Electronic word of mouth on social networking sites

Abstract

When communication between people on the Internet evolves around products, service, organizations or brands it is called electronic word?of?mouth or eWOM. EWOM has the ability to spread out and reach an incredible number of people in a short period of time. It has a much greater and faster spread than the traditional WOM and its influence can become much greater. The study contributes to an enhanced knowledge regarding eWOM on the most popular social media site today; Facebook. The aim was to study participation in eWOM, its credibility, users’ assessment on the influences of eWOM on image and buying intentions. Also, the purpose was to explore the relationship between participation in eWOM and assessment of its potential influence on image on one hand and on buying intentions on the other hand. Through electronic snowballing sample, users of Facebook were asked to answer a questionnaire. The findings suggest that participation in eWOM is not intense. Opinion giving seems to be more common than opinion seeking and people seem to have a stronger tendency to spread positive information regarding products or service than negative. Information regarding products or service is regarded most trustworthy when it comes from someone the person knows. Secondly comes information on organizations’ websites and third reviews from common customers. According to the findings people believe that eWOM has some effect on organizaions’ image and on buying intentions. Almost half of participants said that they had bought a product or a service after they had seen someone recommend it on Facebook. Fairly strong positive relationship was found between participation in eWOM and believes on its effect on image and buying intentions.