Page 151 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

The Impact of Word of Mouth and the Facilitative Effects of Social Media 143

suggested that the poor reputation of rumor as an informational source
could be traced to the definition of the construct as proposed by Allport
and Postman (1947). These authors defined rumor as “a specific (or topi-
cal) proposition for belief, passed along from person to person, usually by
word of mouth, without secure standards of evidence being present” (p.
ix). The lack of secure standards of evidence serves to weaken the founda-
tion of the information contained in the rumor. For marketers, the 1999
study by Kamins and colleagues provides a tool to use to diffuse the ru-
mor, simply by framing it as a rumor.
The important question to ask, then, is: How does one frame informa-
tion as rumor in today’s social networking–addicted world, where com-
munication occurs at light speed? Kane, Fichman, Gallaugher, and Glaser
(2009) provided an answer in their Harvard Business Review paper. These
authors maintained that with the rise of real-time social media 2.0, the
rules of engagement regarding community outreach have changed. They
outlined the need for companies to develop dedicated social media teams
to manage the environment of online communities. They argued that the
team has to create ways to defend against threats as well as find “construc-
tive ways to engage.” However, it is critical that the team be well versed in
the most effective way to counter the threat. As a case in point, Starbucks
recently used Twitter as well as its own website (through Starbucks’
Newsroom) to refute rumors that the company took political positions in
the Middle East. But in the process of refuting the rumor, Starbucks men-
tioned it, thereby making it visible to many customers who may not have
heard it in the first place. Indeed, rumor has an impact; not necessarily
because it is believed, but rather because it is processed (Tybout, Calder, &
Sternthal, 1981). Hence, the lesson learned here is that to counter a rumor
effectively in any media environment—and particularly in social media,
where the lead time to react to negative information is minimal—it is nec-
essary to use tactics other than refutation, such as storage or retrieval
strategies. 2

The Impact of WOM on Marketing Strategy Using Social Media
There have been many studies reported in the marketing literature that
have attempted to investigate the link between WOM and company sales.
Some of these studies were based in field research and others in experi-
mentation and survey research. In general, a strong link has been estab-
lished between participation in social media and company sales. As an
example, Adjei, Noble, and Noble (2010) conducted an experiment where
they manipulated the quality of commercial communication content in an