Explanatory factors of viral actions on an online social network: the analysis of Facebook practices.

Summary Viral marketing on online social networks represents a major challenge for companies. It is therefore necessary to understand what drives users' viral activity. Using quantitative data extracted from Facebook with a specific application, we model the different viral actions of the user (shares on his wall, shares on his friends' walls, comments, likes on posts, likes on comments). Our analyses highlight three families of explanatory variables of his activity: the activity of his friends towards him (reciprocity effects), their position in the structure of his friendship network (structural effects) and the information of his "profile" information (motivation to reveal himself). A complementary qualitative approach leads us to identify four user postures on Facebook (exposed commitment, protected commitment, exposed avoidance, protected avoidance). These are at the intersection of two axes. One concerns the way in which the user regulates the confidentiality zone in which he/she is led to express him/herself (locking vs. opening). The other concerns the way his "face" and those of his friends are engaged by his online activity (engagement vs. avoidance). We believe that companies can benefit from identifying their consumers' postures on Facebook. We present our research contributions and their managerial implications.