Résumé
This paper is a contribution to the knowledge of WoM transmission on OSN. We specifically analyze the role of the seeding population diffusion of negative WoM. The method is based on an experiment on the Facebook fan base of an existing company. We manage to control the four elements of a successful WoM communication: the message, the social structure of the network, the characteristics of the individuals in the network, and the seeding population. We develop an original method to dissociate a seeding population from the general population and compare the diffusion of a set of negative messages distributed to both the original population and the artificially targeted subset. Results show the impact of the seeding population’s characteristics on the diffusion of consumers’ negative messages. We specifically show the impact of the carrier on the virality of the message.