If you are involved in social media or viral marketing, most likely you have wondered how to increase the passing-along of your viral content. My co-author Michelle Rogerson and I have been wondering about the same question too in our research project on the spreading of user-generated content online. As the starting point, we conducted an exploratory survey to find out people’s general tendency to share information online and what makes them more or less likely to share information with others. Using snowballing technique, we were able to gather responses from 156 Internet users. These users’ ages ranged from 18 to 62 with a median age of 30. 46% of these users were males and 54% were females. Here I share with you some key findings from the survey.
“If my friend shares something with me, I will view it. But don’t really expect me to pass it on.”
We asked our respondents how likely they are to view information shared by someone they know, and over 60% of them agreed that it is quite likely (7 or higher on a 10-point scale). This is good news because in the case of viral campaigns, encouraging people to share information with their friends is likely to increase the reach of the campaign. The bad news we found, however, is that way fewer of them would further pass on the information to their respective friends. Less than 20% of them said they are likely to pass on information shared with them by their friends. Interestingly, when asked the same question about information consumers found online themselves rather than shared by their friends, those who selected likely to pass on information increased to about 30%. The lesson here is that first-order word-of-mouth (consumers passing on information they found themselves) is more likely to happen than second-order word-of-mouth (consumers passing on information that are found by their friends). Therefore, companies engaging in word-of-mouth campaigns should still try to spread the word to as many “seeds” as possible rather than counting on a few starting points.
“Make me believe that the information is relevant to my friends and I will pass it on.”
The survey contained an open-ended question asking the respondents to list the factors that would make them more likely to share information online. The dominant reason listed (by 35% of the sample) was relevance to the friends that they are passing the information on to. This is perhaps not surprising considering that few of us want to jam our friends’ inbox with junk information. For companies, this means an opportunity to encourage passing-along by demonstrating the content’s relevance to a consumer’s social circle. Financial incentives offered to friends by some referral programs is an example of this approach. The second most widely listed reason was something funny. Apparently, we as human beings like to share laughter with others. Below are the top five reasons the respondents cited ranked by frequency:
- Relevance to those sharing information with
- Humor
- Relevance to oneself
- Importance/worthiness of information
- Unusual/unique information
Opinion leaders share more information but are also more likely to seek advice.Studying information sharing is not complete without considering opinion leaders, those individuals that are on the cutting edge and are likely to influence other people’s opinions. We found that being an opinion leader increases the likelihood to share information with others by 38%, perhaps partially explaining why these people are opinion leaders in the first place. While this finding seems rather obvious, what is not so obvious is the finding that opinion leaders are also more likely to seek advice from others such as family, friends, and neighbors. Compared with regular individuals, opinion leaders are 25% more likely to seek advice from others. This finding is important because we have often seen the argument that the right way to treat social media is to be social (in other words, interacting with others). Our study finds concrete support for that. A true opinion leader does not just broadcast information to others but also listens closely and actively seeks out others’ feedback.
As we move forward to the next stage of the research project, we would love to hear your thoughts. What makes you more likely to share stuff with other people? As a company, how do you manage your viral campaign content and seeding process so that it can create the maximum ripple effect?
This is all very.. well, no, it's not interesting at all. A specialist (in social media marketing or whatever) is one who learns more and more about less and less until eventually he knows everything about nothing.
I do not share information in order to shape opinions. I do it to be Kind. I am Kind in order to stimulate the release of hormones that make me feel good. That's all there is to it.
Examining and quantifying the past only creates expectations of the future, sources of disappointment and suffering. Past and future do not exist, they are Delusions. They are wastes of one's Attention.
David, thank you for your insight. My post was originally intended from a business angle. Your take from a philosophical point of view is interesting. I don't claim to be an expert on philosophical perspectives. I would say that one of the findings from my study is actually consistent with what you said. One of our finding is that people are most likely to pass on a piece of information to someone when they believe it is going to be relevant to that person. Why do people do that? Because they want to be helpful (e.g., “be Kind” in your term). Sharing information to shape opinion does exist too, as in the case of political lobbying or social issue-related word-of-mouth. But I think sharing information to be kind is very much a reality too.
Nice synthesis Yuping. Nice point pointed by David also. Based on David's comments, I was wondering if the “desire to express ourselves” was not more of an important predisposition of why people pass along, which would reformulate David's comments as “I want to express myself, so I pass along messages and I pass along the messages that I consider: (1) relevant to those sharing information with, (2) humor, (3) relevance to oneself, (4) important, (5) unique.” Any other formulations?
JF, thanks for the comment. Yes, I do believe self-expression is important. In fact, relevant/interesting to oneself has also been mentioned by some respondents as a reason they pass along content. That partially reflects the self-expression aspect. The five factors I listed in the blog were the top factors mentioned. There are quite a few other considerations too, such as this relevant to self aspect, source credibility, security, whether it is professionally related, whether it is inspiring or encouraging, etc. But these were not mentioned as widely among the study participants as the five factors listed in the blog. This does not mean that they are not important factors, however, given our sample size of 156. With a large enough population, these other factors can affect a large number of people as well.
Yuping, thanks for the reply, I totally agree that simplicity (parsimony) is always better off than accumulating reasons (dimensions) that are not that useful (add very few variance explained). My point was more an extension of your survey, not a correction. As pointed out by @David, I was trying to clarify with you and others and ask if you would consider “the desire to express ourselves” as:
(1) A predictor (an antecedent) of the five reasons you mentioned
(2) A necessary condition for the five reasons you mentioned
(3) A complement of these five reasons.
Personally, my answer would lie between (1) and (2), but I am really not sure. Any idea?
JF, sorry I've been out of the digital world a few days and couldn't get back to your question sooner. From what I can gather from the responses, self-expression seems to go hand in hand with the other reasons, which makes it more like (3). For example, some individuals mentioned that they specifically pass on information related to music or news, reflecting what they use to express themselves. It appears that self-expression is the one extra push that makes information more likely to be passed on. However, judging from the most often reasons cited as listed in the blog, connection with others seems to be more of a driving force than self-expression. In other words, we pass on information not necessarily to say who we are but to connect with others (in a helpful or entertaining sort of way). But this could be partially due to the way we asked the questions, which are more related to personal word-of-mouth. But sharing information can also happen in a very public way, such as through a published article or a blog. In those contexts, I suspect self-expression can play a stronger role.
Hey this is great research! I somewhat expect some of the answers, but didn't quite expect the part about people being more likely to pass on info they discover themselves rather than info passed from a friend. I suppose, when I consider it, I tend to be more likely to do just that. I think we take pride in that which we discover for ourselves and we often want to be a source of fresh new content for our friends, which is great strategy… as long as we remember to ask them for their advice as well!