Date of Award

10-25-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Alexa Darae

Second Advisor

Dr. Nobuya Inagaki

Abstract

Over the last five years, organizations have begun to invest in non-traditional marketing communications strategies, specifically, social media marketing. While organizations, in general, are clear about the value of social media marketing, their current strategies are not engaging and uninspiring. The literature on this topic highlights critical considerations for the most significant communications impact (Foulger, 2004; Lasswell, 1948), such as the importance of human interaction, interpersonal ability, personal influence and intimacy (Lazarsfeld, 1944 ; Short, Williams & Christie, 1976). Additionally, a study by Boase, Horrigan, Wellman & Rainie (2006) presents research on how the Internet and Social Networking are revolutionizing decision-making. This study sought to explore the Facebook messaging strategies of ten organizations in the nonprofit sector, and ten organizations in the for-profit sector. While nonprofit and for-profit organizations have very different communications objectives (Communications Consortium Media Center, 2004), a key finding in this research revealed that their Facebook messaging strategies are not that different from each other. More specifically, neither for profit nor nonprofit organizations encouraged conversation in their Facebook messaging. In general organizations rarely posted content that would prompt discussion, engagement or action. Other findings exposed interesting relationships between the Fan Engagement Ratio and actual fan engagement, content presentation and fan reaction, nonprofit organizations and shared content, and content types and social presence.

Comments

All rights reserved.

Download

Share

COinS