The impact of viral marketing to the college students' consumer behavior?

[letmethroughpls]

may be my post is little bit academic..anyway, it's actually a dissertation project I'm working on at the moment, but I'm kinda stuck at some point as what are the possible consumer- behavior-related issues of college students should I look into under the impacts of viral marketing... I did some research in this field, which came up with something got me so confused, some of study related it to the motivation of refering marketing msg to the peer group...some others tried to apply the consumer decision making process to analyse the influence over each step within process....however, I feel none of above studies are quite helpful to the area I'm woking on ( or May I say I find it's difficult to push forward my analysis under the thoughsts from those literature...)

any helpful tips from you would be highly encouraged and I would be so much grateful to your kind attention!
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millions thnx to m000kie for your very detailed and kind hearted reply to my question, it indeed expand my thoughts quite a bit.

what you have demonstrated is quite focusing on how viral markeing may function within the online social network...would you kindly please be more specifc in the prospect associated with college students' consumer behavior possibly influenced by this marketing strategy? cos I kinda need a consumer behavior thoerical area to tap into regarding those possible impact......

[m000kie]

I would start researching the online social networking sites, mainly facebook, since people are placed in networks (specific college or university) and actions done by students in a college network can be seen by everyone in the college.

A student can place a brand or something in their profile, such as a product, tv show, music, etc., by using some of the various applications in their profile, other students are able to see their association with it (especially if they are "friends"). Their are numerous applications that students can use, in their profiles as added applications, their "interests" or posted on someones "wall".

I think FB and other social networking sites are a BIG part of viral marketing among college students. People will spend hours on the site, looking at other peoples profiles, and talking with their friends "publically" .

Mention of a product can spread throughout the network (like a virus) and other students may become interested in it and try it out themselves.

Also, since FB is online, they have an information gathering resource right in front of them. So, if word came out of something they have never heard of, they can immediately look for it online, and see what its about.

Sorry if this is confusing, but hopefully you get the gist of it. here are some other issues that may help with Social networking sites:

-College networks- new things remain in the network and amongst members and can also go to other networks (domino effect)
-peer acceptance "everybody's doing it"
-word of mouth- not only amongst friends, can be from someone you don't know.
-Online viral marketing, such as WOM, travels a lot faster, and reaches more people- speeding up their purchase behavior. also they can come across it more often, which can change their purchase behavior.

I hope this is what you were asking, because i am a little confused, but maybe you can get some ideas from it!