As Kaplan and Haenlein ([3], p. 61) define them, social media are the "group of Internetbased
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,
and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content." Digital social networks
are part of social media and have become a significant advertising tool for companies [4].
One of the key elements of digital social networks from a marketing perspective is that they
are fields where one can apply successful viral marketing strategies. Viral marketing is a
means of advertising whereby advertisers expect each user to transmit to other recipients the
message he or she receives [1, 5]. There is little research evidence about the behaviour of
elderly users on digital social networks related to their participation in the spreading of viral
marketing messages. Furthermore, as the global popularity of digital social networks grows
and geographical distances shrink, it would be interesting to study the elderly users’
population in relation to the geographical locations in which they live. Based on this
assumption, a comparative study between the European Union and the USA would be of
significant interest.
Launched in 2004, Facebook reached more than 750 million active users in 2011, and
half of them logged in daily. Users spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the
site. Facebook is a web-based service that allows people to build public profiles and establish
explicit connections with others in their social network [6].
As elderly digital social network users increase and turn to the internet in order to find
trusted sources of information and opinions, new opportunities arise to build consumer-brand
relationships and viral advertising platforms. This article focuses primarily on the