The process of “infection” answers the question “if viewers want to share,” and the process of “spreading” answers the question “whether sharing is effective/whether more people CAN see it.”

 

Sharing: one sharing happened. How to make sure this single share has the largest potential of inducing new shares by the new viewers who see the ad?

 

I. Viral ads spread on the social network through weaker ties between nodes (individuals)

• In other words, weaker ties are more vital than stronger ties to help an ad reach a wider audience. 

• Weaker ties (acquaintances or strangers) bridge out from the clusters of strong ties (clusters are formed by friends, family, and other familiar people to an individual).

• Individuals within the cluster are exposed to similar information, so weak ties are crucial to provide new information, and making connections between various social groups (Petrescu 9; Barabasi, ch. 4).

• Effects of sharing: effectively connect work ties within a social network.

• While not being able to reach too far, strong ties are great sources of credibility and trust — ads have more perceived values when they are shared between individuals with strong ties (Petrescu 11)

 

II. Factors influencing the effectiveness of sharing

• Availability of viewers

  • Viral ads are like biological viruses. They are trying to find a host to rest on and infect through social networks — “hosts” (viewers in this case) are crucial for the survival of viral ads (Petrescu 71).

  • Characteristics of available users on a platform determine whether that viewer will help ads’ diffusion since sharing is mostly voluntary (Luis Iribarren and Moro). Before releasing the ad, the choice of target customers is important (customer segmentation/psychographics of customers). 

  • Examples of customers helpful for diffusion:

    • Market mavens, innovators, and opinion leaders.

    • They have early awareness of products, enjoy shopping, enjoy communicating about products, know many sources to get market information, and are willing to watch ads (Petrescu 71).

    • They love to express their uniqueness and adoption of new tech;

    • They have high marketplace interest and are highly involved in market activities (including viral ads diffusion).

    • eMavens: using internet for their consumption activities — it is important to target them when initially releasing the ad campaign (72). 

 

• Platform development and choice

  • The development of online platforms and new technologies provide new opportunities for spreading 

    • “Intensification in connectivity brought about by network technologies s a possible trigger for increased chances of infection” (Sampson 1).

    • “Viral marketing has gained tremendous popularity with the introduction of social media” (Dobele et al.).

    • These platforms are efficient for viral ad campaigns since they allow the distribution of commercial messages with viral potential and characteristics (Petrescu 9). New online platforms present a new environment for viral marketing and have the advantage of multiplier effects (Petrescu 79). Multiplier effect = initial input into a flow causes a way bigger final increase. 

    • New technologies, such as algorithms, expand how ads reach consumers (Fowler).

  • The choice of channel is almost equally important when releasing the ad campaign. 

    • Platforms are channels for consumers to spread the viral ads — if a platform does not own many active users, naturally, there will not be many people spreading the marketing message (Hsieh and Lo).

    • The satisfaction of consumers on that platform (features, ease to use, and content) largely determines the number of active users. When consumers are more satisfied, they are happy to use the platform and frequently participate in that online society, gathering more traffic for it (Hsieh and Lo).

    • Higher satisfaction with content —> users tend to choose to reciprocate (Hsieh and Lo). To reciprocate is one crucial social motive motivating users to share about an online ad. Therefore, when more people on the platform tend to reciprocate, it increases the potential shares of new viewers, maximizing sharing effectiveness.

    • Additionally, when a platform is better perceived, new users are more likely to choose it to establish weaker-tie connections (the source of new information) (Hsieh and Lo; Barabasi, ch. 4). This means the ad has the potential to have a wider reach. 

 

III. Limitations

• I propose that social environments such as movements, expectations, economy, confidence, norms, events, trends, and so on also influence the effectiveness of sharing. However, there seems not to be existing detailed research on this issue (I have not found them yet).