Viral Campaigns in Social Network SitesImportance of Social Ties and Perceived

Persuasive Intent Guda van NoortMarjolijn AntheunisEva van Reijmersdal

Guda van Noort, Marjolijn Antheunis, and Eva van Reijmersdal

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Rationale SNS Campaigns increasingly popular

Unknown what determines their persuasiveness

Marketers stimulate forwarding to social connections: viral

Online marketing research role of social connections understudied

Prior research: tie strength as antecedent of forwarding behavior

Research on effects of tie strength is lacking

Related fields showed importance strength of tie and persuasive intent

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Conceptual Model

Eva voegt model inStrength of Tie between sender and receiver of campaign

Perceived Persuasive Intentof the campaign

Brand Attitude Campaign Attitude

Campaign Relevance Forwarding Intention

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Viral SNS Campaigns

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Method

Real campaign on Hyves initially disseminated via one person’s network

Measures

Tie strength: closeness to and time spent with sender of viral campaign

Perceived persuasive intent: “campaign is created to persuade”

Brand and Campaign Attitude

Campaign Relevance

Forwarding Intention

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Results

Strength of Tie: Closeness

Brand Attitude

Strength of Tie: Time spent

Perceived persuasive intent

Perceived persuasive intent

Beta’s are reported, * p <.05

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Results

Strength of Tie: Closeness

Campaign Attitude

Strength of Tie: Time spent

Perceived persuasive intent

Perceived persuasive intent

Beta’s are reported, * p <.05

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Results

Strength of Tie: Closeness

Strength of Tie: Time spent

Perceived persuasive intent

Perceived persuasive intent

Beta’s are reported, * p <.05

Campaign Relevance

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Results

Strength of Tie: Closeness

Forwarding Intention

Strength of Tie: Time spent

Perceived persuasive intent

Perceived persuasive intent

Beta’s are reported, * p <.05

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Implications

Social connections (tie strength) determine

persuasiveness of viral SNS campaign

Lower perceived persuasive intent is underlying mechanism

Marketers should strive for forwarding of campaigns to close social ties: not the number of forwards

but the quality determines campaign effectiveness

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Discussion

Please share your comments, ideas and suggestions

with us within the virtual conference environment

or via e-mail:

G.vanNoort@uva.nl

M.L.antheunis@uvt.nl

E.A.vanreijmersdal@uva.nl