Creating Social Contagion Through Viral Product Design: A Randomized Trial of Peer Influence in Networks
Abstract
We examine how firms can create word-of-mouth peer influence and social contagion by designing viral features into their products and marketing campaigns. To econometrically identify the effectiveness of different viral features in creating social contagion, we designed and conducted a randomized field experiment involving the 1.4 million friends of 9,687 experimental users on Facebook.com. We find that viral features generate econometrically identifiable peer influence and social contagion effects. More surprisingly, we find that passive-broadcast viral features generate a 246% increase in peer influence and social contagion, whereas adding active-personalized viral features generate only an additional 98% increase. Although active-personalized viral messages are more effective in encouraging adoption per message and are correlated with more user engagement and sustained product use, passive-broadcast messaging is used more often, generating more total peer adoption in the network. Our work provides a model for how randomized trials can identify peer influence in social networks. This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta and Preyas Desai, special issue editors. This paper was accepted by Pradeep Chintagunta and Preyas Desai, special issue editors.
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The gold standard for causal analyses are randomized controlled experiments.
“The gold standard for such causal analyses are randomized controlled experiments (Aral and Walker, 2011; Muchnik et al., 2013).”
From Social Data: Biases, Methodological Pitfalls, and Ethical Boundaries (2019) · cites this paper as Aral and Walker, 2011
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“Unfortunately, evaluating the effects of viral product design features is difficult because peer effects and WOM are typically endogenous (Manski 1993; Godes and Mayzlin 2004, 2009; Hartmann et al. 2008; Aral et al. 2009; Aral 2011).”
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- Authors
- Aral, S., & Walker, D.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- ORCID
- Aral, Sinan
- Venue
- Management Science
- Published
- 2011-09
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1623-1639
- ISSN
- 0025-1909 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-5501
- OpenAlex
- W2399404755
- Cited by
- 786
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 65 · 2017: 58 · 2016: 74 · 2015: 60 · 2014: 60 · 2013: 67 · 2012: 39
- FWCI
- 189.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Management Science (publishedVersion)
- Chapman University Digital Commons (Chapman University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting
- Keywords
- social contagion, peer influence, word-of-mouth marketing, message tailoring, Facebook, social networks, product adoption, user engagement, randomized field experiment
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