Seeding Social Affirmation: Influencer + Follower Seeding Strategies and the Diffusion of Online Word-of-Mouth
Given influencers’ greater social influence, managers are often advised to target influencers alone in social media marketing. However, spread of word-of-mouth (WOM) may be enhanced by reinforcement from others. The authors examine the role of social affirmation in WOM diffusion, how seeding strategies can be designed to enhance social affirmation, and whether and when influencer + follower strategies outperform influencer-only strategies. Studying an X (formerly Twitter) network involving popular music, the authors find that a 1 + 1 seeding strategy, in which WOM seeds are provided to the best influencer-follower pair in a social network, is associated with a 25% increase in WOM diffusion over a strategy that targets the two best influencers. A controlled lab experiment involving promoted tweets shows that, compared to the absence of social affirmation, sharing and engagement intentions are greater under low-social affirmation but not under high-social affirmation. A field study involving promoted tweets shows that an influencer + follower strategy leads to greater follower event attendance than a two-influencer strategy. The advantages of influencer + follower strategies increase for social networks characterized by greater response to social affirmation. When WOM diffusion is driven by simple contagion alone, an influencer-only seeding strategy is superior.
Keywords: influencer marketing, social networks, seeding strategies, word-of-mouth, WOM diffusion.
Dr. Hee Mok Park - Biography
Dr. Park employs cutting-edge quantitative methodologies, such as marketing analytics, causal inference, machine learning, and hierarchical Bayes techniques, to tackle complex and impactful marketing challenges. His research interests revolve around social networks, digital and social media marketing, and sustainability marketing. With recent publications in prestigious journals like Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing Research, his work garners attention in influential business outlets like the Wall Street Journal. Completing his Ph.D. in Marketing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Dr. Park has a solid academic background. He previously taught at the University of Connecticut before joining the faculty at the University of Manitoba in 2021.
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