Last week an article was published in Fast Company about a study at MIT and NYU regarding marketing a Facebook application for a new brand. The study compared whether it was more effective to attract new users thought passive sharing, in which automated messages are sent on the behalf of existing users, versus active sharing, in which existing users proactively send personalized messages to their individual peers. It turns out that both techniques are effective, but are each optimal in different scenarios.

Passive Sharing – Because passive sharing is done automatically without any effort or resource from the user, messages can be easily sent with every interaction of the Facebook app. While this dramatically increases the number of message impressions and was found to drive nearly 250% growth, it can also create unwanted noise on the network and lead to a tarnished brand image. For new brands, it’s worth this risk to rapidly gain a large number of new members. But for established brands, it’s important to limit the number of automated posts so that potential users aren’t alienated or perturbed.

Active Sharing – It requires more effort on the part of the user to send an actively shared message. However, the messages are truly authentic word-of-mouth recommendations and were found to drive user growth by nearly 350%. But because the total number of messages sent is lower than with passive sharing, the total amount of growth could end up being less. If a brand has an existing community of users and can afford to take the time to individually connect from one user to another, active sharing is the perfect choice. But its higher barrier of participation can also turn users away who are too busy to be bothered with one more message to send out.

At the end of the day, it comes down to quality versus quantity. A personalized message is obviously of greater quality and value to a potential user, while it’s very easy to send an extremely high volume of lower quality automated messages. Deciding which technique to employ in any given situation depends on whether you want to optimize for rapid growth or for a higher degree of engagement.