Master Thesis Exposé Content Marketing in Social Networks

EMBS - UNIVERSITÄT KASSEL Master Thesis Exposé Content Marketing in Social Networks Sophie Hillebrand 13.11.2014 Content Marketing in Social Networks Abstract Title: Content marketing in social networks Keywords: Social media marketing, content marketing, content strategies, social networks, Facebook, social media user behavior Background: As online marketing and especially social media marketing have become more and more important in the recent years, many companies have entered social networks There are multiple strategies to implement social media marketing activities in the marketing mix, however, best practice strategies for the area of content marketing in social networks have not yet been established Purpose: It has not yet been established how and why exactly users respond to different content strategies in social networks It is necessary to find out how to generate maximum user engagement through the different content of social media activities, as its main purpose is the communication with the consumers rather than promotion I would like to find out which type of content strategy leads to maximum user engagement, what type of content communication leads to the highest response, what type of reaction is caused by content marketing, and how situational dimensions like the timing of posts or the motivation behind interacting with the post affect the success of a post Methodology: In order to examine the response of users to different content strategies, there will be a quantitative questionnaire, which will be distributed via Facebook Examples of different content strategies will be abstracted from Facebook The target group of this study is European citizens between 18-30 years that are active Facebook users The theoretical implications of the results of this study should entail a clear characterization of the variables related to content marketing and user engagement as well as a connection between content strategy variables that have a significant impact on user engagement in social networks The findings will contribute to the research of the growing application of social media in marketing strategies by establishing, which content strategy and content type is the most effective in creating user engagement in social networks and what the reasons behind its success are Content Marketing in Social Networks Table of Content List of Tables List of Abbreviations Introduction 1.1 Relevance 1.1.1 Social Media Marketing 1.1.2 Social Media User Behavior 1.1.3 Content Marketing 1.2 Problem Statement 13 1.3 Research Question 15 Literature Review 17 Hypotheses 21 Methodology 24 Overview of Chapters 25 Plan of work 26 References 27 Content Marketing in Social Networks List of Tables Table 1: Social media user behavior segments (own representation) Table 2: Content Strategies (own representation) 12 Table 3: Hypotheses funnel (own representation) 16 Table 4: Hypotheses table (own representation) 23 Table 5: Plan of work (own representation) 26 List of Abbreviations SM – Social media UGC – User-generated content SNS – social networking sites SMM – Social media marketing CM – Content marketing Content Marketing in Social Networks Introduction 1.1 Relevance 1.1.1 Social Media Marketing For the definition of Social Media (SM) it is necessary to first understand the terms “Web 2.0” and “User-Generated Content” (UGC) Web 2.0 describes the internet as a platform, which users are constantly changing trough active collaboration and participation Platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Wikipedia have replaced the outdated platforms of the web 1.0, where personal websites or pages like the Encyclopedia Britannica Online were used UGC is the total of all applications of SM that is public and has been created by end-users (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p 61) According to Kaplan and Haenlein, “Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content” (2010, p 61) Mangold and Faulds describe different types of SM outlets: social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, creativity works sharing sites like YouTube, user-or company-sponsored blogs, collaborative websites like Wikipedia, commerce communities like Ebay or social bookmarking sites like Digg (2009, p 358) They further argue that companies need to adopt a new communication paradigm that suits the new way of dissemination of information through twoway communication on social networks (2009, p 364) The new model of customer communication in the web 2.0 describes this process as follows: the isolated process of the absorption of information, evaluation and learning is now outdated The actual process in the web 2.0 is more complex and dependent on the opinions and interaction with other community members online The communication is now decentralized and the company needs to target especially opinion leaders in the targeted community to gain the maximum reach of a communication message (Wagner, 2011, p 83) Weinberg and Pehlivan state that companies can effectively reach their consumers through SM activities if they are able to build a relationship and empower their customers (2011, p 282) As customers even expect companies now to maintain a SM presence, SM has altered the communication with customers profoundly (Nair, 2011, p 46) To summarize, social media marketing (SMM) “provides meaning and connection between brands and consumers and offers a personal channel and currency for user-centered networking and social interaction” (Chi, 2011, p 46) The number of active Facebook users has surpassed one billion by the end of 2012 In the beginning of 2014, it has reached 1.28 billion active users (“Facebook figures of monthly active users 2008-2014”, 2014) A study of the Fortune 500 companies showed that in 2012, 63% of the companies maintained an official Facebook page (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013, p 56) Content Marketing in Social Networks By 2013, it was already up to 70% (Gesenhues, 2013) Using this medium proposes opportunities for companies as it is enables them to engage in very timely and direct consumer communication and can be achieved with less budget than via the traditional communication channels (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p 67) However, it also creates risk for the company´s reputation, image and financial situation if there is no strategic SM strategy behind its activities (Aula, 2010, p 44-45) The aim of any marketing strategy is to increase consumer brand loyalty Studies have shown that SNS contribute significantly to building strong brands (Shen & Bissell, 2013, p 629630) According to Sashi, the goal of SM activities is the creation of customer engagement For him, customer engagement is more than just loyalty; it goes “beyond awareness, beyond purchase, beyond satisfaction, beyond retention, and beyond loyalty” (2012, p 257) Brodie, Ilic, Juric and Hollebeek define consumer engagement in virtual brand communities as “[…] specific interactive experiences between consumers and the brand, and/or other members if the community Consumer engagement is a context-dependent, psychological state characterized by fluctuating intensity levels that occur within dynamic, iterative engagement processes” (2013, p 107) The consumer engagement process model shows the triggers initiating the engagement, the sub processes like sharing, learning advocating and the outcomes like loyalty, trust and commitment (2013, p 110) Sashi proposes the customer engagement cycle with distinct stages of the process of establishing a more intimate relationship applied to social networks The stages of the cycle are defined as connection, interaction, satisfaction, retention, commitment, advocacy, engagement and in the end connection again.(2012, p.260) For Rogers, Chapman and Giotas the fulfillment of the goal of customer engagement strongly depends on the creation of content that the users will want to share He argues further that it is crucial for the company to which kind of content will be shared by the users and how it can reach more customers (2012, p 120) Which social media mix increases customer engagement to the maximum still needs to be established The preferences for activities can also depend on the brand and the type of user (Sashi, 2012, p 267-268) Content Marketing in Social Networks 1.1.2 Social Media User Behavior There are different models to describe the individual segments of social network users Forrester researchers have classified with the help of their “Social Techographics” model seven types of users according to their behavior on SM platforms Each type is not exclusive; users can be more than one type at the time (Fletcher Jones, 2009) As there are many different types of users, companies need to avoid strategies that aim to satisfy all users simultaneously The goal is to tailor the strategy to each group according to their behavior (Fleming, 2012) The seven types are creators, conversationalists, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives The target group of this thesis, European users between the ages of 18 to 30, consists of 33% creators, 37% critics, 11% collectors, 58% joiners, 69% spectators and only 17% inactives (“Social Technographics Profile Europe”, 2014) Another way to segment users is the latent segmentation approach, which classifies users according to behavioral and socio-demographical variables The descriptive criteria are gender, age, experience with SM, frequency of participation in SNS, time spend on SNS per week, profile location in the social network, number of contacts, nature of contacts, number of social networks they use and motives for using SNS The authors create four cluster profiles: Introverts, novel users, versatile users and expert-communicators (Alarcón-del-Amo, LorenzoRomero, & Gómez-Borja, 2011, p 547-548) The authors conclude that socio-demographic data is not enough to establish segments of social networks users, but that the behavior is a more adequate way The company has to propose an added value by understanding the users´ needs Active participation by sharing and commenting on posts needs to be offered to more versatile users and expert-communicators, while offering only passive participation to introverts and novel users (Alarcón-del-Amo et al., 2011, p 553) Vinerean, Cetina, Dumitrescu and Tichindelean have developed a framework of four types of users resulting from a factor analysis Their variables included the general SM activities, the last performed SM activities, the trust in sources on SNS, the positive reactions to online advertisements, the experience using SM, the clicking of the ad, the log in pattern, the time spend per log in sessions, the concern for privacy and the importance of SM After the factor analysis the authors called the four emerging types of users: expressers and informers, engagers, networkers and socializers, and watchers and listeners (2013, p 71-72) Another typology of SNS users was established by Foster, West and Francescucci After the analysis, the authors have established a cluster with four distinctive segments of user behavior on social platforms: the social media technology mavens, info seekers, socializers and minimally involved The segmentation is based on the online participation of users: First the crea- Content Marketing in Social Networks tion content for other users, the communication and socialization with other users on social networks and lastly the information seeking activities on social platforms Each segment uses SM for different reasons and has therefore be targeted differently by marketers It is necessary to find out the customs, needs and motivation of each group in order to create a successful SM strategy (2011, p 10-11) After analyzing the already existing segmentation models, I was able to define one global and general definition of SM behavior that will be used further on in this study  The Creators/Communicators  The Information seekers  The Socializers  The Minimally Involved The table below shows how the different segmentation approaches can be summarized Segmentation according to : Author Model Activities/Behavior Forrester Social Media Ladder Activities/Behavior Foster et al Clusters Activities/Behavior Vinerean et al Typology Behavior/Sociodemographic Variables Alarcón-delAmo et al Latent Segmentation Approach Segments Creators Conversationalists Critics Collectors Joiners Spectators Inactives SMT Mavers Socializers Info Seekers Minimally Involved Expressers / Informers Engagers Networkers / Socializers Watchers / Listeners Expert-Communicators Versatile Users Novel Users Introvert Users Table 1: Social media user behavior segments (own representation) Another dimension of user behavior on SNS is the motivation behind SM activities Heinonen creates a conceptual model that gives insights into the different motivations by the customers as well as recommendations on how to target the different users according to their motivation (2011, p 359) There are also different motivations behind the sharing behaviors on SNS Previous research found out, that messages that evoke strong emotional responses are more likely to be forwarded Another motivation to share is self enhancement and self-expression through the sharing of online ads that consumer find entertaining, interesting or important Content Marketing in Social Networks (Taylor, Strutton, & Thompson, 2012, p 13-14) Toubia and Stephen argue that intrinsic and image-related utility are the basis of motivations in SM The relative importance of the two categories depends on the type of content posted by users and the structure of SNS (2013, p 387-388) Berger and Milkman conclude that it is not only value exchange and selfpresentation that motivates users, but also by very positive content with others to increase their mood This content can be practically useful, entertaining or informative, as long as it helps others, generates reciprocity or increases their reputation (2012, p 201) 1.1.3 Content Marketing It is necessary to distinguish between the terms content strategy and content marketing (CM) Rose describes CM as “[…] a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”(2013) CM is outlining the actual content that a company uses to communicate with their audience, the story they want to tell and the mode of engaging with their customers In short, it is a marketing strategy that aims to create and intensify the bond between the company and their customers On the other hand, content strategy is the tool that manages the formulation, distribution and control of content, which can be seen as a strategic asset of the company (Rose, 2013) At the heart of CM are the different content strategies, which have different aims and purposes They can entertain, inspire, start a conversation, and teach or provide relevant information (Hanbury, 2011) for users that are very different in their technical knowledge about the content as well as in their interests and culture (Dödtmann & Wagner, 2012, p 42) The aims of a content strategy are to implement long-term, realistic and achievable publishing plans and to adjust communication strategies across channels with all of them working towards the same goal In this way, companies can decrease costs by eliminating unnecessary communication efforts and focusing on content that the target audience needs These efforts can improve the company´s overall performance across all channels (Kissane & Halvorson, 2011, p 1-3) Furthermore, the content topic has to be aligned with the appropriate distribution channel Breaking news and posts to build engagement should be shared via SM (Sabatier, 2012, p 201) According to Parson, the focus of companies on SM platforms is to connect with the users and building relationships with customers instead of simply informing about new products and promotions However, companies still prefer to control the wall content rather than letting users post directly on their wall without a prior respond to another post (2013, p 35) An analysis of the Fortune 50 Facebook pages conducted in 2010 showed that companies are Content Marketing in Social Networks 10 benefiting from the opportunities of SM, however not to its fullest extent The pages were mainly one-sided; communication came from employees or customers having product problems without responses from the companies Some companies had posts about mission statements and news releases The majority of 80% was not using their pages for the distribution of information In addition, only 24% of the Facebook pages included a minifeed with recent material 65% of the companies´ pages included photos, 31% posted videos and 36% posted links to the own company or other fan sites (McCorkindale, p 7-8) In addition, the types of posts differed across brands and industries Fashion companies for example like to use celebrity endorsement and posts of prestigious events (Parsons, 2013, p 35) There are different ways to categorize SM message content According to Rohm, Kaltcheva and Milne SM content has to be functional, informative, timely, relevant, entertaining and sharable with the aim of creating positive brand awareness, customer engagement and finally purchases The authors established five classes of brand-consumer interactions that support the alignment of SM strategy and content with consumers´ motives to reach these goals The classes resulting from their research are product information, brand engagement, fun/entertainment content, timeliness and incentives/promotions (2013, p 306) Another way to categorize content strategies has been established by de Vries, Gensler and Leeflang: Vividness, interactivity, informational content, entertaining content, position and valence of comments Posts with vivid content generate a higher number of likes while interactive posts generate a higher number of comments than other types of posts (2012, p 83-84) Chauhan and Pillai investigate with the help of a conceptual model the influence of content type, content agility, posting day and content context on the number of likes and comments of a post They conclude that the content type and context had significant impact on the user engagement, as well as the form of the presentation of the message (2013, p 43-44) Swani, Milne and Brown describe three types of message strategies on Facebook: the use of corporate brand names, the use of emotional content and the use of direct calls to purchase or “hard sell” promotional approaches (2013, p 270) After examining the effectiveness of these strategies posted by Fortune 500 Facebook accounts, the authors concluded that using the brand name strategy is especially successful in the B2B sector, while the emotional strategy succeeds in the B2C sector The promotional strategy is the least effective message strategy compared to the other strategies These findings are conform with the general idea of SM as a communication platform and relationship building forum instead of generating purchases immediately (2013, p 285-286) Content Marketing in Social Networks 16 Aim of Strategy Maximum user engagement Type of User Communicator/Creato r Socializer Info seeker Minimally involved Content Strategy Information strategy Entertainment strategy Interaction strategy Type of Content Link Promotion Question Quiz Poll/Voting Event UCG Content presentation method Text Picture Video Effect on user (Aristoteles) Logos Pathos Ethos Type of reaction Notice post Like post Comment on post Share post Like of brand page Open website of brand Situational context Timing of posts Table 3: Hypotheses funnel (own representation) Frequency of posts Purchase Content Marketing in Social Networks 17 Literature Review Author Year Kaplan, A./ Haenlein, M 2010 Mangold, G./ Faulds, D 2009 Weinberg, B./Pehlivan, E 2011 Nair, M 2011 Rogers, M./ Chapman, C./ Giotsas, V 2012 Campbell, C./ Pitt, L./ Parent, M./ Berthon, P 2011 Ramsay, M 2010 Aula, P 2010 Boyd, D./ Ellison, N 2007 Dunne, A./ Lawlor, M./ Rowley, J 2010 Zaglia, M 2013 Zarella, D./ Zarella, A Safko, L Weinberg, T 2011 2012 2012 Title Published SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Users of the world, unite! Business HoriThe challenges and opportu- zons 53 nities of social media Content Concept of SM, web 2.0, UGC, classification of SM , recommendations for companies for the use of SM Social media: The new hyBusiness HoriImpact of content, timing and brid element of the promozons 52(4) frequency of SM conversations tion mix for marketing strategy Social spending: Managing Business HoriROI for SM Spending - differthe social media mix zons 54(3) ent approaches how companies use SM Understanding and measurJournal of CorCost issues related to SM, ing the value of social media porate Accountwhat, how and where to sucing & Finance cessfully measure user en22(3) gagement on social media Measuring the diffusion of Journal of Direct, ROI of SM, user engagement marketing messages across a Data and Digital measurement, Targeted adversocial network Marketing Prac- tising on Facebook, content tice 14(2) engagement metrics, recommender systems, type of content more likely to be shared Understanding consumer Journal of AdInterpretation of consumer conversations around ads in a vertising 40(1) conversations around user web 2.0 world comments on ads, archetypes of consumer-generated ad conversations Social media etiquette: A Journal of DataFacebook etiquette, recomguide and checklist to the base Marketing mendations for the use of SM benefits of social marketing & Customer platforms for companies Strategy Management 17(2-3) Social media, reputation risk Strategy & Risks for reputation through and ambient publicity manLeadership SM, new strategies for publiciagement 38(6) ty management with SM SOCIAL NETWORKS Social network sites: Defini- Journal of ComIntroduction features, purpose, tion, history and scholarship puter-Mediated history, key changes and deCommunication velopments concerning SN 13(1) Young people's use of online Journal of ReGratifications sought and obsocial networking sites – a search in Interac- tained on social networks, uses and gratifications pertive Marketing motives of the use of SN, U spective 4(1) and G theory Brand communities embedJournal of BusiPeculiarities and motivational ded in social networks ness Research 66 drivers for participation in brand communities, how to cultivate interaction in brand communities The Facebook marketing Book book The social media bible Book Social media marketing Book Content Marketing in Social Networks Greenberg, P 2010 Sashi, C 2012 Zinnbauer, M Honer, T 2011 Kietzmann, J./ Hermkens,K./ McCarthy, I./ Silvestre, B 2011 Alarcón-delAmo, M.-C./ LorenzoRomero, C./ Gómez-Borja, M.-A Foster, M./ West, B./ Francescucci, A 18 SOCIAL MEDIA USER BEHAVIOUR The impact of CRM 2.0 on Journal of Busicustomer insight ness & Industrial Marketing 25(6) “Social customer” demands in web 2.0, Trust in peers and companies to establish user engagement/advocacy Customer Engagement Cycle on social media Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media How brands can create social currency – a framework for managing brands in a network era Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media Management Decision 50(2) 2011 Classifying and profiling social networking site users: A latent segmentation approach Cyberpsychology , Behavior and Social Networking 14(9) Four cluster profiles Introverts, Novel users, Versatile users, Expert communicators 2011 Exploring social media user segmentation and online brand profiles Journal of Brand Management 19(1) The effects of social media marketing on online consumer behavior International Journal of Business and Management 8(14) Four distinctive segments of user behavior on SM: the Social Media Technology Mavens, Info Seekers, Socializers and Minimally Involved Factor analysis: Four emerging types of users expressers and informers, engagers, networkers and Socializers, and watchers and listeners Netnographic methodology of consumer engagement in SN, eng states and intensity Vinerean, S./ 2013 Cetina, I./ Dumirescu, L./ Tichindelean, M Brodie, R./ Ilic, 2013 A./ Juric, B./ Hollebeek,L Marketing Review St Gallen Business Horizons 54(3) Consumer engagement in a Journal of Busivirtual brand community: An ness Research exploratory analysis 66(1) CONTENT MARKETING The elements of content Book strategy Content strategy for the web Book Kissane, E./ Halvorson, K Halvorson, K /Rach, M De Vries, L./Gensler, S./Leeflang, P 2011 2012 Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing Journal of Interactive Marketing 26(2) Rohm, D./ Kaltcheva, G./ Milne, G 2013 Parsons, A 2013 A mixed-method approach to examining brand-consumer interactions driven by social media Using social media to reach consumers : A content analysis of official Facebook pages Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 7(4) Academy of Marketing Studies Journal 17(2) 2012 Development of customer engagement cycle applied to product categories, study of brands in the US Honeycomb model of social media user behavior Brand post related to popularity: Vividness, Interactivity, Informational content, entertaining content, Position and Valence of comments Five classes of brandconsumer interactions that support the SM strategy, content with consumers´ motives Different looks and tools to encourage users to interact, content on Facebook varies across brands, industries and goals of the marketing effort Content Marketing in Social Networks Can you see the writing on my wall? A content analysis of the Fortune 50´s Facebook social networking sites The new way to manage content across platforms 19 McCorkindale, T 2010 Public Relations Journal 4(3) Sabatier, L 2012 Chauhan, K./ Pillai, A 2013 Role of content strategy in social media brand communities: A case of higher education institutes in India Shen, B./ Bissell, K 2013 Social media, social me: A content analysis of beauty companies’ use of Facebook in marketing and branding Journal of Promotion Management 19(5) Tan, C./ Wai, S Hedren, Y./ Seah, F./ Kiat, E./ Wong, E Al-Mu´ani, L./ Saydam, S./ Calicioglu, C 2012 Asia-pacific libraries on Facebook : Content analysis on posts and interactions Singapore Journal of Library and Information Management 41 Analysis of Facebook posts and classification into categories: Promotion, interest, announcements, news, activities, enquiries and feedback, how to effectively use SM 2014 International Journal of Business and Social Science 5(4) Zhang, J./ Sung, Y./ Lee, W 2010 Pulizzi, J 2012 Facebook as a marketing communications tool - Facebook official pages content analysis for Jordanian telecommunications companies in the mobile operators sector To play or not to play: An exploratory content analysis of branded entertainment in Facebook The rise of storytelling as the new marketing Swani, K./ Milne, G./ Brown, B 2013 Spreading the word through likes on facebook Kabadayi, S./ Price, K 2014 Consumer – brand engagement on Facebook: Liking and commenting behaviors Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 8(3) Archer-Brown, C./Piercy, N./Johnson, A 2013 Journal of Marketing Management 29(3-4) Berger, J./ Milkman, K 2012 Examining the information value of virtual communities: Factual versus opinion-based message content What makes online content viral? Establish seven categories: Giveaways, national holidays, societal, product related questions and other – and which ones are most effective in what situation How entertainment activities on SM can boost brand awareness and can build strong relationships Stories to attract and retain customers, strategies how to master content How to reach most customers B2B/B2C,measures outcome of types of Facebook strategies: use of corporate brand names, emotional content, use of direct purchase calls Factors affecting behavior towards Facebook brand pages, implication of personality traits Facebook behavior, modes of interaction SCRM: type of content that is most valued in virtual communities – informational content highly valued Positive content that evokes high psychological arousal is more viral, external drivers Publishing Research Quarterly 28(3) Journal of Product & Brand Management 22(1) American Journal of Business 25(1) Publishing Research Quarterly 28(1) Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 7(4) Journal of Marketing Research 49(2) Analysis of activities and parts of Facebook strategies, which elements are most used, what activities most applied Content strategy development, right mix of content to ensure relevance and profitability Influence of content type, content agility, posting day and content context on the number of likes and comments of a post Categories of communication activities such as promotions, open-ended questions, polls, Q&As – analysis which ones are the most successful Content Marketing in Social Networks Chu, S.-C 2011 Mangold, W./ Smith, K 2012 Ruiz-Mafe, C./ Martí-Parreño, J./ Sanz-Blas, S 20 Viral advertising in social media: Participation in Facebook groups and responses among college-aged users Selling to Millennials with online reviews Journal of Interactive Advertising 12(1) Link between Facebook group participation and viral ads responses Business Horizons 55(2) 2014 Key drivers of consumer loyalty to Facebook fan pages Online Information Review 38(3) Toubia, O./ Stephen, A 2013 Marketing Science 32(3) Hermida, A./ Fletcher, F./ Korell, D Taylor, D./ Strutton, D./ Thompson, K 2012 Intrinsic vs image-related utility in social media: Why people contribute content to twitter? Intrinsic vs Image-related utility in social media: why people contribute content to twitter? Share, like, recommend: Decoding the social media news consumer Self-enhancement as a motivation for sharing online advertising Study of influence on users of posts on SM, more positive than negative reviews, specific to product categories Variables to increase loyalty: attitude, trust, usefulness and ease of use, strategies to increase positive word-of – mouth, what content should be used to improve Individual motives to share content, intrinsic utility bigger when fewer followers, imagerelated utility higher when more followers – sharing depends on number of followers Heinonen, K 2011 Journal of Consumer Behavior 10(6) Chi, H.-H 2011 Consumer activity in social media: Managerial approaches to consumers' social media behavior Interactive digital advertising vs Virtual brand community Okazaki, S./ Taylor, C 2013 2012 Social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future directions Journalism Studies 13(5-6) Journal of Interactive Advertising 12(2) Journal of Interactive Advertising 12(1) International Marketing Review 30(1) SM as news source, social recommendations, personal exchanges Self –brand congruity, entertainment value and product category involvement increase likelihood of sharing ads Motivations behind the user´ actions on SM - Entertainment, Self connection and Information values Influence user motivation to participate in SNS in response to SM activities Sm in international context, cultural differences, framework of international use of SM across cultures Content Marketing in Social Networks 21 Hypotheses In this thesis, I would like to explore the effect of different content strategy on users The user dimensions have been explained previously and can be summarized as follows:  The Creators/Communicators  The Information seekers  The Socializers  The Minimally Involved Marketers need to target their customers individually depending on the different type of users on SM platforms As there are different CM strategies, we can differentiate between:  Information strategy  Entertainment strategy  Interaction strategy Different strategies should be aimed at different users: - H1a: The Information strategy is most accepted by the information seekers - H1b: The Interaction strategy is most accepted by the socializers - H1c: The Interaction strategy is most accepted by the creators/communicators - H1d: The Entertainment strategy is most accepted by the minimally involved group As previously stated, different types of users show different behavior on SNS (Alarcón-delAmo et al., 2011; Foster et al., 2011; Vinerean et al., 2013) With these hypotheses, I would like to verify my classification of user types and the most suitable strategy to target them Different content has different effects on customer engagement: - H2a: Interactive content leads to the most user engagement - H2b: Entertaining content leads to more user engagement than informative content - H2c: Informative content leads to the least customer engagement De Vries et al have tested the level of effectiveness of informativeness, entertainment and interactivity of a brand post and have found out that posts with vivid, entertaining content generate a higher number of likes while interactive posts generate a higher number of comments than other types of posts In general, they could prove that highly interactive content has an influence of the post, however entertainment and informativeness have no significant impact (2012, p 83) For this thesis, I will rank the engagement level of each type of content Different content presentation methods lead to different kind if user engagement - H3a: Vivid elements like videos lead to the highest number of likes or comments - H3b: Vivid elements like photos lead to a lower number of likes or comments than videos but to more than simple text posts - H3c: Simple text posts lead to the least user engagement Content Marketing in Social Networks 22 Pillai and Chauhan tested the different content types with the categories text only, text and link, text and video, text and image, web link only, video only and lastly text, web link and image and their impact on the success of the post They found out, that the content type in general has a significant impact on the success, but not which and how (2013, p 46) With this collection of hypotheses I would like to test the different results from the use of different presentation methods of content Motivation to interact with a post according to dimensions of Aristotle: - H4a: Informative content will be liked/ commented/ shared due to Logos - H4b: Entertaining content will be liked/ commented/ shared due to Pathos - H4c: Interactive content will be liked/ commented/ shared due to Ethos These assumptions are based on my idea and understanding of Aristotle´s Rhetorics (source), as there no research has yet been done on the dimensions of Aristotle and the motivation behind the social media user behavior Therefore, I would like to find out how the different dimensions relate to the sharing on SNS The role of the dimension of timing and frequency of the post: - H5a: The time of the day of the posting significantly affects the number of likes and comments of a post - H5b: The day of the week of the posting affects significantly the number of likes and comments of a post - H5c: The frequency of posting activity affects significantly the impact on number of likes and comments of a posting The optimal strategy to maximize user engagement in terms of timing of the post and the frequency in between posts has not yet been established (de Vries et al., 2012, p 90) Pillai and Chauhan have already tested the posting day with the categories Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday- Friday and lastly the weekend They concluded that almost50% of the posts were done from Wednesday to Friday They further found no significant relevance between the day of the posting and the success of a post In another variable, content agility, they tested the time of the day that lead to the maximum user engagement According to their results, posts in the second half of the day, and especially in the evening are most commonly and significantly contribute to the success of a post, as users have more time then The authors suggest further investigation about the timing and frequency (2013, p 46) From this set of hypotheses I expect to obtain information when and how often users wish to see updates that would lead to maximum user engagement Content Marketing in Social Networks Table 4: Hypotheses table (own representation) 23 Content Marketing in Social Networks 24 Methodology In order to test the stated hypotheses I will conduct a quantitative study with the help of an online questionnaire, which is easy accessible and promises are greater reach than an offline questionnaire Previous researchers in this field have also successfully conducted an online questionnaire (Chu, 2011; Hermida, Fletcher, Korell, & Logan, 2012; Parsons, 2013) The questionnaire will be spread across Facebook, as it is one of the most important social networks Facebook will also be used as test platform and examples of content will be taken from there The target group is European citizens between 18-30 years that are at least user of one SM platform (Facebook) and are using it at least once per week The questionnaire will be distributed online The sample size was calculated with the help of the Sample Size Calculator by Raosoft The final sample size according to Raosoft will be around 350 participants, with a level of confidence of 95% and a response distribution of 50 % (“Sample Size Calculator by Raosoft, Inc,” 2014) Alarcón-del-Amo et al have successfully used a similar sample size with 399 candidates to test similar hypotheses of user behavior online (2011, p 548) In the first part of the questionnaire I will ask about the general behavior on Facebook, how often they use SM, the motivation to use it and the activities they participate in order to put the participants into the corresponding cluster Something similar has been done by Rohm et al., who have created a correspondence analysis that maps the categories of social media interactions and variables like age, gender etc (Rohm et al., 2013, p 301) In the next part, I would like to include pictures of the different posts on Facebook according to each strategy to find out which activities are most successful and lead to maximum consumer engagement The examples will be introduced in the literature part of the thesis I would like the participants to answer what their reaction is to the post - if they would like it on Facebook, comment on it, share it, watch the video, click on the link, like the brand page or purchase the product This aims to test the level of user engagement the posts causes Next, the motivations why they like something will be asked and why they would or wouldn´t share something with the help of scales from the Handbook of marketing scales Furthermore, I will create a section to find out about the situational factors such as time and frequency In the last part of the questionnaire I will include demographic questions to be able to make assumptions according to age, gender or educational background The program used to analyze the obtained data will be Sphinx The type of statistical analysis methods will be specified later together with the specific questionnaire There will be a cluster of the user behaviors as previously presented, which enables me to categorize the motivations, engagement factors and situational context Content Marketing in Social Networks Overview of Chapters Introduction 1.1 Relevance 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Research Question Social Media Marketing 2.1 Introduction SMM 2.2 Social Media Goals 2.3 Social Networks 2.4 Facebook Advertising 2.5 User – Behavior on Social Networks 2.6 User Actions on Social Networks Content Marketing 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Types of Content 3.3 Content Strategies 3.4 Example Content Analysis Hypothesis Research Design –Methodology Analysis Results Conclusions 8.1 Implications 8.1.1 Scientific Implications 8.1.2 Managerial Implications 8.2 Recommendations and Limitations 25 Content Marketing in Social Networks 26 Plan of work Workplan 2014 September 37 38 39 October 40 41 42 43 2015 November 44 45 46 47 48 December 49 50 51 January 52 Definition Topic Preliminary Analysis Research Literature Reading Literature Introduction Literature Review Exposé Methodology Hypothesis W Review W Design Questionnaire Method Data Analysis design Puffer time Hand in Intermed Report Data Collection W W W Distribution Questionnaire Preliminary Analsysis Data Analysis Intermediate Presentation Table 5: Plan of work (own representation) February Content Marketing in Social Networks 27 References Alarcón-del-Amo, M.-C., Lorenzo-Romero, C., & Gómez-Borja, M.-Á (2011) Classifying and profiling social networking site users: A latent segmentation approach Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social -Networking, 14(9), 547–553 doi:10.1089/cyber.2010.0346 Al-Mu´ani, L., Saydam, S., & Calicioglu, C (2014) Facebook as a marketing communications tool - Facebook official pages content analysis for Jordanian telecommunications companies in the mobile operators sector International Journal of Business and Social Science, 5(4), 205–211 Aula, P (2010) Social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management Strategy & Leadership, 38(6), 43–49 doi:10.1108/10878571011088069 Berger, J., & Milkman, K L (2012) What makes online content viral? 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