Veiled Viral Marketing: Disseminating Information on Stigmatized Illnesses via Social Networking Sites

Derek L. HansenBrigham Young Universitydlhansen@byu.edu or @shakmatt

Christianne JohnsonOgilvy Public Relations Worldwidechristianne.johnson@ogilvy.com

Viral Marketing

Health Education

What about Stigmatized Illnesses?

The Role of Online Anonymity

Anonymous Notification Services Semi-Anonymous Forums

Anonymity also opens the door for sexual predators, trolls, and deviant behavior

Veiled Viral Marketing

Socially Bounded Anonymity

Veil of Anonymity?

Trusted Connection

Sender

………

………

? Plausible Deniability

MessageReceiver

“One of your friends who wishes to remain anonymous…”

Educational Quiz

Unveiled or Veiled Invites?

Unveiled (Facebook) Invite

Veiled (Email) Invite

Field Trial Recruitment Methods• Facebook Ad for women age 13-25 in U.S.***• University of Maryland, Michigan, & Michigan State

• Fliers & emails to large courses in iSchool, Public Health, Business School, and Journalism **

• Posters in student union and health center of UMD *• Add in UMD student newspaper *

• Health Advocacy Groups *

Study Participants• 1,022 people downloaded application• 90% women• Median age = 20• 40% Single, 34% In a Relationship, 25% Married• 16% actively looking for Dating or A Relationship• From 44 states & some international (NY, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & Michigan had most)

576 (56%)

101 (10%)

28 (3%)

171 (17%)Uninstalled App

Veiled or Unveiled?

425 (82%)

33 (6%)

60 (12%)

Invitations Actually Sent

Invitations Accepted

High Acceptance Rate (even via

email) suggests potential of Veiled

Viral Marketing

Summary• Veiled Viral Marketing = “trusted” source + veil of anonymity

• Fact Check: HPV showed that some users have interest in sending veiled invitations and those who receive them have a relatively high acceptance rate

Potential Problems & Solutions• SPAM (due to indiscriminant friending)

• Allow people to turn off veiled messages• Invitees can decipher veiled inviter

• Careful checks• Require invitations to multiple people

• Increased stress for feeling singled out• Require invitations to multiple people & tell invitee• Link to reputable sites that are targeted toward wide audience

• Possibility of inappropriate messages from “friends”• Only allow pointers to authoritative content, not personal messages

Future Work• Cleaner implementation• Understand WHY there is a high acceptance rate via user studies, interviews, and focus groups

• Try in other domains (e.g., mental health)• Implementation in directed social networks (e.g., Twitter)

Questions?

Derek L. HansenBrigham Young Universitydlhansen@byu.eduTwitter: @shakmatt