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From the Archives: Online WOM Sheds Light on Viral Marketing Chain
When taking action on a viral email, a recipient's relationship with the email's sender influences his or her decision to open, read, click links, etc., according to a January 2003 research paper, titled "Will They Listen Anyway? Viral Marketing and the Effectiveness of Online Word of Mouth Referrals." Written by Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business Administration doctoral student Arnaud De Bruyn, the paper asserts that the closeness, perceptual homophily (a person's similarity of values and experience with another person), demographic homophily, and social overlap between a sender and receiver influence a receiver's response, but that each factor affects the receiver at a different stage in the viral process.
Survey findings:
* The closeness of the sender and receiver influences the likelihood that a viral email will be opened and read, but nothing else.
* Perceptual homophily influences whether a recipient will click on a link to a website referenced in a viral email.
* High social overlap between sender and receiver increases the likelihood that the recipient will open a viral email, but decreases the likelihood a recipient will click on a link to a website referenced in a viral email.