Factors that contribute to product awareness, knowledge, and liking in online social networks Communication has been generally defined as the passing of information or the exchange of ideas (Schram, 1955). Over the years, a basic model of the various elements of the communication process has evolved, which consists of a source (or sender) encoding a message which is sent through a channel; that message subsequently is decoded by a receiver (Belch and Belch, 2010). Thus, factors associated with the source, message, and channel may impact WOM communication effectiveness. Source factors. A substantial stream of literature has evolved devoted to an examination of why certain personal sources of information exert more influence than others. Researchers have identified two important factors: source expertise (Bansal and Voyer, 2000; Gilly et al., 1998) and tie-strength (Granovetter, 1973; Brown and Reingen, 1987; Frenzen and Nakamoto, 1993). These factors may apply to both online (e-WOM) and offline (traditional WOM) contexts. Regarding source expertise, one of the ways people respond to a product referral is based on how the WOM information is evaluated by the message recipient relative to satisfying his or her own needs. If the recipient believes that adoption of the product or service may yield positive benefits or utilitarian value (Feick and Price, 1987; McGuire, 1969), message acceptance (i.e. persuasion)

Method

In order to test our hypotheses, we constructed an online survey and examined persuasive WOM communications on two of the most widely used social networking

sites – Facebook and Twitter. With an estimated 550 million unique monthly visitors,

Facebook is by far the largest and most popular of the online social networking sites[8].

With an estimated 89.8 unique monthly visitors, Twitter is poised to overtake MySpace as the second most popular social networking site.

Product information on Facebook is disseminated through a process that involves:

(1) creating a product page; and

(2) sending that product page to members of one’s Friend Network (suggesting

that they join)[9].

Recipients then:

(3) view the communication;

(4) observe who has joined the Product Network (by hovering over the link);

(5) view the product page content;

(6) join the

Product Network (i.e. by indicating “liking”; also referred to as

“confirming” a product page suggestion); and

(7) pass-along information about that Product Network to others (suggesting

that they, too, should join the group).

Of course, message recipients could decide to terminate the process at any step. Once a site member has joined a Product Network, he/she is able to receive “status updates”

(which convey additional product information) sent from the page administrator.

In terms of the HOEs, viewing the communication (step 3) generates awareness, viewing WOM in on-line social networks

Measures

Two survey versions were created. In the first version, participants were asked to recall a specific product or service-related Facebook page that had recently been suggested to them, and to respond to our questions relative to that particular page. Our

dependent measures were: “Did you View the suggested Page” (indicating knowledge) and “Did you Confirm/Join the suggested Page” (indicating liking) with yes/no possible responses. In the second version, participants were asked to recall a specific Twitter member that someone recently suggested they “follow” (i.e. as a source of product information), and to respond to our questions relative to that particular suggestion. Our dependent measures were: “Did you View the suggested Twitter information source’s page” (indicating knowledge) and “Did you decide to follow the suggested Twitter information source” (indicating liking) with yes/no possible responses.

General summary and discussion

Increasingly, a critical goal ofmarketing is to develop deep, enduring relationshipswith all persons, organizations, or constituents (e.g. suppliers, distributors) that could directly or indirectly affect the success of the firm’s marketing activities (Kotler and Keller, 2006). One of the key constituents is, of course, a product’s consumers. Customer relationship marketing (CRM) has the aimof buildingmutually satisfying long-termrelationships with product consumers in order to earn and retain their business (Gummesson, 1999).According toKotler andKeller (2006, p. 18), relationship marketing builds strong economic,technical, and social ties among the parties, and the “ultimate outcome of relationship marketing is the building of a unique company asset called a marketing network”. In terms of internet media, a marketing network could be established by encouraging consumers to interact with company’s web site, or by asking customers to join an e-mail distribution list (i.e. where they might be provided with regular product and/or company updates).