The role of social media marketing in enhancing service engagement for professional education service providers
Martin, Erica (2021)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2021
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021062139159
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021062139159
Tiivistelmä
Deeper insight is needed into the management of social media marketing to engage business clients in professional education services. This is a challenge many managers face in the professional education services industry, and a topic that is understudied in the literature. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about the characteristics of effective social media strategies that drive service engagement. This knowledge aids professional education service providers in developing a more efficient and effective communication strategy on social media. This qualitative study identifies current challenges in managing social media marketing, classifies social media strategies being used in this context, and benchmarks the content with the highest engagement in order to develop findings and recommendations.
The study is organized as an embedded single case study of chambers of commerce in the Nordic region. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews with two organizations and a theory-driven social media content analysis of ten organizations’ activity on LinkedIn. The findings identify challenges using social media marketing that can occur at all stages, including planning, strategizing, managing, and measuring activities. Many of the challenges are also interrelated. Social media strategies are identified by analyzing medium, target audience, and post frequency. Findings show there are a diverse mix of strategies used, and organizational size can make an impact on the social media strategy used by a professional education service provider. The type of content that is most effective at driving engagement is assessed with the use of benchmarking posts in each level of activeness with the COBRA theory and the information-community-action typology. Community and action posts are the most engaging content classifications for all levels of COBRAs. Among creation levels of COBRAs, action-oriented posts are most common.
The study is organized as an embedded single case study of chambers of commerce in the Nordic region. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews with two organizations and a theory-driven social media content analysis of ten organizations’ activity on LinkedIn. The findings identify challenges using social media marketing that can occur at all stages, including planning, strategizing, managing, and measuring activities. Many of the challenges are also interrelated. Social media strategies are identified by analyzing medium, target audience, and post frequency. Findings show there are a diverse mix of strategies used, and organizational size can make an impact on the social media strategy used by a professional education service provider. The type of content that is most effective at driving engagement is assessed with the use of benchmarking posts in each level of activeness with the COBRA theory and the information-community-action typology. Community and action posts are the most engaging content classifications for all levels of COBRAs. Among creation levels of COBRAs, action-oriented posts are most common.