Increasingly, however, companies are turning to online social networking sites as animportant venue in which to establish their marketing (i.e. “Product”) Networks.There are several important reas
Increasingly, however, companies are turning to online social networking sites as animportant venue in which to establish their marketing (i.e. “Product”) Networks.There are several important reasons for this trend. First, the key to any long-term relationship is the establishment of communication, and social networking sites facilitate this communication – both in terms the customer’s sending (e.g. indicating “liking” or “re-tweeting”) and receiving (e.g. posts are automatically sent to the user’s “news-feed”) product-related messages. Second, marketers assume that product-related messages received from, or endorsed by, friends are much more likely to be internalized. The idea is that the links or ties between the message recipient and all members of his or her Friend Network should be stronger than those links between the recipient and online community members outside the Friend Network; therefore the persuasiveness of positive WOM communication should be increased. Taking these factors into consideration,marketers create social network product pages, These product referrals representWOMcommunications in online social networks. This research investigates how factors related to the source, channel, and message may affect how consumers respond to those WOM communications.