Question

Rodney is a friendly guy in college. He belongs to several clubs, but is not involved heavily with any one activity. He also has friends in different cities in upstate NY because he moved around during his schooling years because of his Mom's job. If you ask Rodney, he would say that none of these friends are very close, but he keeps in touch with them off and on. Rodney is someone who would be considered a "weak-link" in a social network. Ironically, Marketers would consider a weak-link like Rodney as extremely important for word-of-mouth effects. Specifically, why?

Because weak links are technologically savvy and post multiple tweets, and so, have wide influence.

Because weak links are the only consumers who link late adopters and social media, and so, have wide influence.

Because these consumers may not have weak links with any one social group, but have strong social connections with many different types of social groups, and so, have wide influence.

Because these consumers may not have strong links with any one social group, but have weak social connections with many different types of social groups, and so, have wide influence.

Because weak links always use the central route to process marketing messages, and so, have wide influence.

Answer 1

Because these consumers may not have strong links with any one social group but have weak social connections with many different types of social groups, and so, have wide influence.

In this scenario, Rodney has weak connections with different social groups but is connected to a number of groups. In such a case he can influence all those he get in touch with his word of mouth which will be an increased number of people because of being connected with many groups. Hence even though he is a weak link, he is important for word of mouth effect for marketers.