Ice Bucket Challenge

This study employs Berger's 2013 STEPPS (social currency, triggers, emotion, practical value, public, and stories) framework for assessing the messaging factors that influence eWOM in the nonprofit sector. Thus, the authors first operationalize the key principles for the nonprofit sector, then examine viral content (1,000 tweets and linked videos) to demonstrate the applicability of these principles for theory building and practice. Our content analysis reveals that some principles (e.g., social currency, triggers, high-arousal emotion, or public) are more prevalent than other principles (e.g., practical value or story). This study also explores the relationships between the 6 principles and the level of online engagement, revealing interesting results about what people post initially versus what they pass along from others in their network.

This paper presents an exploratory memetic perspective on the diffusion pattern of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. More precisely, the paper contributes to research on social learning, cultural evolution, and social contagion by shedding light on endogenous (meme-related) as well as exogenous (structural) properties that may have influenced the Ice Bucket Challenge's diffusion. In the first pillar, we present a descriptive memetic analysis of the diffusion pattern, including an evaluation of the Ice Bucket Challenge according to memetic criteria for successful replication. In the second pillar, we present an agent-based simulation model designed to illuminate the influence of particular social network characteristics on the Ice Bucket Challenge's diffusion. By combining these two pillars, we contribute to the advancement of memetic theory, narrowing the gap between a solely meme-centered perspective and social network analysis.

Research on the dynamics and evolution of economies and their subsystems has increasingly attracted attention during the past three decades. Micro-level activities related to innovation, imitation, adoption and adaptation are sources of often important impulses for abrupt as well as continuous, local as well as generic, systemic as well as modular changes in mesoeconomic and macroeconomic structures. These changes driven by selection and co-evolution, by path-dependencies and lock-ins as well as by transitions and jumps in turn feedback to the system's microeconomic units. Out of this a highly interconnected system of interaction between agents, subsystems and levels of aggregation emerges and confronts researchers with the challenges to grasp, reduce and understand the complexity and her dynamics involved. The series "Economic Complexity and Evolution" addresses this wide field of economic and social phenomena and attempts to publish work which comprehensively discusses special topics therein allowing for a broad spectrum of different methodological viewpoints and approaches. All titles in this series are peer-reviewed.

This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Neknomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ that manifest a set of consistent features, making them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde’s concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation; the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges; and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness o...

This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Neknomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ that manifest a set of consistent features, making them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde’s concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation; the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges; and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness o...

We are immersed in a digital revolution that impacts the whole of society and is shifting the status quo of our daily life. We are fully connected and billions of messages are being shared every day thanks to Internet (i.e. the most popular mobile apps are messaging apps). This digital revolution provides Marketing a new communication opportunity to interact with the target audience in an easy and cost effective way: viral marketing. Although decades of research suggest that interpersonal communication changes our behaviour, there is no agreed conclusion about why and what certain messages have more influence than others. Marketers find it difficult, if not impossible, to predict viral success (Watts, Peretti and Frumin, 2007). The main question scholars and marketers are facing is: what are the critical factors to consider when designing a viral marketing campaign, to achieve a high degree of message adoption and consequently to attain success? Objective The main goal of our resear...

We examine the coevolution of three-layer node-aligned network of university students. The first layer is defined by nominations based on perceived prominence collected from repeated surveys during the first four semesters; the second is a behavioral layer representing actual students' interactions based on records of mobile calls and text messages; while the third is a behavioral layer representing potential face-to-face interactions suggested by bluetooth collocations. We address four interrelated questions. First, we ask whether the formation or dissolution of a link in one of the layers precedes or succeeds the formation or dissolution of the corresponding link in another layer (temporal dependencies). Second, we explore the causes of observed temporal dependencies between the layers. For those temporal dependencies that are confirmed, we measure the predictive capability of such dependencies. Third, we observe the progress towards nominations and the stages that lead to the...

A meme consists of any words or images in a text that can be replicated across communicators in the exchange of information. This study tests the Multilevel Model of Meme Diffusion (M3D) in a case study in the digital electronic technology that captures the controversial opinions regarding death penalty abolishment in Nebraska. The objective is to demonstrate that an internet-based study using social media data can be used to analyze and predict social processes engaging with phenomena in real space. The authors utilize the meme death_penalty in Twitter texts to predict public perception of death penalty abolishment in Nebraska. The M3D theory integrates the fields of geography and computer-mediated communication technology to explain and predict public opinion on the death penalty.

Despite the existing evaluation of the sampling options for periodical media content, only a few empirical studies have examined whether probability sampling methods can be applicable to social media content other than simple random sampling. This article tests the efficiency of simple random sampling and constructed week sampling, by varying the sample size of Twitter content related to the 2014 South Carolina gubernatorial election. We examine how many weeks were needed to adequately represent 5 months of tweets. Our findings show that a simple random sampling is more efficient than a constructed week sampling in terms of obtaining a more efficient and representative sample of Twitter data. This study also suggests that it is necessary to produce a sufficient sample size when analyzing social media content.

within and between different health groups and actors such as physicians, nurses, patients or alike (Creswick and Westbrook 2010, Effken et al. 2011, Sillence et al. 2007). Recent reports concerning the adoption of online health applications have shown people's and organizations' significant interest in them (Moss and Elias 2010). Of particular importance among these applications is health information and advice-seeking supporting applications (e.g., WebMD, Healthline) having a direct link to social network sites whereby information support is empowered by human relations or vice versa. This is not surprising especially for the health domain, since peers' opinions for medical practitioners (Bosslet et al. 2011) and patients' experience for "like-minded others" are found to be valuable for healthdecision making. Thus, one needs to find out if and how human interactions are established due to information and/or advice-seeking behaviors for health issues. Thanks to emerging online health social network platforms (e.g., HealthTap, WebMD, Doktorsitesi), which help in providing relevant data for the analysis of information and social networks.

A meme consists of any words or images in a text that can be replicated across communicators in the exchange of information. This study tests the Multilevel Model of Meme Diffusion (M3D) in a case study in the digital electronic technology that captures the controversial opinions regarding death penalty abolishment in Nebraska. The objective is to demonstrate that an internet-based study using social media data can be used to analyze and predict social processes engaging with phenomena in real space. The authors utilize the meme death_penalty in Twitter texts to predict public perception of death penalty abolishment in Nebraska. The M3D theory integrates the fields of geography and computer-mediated communication technology to explain and predict public opinion on the death penalty.

This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Neknomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as 'viral challenge memes' and manifest a set of consistent features that make them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde's (1903, 2010/1888) concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation, the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges, and the distinctive techniques of selfpresentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness of analytical principles drawn from Tarde. ForSmear. Before setting out our methodology and findings, we trace the emergence of each of these challenges, introduce the concept of 'viral challenge meme', and sketch out our theoretical framework. Viral Media, Memes, and Viral Challenge Memes Coined by controversial biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976), a meme is any idea, behaviour, or skill that is transferred from one person to another through imitation and embellishment, be that through stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, and even ways of ploughing a field or making a sculpture (Blackmore, 2000). Dawkins (1976) conceived of the meme as the cultural analogy to the biological unit of the 'gene'. Where genes replicate by inheritance, memes replicate by imitation (Schmidt, 2004). Thus, despite the impression that memes emerged recently with the advent of digital culture, the practice it describes is a fundamental feature of social life. McNeill (2009:84), for example, notes the importance of memes in traditional folkloric practices. At the same time, it would be a mistake to see online memes as simple reiterations of older, off-line memes. The Internet has accelerated the rate at which memes can be circulated and embellished, and has thus had a transformative effect on memetic practices. This in turn has prompted the growth of a body of academic literature that treats online memes as a discrete phenomenon. One common claim within this body of literature is that digital culture blurs the distinction between producers and consumers, leading to a more open, democratic, and collectively-organised media environment. The results of this digital culturethreads, viral videos, memesare less 'products' or 'goods' than fluid and malleable artefacts in continual construction and reconstruction amongst peers (Bruns, 2008). Wiggins and Bowers (2014), for example, argue that memes are artefacts of a participatory digital

Viral marketing offers resources for the structuring and disseminating quickly and large-scale information in favor of content, products and their brands. Organizations started to produce commercial videos and disseminate them in the social networks on a large scale. Lister (2018) highlights that a video generates 1.200% more shares than the text and images combined. However, most of the studies about video sharing are related to consumer content, not firm generated content. We also observe that are scarce research that relates to the impacts of sharing online media on brand constructs. In this sense, the objective of this study is to identify the antecedents of commercial video sharing and its impact on the consumers' attitudes. A total of 368 questionnaires were collected, preceded by the viewing of videos. The results reveal impacts of the entertainment value and utility value with the intention of sharing videos. The intention to share videos presents impacts on Brand Equity: directly, and indirectly mediated by Brand Attachment. In this sense, this study contributed by identifying strategies for firms in order to earn media from sharing of commercial videos, revealing its influences on brand equity and brand attachment.

Public referral is a viral campaign strategy that takes advantage of the existence of networked culture in social media. The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge is an exemplary instance of a public referral–based campaign, the success of which can be partly attributed to the voluntary engagement of celebrity communities. This study views celebrities as social actors and explores the ways in which celebrities’ public referral networks grew during the Ice Bucket Challenge. Findings suggest that celebrities engaged in the campaign based on restrictive social networking rules. Also, the referral network grew through homophily, wherein sociodemographic similarities played an important role in celebrities’ referral decision making. This article contends that understanding whom people select to pass along the campaign message should be as important as understanding why people share the message.

This paper presents an exploratory memetic perspective on the diffusion pattern of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. More precisely, the paper contributes to research on social learning, cultural evolution, and social contagion by shedding light on endogenous (meme-related) as well as exogenous (structural) properties that may have influenced the Ice Bucket Challenge's diffusion. In a first pillar, we present a descriptive memetic analysis of the diffusion pattern, including an evaluation of the Ice Bucket Challenge according to memetic criteria for successful replication. In the second pillar, we present an agent-based simulation model designed to illuminate the influence of particular social network characteristics on the Ice Bucket Challenge's diffusion. By combining these two pillars, we contribute to the advancement of memetic theory, narrowing the gap between a solely meme-centered perspective and social network analysis.

Les médias sociaux ont ajouté un nouveau degré de spontanéité à la philanthropie en permettant plus de formes virtuelles d'actions collectives, quelle que soit la cause, de la recherche médicale à la crise humanitaire. Dans quelle mesure peut-on dire que la philanthropie de masse passe aujourd’hui par les réseaux sociaux ?

This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as 'viral challenge memes' and manifest a set of consistent features that make them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde's (1903, 2010/1888) concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation, the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges, and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that diffuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness of analytical principles drawn from Tarde.

This article examines social media challenges that emerged in 2013, focusing on Ne-knomination, the Ice-Bucket Challenge and SmearForSmear. We suggest understand them as ‘viral challenge memes’ and manifest a set of consistent features that make them a distinctive phenomenon within digital culture. Drawing upon Tarde’s (1903, 2010/1888) concept of the imitative-encounter, we highlight three central features: their basis in social belonging and participation, the role of prestigious people and groups in determining the spread of challenges, and the distinctive techniques of self-presentation undertaken by participants. Based upon focus group interviews, surveys and visual analysis we suggest that viral challenge memes are social practices that dif-fuse in a wave-like fashion. Negotiating tensions between the social and individual, imitation and innovation, continuity and change, viral challenge memes are best thought of as creative practices, rather than sheep-like acts of conformity, and affirm the usefulness of analytical principles drawn from Tarde.

The available type of web content has comprehensively changed during the last decade. At the early 1990s, most online content mirrored traditional publications and was created by a particular number of publishers. However, since the early 2000s, User Generated Content (USG) dominated the web: more and more users started to create content rather than consume it. Social media, the online means of communication that are used by people to interact with each other, are interdependent with USG.

Social media offer many opportunities for organizations that understand the power of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in an online environment, because it adds to an organization’s online marketing communication and reputation management. The main reason for that phenomenon, is that users tend to trust significantly more their friends' recommendations concerning products and services, compare to advertising messages.

The eWOM, as an influence effect, occurs not only in terms of brand marketing, but also regarding other areas, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social movements, cyberactivism, political communication and other fields of the social and cultural world. The dynamic of social media is unpredicted, since information spreads faster than ever and people interact at a global level. This critical essay focus on how people are attracted to create and publish content for a good cause. It aims to highlight the causes that motivate people to participate in social media campaigns, aiming to fundraising and awareness increase. Furthermore, it examines the similarities, communication tactics and performance results, among two best viral campaigns in 2014: the 'no makeup selfie' for cancer awareness and the ‘ALS Ice Bucket Challenge’.

Keywords: social media, user-generated content, charity, donations, viral

Digital literacy and social benefits met in the form of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in August 2014. This study assessed the experience of participants in the challenge to understand the relationships between altruism, motivation to participate, and digital literacy. Results indicate relationships between altruism and the motivators of product involvement and social benefits. In addition, results offer the perception of contribution to a cause as a predictor of development of digital literacy.

Abstract- In this digital era, anything catchy and amusing can
turn into a trend or viral phenomenon with the help of social
media, reaching out and impacting a large number of people.
For example, Harlem Shake meme, Gangnam Style song by
Psy, The Fox song by Ylvis and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The
main focus of this paper is to study how the ALS Ice Bucket
Challenge can turn from simply a dare game among a group
of friends into fundraising campaign that succeed overnight
through social media. It is vital to identify the success factors
of this icy campaign so that it can turn into strategies which
can be applied in other campaigns to produce similar
remarkable result of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. For this review,
related journal articles which were found through electronic
databases were studied and linked to the topic of this paper.
The findings from the review of these journal articles
suggested five aspects; namely social media marketing,
celebrities’ influence, online word-of-mouth phenomenon, viral
marketing, and right-timing marketing had contributed to the
outstanding result of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Keywords: social media, marketing, amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, ice bucket challenge.