Exploring users' motivations to participate in viral communication on social media

Despite the popularity of viral marketing, its influencing factors have not been thoroughly investigated, especially in the context of social media. Successful viral communication depends on the sender's ability to turn receivers into active marketers, which requires the sender to consider both the perspective of the user/recipient and the message content. As the best means of engaging with social-media users and leading them to make a communication viral remains debated, this study seeks to determine the factors that influence users' willingness to share viral content. In this investigation, partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data gathered from an online survey of Facebook users, focusing on a case study of a Facebook event. The results showed that meaningful content affects users' attitudes regarding sharing communications, and revealed significant differences between user groups regarding the effect the emotional tone and arousal level of content has on sharing behaviors.