Viral Message Dissemination on Twitter: Exploring the Roles of Social Connectedness and Personal Appeal
Abstract
The ability for social media content to go viral is a topic salient to marketers, social scientists and computer scientists alike. This study explores the impact of user social connectedness rate and personal appeal on the virality of tweets. A sample of 40,911 tweets surrounding the release of the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 is collected using NodeXL’s Twitter import feature. Individual tweets were measured for virality, social connectivity (follower accrual rate) and personal appeal (Twitter mentions). Regression analysis reveals significant and negative effects of both social connectivity and personal appeal on virality. Results suggest that obtaining many followers in a short period of time is not a useful tactic for disseminating tweets in a viral structure. Twitter mentions, although negatively associated with virality, were at the same time very rare in the sample and thus their role is inconclusive. The results also suggest that the explanatory model is under-specified, which demands considering other factors for explaining virality.
Degree
M.A.
Advisors
Matei, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Marketing|Communication|Web Studies
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