Negative WoM and its Transmission on OSN: The Determining Role of the Seeding Population

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to the knowledge of WoM transmis­sion on OSN. We specifically analyze the role of the seeding popula­tion diffusion of negative WoM. The method is based on an experi­ment on the Facebook fan base of an existing company. We manage to control the four elements of a successful WoM communication: the message, the social structure of the network, the characteristics of the individuals in the network, and the seeding population. We de­velop an original method to dissociate a seeding population from the general population and compare the diffusion of a set of negative messages distributed to both the original population and the artifi­cially targeted subset. Results show the impact of the seeding popu­lation’s characteristics on the diffusion of consumers’ negative mes­sages. We specifically show the impact of the carrier on the virality of the message.