie Lammas The University of Sydney Abstract Social media presents potentially seductive opportunities for new forms of communication and commerce between marketers and consumers. As advertisers typically want to find some way to follow their target audiences, many new media opportunities are presented to advertisers. However, we are still social media pioneers. While the boom in social marketing appears persuasive with an estimated 70% of consumers visiting a social website for information, other research points out that 90% of WOM conversations still occur face to face or by phone, and only 7 percent occurs online. In contrast to traditional advertising media such as television, there are measurement and consumer behaviour modelling issues that will need to be addressed before marketers that measure and manage their media investments will be able to fully embrace the opportunities and navigate the risks presented by social media. Ultimately, advertisers will be forced beyond the “old- school” approaches to adopt many of the principles and techniques of relationship marketing in order to effectively use social media and likely the multiple niche co-creation of products and services. Keywords: social media, new media, marketing communication, viral, word of mouth Introduction In the last decade there has been a major shift from traditional media. The second generation of Internet-based applications (i.e. “Web 2.0”) or what Shih (2009) calls the fourth revolution, in which users generate and control communication, holds great promise to significantly enhance marketing efforts with viral marketing campaigns (Thackeray et.al.
    [Show full text]
  • An in Depth Study of Viral Marketing for the Purpose of Creating a Guide of Best Practices by Aizhan Maulen
    UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK IN PRAGUE European Business Administration An in Depth Study of Viral Marketing for the Purpose of Creating a Guide of Best Practices by Aizhan Maulen 2015 William Pattison I, Aizhan Maulen, hereby declare that the material contained in this submission is original work performed by me under the guidance and advice of my mentor, William Pattison. Any contribution made to the research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that this work has not previously been submitted in any form for a degree or diploma in any university. Aizhan Maulen, [9.12.2015] Acknowledgment I would like to thank my parents for support and opportunity to study in this university. Also, I am thankful for my friends, who were near me all 3, 5 years and helped in difficult times. Specifically, I would like to thank entire faculty of University of New York in Prague for all the skills and knowledge, which they gave me. Moreover, I would like to thank my mentor, William Pattison, who professionally introduced me to marketing and helped throughout the evolution of this work. Table of contents Abstract 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………6 2. What is viral marketing………………………………………………………..7 2.1 History of viral marketing…………………………………………………8 2.2 Types of viral marketing…………………………………………………10 2.2.1 Organic viral marketing……………………………………...10 2.2.2 Amplified viral marketing……………………………………11 2.3 Advantages and disadvantages…………………………………..………12 2.3.1 Advantages……………………………………………….…..12 2.3.2 Disadvantages………………………………………….……..14 3. How to create viral marketing………………………………………………..15 4. How viral marketing works……………………………………………..……21 5. How to spread viral marketing………………………………………….……24 6.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Viral Marketing Through the New Media of Social Media Rebecca J
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Liberty University Digital Commons Liberty University DigitalCommons@Liberty University Faculty Publications and Presentations School of Business 2009 The Rise of Viral Marketing through the New Media of Social Media Rebecca J. Larson Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/busi_fac_pubs Part of the Business Commons Recommended Citation Larson, Rebecca J., "The Rise of Viral Marketing through the New Media of Social Media" (2009). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 6. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/busi_fac_pubs/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Business at DigitalCommons@Liberty University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Liberty University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lingley, R 1 MKT7001-11 1 RUNNING HEAD: Lingley, R 1 MKT7001-11 The Rise of Viral Marketing through the New Media of Social Media: An Analysis and Implications for Consumer Behavior Rebecca J. Lingley Larson NorthCentral University Lingley, R 1 MKT7001-11 2 Table of Contents Title Page …………………………………………………..…………………………. 1 Table of Contents …………….………………………….………………………….. 2 Executive Summary ……….………………………….…………………………….. 3 Introduction …………………..………………………………………………………. 5 Changing consumer behavior: Analyzing innovation’s impact
    [Show full text]
  • Implicit Structure and the Dynamics of Blogspace
    Implicit Structure and the Dynamics of Blogspace Eytan Adar Li Zhang Lada A. Adamic Rajan M. Lukose HP Information Dynamics Lab Abstract applications for finding the latest information very little attention has been paid to its spread. Weblogs link together in a complex structure through which new ideas and discourse can flow. Such a structure is ideal for In this paper, we study the pattern and dynamics of information the study of the propagation of information. In this paper we spreading in blogspace. We consider both the large scale describe general categories of information epidemics and create aspects of spreading patterns as well as how a specific, a tool to infer and visualize the paths specific infections take individual link may be tracked in blog networks. Our study is through the network. This inference is based in part on a novel enabled by the blog data that is crawled on a daily basis. In our utilization of data describing historical, repeating patterns of study, we will only track link information. While memes can infection. We conclude with a description of a new ranking take many forms, those addressed by URLs are by far the algorithm, iRank, for blogs. In contrast to traditional ranking simplest to track and disambiguate. For example, our system strategies, iRank acts on the implicit link structure to find those will track http://www.giantmicrobes.com instead of discussions blogs that initiate these epidemics. about the Giant Microbe toys, or images copied from the source site. General Terms With the triplets of (URL, blog, day of URL citation), we first Measurement, Experimentation, Algorithm characterize the spreading patterns of information.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Skills Dominique Jackson
    13 Must-Have Social Media Skills by Dominique Jackson on January 19, 2016 What are the ingredients of an ideal social media manager? If you were to ask this question 10 years ago, it would probably be a fairly short list. But as social media marketing evolved over the years with new technology and a wider audience, we’ve been able to see certain skills and traits that separate the top marketers from the rest. Learning and sharpening these skills can help propel your social media efforts into elite status, and avoid being one of the many brands that can’t seem to make any progress. Whether you’re looking to hire a new social media manager or simply want to improve your own strategy, focus on building up these 13 social media skills: 1. Community Management When you look at the top brands on social media, you’ll notice something they all have in common is a community aspect. Social media marketing is all about connecting with your audience. Once you’re able to build that connection and grow a community, your audience will start creating user generated content (UGC) and your reach will spread organically. Start by acknowledging your top sharers. These are the people who are consistently engaging with you and your content on social media. You can find this in the Sprout Social Trends report. Want to know what other pieces should be a part of your social team? We partnered with HubSpot to create a free guide on how to build a social media dream team from scratch, including some of the key positions you should fill.Download it here.
    [Show full text]
  • A Dynamic Analysis of the Effects of Word-Of-Mouth on Online Brand Communities
    SUMA DE NEGOCIOS, 9(20), 77-85, Julio-Diciembre 2018, ISSN 2215-910X Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14349/sumneg/2018.V9.N20.A1 SUMA DE NEGOCIOS Research article A dynamic analysis of the effects of word-of-mouth on online brand communities Milton M. Herrera1, Leonela S. León2 and Lorena K. Vargas-Ortiz3 1 Università Degli Studi di Palermo and Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Bogotá, Colombia. (Corresponding author) Email address: [email protected]. ORCID: 0000-0002-0766-8391. 2 Universidad Piloto de Colombia and Escuela Europea de Dirección y Empresa, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business, Bogotá, Colombia. Email address: [email protected]. ORCID: 0000-0001-6212-9713. 3 Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business, Bogotá, Colombia. Email address: [email protected]. ORCID: 0000-0002-8974-6719. ARTICLE HISTORY A B S T R A C T Received on May 23rd 2018 The increase of brand communities is an important aspect that affects the purchase Accepted on August 8th 2018 process of online consumers. This research aims to assess the effects of word-of-mouth Available online on September 8th 2018 (WOM) on online brand communities in the food industry in Colombia. The paper presents a simulation model of online consumers’ purchase processes which allows us to under- JEL Classification: stand the viral marketing strategy and answers the following question: What is the func- M31, C63, Q13, M39 tion of WOM for online brand communities and what role does it play in food consumption? The model shows the change of consumer states and allows the understanding of behavior Keywords: during the development of the brand, WOM, the viral effects in the market and the analysis Word-of-mouth; of market penetration or the adoption of a complex service structure in closed cycles.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dynamics of Viral Marketing
    The Dynamics of Viral Marketing JURE LESKOVEC Carnegie Mellon University LADA A. ADAMIC University of Michigan and BERNARDO A. HUBERMAN HP Labs We present an analysis of a person-to-person recommendation network, consisting of 4 million peo- ple who made 16 million recommendations on half a million products. We observe the propagation of recommendations and the cascade sizes, which we explain by a simple stochastic model. We analyze how user behavior varies within user communities defined by a recommendation network. Product purchases follow a ‘long tail’ where a significant share of purchases belongs to rarely sold items. We establish how the recommendation network grows over time and how effective it is from the viewpoint of the sender and receiver of the recommendations. While on average recommenda- tions are not very effective at inducing purchases and do not spread very far, we present a model that successfully identifies communities, product, and pricing categories for which viral marketing seems to be very effective. Categories and Subject Descriptors: J.4 [Social and Behavioral Sciences]: Economics General Terms: Economics Additional Key Words and Phrases: Viral marketing, word-of-mouth, e-commerce, long tail, recom- mender systems, network analysis ACM Reference Format: Leskovec, J., Adamic, L. A., and Huberman, B. A. 2007. The dynamics of viral marketing. ACM Trans. Web, 1, 1, Article 5 (May 2007), 39 pages. DOI = 10.1145/1232722.1232727 http://doi.acm.org/ 10.1145/1232722.1232727 This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grants SENSOR- 0329549 IIS-0326322 IIS-0534205. This work is also supported in part by the Pennsylvania In- frastructure Technology Alliance (PITA).
    [Show full text]
  • Viral Marketing Bootcamp for the Fitness Entrepreneur
    “Let’s Go Viral is a comprehensive guide to viral marketing for fitness entrepreneurs.” So, you’ve put in the work at the gym. Now, you want to grow your client base. But where do you start? How do you get the most reach with the least amount of effort and the least amount of spend? Let’s Go Viral will teach you how to reach the masses with relevant messaging that compels viewers to share your content, and ultimately expand your reach! Let’s Go Viral will (power) walk you through the steps needed to develop a viral marketing campaign. We’ll include basic principles, quick tips, insights, advice, and key take-aways you can create a viral marketing campaign for your fitness, nutrition and weight loss business. Your business is all about driving RESULTS, Results, Results … and so are we! Now, let’s get started, shall we? Let’s Go Viral | Viral Marketing Bootcamp for Fitness Entrepreneurs! Viral Marketing Bootcamp 101 | What is Viral Marketing? Like any good meal plan or work out plan, we’ll first need to start out with the basic essentials. First, you’ll need to get a fundamental understanding of what Viral marketing is. Viral marketing utilizes modern communication technology to get your message out to a large group of people (Mulder, 2018). Viral Marketing is … content that is shares on a large scale. It can be an image, meme, short or long forum video that has reached an extraordinary amount of impressions and views in short amount of time (Mulder, 2018). Viral content generates buzz, likes, comments and discussion around content.
    [Show full text]
  • The Review of the Two Latest Marketing Techniques; Viral Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing Which Influence Online Consumer Behavior
    Global Journal of Management and Business Research: E Marketing Volume 14 Issue 2 Version 1.0 Year 2014 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-4588 & Print ISSN: 0975-5853 The Review of the Two Latest Marketing Techniques; Viral Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing which Influence Online Consumer Behavior By Ken Fong & Rashad Yazdanifard Southern New Hampshire University, Malaysia Abstract- The internet has developed into a new distribution channel and online trading is increasing rapidly in a decade. This has created a need for us to understand how the consumer perceives online purchases.Online marketing techniques are the art and science of selling products or services over digital networks, such as the Internet and cellular phone networks. Internet in the consumer decision-making process ensures that marketer to make greater use of this tool, while consumers are changing or challenging traditional pattern of supply of the commercial websites. Keywords: online marketing techniques, consumer perceives, online purchase, digital network. GJMBR-E Classification : JEL Code: M31 TheReviewoftheTwoLatestMarketingTechniquesViralMarketingandGuerrillaMarketingwhichInfluenceOnlineConsumerBehavior Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2014. Ken Fong & Rashad Yazdanifard. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Review of the Two Latest Marketing Techniques; Viral Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing which Influence Online Consumer Behavior Ken Fong α & Rashad Yazdanifard σ Abstract- The internet has developed into a new distribution marketing technique which expected will be influencing 2014 channel and online trading is increasing rapidly in a decade.
    [Show full text]
  • Analyzing the Intention of Consumer Purchasing Behaviors in Relation to Internet Memes Using VAB Model
    sustainability Article Analyzing the Intention of Consumer Purchasing Behaviors in Relation to Internet Memes Using VAB Model Hsin-Hui Lee 1, Chia-Hsing Liang 2 , Shu-Yi Liao 2 and Han-Shen Chen 1,3,* 1 Department of Health Diet and Industry Management, Chung Shan Medical University, No. 110, Sec. 1, Jianguo N. Rd., Taichung City 40201, Taiwan; [email protected] 2 Department of Applied Economics, National Chung Hsing University, No. 250, Kuo Kuang Rd., Taichung 40227, Taiwan; [email protected] (C.-H.L.); [email protected] (S.-Y.L.) 3 Department of Medical Management, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, No. 110, Sec. 1, Jianguo N. Rd., Taichung City 40201, Taiwan * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +886-4-2473-0022 (ext. 12225) Received: 29 August 2019; Accepted: 7 October 2019; Published: 9 October 2019 Abstract: The proliferation of Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information, which has given birth to the term “Internet meme”. Social network is one of the pivotal media in spreading an Internet meme. Marketers utilize Internet memes to carry out marketing activities to significantly improve their Internet exposure. We thus verify whether consumers generate purchase intention after being attracted to an Internet meme, as no such research prevails. We employ the value–attitude–behavior model as its theoretical core and discuss how the values formed by consumers under the impact of an Internet meme influence their purchasing behaviors through their attitudes. The participants of the study are Internet users who are habitual to checking Facebook. We adopted convenience sampling and developed 380 valid questionnaires.
    [Show full text]
  • A Content Analysis of Popular Viral Advertisements
    The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Summer 8-2011 The Viral Fingerprint: A Content Analysis of Popular Viral Advertisements Thomas Grant Broadus II University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Broadcast and Video Studies Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Mass Communication Commons, and the Public Relations and Advertising Commons Recommended Citation Broadus, Thomas Grant II, "The Viral Fingerprint: A Content Analysis of Popular Viral Advertisements" (2011). Master's Theses. 230. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/230 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE VIRAL FINGERPRINT: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF POPULAR VIRAL ADVERTISEMENTS by Thomas Grant Broadus II A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Approved: _Dr. Fei Xue_________________________ Director _Dr. David Davies____________________ _Dr. Mary Lou Sheffer_________________ _Susan A. Siltanen____________________ Dean of the Graduate School August 2011 ABSTRACT THE VIRAL FINGERPRINT: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF POPULAR VIRAL ADVERTISEMENTS by Thomas Grant Broadus II August 2011 This paper presents an analysis of 280 online videos that appeared on the Advertising Age weekly chart of the top ten viral videos of the week; the videos appeared on the chart from March 23 rd 2009 to March 9 th 2011.
    [Show full text]