Master Thesis Exposé 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 Back

Master Thesis Exposé Content Marketing in Social Networks

Sophie Hillebrand

13.11.2014

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

con-tent 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 ferent 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 impli-cations of the results of this study should entail a clear characterization of the variables related

dif-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 strate-gies 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

Table of Content

List of Tables 4

List of Abbreviations 4

1 Introduction 5

1.1 Relevance 5

1.1.1 Social Media Marketing 5

1.1.2 Social Media User Behavior 7

1.1.3 Content Marketing 9

1.2 Problem Statement 13

1.3 Research Question 15

2 Literature Review 17

3 Hypotheses 21

4 Methodology 24

5 Overview of Chapters 25

6 Plan of work 26

References 27

List of Tables

Table 1: Social media user behavior segments (own representation) 8

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

1 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 Inter-net-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 bookmark-ing 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 two-way communication on social networks (2009, p 364) The new model of customer commu-nication 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 em-power 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 be-tween 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)

By 2013, it was already up to 70% (Gesenhues, 2013) Using this medium proposes nities for companies as it is enables them to engage in very timely and direct consumer com-munication 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 activi-ties (Aula, 2010, p 44-45)

opportu-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 629-630) 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 character-ized by fluctuating intensity levels that occur within dynamic, iterative engagement process-es” (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 loyal-

ty, 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, reten-tion, 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 engage-ment to the maximum still needs to be established The preferences for activities can also de-pend on the brand and the type of user (Sashi, 2012, p 267-268)

1.1.2 Social Media User Behavior

There are different models to describe the individual segments of social network users rester 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, con-sists of 33% creators, 37% critics, 11% collectors, 58% joiners, 69% spectators and only 17% inactives (“Social Technographics Profile Europe”, 2014)

For-Another way to segment users is the latent segmentation approach, which classifies users cording 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: Intro-verts, novel users, versatile users and expert-communicators (Alarcón-del-Amo, Lorenzo-Romero, & 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 intro-verts and novel users (Alarcón-del-Amo et al., 2011, p 553)

ac-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 ad-vertisements, 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, engag-ers, 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 mally involved The segmentation is based on the online participation of users: First the crea-

mini-tion content for other users, the communicamini-tion and socializamini-tion 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 Socializers

 The Information seekers

 The Minimally Involved The table below shows how the different segmentation approaches can be summarized Segmentation ac-

cording to :

Activities/Behavior Forrester Social Media

Lad-der

Creators Conversationalists Critics

Collectors Joiners Spectators Inactives

Socializers Info Seekers Minimally Involved Activities/Behavior Vinerean et al Typology Expressers / Informers

Engagers Networkers / Socializers Watchers / Listeners Behavior/Socio-

demographic

Varia-bles

Amo et al

Alarcón-del-Latent Segmentation Approach

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

(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 self-presentation 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 audi-ence — 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

purpos-es 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 con-tent 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) Fur-thermore, the content topic has to be aligned with the appropriate distribution channel Break-ing 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

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 prob-lems without responses from the companies Some companies had posts about mission state-ments 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 celeb-rity 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 inter-active 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 im-mediately (2013, p 285-286)

A study of beauty company´s Facebook presence established categories of communication activities such as event, product, promotion, entertainment and other The authors tested how many companies are using which type of communication and how engaging it is According

to their investigation the most successful tool to generate likes and comments are surveys (Shen & Bissell, 2013, p 647-648)

Research has also established different types of posts An exploratory study about the book usage of Jordanian telecommunication companies established seven different categories

Face-of posts: Giveaways, national holidays, societal, product related, questions and other The companies were not especially focusing on advertising their products on social networks and neither are they primarily focused sharing informative content Questions were used to engage users and gain market insights The category of giveaways aims to increase participation with the help of contests Most posts included pictures, the minority showed text and video Users engaged with giveaways the most, followed by questions Societal posts and posts about products and services received the least engagement (Al-Mu´ani, Saydam, & Calicioglu,

2014, p 209)

In 2013, Parson established 20 different categories of wall content after analyzing 70 official web pages on Facebook from different brands: Ad campaigns, product information, sponsor-ships, apps, games, downloads, calls for involvement, career or business opportunities, celeb-rity or athlete information, acknowledgements, company information and news, contest or sweepstakes, customer comments, entertainment related, holiday greetings, live events, vide-

os, photos, polls, questions, and video or You Tube links (p 33-34) Content like consumer incentives, coupons, and sweepstakes increase the involvement of the customer and leads to him to a purchase, which is in the end the ultimate aim However, the number of likes of a post does not measure the number of sales caused by one a post, but it gives a good indication when comparing this kind of sales promotions over time (p 35)

Another examples of types of content itself according to Weinberg are lists, breaking news, games, controversial news stories, videos or pictures (2012, p 349-350) Hanbury lists further content presentation methods like articles or blog posts, infographics, cartoon drawings, ani-mations, tutorials, podcasts or presentations (2011)

The situational context also influences the success of posts: One study concludes that new posts appear on average 24 times a month hence customers receive an update only every few days because companies need to be careful to not annoy their audience (Parsons, 2013, p 35) The study of Jordanian telecommunication companies measured an average of 2.3 posts per

day (Al-Mu´ani et al., 2014, p 209) 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)

The table below shows a summary of all approaches and a general categorization of proaches

De Vries et al Vividness

Interactivity Informational content Entertaining content Position

Valence of comments Rohm et al Product information

Brand engagement Fun/entertainment content Timeliness

Incentives/promotions Swani et al Corporate brand names

Emotional content Promotions Shen & Bissell Events

Product Promotion Entertainment Chauhan & Pillai Content type

Content Agility Posting day Content Context Al-Mu´ani et al Giveaways

National holidays Societal

Product related Questions

Table 2: Content Strategies (own representation)

After combining the different categories, I have established three distinct categories that will

be used further on in the thesis:

- Information Strategy

- Entertainment Strategy

- Interactivity Strategy

Further, situational variables identified in the literature can be classified as:

- Timing or frequency of posts

- Position or context of posts

Leaning on Aristotle´s rhetoric, there are three kinds of persuasion techniques or rhetoric means marketers can use

 Logos – the rational argument, that appeals trough technical arguments or the lighting of benefits to the customer

high- Pathos – the emotional approach, that tries to stimulate emotions in the customer in order to purchase something

 Ethos – the reputational approach, that tries to appeal to the customer´s reputation or character

How to communicate a message and what content to use that gets heard by the customer pends on the customer´s understanding of the message (Kissane & Halvorson, 2011, p 29-31) Successful communication has to reach as many communication partners as possible through the easy dissemination of the communication without losing its message or effect (Wagner, 2013, p 64)

de-1.2 Problem Statement

Rogers et al state that the content itself as well as the position of the content may have a high impact on the process of creating user engagement It is necessary to understand which con-tent is more likely to be shared by users and go viral and whether the content is able to reach new customers (2012, p 120) There are many studies examining the network structure and influences, but few on the propagation of content How different communication approaches impact the customer and the most effective themes and general content to engage users and reach new customers have not been established (2012, p 127) As there are still no clear guidelines on how to implement and use content on SM, the following paragraphs aim to give

a short overview of the most recent findings and also limitations in this field

Parsons examines 70 brand pages on Facebook and concludes that they all have different looks and use different tools to encourage users to interact with them The content of posts on Facebook varies across the different brands, industries and goals of the marketing effort Par-sons questions how users respond to posts, if they actually notice ads and if there is an inter-action with the brand in addition to only liking the page There should be further research

whether SM content has the power to influence the buying behavior and leads to purchases, and if so, how companies can benefit from this new marketing method (2013, p 35-36)

De Vries et al test the drivers for brand popularity on SM platforms and conclude that the positioning of the post in the beginning of the official brand page increases the brand popular-ity They also find out that posts with vivid and interactive content generate a higher number

of likes while interactive posts generate a higher number of comments than other types of posts (2012, p 83).They suggest further research to investigate the influence of the frequency

of posts in the brand liking process and how SM can enhance customer relationships, ing communication and branding (2012, p 90)

market-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 (2013, p 43-44) They concluded that the content type and context had significant pact on the user engagement, as well as the form of the presentation of the message They argue that future research needs to establish the specific type of content that increases the us-er´s interest and creates higher customer engagement (2013, p 45)

im-Furthermore, a content analysis of beauty companies on Facebook tests the different activities that can be used on Facebook and its consequences The authors established categories of communication activities such as promotions, open-ended questions, polls or Q&As and test-

ed how many companies are using the type of communication and how engaging it is panies prefer engaging activities like Q&As or beauty polls to simple product promotion and rather like open-end questions like Q&As than interactive questions with limited options like beauty polls The most successful tool to generate likes and comments are surveys according

Com-to this study The authors suggest further research Com-to investigate the different Com-tools and its effects more thoroughly (Shen & Bissell, 2013, p 647-648)

In the end, the SM mix that increases customer engagement to the maximum needs to be tablished The preferences for activities can also depend on the brand and the type of user (Sashi, 2012, p 267-268)

es-There have been findings about the fact that different posts on social networks generate a ferent level of customer engagement Also, different content and form of communication cause a different level of interaction But how and why has not yet been established The aim

dif-of this paper will be to establish a framework, which will help to understand which type dif-of content creates maximum user engagement with all relevant variables

Which type of content strategy leads to maximum user engagement?

- Timing of post

- Frequency of posts