The impact of social network to student’s choice an education consultant agency solution of marketing on social network for OSI vietnam

---NGUYEN THI NHU Y THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORK TO STUDENT’S CHOICE AN EDUCATION CONSULTANT AGENCY: SOLUTION OF MARKETING ON SOCIAL NETWORK FOR OSI VIETNAM MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS Ho

-NGUYEN THI NHU Y

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORK TO

STUDENT’S CHOICE AN EDUCATION CONSULTANT AGENCY: SOLUTION OF MARKETING ON SOCIAL

NETWORK FOR OSI VIETNAM

MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

-NGUYEN THI NHU Y

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORK TO STUDENT’S CHOICE AN EDUCATION CONSULTANT AGENCY: SOLUTION OF MARKETING ON SOCIAL NETWORK

FOR OSI VIETNAM

Major: Commercial Business Major Code: 8340121

MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS

Supervisor: PhD Tran Mai Dong

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

student’s choice an Education consultant agency: Solution of marketing on social network for OSI Vietnam” is my research under guiding of Doctor Tran Mai

Dong The data and documents cited in this thesis are honest and have not been

published in any previous research All inherited references are cited and fullyreferenced

Author

Nguyen Thi Nhu Y

strong support and highly valued contribution, guidance throughout this researchand for making time whenever I needed it throughout the year.

Secondly, I would also like to thank to the interview participants,interviewees for your time and contribution

Finally, thank you my family, my husband and my friends for your enormoussupport, encouragement and patience throughout my studying course

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIRGURES

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Research objectives and research questions 5

1.3 Scope of research 5

1.4 Methodology of research 6

1.4.1 Research data 6

1.4.2 Methodology of research 7

1.5 Significance of research 9

1.6 Outline of research 9

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 11

2.1 Overview of the trend of studying abroad 11

2.2 Introduction about OSI Vietnam 16

2.3 Social network 21

2.3.1 Introduction 21

2.3.4 The usage Social network in the world and Vietnam 23

2.4 Online marketing for Education Consultant agencies 25

2.5 Social networking sites was used by other international students 26

2.6 Online communication and Virtual platforms 26

2.7 Benefits of social networking for Education 29

2.8 Social networking engagement 30

2.9 Student mobility 31

2.9.1 What is Vietnamese student mobility? 31

2.9.2 Student’s decision making 33

2.10 Choice 34

2.10.1 Institution choice and student’s decision making 35

2.10.2 Proposed conceptual model of research 35

2.10.3 Social media effected to student choice 44

2.11 Conclusion 46

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN 47

3.1 Research approach 47

3.2 Research design and sampling 48

3.2.1 Data collection 48

3.2.2 Research questionaries 49

3.2.3 Sampling 53

3.5 Limitations 57

3.6 Ethical consideration 57

3.7 Chapter summary 57

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS 59

4.1 Introduction: 59

4.2 Analysis the response 61

4.2.1 Student point of view 61

4.2.2 Parents point of view 69

4.2.3 Current situation of OSI Vietnam 74

4.2.4 Experience from other Agents 75

4.3 Confirmed final modified research model 77

4.4 Summary 83

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 85

5.1 Conclusion 85

5.2 Solution 88

5.2.1 Facebook 89

5.2.2 YouTube 90

5.2.3 Zalo 90

5.2.4 Company website 90

5.2.5 Action plan for OSI 90

APPENDIX

1 OSI Vietnam : One Step International Education Consulting Co., Ltd

Table 2.1 Parents consider overseas study 11

Table 2.2 Destinations preferred by parents 13

Table 2.3 Studying abroad cases 17

Table 3.1 Research question design 50

Table 3.2 Distribution of participants 54

Table 4.1 Background of Participants 59

Table 4.2 Person that student discuss 63

Table 4.3 Social networking channels for student searching 63

Table 4.4 Information students want to know 65

Table 4.5 Recommendation social networking sites 68

Table 4.6 Parents search 71

Table 4.7 Recommendation from Parents 73

Table 4.8 Profile Agents 75

Table 4.9 Summary 80

Table 5.1 Suggested social networking sites 88

Figure 2.2 Students believe and trust Agents 14

Figure 2.3 Vietnamese Education Agent 15

Figure 2.4 Studying abroad cases 18

Figure 2.5 Frequency of internet use 24

Figure 2.6 Most active social media platforms 25

Figure 2.7 Number of unemployed 32

Figure 2.8 Decision making process model 35

Figure 2.9 Type of content looking for 39

Figure 2.10 Student interact on social media 45

Figure 2.11 Proposed conceptual model of research 46

Figure 4.1 Confirmed Final modified reseach model 83

CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 Introduction

Nowadays, social network has developed very widely and strongly It allowspeople to connect with family, friends, to share all information with all users Theinnovation of technology has playing a key role and a powerful tool in influencingand changing behaviour of consumer Social network has become more and morepopular as the daily life, so these tools has been perceived as sources for customer

to search information about products or service during their buying decisionprocess (Sinem Ozer, 2012) They use social network to share information,experiences, advice, reviews … that are interesting to their connected users(Friends, followers…) It can be helpful sources and may influence consumer’spurchasing process (Seaman, 2013) More over, it also is one of the most effectivemarketing and business development tools in recent century And because customeruse information on social networks as the instruction/ guideline for their decisionprocess and this tool is also used as advertising channel for enterprise to marketwhich in turn can help them gain more business opportunities and potentialcustomers (Seaman, 2013)

On another hand, the number of population all around the world are usinginternet and social network have increased by 21% since 2015 and it was 2.8 billionusers reported globally in 2017 (Kemp, 2017) Social network has been changingthe way people communicate, gather information and inform their decisions Foryoung students and even modern parents in particular, social network is principlemeans of gathering information and communication with peer to peer (Kemp,2017) In this report, there are 83% of prospective students have been using socialnetworks as channels to research information about study abroad procedure Alongwith the trend of globalization and the development of science, technology internet,especially social network, study abroad has become an indispensable need for manyyoung generations to realize the “Global Citizen” dream and it will expand their

knowledge beyond their traditional educational style and their current world This is

an opportunity to raise students' awareness of the many cultures of the world thatcan contribute to create many individuals with a broader understanding of today'ssociety rather than limiting within the traditional education system at their homecountry (Johnson and Stewart, 1991) Kinginger (2007) considered that studentswho have studied abroad often demonstrate the development of cognitive andcreative thinking that surpasses the ability of students with only have educationalexperiences in their home country

One of the reasons why studying abroad is becoming increasingly important

is that globalization has opened up international employment opportunities Qiang(2003) observed that there is a noticeable increase in the number of internationallabor recruitment due to globalization This creates a need for competition in theinternational labor market which affects many students in seeking opportunities toenhance their career prospects by achieving high quality education withqualifications which are recognized around the world (Mpinganjira, 2009) Up tonow, the concept of overseas study has been developed and it seem to be potentialservice business Overseas study has been becoming the educational activities

The innovation of social networks has influenced enterprises to discovereffective ways to communicate with their potential consumers This marketing hasbeen extending to education consultancy that attempt to influence parents andstudents’ choices Morris (2012) demonstrated that social networks were used bystudents to assist in the university choices Social networks are proving aninfluential way of providing a platform for potential students to gather informationand inform their choice about study abroad and destination (We are social report,2017) Students can use a variety of information sources to do decision-making.These include the internet, social networks, newspapers, word of mouth, educationconsultancies and government sources (Poonam and Madhu, 2015) Despite thiswide diversity information sources, overseas students had limited knowledge to

choose the courses to study and job prospects on completing a specific program(James et al, 2013) Therefore, they really need a professional advice and guidance

to make final decision As Morris (2012), he said that social network is used bystudents to assist in the university decision making process So social network haspotential for education agency to grow visibility and attract more prospectivestudents (Zinck and Constantinides, 2011) Therefore, social network has appeared

to have much potential and promise, it will be determined what role social networkplays in student’s decision of education consultant agency And from the increasingdemand of studying abroad in Vietnam leads to strong development of educationconsultant agents to help student on preparing full study abroad procedure Andbecause of big opportunity of study abroad business now so many Agents areopening in Vietnam, it creates the dynamic market and stressful of competition OSIVietnam (One Step International Education Consulting Co., Ltd) is one of thecompanies that their service is oversea study service are facing with their ownchallenge to adapt to the booming of technology nowadays to keep growing andreplace another proactive approach strategy to prospective students through socialnetworks

Problem Statement:

Although OSI Vietnam has been established in the market for a long time(over 20 years), but company has not been prominent and successful, as well as notwell known OSI Vietnam is a small enterprise, there have only 12 employees’unreasonable job allocation, and each employee must occupy multiple positions (asconsultant, customer service, marketing, cashier, international relationship .)resulting in low marketing effectiveness Employees are primarily trained inprofessional counseling, customer care by telephone but lack of marketing training.The lack of a specialized marketing department has led to ineffective publicity ofthe company image; the staffs disregard the marketing function that only focuses onthe processing of the visa application Because it is a small company, marketing

budget is very low, so it is not suitable for communication activities, organization ofseminars, events Accordingly; the company now needed a marketing plan bothless costly but still effective.

Even though the company has website: www.osivietnam.com and fan page

on Facebook but does not regularly update, refresh the content as well as do nothave specialists in charge so it does not bring effective marketing for the company.They only had ineffective marketing policies like annually; the companycoordinates with the Thanh Nien Newspaper to participate in the graduating seasonconsultancy program Although effective immediately at that time but does notbring long-term and stable effects

Furthermore, the competitors are using social networking and marketingonline very strong so there is fewer customers know and willing to choose OSIVietnam and traditional approachment strategy has become passive and outdated sothe company need to think about changing and replacing the marketing plan as soon

as possible or they will decrease day by day

Because of many trouble with the business of OSI Vietnam currently whenthey cannot get new customers by world of month based on relationship andtraditional ways as Director of OSI Vietnam recognized that it is the passiveapproachment, and they must change to adapt to the modern human world changingday by day, if they are not smart they will be left behind and disappear amidst avery dynamic competitive environment Author, who used to work in OSI Vietnam,grew with them and OSI as her second family, she wants to do something that as thestrongest action to make them pass through their difficult period time As discussionwith board director, the company really needs a marketing department but as thebeginning their budget is still not too much, so author will consider and found thatsocial networking marketing now is very effective tool for them to spread OSIVietnam image to the new horizon of social community

And author chose OSI Vietnam because author used to be counsellor of thatcompany, so I know they are lacking the marking strategy even their service is good

but without advertisement they will lose their business to other competitors So,next section author will introduce about OSI Vietnam and their problem that need tohave solution for marketing campaign as the reason why author do this research tohelp them issue their current problem Whether social network has a great impact oncustomer’s making process and there have many researches about this issue butuntil now there are no specific studies for this field in Vietnam So, in this study,

author chooses the topic “The impact of social network to student’s choice an

Education consultant agency: Solution of marketing on social network for OSI Vietnam”

1.2 Research objectives and research questions

Research’s objective is to indentify the way that social network influence tostudents on making decision when they are finding education consultant agency fortheir studying abroad process

Related to research’s objectives, the questions are set as follow:

1 How does social network impact on student’s choice?

2 What social networking sites do students use to search education consultant agency?

3 Which social networking sites influenced student’s decision making?

1.3 Scope of research

Scope of study:

- Students: who have already had student visa to study abroad by Educationconsultant centres They have gone through the selection process to makefinal decision, therefor understand them will help author find out whichfactors have brought the highest efficiencies and how social network plays arole and which social networking sites they have used in the process of theirchoice In this thesis, author will focus on students who studied in USA,Canada and Australia

- OSI Vietnam Staff: They know the problems and the needs They have moreefficient marketing campaigns to attract more students and develop theirbusiness.

- Education counsellors: author chooses to interview because they are working inthe company where has been running marketing online so that we can see moreclearly the effective of social networking marketing Then give solution fromtheir experience to help OSI Vietnam develop their marketing strategy

- Parents: they have the most influence on student on their study abroaddecision According to research of McFadden (2015), there is nearly 60% ofprospective students report they research schools with their parents, and 61%

of parents said that they will made the final decision

1.3.1 Methodology of research

1.3.2 Research data

In this research, author has used both primary and secondary data sources.Secondary data: all information was founded on books, magazines, internet and Primary data: has applied survey method through questionnaires

Semi structure interview’s objective is exploring the insights and specificinformation

In this study, author choose direct interview one by one with 4 kinds ofresearch objectives to take their opinions to devote into the research as much ideasfrom many different subjects, there are 13 participants accept to join the interviews:

- Students: who are international students in USA, Canada, they are thepersons that successful student visa by OSI Vietnam Author contacted themfor inviting the interview and made the conversation one by one on Facebookmessenger, Zalo, Skype… They are very happy and satisfied with OSIVietnam and promise to share every promotion from OSI Vietnam on socialnetworks

- Parents: author made interview with 2 parents who are working with OSIVietnam for their children to study abroad They knew OSI through their

friends’ introduction and they also said that without someone told them thatcompany then they will not know who they are and never come so they totallyagreed that OSI should have marketing to promote their brand to many peopleespecially on social network

- Board of director of OSI Vietnam: director of OSI Vietnam and Officemanager discussed about the lack of marketing campaign of the enterprise andthey are facing with loosing many students and they demonstrated OSI mustchange to adapt to new technology era That why they accept author to do thethesis with using it as the real case

- Reference from the marketer and counsellor from other Agents: These peoplehave experience of marketing on Education field in other Agents, they are evenestablished later than OSI Vietnam, but they are now even growing faster thanOSI because they have the active approachment on social networks where have

a whole world community They gave author many ideas about how to domarketing on social for studying abroad demand

The interviews took around 30 minutes to 45 minutes, and some trouble withthe time zone and internet so some of the records were not good but after that authoralso re-contacted for completing the transcript versions Through the time doing mythesis, author is in rush season at working so she had travelled a lot But after all,she tried her best to complete thesis on time

1.3.3 Methodology of research

This study uses combination of qualitative Qualitative research is themethod with collecting information without numerical form and it usually related tothe emotions of human, or behavior Discovering the experience of participants in aqualitative study is viewed as a phenomenological approach Furthermore,

Qualitative research is suitable to answer the question of “How” and “Why”(Hennink et al., 2011).

Since this is an appropriate way, the attitude, value and behavior of the researchshould be acknowledged at the beginning of the research, but should be part of theresearch A perfect example of qualitative research is group interviews andstructured questions with open responses that generate qualitative data These open-ended questions allow respondents to express and answer in-depth questions in theirown words rather than the words of researcher feeds These answers help theresearcher gather in-depth analysis and the real understanding of the respondentsabout the research problem However, this method can take quite long time andrespondents are very limited because they can only be considered in such a study(Palys and Atchison, 2014) As Palinkas and partners (2015), the qualitativeresearch method is an exploratory study The primary purpose of qualitativeresearch, as assessed by Flick (2015), is to better understand the reasons, opinionsand motivations of research Karlsson (2016) argues that some trends are discovered

by researchers with the use of qualitative research There are several methods used

in qualitative research where the study is unstructured and semi structured (Robsonand McCartan, 2016) The most common qualitative studies are interviews.Whatever technique is selected by the study of research for qualitative researchshould provide the ability to provide insight from the inner core of the problem forthis study This insight may include the responses of the participants, theircomments or ideas (Taylor et al, 2015)

In this study author choose the choice model of Engle, 1995; Kardes, Cronley,Cline (2011) as her main model to follow and give more finding about how socialnetworks can be effective on each step There are five steps: Need; Informationsearch; Evaluate of Alternative; Purchase decision and Post purchase Followingfive steps, it has their own factors that can be the reason for further steps and finaldecision

1.4 Significance of research

Finding of this research found that effect of social network will be strong onstep 2 (Information search) and step 3 (Evaluation of Alternative) because studentswill nearly 100% go to internet and social network for seeking and taking all theirconcerns so every positive or negative recommendation will be their issue On Step

1 (Need), the effect just medium since what they see on social network with goodperformance then will be their motivation to know exactly what they want andwhere to go Going to step 4, it just the most depends on actual service andconsultant skill of Agents and how much they give their customers belief then moreopportunity of business they can win The last step (Post purchase) will close fordecision making process of this person but will be the next beginning steps of otherstudents

This research brings the theoretical as well as practical significance to allenterprises in the field of Education consultancy, marketing, it also identifies theinfluence of social network to consumer’s choice, especially students in the process

of finding, comparing and deciding From this research they can come up withappreciate policies to attract their target customers, support marketing, build anddevelop the strategies to improve competitiveness

1.5 Outline of research

The research has five chapters as below:

Chapter 1: General information

The first chapter will show the overview of research topic, research objective,research question, scope and methodology of this study

Chapter 2: Literature review

Theories of social networks, Student’s choice and the link between socialnetworks and Student’s decision making process will be introduced in this chapter

Chapter 3: Methodology

In this chapter showed the methodology which was used for this study toexplain the research question mentioned in Chapter 1, it is qualitative reseach.Chapter 4: Findings

To explain and analyze the results from the interview process It then providesuseful marketing solutions for the Educational consultancy company to addressexisting marketing solutions and enhance the value of the Agencies's image topotential students

Chapter 5: Conclusion

The final chapter will show conclusions, limitation of this research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of the trend of studying abroad

According HSBC Group (2017), the trend of studying abroad is growingrapidly In particular, the highest result is belong to Asian parents, who tend toconsider sending their children to overseas study more than other countries Theresults show that Asian students make up 53% of the total number of internationalstudents

Table 2.1 Pparents consider overseas study (HSBC, 2017)

The percentage (%) of parents in this country Country will consider their offspring to study overseas

IIE (Institute of International Education) estimated that in the 2016/2017academic year, the United States had attracted 1,078,820 undergraduate andpostgraduate students, the United Kingdom had nearly 497,000 internationalstudents, France 310,000 and Australia 292,000 (IIE, 2017).

Table 2.2 Destinations preferred by parents (HSBC, 2017)

Destinations preferred by parents when considering Selected Rank 2017

compared to their children to study oversea in 2017 rate

when applying, 20% of collecting information about travelling abroad plan after getting offer and 20% find out solution to get the offer (Nicol, 2018).

Figure 2.1 Social Network as part of the research process (Nicol, 2018)

In this survey, Nicol (2018) affirmed that even Parents, Family, friends,Education counsellors… are particularly influential on student’s choice of overseastudy but surely that students themselves are the most important deciding socertainly, it is crucial that education company listen to viewpoint of prospectivestudents carefully can help increase rating of satisfaction and perception of students.Anyways, Nicol (2018) still identified that Students believe and trust information’ssources from Education Agents (47% agree) when they considering and choosinghigher education in overseas country

Figure 2.2 Students believe and trust Agents (Nicol, 2018)

Following result of ISS (International student survey) 2018, (Nicol, 2018)48% students said that Agents are useful for them and 34% agree Education agentshad influenced their choice of school and 27% influenced choice of destination And

as a fact that author see that Education consellors play as key role of the choice ofstudents and the potential of this business is very high if agents can approach andhave the right strategy of marketing to recruit international students An undeniablefact that Education agents are part of many international University for theirrecruitment, especially for international students when seeking visas And ofcourseagents face with many challenges (Nicol, 2018) That why, now in the century ofincreasingly competitive global Education market, especially in Vietnam thatcompetition is becoming more stressful than ever when the number of consulting forstudying oversea service centres continues to increase (Tran Thi Phuong, 2019) asbelow chart of the number of Vietnamese Education counsellor centres from quarterIII, 2017 to the first month of 2019

Figure 2.3 Vietnamese Education Agent (Tran Thi Phuong, 2019)

author used to be there counsellor, so I know they are lacking the marking strategyeven their service is good but without advertisement; they will lose their business toother competitors So, next section author will introduce about OSI Vietnam andtheir problem that need to have solution for marketing campaign as the reason whyauthor do this research to help them issue their current problem.

2.2 Introduction about OSI Vietnam

One Step International Education Consulting Co., Ltd (OSI Vietnam),operating based on a license issued by the Department of Planning and Investment

of Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in education, tourism, immigration, foreigninvestment OSI Vietnam is representative for many Language Institutes, SecondarySchools, High Schools, Colleges, Universities … in many countries where havehigh education such as: USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore… OSIVietnam is a professional Company in consulting school, major, state for students toattain the best choice of studying abroad plan In addition, preparing documents forenrolling school and applying visa are important parts that demand knowledge,experience, and skill from advisors in order to have the best outcome OSIpossesses a strong, professional, and a devote personnel’s who conduct files andobtained well-training and practical program for each case, (OSI Vietnam report,2018) At OSI Vietnam, these have four core values are pursued and implementedconsistently throughout its more than 20 years of operation: "Transparency -Professionalism - Experience and Trust."

Director said that transparency at OSI Vietnam can understand as the work,sequence of the most detailed, and scientific consultation process The financialstatements are always clear, detailed from the beginning All the company service'sfees, the relevant agencies as stipulated, especially the tuition fees from the school,living expenses are always have clear invoices The professionalism of OSIVietnam is reflected in the extensive knowledge of the consultants on professionalknowledge, social knowledge as well as culture and customs of many countries

Besides, understanding the psychology of students, parents to encourage, warn andeven strict, do not compromise with any situation does not match With theexperience of a close and dedicated team, OSI Vietnam will help the students'soverseas study plans are sure to be smooth and favorable OSI Vietnam hasestablished trust relationships with major partners in the US, Australia, Canada,New Zealand, Singapore, … (OSI Vietnam report, 2018) With over 20 years ofpractical experience and commitment, OSI Vietnam has helped thousands of youngpeople obtain visas for US and other developed countries In recognition of theseefforts, OSI Vietnam was honored in 2013 for the "Top 50 Trademarks - FamousBrands" Award organized by Vietnam Intellectual Property Association and Awardfor Education Development (2015) with the title "Prestigious EducationOrganization" awarded by the Association of Vietnam Study Encouragement OSIVietnam is also one of the 300 representative enterprises of Ho Chi Minh City toparticipate in "Cooperation with the city of innovation" in August 2016 (OSIVietnam report, 2018).

According to OSI Vietnam, the number of studying abroad cases andsuccessful student visas as below table:

Table 2.3 Studying abroad cases (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)

Year Study abroad case OK Visa case

2015 1063 829

Figure 2.4 Studying abroad cases (OSI, 2018)

Based on the summarized data on the number of studying abroadapplications were conducted by OSI over the years, we see that from 2007 to 2010,the growth rate is strong; from 208 cases in 2007 to 2010, it increased rapidly 4times After that from 2010 to 2014, the number of studying abroad recordsincreased but not much It is worth noting that the decline from 1146 cases in 2014until 2017 it was only 894 cases However, a good signal in 2018 when this numberincreased again, higher than 2017 is 224 cases (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)

The Period of beginning to 2010:

Based on the report in 2018 of OSI Vietnam, from the time of establishment,OSI Vietnam mainly advertises in newspapers and available relationships Thecompany has absolutely no marketing department, most customers get through theintroduction of those who have been working with the company, this way of doingbusiness has partly helped the company to grow sales quite well Moreover, thenumber of people who know the company was increasing The main customer ofthis period was the parents who intend to send their children to study abroad

From 2010 to 2014:

The revenue of company increased steadily but at medium level and therewas no breakthrough and almost access to customers only through the traditionalway of word of mouth marketing on existing relationships (OSI Vietnam report,2018)

From 2014 to 2017:

At that time, everyday company only had around 10 cases came to do studyabroad consultant The number was decresing; it was a big challenge for board ofenterprise Since they were facing with a big competition from the market when theeducation agency has increasing so fast and they did a lot of promotion to attractstudents and parents Especially they appeared with a very large output on socialnetworks The company report (2018) also showed that OSI Vietnam was slowlyfalling behind competitors when the approachment to customers has becomeoutdated and no longer widely influential While social networks have beengradually replacing the traditional way of accessing information and marketing, OSIretained the old form of word of mouth and newspaper even almost University andother Education company in the world have applied social network marketing for along time Frankly speaking, without the right marketing strategy, it will be difficultfor OSI Vietnam to expand their business (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)

From 2017 to 2018:

Recognize the importance of marketing, especially in the digital age, theBoard of Directors decided to run a social network marketing strategy They joinedFacebook and had their own Fan page to connect with all students and relationship.They got very good significant of increasing followers on Facebook, they came andcontacted with OSI Vietnam for consulting So on, the business is growing again.Following the successful of new marketing plan, OSI Vietnam are setting up and

widening the online, especially social marketing, recruit new specific marketers (OSI Vietnam report, 2018)

SWOT Analysis:

reputation and enthusiasm

and very good relationship

- Small company

Opportunities Threats

study market

their source to find information

competitors are very strong in notand sharing their experience

only Local Vietnam but also

abroad

easier during the 4.0 technology

Today’s digital age, the Internet has more advance and the power and importance ofsocial network platforms, conversations and engagement are increasing andtraveling at unprecedented speeds It was generally agreed that social networksmarketing has involved the spreading of marketing massages through viralmarketing, and surely that receivers will interest to pass along these massages totheir relationships (Kaikati, 2004) Multiple social networks such as Youtube, emailcommunication, and many others kinds of electronic media are used in this process.

In fact, most of the Viral Marketing campaigns are focused on spreading thecompany's message through the popular social networking platforms such asFacebook, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedln, Enterprises wishing to integrate a socialnetwork program into their marketing strategy and they see that social network ischanging the decision-making process in the buying behavior of consumers(Constantinides and Stago, 2012) Social network has reduced the power oftraditional marketing so that marketers are forced to find new ways to reachpotential customers and communicate with them (Parise and Guinan, 2008).However, marketing communications is an extension of online communication andonly succeeds when it is based on solid foundations: products are innovative andhigh quality, market-oriented organizations and websites are well-designed(Constantinides and Stago, 2012) Social networks where have it members createtheir public profiles and share all information such as knowledge, experiences,personal information,… Contact with other members to exchange and share thesame interests (Cheung and Lee, 2010) Social networks make us have the differentthinking about marketing, enterprises and consumers can interact directly and haverelationship with one another (Solomon et al, 2010) Digital networks today is notonly information access tools, but it als has been interaction tools, which are used

by individuals to exchange and share information, contents, opinions… andcustomers’s behavior will change when they interact with others (Heinrichs et al,2011) As consumers like to interaction and communication with each other andwant to refer advice from different positive or negative products or services, virtual

communities will have an impact on consumers' purchasing decisions (Evan et al,2009) People can gather to share their thoughts, idears, comments on Socialnetworking sites; so it will be the place for marketers to listen and respond tocustomers, review contents (Weber, 2009), the advertisements via social network,the meassage will reach far more potential customers intended to reach (Weber,2009; Weinberg, 2009).

2.3.2 Definition

Social networks are the platforms where individual can connect with others(Lee, 2013) It was stated by Weinberg (2009, page 149) as “generic terms for sitesthat are used to connect users with similar backgrounds and interests”

2.3.3 Constitution

Regarding to research of Boyd and Ellison (2007, page 211), Lee (2013, page25), social networking sites platforms have few common elements as: “(1) users areable to create interactive and customized profiles within a bounded system, (2) a list

of suggested friends with whom they share a connection, (3) view and traverse theirlist of connections and those made by others within the system” At present there is

no specific research on the constitution of social networks, but with the way it isformed and its operation, the author makes up the constitution of the social networkincluding:

business or any other organization

links in the network In its simplest form, a social network is a single, scalar graph

of the appropriate links between nodes We can represent this network with a graph

by which the nodes are represented by points and the links represented by the lines

2.3.4 The usage Social network in the world and Vietnam:

As report of Kemp (2018), the number of new users use social network around the world has increased rapidly It is more than 3 billion people use social

network for each month Despite a notorious year, Facebook is still increasing 15%compared to the same period in 2017 and reached 2.17 billion users in early 2018.

According to statistic of Kemp (2018), Vietnam has more than 96 millionpeople with 35% proportion of urban population The number of Internet users in

2018 reached 64 million this number is over 28% than 2017 There are 55 millionusers in use social networks, an increase of 20% compared to 2017 Vietnam is notoutside the growth rate of digital marketing in the world This report pointed outthat on average time that Vietnamese users spent to access internet is nearly 7hour aday and it almost as a daily life of using social network

Figure 2.5 Frequency of internet use (Kemp, 2018)

Due to Social networking sites in Vietnam, the number of active accounts ismore than half of the population (57%) and it is becoming the most currentcommunication tools for business Below figure will list 12 currently famous socialnetwork platforms in Vietnam The number one, of course, is Facebook, follow byGoogle and YouTubee (Kemp, 2018)