Social contagion essentially requires two groups: influentials and susceptibles (Aral and Walker, 2012). Influential leaders create and consume information to form their own opinions, which are passed along to their susceptible followers who rely on them for guidance (Smith, 2014). Unlike an infectious disease, social contagion requires the network to actively seek out information and choose whether to propagate it (Hodas and Lerman, 2014). The spread of influence in the network depends entirely on whether everyone in that network is ready and asking for something to react to. If the wants of the people are satisfied, a breakout phenomenon will occur (Smith, 2014).
Social contagion theory contributes significantly to digital marketing. Utilising word-of-mouth marketing provides several benefits to the companies, including wider exposure of the message than through other techniques, a cheaper alternative to traditional means, and the ability to gain new consumers (Trusov et al., 2009). However, some of the positives for companies are significantly outweighed by the negatives on wider society.
The ease of virality of content means that social contagion can glorify social issues, giving them increasingly harmful exposure. Examples include beauty standards, suicide, terrorism and mass shootings. Significant research has been conducted on suicide, highlighting that there are likely to be copycat symptoms from media reporting, especially in the case of celebrity suicides. Social contagion leads to suicide clusters, often emerging in particularly susceptible communities that are either at risk or personally impacted somehow by the original suicide (Aalai, 2018).
This is also found with mass shootings, citing that the over-reporting of the killers has encouraged the increasing occurrence of mass shootings. Arizona State University researchers analysed news reports of gun-related incidents from 1997 to 2013 and found that shootings that resulted four or more deaths launched a period of contagion, marked by a likelihood of more bloodshed lasting an average of 13 days (Scientific American, 2016). The mass media’s greedy agenda to keep people interested means that the shooters receive daily exposure, further advertising these crimes to other susceptible individuals (Mills, 2016).
The typical social contagion experienced on social media is positive e.g. memes, and often used for charitable causes, e.g. the ALS Ice Bucket challenge. However, there is still a need to monitor and control the social issues reported, and the resulting contagion spread. By working alongside mass media, social media platforms can help reduce the glorification of negative events by limiting the coverage and information released. In the example of mass shootings, this could reduce the number of cases by a third (Mills, 2016). Social media is now more involved in our daily lives than ever before, and therefore impacts what everyone does more than they would believe. We are all highly social individuals, operating within communities and networks that shape and influence who the individuals are (Kanpak, 2017) and what they choose to view, interact and engage with. Social media provides brands the platform to enter the people space, as well as the digital space, to spread marketing messages further (Kanpak, 2017).
References
- Aral, S. and Walker, D. (2012) Identifying Influential and Susceptible Members of Social Networks. Science, 337(6092), pp.337–341.
- Hodas, N. and Lerman, K. (2014) The Simple Rules of Social Contagion. Scientific Reports. Vol.4(4343), pp.1-7.
- Smith, J. (2014) The True Driver of Social Contagion. [online] American Marketing Association. Available at: https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/the-true-driver-of-social-contagion.aspx [Accessed 20th Dec. 2018].
- Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. and Pauwels, K. (2009) Effects of Word-of-Mouth versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 73(5), pp. 90-102
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