COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: KNOWLEDGE SHARING

AND PATTERNS OF INFLUENCE

Mani R. Subramani
3-358 Carlson School of Management
321 19th Ave S
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 624-3522
Fax : (707) 924-2897
Email: msubramani@csom.umn.edu

Balaji Rajagopalan
Elliott Hall of Business and Information Technology
School of Business Administration
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309
Phone: (248) 370-4958
Fax:(248)-370-4275
E-mail: rajagopa@oakland.edu

Conditionally accepted at Communications of the ACM

September 2001
We wish to thank Sandeep Krishnamurthy for interesting insights
during the course of our research.

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COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: KNOWLEDGE SHARING
AND PATTERNS OF INFLUENCE

ABSTRACT

Gathering places have long been recognized as important in spreading

a variety of desirable and undesirable items. One of the initial moves
by authorities to stop the spreading of plague in London was to close
bars where people gathered at the end of the day. In view of the large
number of individuals now using the Internet routinely for
communication, the possibility of tapping individuals’ online networks
to spread the word about a product has undeniable allure. Marketers
have been the earliest to recognize this phenomenon and the tactic of
leveraging the spreading of the news about a product or service by
people to their personal networks, is currently hyped as the most
effective and quickest way to acquire a large customer base. Viral
Marketing – often described as the tactic of ‘creating a process where
interested people can market to each other’ is increasingly being
recognized as an important means to spur the adoption and use of
products and services. While there are several books and a slew of
articles on viral marketing, presenting a chorus of voices with a
multitude of overlapping and often contradictory opinions on the issue
in the trade press, academic interest in the issue has curiously been
minimal. This paper is an initial attempt to fill this void and provide a
theoretical understanding of the phenomenon. Based on an
examination of the fundamental processes underlying efforts like viral
marketing we provide a framework to view viral marketing as a specific
manifestation of the more general phenomenon of knowledge sharing
and influence among individuals in social networks. In providing a
classification of current initiatives by firms in terms of the framework
we attempt to highlight useful avenues for future research in the area.

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 COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: KNOWLEDGE SHARING
AND PATTERNS OF INFLUENCE

INTRODUCTION

As computer mediated communication media increasingly enable the

pattern of social interactions, understanding the spread of ideas and

messages among connected individuals is an important issue for both

researchers and business managers. In view of considerable benefits to

producers from the mushrooming adoption of their goods through

rapid word-of-mouth recommendations, sellers of products and

services are naturally motivated to create the context for this

phenomenon to occur. As attention is increasingly a scarce

resource1[3] and the management of attention a significant

consideration, individuals are likely to pay greater attention to

messages from known sources for information concerning products or

services that may be useful to them than to sources they know little

about. Online social networks are therefore emerging as an extremely

salient source of influence in the adoption and use of products and

services.

BACKGROUND

Social information processing theory suggests that the social network

is a key source for individuals to acquire information and cues for

behavior and action [10]. While prior studies of the diffusion of

1
The value of attention is highlighted by use of metrics such as the number of ‘eyeballs’ and ‘stickiness’ –
proxies for the ability to retain attention, to evaluate websites.

4
innovations and transmission of ideas recognize the social network as

a key source for individuals to acquire information and cues for

behavior and action, a common theme underlying these studies is that

interpersonal influence occurs largely from face-to-face contact in

contexts of physical co-presence. Essentially, these studies view

information transmission and influence as happening largely through

interpersonal interaction in informal and formal settings. However, the

nature of interpersonal influence when interactions occur entirely

through communication media such as email differs in several

important ways from those that have been examined in the literature.

First, the rapid growth and the use of information technologies such as

personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and networking

technologies enable non-collocated individuals to be seamlessly

connected. These have consequently broadened the possibility of

interpersonal influence beyond what occurs naturally during

collocation; individuals can now communicate with and potentially

influence larger number of non-collocated individuals. The scale of the

phenomenon is thus considerably magnified online in comparison with

conventional contexts. The outcomes in situations where individuals

may actively seek to influence others are thus likely to differ far more

dramatically from situations where individual influence is incidental.

5
Second, individuals now interact with others to whom they are

connected2 through a variety of computer-mediated communication

(CMC) media - asynchronous email, synchronous chat, synchronous

videoconferencing etc [7]. The new media have distinct characteristics

such as the ability to address a large number of individuals

synchronously (e.g. using internet messaging) as well as

asynchronously. Further, individuals can practically access the

connected other around the clock in a way that make them channels

powerful in their ability to exert influence in a variety of ways [12]. It

is likely that the availability of this array of communication media

enables patterns of influence among networks of individuals linked by

these technologies that are unique and distinct from conventional

word-of-mouth influence patterns.

Finally, the ability to provide real-time feedback on the outcomes of

their influence attempts enables motivated individuals to make

sequential influence attempts in quick succession. Therefore, in

contexts where the influencer experiences direct or indirect benefits

from influence, the ability of the influencer to flexibly choose from a

variety of influence strategies is considerably enhanced. Contexts

characterized by positive externalities from adoption are thus likely to

significantly different from those where such externalities are absent.

2
For convenience, we henceforth refer to others whom the focal individual can communicate with through
computer mediated communication technologies as connected others.

6
Overall, the ability to influence a large number of individuals and the

flexibility of influence by information technologies is a potent

combination that makes influence in online social networks

qualitatively different from the offline contexts examined in prior

research.

IMPACT OF CMC ON ADOPTION AND USAGE

We have two strands of preliminary evidence reflecting the magnitude

and importance of the patterns of influence exerted by individuals on

the behaviors of connected others. The first and the most copious is

the body of information on the influence of connected others in

influencing behavior with respect to online products and services.

These are goods that are typically offered online and delivered online

to customers. Web based email accounts, online news services etc. are

instances of such goods. The second is recent research linking the

purchase of conventional goods such as home computers to influence

by email and Internet based communication channels such as

discussion lists etc [5].

Influence on adoption of online products and services

Observations of the outcomes of this influence are largely based on

anecdotal accounts of how traffic and interest was created for products

and services on the Internet. The growth of the free Internet mail

service “Hotmail” is often highlighted a success story resulting from

7
the spreading of awareness of the service by early users to others they

communicated with by email over the Internet. Each email message

sent by individuals using this service has a “get your free email

account at Hotmail” tagline appended to it. This passing on of the

word about Hotmail helped the firm acquire over 12 million customers

within the first 18 months. In particular, it is interesting to note that

once the first member signed up in India, over 100,000 others followed

within 3 weeks! [4]. A similar account of extraordinary success linked

to the influence of early users on non-users is the instance of Dialpad,

a provider of Internet telephony software allowing users to make

telephone calls over the Internet. Within seven months of initial launch,

Dialpad had seven million registered users, an adoption rate

outstripping that achieved by Hotmail [4]. Another instance of a

product adopted largely through interpersonal influence online is that

of ICQ (Pronounced I Seek You), an instant messaging software

allowing two or more users to instantly exchange messages with each

other. This product currently has 32 million users worldwide with the

user base estimated to be growing at the rate of 90,000 new users

every day. The active role of current users is an important influence

encouraging trial by connected others as a larger user base increases

the benefits of usage to all adopters.

A similar theme of exploiting the possibility of creating significant

consumer interest by the spreading of the word by early users is

8
mirrored in accounts of the growth of traffic at some newly established

Internet sites. The success of some new websites that were launched

in 2000 in generating site-traffic and figuring in the list of the 500 most

visited sites on the Internet is attributed to their strategy of leveraging

the influence of connected individuals in persuading others to use their

service [11]. Grab.com, an entertainment and gaming site launched in

March 2000 was a newcomer among the top 500 sites with 13.5 million

unique visitors in December 2000.

Influence on adoption of conventional3 products and services

While recommendation by individuals considered experts has been

recognized as being important in influencing purchase or adoption [1],

the tracing of the source of influence to online interaction as opposed

to conventional means of obtaining recommendations has seldom been

attempted in prior research. One exception is a recent empirical effort

to examine the source of influence for the purchase of home

computers [5]. Using a broad array of data on 110, 000 US

households, the authors find that people are more likely to buy their

first home computer when a large share of their friends and family own

computers. The presence of users who frequently use the Internet and

email appear to be strongly associated with adoption, highlighting local

communication networks as important means to influence the adoption

of these technologies.
3
We define Conventional products and services as those that are not typically considered ‘online’ goods.
These include computers, software packages and other conventional goods and services.

9
The use of online technologies to encourage the adoption of

conventional products and services is highlighted in the discussions of

Kauffman and Wang (2001) of group buying where individuals

recommend the purchasing of goods like PDAs and Camcorders to

connected others. Group buying sites like mobshop.com were founded

to take advantage of the possibilities of deriving large volume sales by

motivating individuals to persuade connected others to join them in

buying conventional products as the price of the good dropped

successively as the size of the group formed to buy a specific item

reached specific thresholds. The spreading of the word about the

current size of the group and the benefits to be had by signing on more

buyers were spread largely through computer mediated

communication media. The ability of individuals to reach out and

influence a larger number of connected others than possible through

conventional channels and enlarge the size of the buying group for

specific products is central to this online retailing format.

A FRAMEWORK TO UNDERSTAND THE INFLUENCE OF CONNECTED INDIVIDUALS

The foregoing instances of the outcomes of influence employing CMC

on adoption and usage suggests that factors play a key role in

determining the nature of outcomes: the role played by the

recommender and the nature of the spillover benefits 4. The nature of

4
‘Spillover benefits’ are the additional benefits over and above the direct benefits to those involved – the
recommender and connected other, from direct usage of a product or service. Positive network externalities
reflect a high level of spillover benefits in that the benefits accrue not only to the particular individuals

10
the recommender role is important in differentiating between instances

when the influencing of adoption and use through CMC is passive and

those where the recommender actively engages in persuasion. The

nature of spillover benefits reflects the structuring of benefits – for the

source as well as for the target of the influence related to the attempt

to influence adoption and use. These dimensions together highlight

four different contexts of influence in which the nature of the influence

by the influencer (the source of the influence) and the factors

underlying compliance and comprehension of the influence by the

target are qualitatively different. The descriptive labels for the four

quadrants of the framework are: Awareness Creation and Signaling

Benefits, Targetted Recommendation, Signaling Group Membership

and Motivated Evangelism.

__________________________
Insert Figure 1 here
__________________________

Awareness Creation and Signaling Benefits (ACS): This quadrant

comprises the situations where the recommender plays a passive role

and the nature of the network externalities are minimal or where

spillover benefits, if any, are very local. A user e-mailing an online

greeting card to connected others is an instance of this – several firms

such as Hallmark.com and BlueMountain.com allow users to create

cards online. The user accesses the site to avail of the service and is

led through a set of simple steps to select the graphic on the card, key
involved but also to the set of all adopters.

11
in a greeting such as “Happy Birthday” and indicate the email address

and name of one or more recipients. The recipients of such cards get a

personalized email message addressed to them from the site informing

them of the greeting created by the sender along with a URL. When

the recipient clicks on the URL, she or he is taken to the site and the

greeting card is displayed. Once the recipient is at the site, he or she

is given the choice to send a greeting to the original sender or to a

connected other. In this process of receiving an online greeting, one or

more recipients are made aware of the name and URL of the site and

are persuaded to experience the benefits of the service provided by

the site. The role of the user in recommending the product is passive,

as it occurs in the context of sending out a card. He or she does not

specifically recommend usage of the service to the connected other.

Recently, in an effort to harness more from the user and the referral,

they have begun offering an enhanced version of the greeting card as

an option to add voice, video and more personalization for a price.

In these instances, the role of the recommender is passive as the

information and details of the web site are passed on to the recipient

as a secondary consequence of the recommender sending out the

email or a greeting. The benefits accrue to the source as well as the

target of the message. Spillover benefits, if any, are local and the

recipient may learn something about the preferences of the sender.

12
Targetted Recommendation (TR): This quadrant comprises the

contexts where the recommender plays an active role in spreading the

word about the product or service and where the nature of spillover

benefits are minimal. A user e-mailing a particular news item from an

online news site to a connected other is an instance of this. Most

online news sites such as ESPN.com, msnbc,com, nytimes,com and

washingtonpost.com offer the ‘send this story to a friend’ option on

their sites. Recommenders are also provided the ability to include

comments about the news item when they bring it to the attention of

the connected other [8]. The recipient receives an e-mail message

from the recommender along with her or his comments and the URL

directing the recipient to the specific news item at the news site.

Another interesting instance of this quadrant is the publicizing of

Hollywood movies. Tremendous interest and publicity was generated

for the movie ‘The Blairwitch Project” by encouraging users to spread

the message within their networks. The results were startling as the

movie generated unprecedented publicity through the power of

friendly referrals. The popularity of this method has inspired imitators –

films like ''Fight Club'' and ''Scream 3'' scrapped the traditional

advertising formula in favor of viral marketing methods.

This mechanism of spreading the word represents an extremely

interesting vehicle for marketers to target users as it enables firms, in

13
this case - news organizations, to present content that is likely to be

relevant to the recipient of the email message based on the

information provided by the recommender that the recipient would be

interested. This utilizes the fact that an individual’s interests and

preferences are likely to be better predicted by connected others than

by general information the firm may have regarding the recipient, the

spreading of the word by current users to connected others is thus

utilized by news sites to generate traffic and induce the use of their

services. This is particularly important for news sites providing a

variety of content such as ESPN.com that covers over 16 sports.

Relying on targeted recommendations allows such sites to be provide

relevant content with reduced effort (for both users and the news

service) as the user directly arrives at the news story that interests

them and without time intensive and bandwidth intensive navigation

through multiple screens.

Such influencing of use by connected others also occurs in a variety of

other contexts e.g. Amazon.com and BestBuy.com that encourage

users to email the details of products and prices to friends. In all these

instances, the spillover benefits – benefits beyond the value of the

information being sent to the target of the influence and the

recommender, are clearly minimal.

14
While little ‘hard’ data is available on this phenomenon, one website,

ideavirus.com provides information on the pattern of referrals and re-

referrals they observed with respect to a report on viral marketing that

they offered on their site. They provided visitors to their site the option

of downloading the report for free and additionally, encouraged them

to recommend the site to up to five of their friends. Table 1 provides

details made available by the site of the number of referrals and the

number of connected others who visited the site in response to

referrals over a 12-month period. The data suggests that on average,

visitors recommended the report to two of their friends. Over the year,

over half of those receiving the recommendation (56%) in turn visited

the site. In turn, over 60 percent of such visitors downloaded the

report. Clearly, this suggests that visitors identified with great

precision others they knew who would be interested in the report,

supporting the promise of this approach to identify potential adopters

and users.

__________________________
Insert Table 1 here
__________________________

Signaling Use, Group Membership (SGM): This quadrant comprises

contexts where the role of the recommender is passive but where

there are significant externalities accruing to both the recipient and

the recommender. Instances of these include the signaling of the use

of specific kinds of software e.g. file compression software such as

15
winzip, software to create animations such as Flash etc. In each of

these cases, when a user sends the connected other a file compressed

using winzip as an e-mail attachment or makes an Flash animation

available on a homepage, the recommender’s role is passive in

spreading the word about the software5. However, with greater

acceptance of the format, the original user benefits from the

externalities such as a broader base of support services for the format

and the ability to reuse the knowledge gained in usage of the product.

While signaling the use of the software, the user also signals their

membership in the group of users of winzip or Flash, each of which has

favorable connotations of technology sophistication. Users of software

like winzip and Flash are likely to be viewed as being technically

sophisticated and thus the recommendation also has the effect of

signaling the user’s membership of a group with desirable attributes.

Several successes exemplify this quadrant. First, the story of Adobe is

a classic one. Adobe managed to garner a substantial market share as

users implicitly endorsed the product by sending files in pdf format to

connected others. Indeed, as in the case of Winzip, users that received

pdf files were informed that in the event they did not have the reader

they could visit the website to download it free of cost. With the

increasing popularity of the Internet as a medium for music

distribution, RealPlayer capitalized on it by providing a file format for

5
In each case, the recipient of the influence is informed of the need to download a software component to
deal with the *.zip file or view a flash animation.

16
music that required the RealPlayer add-in to play the music. Once

gain, by distributing the music in a format compatible with RealPlayer

users were highlighting it to a network of their peers.

The nature of benefits of recommendations in this quadrant have

significant spillover benefits in the form of network externalities.

Clearly, the adoption and use of winzip and Flash– each of which is but

one of the competing proprietary formats in the particular product

space has the effect of boosting the user base for the format and

enhancing the claim of the format as the industry standard – creating

benefits for all users.

Motivated Evangelism (ME): This quadrant comprises contexts where

the recommender plays an active role in influencing connected others

and there are significant positive spillovers in the form of network

externalities accruing to both recommender and recipient. An instance

of this is the recommendation by a user to his or her friends to use

ICQ, an instant messaging software, to facilitate real time exchange of

information between them. This motivated a push by early users to

get connected others to use ICQ, a factor underlying the dramatic

growth in the user base for the product. Products and services

requiring adoption by all interacting parties for effective deriving of

benefits – such as videoconferencing equipment, creation of a

community of interest etc. fall within this quadrant. Early users are

17
likely to be evangelists for the product or service in their networks as

the benefits to themselves and to members of the network are a

function of the number of adopters of the product or service. Another

service falling into this quadrant in the framework is membership in

buying groups at sites such as mobshop.com [6]. In a buying group,

the price to be paid for a featured item e.g. a PDA is a sliding scale

with the price decreasing in increments with increasing number of

people joining the buying group to purchase the product. Early

members of the buying group are thus highly motivated to spread the

work to connected others to participate in the group – with the benefits

of participation accruing to all members of the group at the time when

the sale closes.

In Table 2 we classify a sample of firms engaged in efforts to influence

connected others through computer-mediated communication

according to our framework.

__________________________
Insert Table 2 here
__________________________

DISCUSSION

The framework presents insights into several aspects of the nature of

influence in each of these instances where users are sources of

product information to connected others. Implicit in the framework is

the notion that the different quadrants exhibit different levels of

persuasiveness, and adoption and use behavior on the part of the

18
recipients. A key to understanding differences in outcomes may be the

processes that link the receipt of product information by connected

others and their decision to adopt and use the product. Prior studies

view conformity with referrals as resulting from one of two

mechanisms: a) information influence – where information received

from others is accepted as evidence of reality or b) normative

influence – where the recipient complies with the expectations of

another person or group [2]. In contexts of normative influence, the

behavior of recipients arises from the desire of individuals to be

associated with the referent group and maintain the relationship with

the source of the information. One operant mechanism in such cases

is identification. Another factor identified as influencing the recipient

to conform to the suggestions of the source is compliance, where the

recipient may exhibit the suggested behavior to obtain a favorable

response from the recommender. Overall, normative influence

underlies similar behavior by large numbers of connected individuals

and herd behavior.

In contrast, the mechanism underlying informational influence is

internalization, where the recipient complies with the suggestion when

such behavior is congruent with their own value system. Such

compliance involves independent information processing by recipients

with the goal of maximizing outcomes to them. A key difference

between the two mechanisms of conformity is that behaviors linked to

19
normative influence are driven by the desire to comply with

suggestions, maintain the relationship with the source of the

information or the need to be identified with a desirable group. The

calculus of outcomes for the recipient is often over-ridden by these

considerations. In contrast, behavior linked to informational influence

arises from an evaluation of outcomes for the recipient.

The framework differentiates contexts where each of these sources of

influence is important. Informational influence is likely to be the central

mechanism in Awareness Creation and Signaling Benefits (Quadrant 1).

In contrast, normative influence is likely to be the central mechanism

in Signaling Group Membership (Quadrant 3) and Motivated

Evangelism (Quadrant 4). Both of these influences are likely to play a

role in Targeted Recommendation (Quadrant 2) – determined by other

factors such the extent to which the behavior is observable to the

recommender.

Another aspect that the framework provides insight into is the

differential influence of the characteristics of the recommender.

Specifically, in quadrants 2 and 4 where the role of the recommender

is active, characteristics of the individual recommending a product or

service could play an important part. Some individuals wield more

influence than others and others are easily persuaded by strong

personalities. McAffee found this to be true as it launched viral

20
marketing efforts to take advantage of a dedicated community of

programmers and people focused on dealing with ‘viruses’. As the

strategy evolved, a unique and interesting pecking order seemed to

emerge. Several people began to surface as influencers that served as

the backbone of viral thread. Indeed, Burton Martsteller’s research on

“e-fluentials” shows that about 8 percent of the Internet as being

composed of users that are influential [9]. Thus, for companies like

McAfee focusing on these key individuals that have the power to

influence a larger group can be critical to success. On the other hand

in the case of efforts categorized as belonging to quadrants 1 and 3

where the role of the recommender is passive, characteristics of the

recommender may be less important owing to the very nature of

involvement.

Finally, the framework also highlights that the nature of the transfer of

information regarding different kinds of products is likely to vary

considerably. Characteristics such as the level of observability of

adoption are important considerations as this influences which

quadrant it falls into. More observable ones fall into quadrants 3 and

4. Those in quadrant 2 are likely to be those that are less observable.

CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

In examining the influences on adoption and usage of products and

services within networks of individuals connected by information

21
technologies, this article extends the understanding of the

phenomenon beyond the conventional contexts where word-of-mouth

has largely involved physical collocation. Further, we highlight the

importance of considering subjective norms as an influencing factor in

the adoption and use of IT products and services. The proposed

framework can be applied to foster an analysis and understanding of

the influence of computer-mediated communication on the adoption

and usage of IT products in particular but may apply to others as well.

There are several areas that future research can focus on. For

example, future research can examine the role of the e-fluentials and

the differential impact when they play a Passive versus Active role.

Another area of research could examine the incentive structures for

the passive and active roles of recommender. Hotmail reaped the

benefit of first mover advantage experiencing phenomenal success

through the passive role of the user and positive network externalities.

It is easy to see that the incentive of free e-mail, that hotmail offered,

would not work as well now as it did then. With an abundance of such

offers, users cannot be enticed into a passive role that easily. A more

targeted incentive for the user would have a better chance.

Specifically, what kind of incentive structures work in these situations?

Table 3 presents a snapshot of user preferences of e-mails that they

are willing to forward to connected others. Researchers can examine

the role of incentives in influencing connected others. Another

22
interesting question is: Would the type of an innovation dictate the

choice of passive or active role sought from the user?

__________________________
Insert Table 3 here
__________________________

Finally, the concept of using computer-mediated communication to

facilitate adoption of technologies as an area is certainly worth

exploring. In this vein, studying subjective norms and the extent of

influence they have on adoption of technologies is an important issue.

More specifically, we suggest that whether the nature of norms is

different in the various contexts is a critical issue for research.

Empirical data on the number and frequency of contacts with early

adopters and innovators would be a fruitful direction to investigate the

complexity of the determinants of subjective norms.

23
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24
 Signaling Group Motivated Evangelism
Positive Network Membership (ME)
Externalities (SGM)

Spillover
Benefits
Awareness Creation, Targeted
Signaling Benefits Recommendation
Minimal or (ACS) (TR)
Local

Passive Active
Recommender Role

Figure 1: Framework for Computer Mediated Influence on Adoption and Use

25
Table 1: A Sample of Firms Engaged in Computer Mediated
Influencing of Social Networks6 (Classified based on the framework
presented in Figure 1)

Company Name Description of Computer Mediated Influence Quadrant

Visitors can send electronic greetings for several
occasions free of cost to their friends and family.
Recipients turn into site visitors and could
BlueMountain.com potentially use the service sometime soon. ACS
Customers get free individualized fax number at
they can receive all their faxes which are then
automatically forwarded to their mailbox – all this
Efax.com at no cost. ACS
Provides the users with free web space to build
their home page. Relies on the visitors to create
GeoCities awareness of their web site and offerings. ACS
Increases brand awareness by allowing visitors to
send free e-greetings to connected others but
Hallmark.com also offers enhanced services for a fee. ACS
Available in about 9 European countries this
services enables groups of buyers to buy
products and services at lower costs gaining
CoShopper.com volume discounts. ME
Users download the free software to engage in
chat sessions with their friends and family. The
incentive to make connected others aware of this
product emerges from the need to constantly
ICQ keep in touch with the social network. ME
Currently a part of Yahoo! Groups, the company
offers a way of keeping in touch with your social
network by enabling online chat, keeping you
egroups.com informed of your buddies online etc.. ME
Co-shopping site relying on friendly referrals to
boost sales offering lower prices as incentive.
Letsbuyit.com Operating in fifteen countries in Europe. ME
A US version of Coshopper.com the idea is to
capitalize on the social network of the buyer to
increase sales of an item, the incentive for the
buyer being lower prices with each additional
Mobshop.com buyer. ME
Users exchange files in pdf format engaging
themselves in a huge passive awareness
Adobe Acrobat campaign for the product. SGM
Effectively used existing subscribers to be
passive spokespersons for new subscribers by
tagging messages e-mail exchanges with “get
Hotmail your free e-mail from hotmail” SGM
Users of the compression software passively
endorse the product to connected others as they
WinZip exchange files in this format SGM

6
Note that a firm may be involved in more than one type of viral marketing effort. We have chosen to
represent it in a quadrant that is dominant.

26
 Music fans can enjoy their favorite music on the
net using the Real player. As they store music in
Real format and share it with the world, they
signal their association with the product thereby
Real Media Player generating positive publicity for it. SGM
Web site visitors referred friends to browse the
site generating enormous publicity, and interest
BlairWitchProject.com in the movie TR
Allows users to send specific stories/news items
of interest to connected others thereby
CNN.com generating brand awareness TR
Visitors can pass along financial information of
CNBC.com interest to friends TR
Sports fans can forward news items and stories to
ESPN.com their friends thus promoting the web site TR

27
 Table 2: Data Showing the spread of messages on the
Ideavirus.com website

Numb Ratio
er of of Percentag
Referr visitor referr Downloa e of
Unique Total
Month/Ye als Per s ed ds by referred
Referr Referr
ar Referr direct visits referred visitors
ers als
er ed by to visitors download
referr referr ing
als als
56.52
07/2001 152 1.82 276 156 66 42.31%
%
54.18
06/2001 132 1.90 251 136 61 44.85%
%
55.00
05/2001 158 2.15 340 187 85 45.45%
%
61.37
04/2001 134 1.74 233 143 65 45.45%
%
58.01
03/2001 178 1.86 331 192 96 50.00%
%
55.02
02/2001 229 1.91 438 241 120 49.79%
%
60.07
01/2001 252 2.13 536 322 148 45.96%
%
59.10
12/2000 204 1.97 401 237 112 47.26%
%
56.20
11/2000 226 2.07 468 263 141 53.61%
%
51.37
10/2000 405 2.43 985 506 496 98.02%
%
53.87
09/2000 421 2.15 904 487 686 140.86%*
%
54.46
08/2000 1347 2.07 2789 1519 1030 67.81%
%
56.20
Average 319 2.01 258.83 60.94
%
*: Figures greater than 100 percent suggests multiple downloads by
individuals

28
Table 3: Passing it on: Percentage of types of e-mails users are
willing to forward
(Source: Marketing Week, March 29, 2001, P.59)

You Could Benefit 63% Recipient Could Benefit 71%

Funny 69% Educational 72%
Useful Info 75% Morally Obliged 69%

29