The effect of Facebook Fan page messages on
organizations.
By: Jurjen Kalsbeek (1609084) August 15th, 2012
Final draft University of Groningen Supervisor: A.R. van der Eijk
Abstract
This paper examines the effect of Facebook Fan page messages on organizations. Several factors are identified which are affected by Facebook Fan page messages used by organizations. A conceptual model is constructed and tested based on 7 in-depth interviews with social media experts and a complementary survey. The results suggest that Direct Marketing messages have a positive influence on sales in the short terms, whereas in the long term it causes a negative effect. In addition, Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the perceived conversational voice. Contrarily, Communication messages have a positive effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization and a positive effect on the innovativeness of an organization.
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Executive summary
Social media is a relatively new phenomenon organizations have to deal with. Organizations experience a new way of communicating with its customers, with the large difference that the customer is able to communicate back in a relatively easy way. In practice many organizations are still struggling with social media; the new way of communication has implications for an organization’s performance. Therefore this research looks at the effects of organizational communication on social media platforms. Thereby two distinct forms of messages are identified: Direct Marketing messages and Communication messages. Direct Marketing messages are defined as a one-way and often persuasive message of selling or promoting a service, a product, or a brand to Facebook users. Communication messages are defined as one- or two-way messages without direct sell or promotion information. The effects of each type of message on several variables are examined. First, the effect of Direct Marketing messages on the direct sales of an organization is examined. Furthermore, the effect of Direct Marketing messages on the perceived conversational voice of an organization is examined. The perceived conversational voice of an organization is defined as an engaging and natural style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s publics based on interactions between individuals in the organization and individuals in publics. Next, the effect of Communication messages is examined with regard to the perceived conversational voice of an organization and the innovativeness of an organization.
In order to examine these effects, 7 in-depth interviews with social media experts are conducted. The interview consists of open-ended questions which allow to probe for further questioning. In order to complement the findings of the in-depth expert interviews a complementary survey is issued among social media specialists. A total of 299 respondents filled out the questionnaire (response rate of 37%) of which 263 answers appeared to be useful. The results of the in-depth expert interviews are displayed in a quantitative data matrix.
3 indicated that there is a significant but weak positive correlation between the percentage of Direct Marketing messages used and the relation of whether Direct Marketing messages have a positive effect on the sales of an organization. Therefore its effect can be questioned and calls for future research.
Furthermore, Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. As the experts pointed out, the nature of social media is to have conversations. Therefore using Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect, since its sole purpose is to promote or sell a product or service. Promoting or selling a product or service is not a natural style of conversing and does not engage people into a dialogue with an organization. Therefore an organization is not perceived as an organization with a conversational voice, which in turn will results in a less trust and loyalty creation at the (potential) customer.
Contrarily, the results suggest that Communication messages have positive effect on the perceived conversational voice. The goal of a Communication message is to start a dialogue between an organization and its public. As a result the contact between an organization and its audience become closer and a relationship is built up which creates trust and loyalty. An additional factor is that in some cases it leads to brand ambassadors.
In addition, the results suggest that Communication messages have a positive effect on the innovation of an organization. Social media platforms are a relatively easy place to do market research. Through the use of Communication messages organizations are able to extract information from (potential) customers and better able to identify opportunities in the market. The results indicate that most organizations are using their feedback to improve upon existing products and services. To a lesser extent organizations are able to use the feedback received through social media channels to create entire new products are services. However, one expert mentioned that an important condition is that organizations should be able to process and transfer the feedback received through the social media channel to the right place in the organization.
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Table of content
1. Introduction ... 6
1.1 Research question ... 7
1.2 Scope of research ... 8
1.3 Structure of the research ... 8
2. Literature review ... 8
2.1 Organizational communication ... 8
2.2 Marketing communication ... 11
2.3 Online social media communication ... 14
2.4 Summary ... 17 3. Conceptual Model ... 17 3.1 Hypotheses ... 19 3.2 Summary ... 21 4. Methodology ... 21 4.1 Data gathering... 21 4.1.1 Interviews ... 21 4.1.2. Complementary survey ... 22 4.1.3 Sampling method ... 22 4.2 Variable construction ... 23
4.2.1 Validity, reliability and generalizability ... 24
4.3 Summary ... 24
5. Results ... 25
5.1 Interviews ... 25
5.1.1 Direct Marketing messages and the effect on sales. ... 26
5.1.2 Direct Marketing messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. ... 26
5.1.3 Communication messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. ... 27
5.1.4 Communication messages and the effect on the innovativeness of an organization. ... 28
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5.2 Complementary survey ... 28
5.2.1 Summary complementary survey ... 31
6. Discussion ... 32
6.1 Direct marketing messages and the effect on sales. ... 32
6.2 Direct marketing messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. ... 34
6.3 Communication messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. ... 34
6.4 Communication messages and the effect on the innovativeness of an organization. ... 35
7. Conclusion ... 37
7.1 Theoretical implications ... 38
7.2 Managerial implications ... 39
7.3 Limitations & suggestions for future research ... 39
8. References ... 40
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1. Introduction
This research will focus on social media in the business context. More specifically, whether the content of posts on social media platforms influences business performance. One of the most recent innovations of the Internet, which is currently growing rapidly, are social media (Trusov et al., 2009). According to Jones (2009) social media can be defined as “a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online. Most social media services encourage discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information from all interested parties.” There are numerous social media platforms on the Internet, which can be subdivided into several categories. A few examples of large online social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger and Flickr. Some of these social media platforms enable users to posts blogs, whereas others allow users to share photos and videos. Each platform serves a different purpose and thereby creates many different ways of communicating for people as well as for organizations. The benefits of this new way of communicating to the customer provide huge opportunities for organizations. These opportunities have also been recognized by many organizations (Shih, 2009). A clear example of the importance of the growth of social media, and therefore the opportunity for organizations to reach a large audience through social media platforms, is that Facebook overtook Google in March 2010 as the website with the most unique visitors per week (Hitwise, 2010). In order to assess the importance of social media, the implications of social media for organizations need to be discussed. It is important to keep in mind that the benefits and costs of social media are not only a concern for marketers, but for the entire organization, since every single actor in the organization has access to social media, which will in turn influence the customer’s perception of the firm.
The benefits of social media platforms are numerous. For organizations social media can get the message out far more quickly and to more people than through traditional channels (Shift, 2010). Furthermore, social media platforms substantially complement the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is a key component of today’s direct marketing and lead generation strategies (Shift, 2010). In addition, it allows organizations to build relationships with its customers through conversations, thereby establishing trust and commitment (Baker, 2009). Once these relations are established, social media can generate positive electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) for an organization (Harridge-March & Quinton, 2009). Social media also offer the opportunity to collect data from people and their respective actions instead of the traditional market research ‘tool’ of a person asking people questions in the street (Hardey, 2009). Next, social media can increase traffic to the organization’s website (Bird, 2009). Finally, in a study conducted by de Bruyn & Lilien (2008), they found that referral marketing through social media is more effective than traditional viral marketing.
7 In short, the benefits of social media are large, however, it might also come with (potential) costs. Social media have large implications for businesses, since it provides an entire new way of communicating to the customer. Firms therefore need to be careful in using social media and management should dedicate a substantial amount of attention to setting up a social media campaign.
1.1 Research question
Given the benefits and costs of social media platforms, one might wonder what the content of the posts on social media platforms have on the performance of an organization. In practice many organizations are still struggling with social media; either on the new way of communication and the nature of social media or on the realization of large benefits it provides in terms of market research (Brandwatch, 2011). It is important to know for organizations what the effect of communication on social media platforms has on the performance of an organization. In other words, different kinds of messages on social media platforms where each message might have a different influence on business performance variables. Therefore it is important to know the implications of each message which an organization is communicating through social media. This leads to the following goal in this research:
To determine the influence of the content of posts on social media platforms on business performance. This results in the following research question:
To what degree does the content of posts on social media platforms have an influence on business performance?
In order to be able to answer the research question, one needs to determine the types of
communication practiced by organizations. Thereby it is important to consider the ‘offline’ or traditional way of organizational communication and the ‘online’ organizational communication on social media platforms. Therefore the different types of communication on social media platforms should be identified. This leads to the following sub-question which should be answered:
What types of communication on social media platforms can be identified?
Furthermore, once the types of communication on social media platforms are identified, it is important to know what implications each type of communication has. The effects of the types of communication are important because it allows organizations to adapt their communication strategies to be more efficient and effective and therefore optimizing an organization’s performance. Therefore the following sub-question should be answered:
What effects of communication on social media can be identified?
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1.2 Scope of research
This research focuses on organizations which use social media platforms as one of their communication channels. More specifically, the types of messages organizations use on their Facebook Fan pages in a pro-active manner. That is, the messages which are initiated from the organization’s side. Furthermore, the focus is on types of communication on social media platforms which are clearly distinguishable for organizations and public in order to be able to assess the effects of each type of message. All types of communication on social media platforms identified are based on literature. The focus is not on any hybrid message forms of the identified types of messages which are used on social media platforms. The reason for this is twofold; first, it is difficult to provide clear definitions for hybrid messages. Second, during data gathering there should be no confusion for interviewees or respondents about definitions of the different types of communication. Therefore no ‘grey areas’ concerning communication types are included in this research.
1.3 Structure of the research
The research proceeds as follows. First a literature review is conducted in order to give a clear overview of organizational communication and the effects of organizational communication. Specifically the communication through social media channels will be described. Next, a conceptual model and hypotheses are constructed based upon the findings in the literature from the field. Then the
methodology used in this research is described. Following the methodology the results are examined and discussed upon. Last, the conclusions and limitations of this research and suggestions for future research are described.
2. Literature review
2.1 Organizational communication
Communication in general has always been a much debated topic in academic literature. This paper will mainly focus on communication between organizations and its customers. More specifically, the communication channels through which organizations and customers interact. First, the communication channels between organizations and customers in general will be discussed. Next, there will be more focus on communication which is taking place through social media channels.
In order to address the media channel communication, there are three relevant theoretical models for communication theory (Danaher & Rositter, 2009):
1. Communication theory 2. Uses and gratification theory
3. Integrated marketing communication (IMC)
9 (message), in which channel (medium), to who (audience or receiver), with what effect” (as cited in Danaher & Rositter, 2009, p. 9). Shannon (1948) suggest in his paper that for effective communication the sender’s message is most effective when the message anticipates the needs and preferences of the receiver. To be more specific, when the sender encodes the message, it should match the needs and preferences of the receiver after the receiver decodes the message he received. Therefore it is essential for the sender to address the correct (preferred) channel of the receiver.
The uses and gratification theory is a theory which seeks to explain why people actively choose certain media outlets in their search for fulfillment from these communication channels. The theory assumes that people proactively search for media channels, and integrate these media channels in their lives, in order to satisfy their needs (Katz et al., 1973b). For instance, print media contain relatively more information for the user, whereas television is associated with a higher entertainment value. Katz et al. (1973a) classify several communication channels into a list of attributes of the respective communication channels and then examine to what extent the needs of the receivers are gratified. By classifying these communication channels, Katz et al. (1973b) created a list of attributes which link to the receivers’ needs, which in turn can be taken into account in senders’ messages. The gratification theory has also been applied to social media. In a study conducted by Park et al. (2009), the gratification of Facebook Groups users and the relation of their civic participation offline were examined. The results showed that there are four needs which were fulfilled by using Facebook Groups; socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information. Once an organization knows which needs are fulfilled when receivers of messages use Facebook, the organization is better able to address these needs when developing its messages for Facebook. In other words, because the organization knows that the receiver gratifies certain needs when using Facebook, then the organization is better able to construct messages in order to fulfill those needs of the receiver.
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2.2 Marketing communication
Marketing communication traditionally focused on conveying information, information transfer and hierarchical sequence models (Finne & Grönroos, 2009). The focus was on the active sender, and the receiver played a passive role in the communication process. However, Finne & Grönroos (2009) argue that there are two parties which participate and play a key role in the communication process; both the sender and receiver. Relationship marketing is based on the ongoing relationship between customer and supplier. Therefore Finne & Grönroos (2009) argue that the focus should shift from integrated marketing communication to relationship communication. Lindberg-Repo (2001) (as cited in Finne & Grönroos, 2009) defines relation communication as “the sum of all action that convert the message and meaning in a mutually beneficial way and affect the knowledge base between parties” (p. 19). The key features of relationship communication are that two parties take part in the process, the time perspective is long term and the sum of all actions should lead to a shared knowledge base. In order to effectively examine the relationship between a sender (be it an individual or an organization) and the receiver, Finne & Grönroos provide the relationship communication model (RCM). The relationship communication model is based on the Meaning-based model (Mick and Buhl, 1992) and the CIRC model (Edvardsson and Strandvik, 2000). The former model focuses on the individual and the latter focuses on the relationship aspect. By drawing on these two models both an individual as a person and the organization’s relationship with that individual can be examined. RCM has two dimensions, (1) the time dimension, which is based on historical and future factors and (2) the situational dimension, which is based on internal and external factors. Finne & Grönroos (2009) argue that some, or all of these factors, may influence the consumer’s creation of meaning out of marketing communication messages. Therefore, the influence on the consumer’s meaning creation of the two time factors (historical and future) and the two situational factors (internal and external) need to be considered when an organization is planning its marketing communication strategy.
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Case Meaning Integration Factors at play Coding Perceived
message/situation A Some meaning based on one
factor only: the ad only
No integration - A price ad No other reaction
A price message from a provider outside the consideration set
B Meaning creation stops immediately, based on two factors
Almost no integration
Internal factor External factor
Negative attitude Disliking a message very strongly
C No meaning, based on two factors
Some, limited integration
Internal factor External factor
No ability to understand Unclear message from unknown source
D Meaning based on factors from both dimensions
Integration of several factors Internal factor External factor Historical factor Ability to understand Positive attitude Earlier experience
A clear message from a preferred provider (existing relationship)
E Substantial meaning based on several factors from both dimensions
Integration of
many factors Historical factors Internal factors External factors Future factors
A positive attitude and a delighted customer
Norms by friends
Good ability to understand message Ranking of competitors’ messages and products
A pleasing message from the foremost provider in the business, enhanced by a long, strong, on-going relationship
13 Figure 1 (adopted from Finne & Grönroos) shows the continuum of meaning creation. On the one hand, when none of the factors are integrated, the meaning creation occurs a little and is based on only one factor, which is the ad only. On the other hand, if many factors are integrated, substantial meaning creation takes place, which is based on several factors. Table 1 (adopted from Finne & Grönroos, 2009) shows 5 different cases of meaning creations. These cases are outlined on the continuum in Figure 1 as well. Figure 1 is a summary of how consumers interpreted five different ads, and thereby taking both the situational and time factors into account (Finne & Grönroos 2006). At case A for example, no integration takes place, therefore only a superficial, one-sided relation is created. On the other end of the continuum, there are many factors which take place in the integration process, and therefore the message might have a substantial meaning for the receiver. Table 1 gives a complete overview of all cases.
Categorizing the manner in which consumers create meaning for themselves from a message may help marketers to create their messages before they broadcast it. However, the meaning created from messages might differ per consumer. Whereas some consumers might create meaning from an ad only, other consumers might create meaning from an ad consisting out of multiple factors simultaneously. The RCM model is able to function as a tool for operative management. Using the RCM model as a framework allows marketers to sort data and knowledge about customers in a database, thereby identifying factors which influence the meaning creation of customers. This allows for developing new types of messages which fit the consumer’s situation better. Therefore a shift of focus takes place from integrating outbound messages towards the consumer’s integration of inbound messages (Finne & Grönroos, 2009).
14 about the marketing communication channels (to what extent these marketing communication channels are engaging or entertaining), these senders might choose a different and thereby a less effective channel to reach consumers, since these consumers have different preferences for certain marketing communication channels (Rice et al., 1998). Danaher & Rossiter (2009) found that senders perceive newspapers and magazines as channels which generate higher purchase intentions compared to television and mail. Interestingly, receivers on the other hand rate all mass media equally. Furthermore, it appears that email, SMS, telephone and door-to-door channels are substantially less effective than all other media. Another factor which senders should take into account is the amount of messages a receiver receives through media channels. Danaher & Rossiter (2009) found that the more offers a recipient receives though media channels, the less likely this consumer will respond to an offer. This result is in line with a threshold of annoyance reached when consumers receive too many marketing communications, which results in negative reactions to the offer which is made (Drèze and Hussherr, 2003). With the existence of social media, another channel through which senders and receivers can communicate has come into play. Many organizations still have to discover how to address (potential) customers through these social media channels. Especially because social media channels lend itself for two-way communication for the public to see, which is something many organizations have no experiences with. Furthermore, what are the preferences of recipients through these social media channels and to what extent are senders able to match these preferences? With the vast variety of social media channels through which people can communicate, the way of communicating though social media channels is important to examine.
2.3 Online social media communication
With the vast amount of different social media platforms, each social media platform requires a different form of online communication. Therefore the manner of online communication on social platforms is of importance for organizations because using a social media platform in the incorrect manner might backfire on the organization. Traditional media is fundamentally different than social media and therefore it requires an entirely new way of communication for organizations engaging in social media. Conversations between firms and customers are now taking place in public, making the conversation visible for the entire world. A conversation between a customer and a business turning negative might cause reputation loss for the firm. Especially with the ease of sharing content online, reputation loss is quickly done. An essential factor for customer relationship management (CRM) introduced by Kelleher (2009) is the perceived conversational voice of an organization. The perceived conversational voice of an organization is defined as “an engaging and natural style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s publics based on interactions between individuals in the organization and individuals in publics” (Kelleher, 2009, p. 177). Engaging in the conversation with customers on social media platforms is of critical importance for business (Bradley, 2010; Murtland, 2010). It affects the entire communication strategy of business with respect to customer relationship management (CRM).
15 Communicating through social channels is publicly available, and therefore a firm should be trustful and transparent (Nair & Sidhu, 2010). Generous refers to the sharing of information online. The more interesting the content which is being posted, the more likely it will be shared among customers. Being helpful on social
media platforms help to build a good reputation for firms which in turn might lead to an increase in trustworthiness of a firm’s brand (Kietzmann et al., 2009). Content shared is in written form, however, most conversations are spoken. Therefore a more informal communication style on social media platforms is required in order to not tend towards communication such is practised in the traditional media. However, more informal does not allow for grammar mistakes, since this might hurt the
organization’s reputation. Dialectal and communal communication styles are required, since most often a company is in a conversation with multiple users. Being empathetic, responsive and timely, all helps to smoothen the conversations online. Furthermore, the conversations initiated should be inspiring and original for both the company and its customers, in order to have a lively discussion or conversation online. Last, all comments or replies should be considered in context. Furthermore, according to French (2010) it is more important to listen than to promote a firm’s product through blogs. Most companies use a broadcast-centric method to get the consumer’s attention, whereas French states that a more participative social media communication strategy is more effective. Listening to the unmet needs of consumers is of critical importance. Likewise, the communication style used in social media is also different from traditional media. Pro-active versus reactive communication are two communication styles which are used in a social media setting. Pro-active communication style is where the conversation is started by the company. Reactive communication is where the customer starts the conversation and where the business reacts to questions, complaints, suggestions etc. In this paper the main focus is on the pro-active communication from a business perspective. McCarthy et al. (2010) demonstrate that in the travel industry, hospitality operators should carefully listen to their customers and adapt accordingly their offerings and messages. Kelleher (2009) conducted a study about the perceptions of individuals about organizations which had interactive online communication on organizational blogs. A survey among 128 individuals revealed that individuals with the largest exposure to the organizational blogs were more likely to perceive the organization as communicating with a conversational voice. Furthermore, Kelleher found that organizations communicating with a conversational human voice correlated positively with perceived trust, satisfaction, commitment and control mutuality. Aula (2011) provides a theory driven model of the structural dimensions of reputation. Online communication plays a significant role in the reputation management of organizations. Aula’s model includes two dimensions, the structure of reputation and the advantages of reputation. A survey among 433 communication specialists from the Finnish Association of Professional Communicators ProCom it appeared that online communication has a substantial positive impact on the
Authentic Relevant
Generous Responsive
Helpful Original
(More) Informal Timely Persistent Inspiring
Grammatical Communal
Dialectal Contextual Empathetic
16 commitment and credibility of an organization’s stakeholders. Aula concludes that the Internet lends itself very well for building and strengthening stakeholder relationships.
In order to identify the content of social media posts, the social media posts should be classified first. The literature of traditional typology for marketing messages is not applicable for social media because of its characteristics. In traditional media, communication is mainly one-way and therefore the typology of these messages is based on this one-way communication. However, communication on social media platforms are made for providing communication in a two-way matter and therefore the traditional typology for business marketing messages are not applicable for classifying business marketing messages on social media platforms. According to Yu & Kwok (2011) business marketing messages on social media platforms can be divided in 2 typologies: direct marketing messages and communication messages. Direct marketing messages refer to messages which have as goal to highlight products, announce campaigns and boast achievements. Communication messages refer to messages which have as goal to deliver daily life suggestions or provoke feedback by asking interesting questions. Table 3 provides an overview for the concepts and definitions of both Direct Marketing messages and Communication messages. These are the definitions and concepts this research will utilize.
Concept Definition Authors
Direct Marketing message
A type of communication on social media platforms which has as sole purpose to sell or persuade someone to buy a product or service. The focus is on transaction selling, therefore little to no relationship is built between sender and receiver.
A one-way and often persuasive message of selling or promoting a service, a product, or the brand to Facebook users.
Finne & Grönroos (2009); Yu & Kwok, (2010)
Communication
messages A type of communication that has as goal to provoke interactivity between sender and receiver. Due to the nature of social media an online dialogue can be started between the sender and receiver. The focus is on the online dialogue and creating a relationship between the sender and receiver, thereby establishing trust, commitment or loyalty of a
(potential) customer. Furthermore, the feedback generated from the online conversation between sender and receiver can be turned into useful information for an organization. A one- or two-way messages without direct sell or promotion information. Srinivasan et al. (2002); Baker (2009); Kelleher (2009); Kietzmann et al. (2009); Koch (2010); Finne & Grönroos (2009); Yu & Kwok (2010)
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2.4 Summary
In conclusion of the theoretical part, first the communication channels or organizations are discussed. Hereby three relevant communication theories are outlined; communication theory, uses and gratification theory and integrated marketing communication. Especially the IMC is an important concept, since it covers multiple facets of the conceptual model which is developed in this research. Next, organizational communication from a marketing perspective is discussed where it is important to consider the continuum presented from Finne & Grönroos (2009). Following the marketing communication part, in order to understand the nature of social media platforms, the social media are classified according to the manner of communication. Last, the online forms of social media communication are outlined.
3. Conceptual Model
The effects of social media on businesses and customers are large (Shift, 2010). Businesses can use social media platforms as a tool to alter or influence customer’s attitudes towards its brand(s). In order to examine business performance this research considers several distinct business performance variables that can be under influence of social media messages: direct sales, the perceived conversational voice of an organization and innovation of an organization (Kelleher, 2009; Eccles, 1991). Each variable has been touched upon in the previous section and will be further discussed.
Direct sales
18 aforementioned research of Drèze & Hussherr (2003), where they state that there is a threshold of annoyance reached when consumers receive too many marketing messages through media channels, which results in recipients of these messages being annoyed. Negative reactions or attitude towards the offers made through that particular channel might hurt an organizations reputation.
Perceived conversational voice
19 its CRM strategy once a firm engages in social media platforms. A precise strategy should be created in order to optimize the conversational voice factor.
Innovation of an organization
Communication with (potential) customers through online channels helps to generate feedback on products and services. By interacting with customers through social media platforms, organizations are able to build a relationship with customers. Nicolajsen & Scupola (2011) found that actively involving customers in radical services innovation require a relationship between the customer and the organizations which provides the service to the customer can be described as a partnership in which ongoing learning takes place to develop new solutions. Furthermore, they found that personal trust are a key factor in making customers involved in radical service innovations. In addition, Carbonell et al. (2009) found that customer involvement has a positive effect on the innovation speed and technological novelty. Social media platforms form a good place for involving customers. As organizations invest in CRM programs, they need to design new forms of relationship with those directly affected: their customers. As customers use internet-related technologies to manage their relationships with suppliers, co-creation will become a more important component of innovation and growth strategies. In this context, traditional market research approaches begin to look outdated (Maklan et al., 2008). Considering the positive effect of customer involvement on innovation of an organization and the nature of social media of customer interactivity, it is important to take into account the innovation of an organization when developing a conceptual model.
3.1 Hypotheses
As provided by Yu & Kwok (2011), there are two distinct business marketing messages on Facebook. The first category is direct marketing messages, which is defined as “a one-way and often persuasive message of selling or promoting a service, a product, or the brand to Facebook users” (Yu & Kwok, 2011, p.2). The second category is communication messages, which is defined as “a one- or two-way messages without direct sell or promotion information” (Yu & Kwok, 2011, p.2). Social media posts are free for organizations and therefore social media channels are a free way for promotional purposes. Consequently, direct marketing messages, which have the goal to sell or promote a product, may lead to an increase in direct sales. This leads to the following hypothesis:
H1a: Direct marketing messages on social media platforms are positively related to direct sales.
20 H1b: Direct marketing messages on social media platforms are negatively related to the perceived conversational voice of an organization.
Communication messages do not have the purpose of selling or promoting a product or service. Communication messages instead provide daily life suggestions or statements, with as goal to engage into an online dialogue with customers. Therefore the conversation between the organization and the customers is kept alive. This two-way communication influences the perceived conversational voice of an organization. This leads to the following hypothesis:
H2a: Communication messages on social media platforms are positively related to the perceived conversational voice of an organization.
As mentioned earlier, Communication messages invite for conversation or asking feedback from users. For organizations social media channels facilitate a relative easy way to gather feedback on product and services. From the feedback organizations receive, an organization is able to spur innovation (Eltinger, 2011). Therefore Communication messages help to spur innovation of product and services. This leads to the following hypothesis:
H2b: Communication messages on social media platforms are positively related to the innovation of organizations.
Figure 2 displays the conceptual model in a graphical form.
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3.2 Summary
In short, Direct marketing messages should be persuasive, because the focus is more on transaction selling, and therefore no, or little, relationship between sender and receiver is build (Finne & Grönroos, 2009). Direct Marketing messages therefore stimulate direct sales, which is in direct benefit of the firm. Communication messages should be engaging and provoke interactivity with the recipients of these messages. By sending these communication messages, the receivers of these messages will perceive the sender as a sender with a conversational voice. In the literature, organizations with a perceived conversational voice positively correlate with the relational outcomes trust, commitment and satisfaction (Baker, 2009; Kelleher 2009; Kietzmann et al. 2009; Koch 2010). Senders are able to influence the perceived conversational voice of their organization by the amount of feedback generated on their Communication messages; that is, the more feedback, the more conversation is taking place, and therefore the more a relationship is created with the receivers of Communication messages (Finne & Grönroos, 2009). In addition, Communication messages help organizations to gather feedback about current products and services and stimulate customer involvement, which in turn will be used to innovate upon an organization’s product or service.
4. Methodology
Considering the relatively new phenomenon social media and the data which could be obtained including its limitations of obtaining for this research, the type of this research is exploratory research. The purpose of this study is to give more insight into the communication and its effects which takes place on social media platforms and thereby its implications for organizations. The mode of in-depth interviews with social media experts is chosen because this is expected to produce the best results for an exploratory research (Yin, 2003). Furthermore, since the academic theory is limited with regard to social media and communication on social media platforms, the in-depth interview also provides as a confirmation of the theory developed. In addition, to complement the in-depth interviews a
complementary survey is held among social media experts.
4.1 Data gathering
The platform at which the conceptual model is tested is Facebook. Facebook is the largest online social media platform in the world, with over 900 million users. Most business using social media are using Facebook Fan Pages in order to profile their company and communicate with their fans or (potential) customers. The data gathering consist of two parts; a qualitative part, 7 in-depth interviews with social media experts will be held in order to identify the relations between the dependent and independent variables. Based on these case studies each relation as described in the conceptual model in section 3.0 will be discussed. Next, the quantitative part; a complementary survey among a large group of social media experts is held.
4.1.1 Interviews
22 interview in order to make any remarks or additional comments. All interviewees are displayed in Table 4 with their current position in the organization.
Job description
Ralph van der Pauw Consultant CapGemini at the department Online User Experience & Performance
Ritzo ten Cate Social media expert Noord Nederlands Toneel
Lykle de Vries Social media evangelist, owner of de Ondernemers BV. Mollo Jongbloed Online social media marketeer at Elizawashere.nl
Janne Kuipers Community Manager at ON-agency
Holly Worton Freelance Social Media Marketing Consultant
Edward Perry Global Senior Director of Social Media at Worldhotels
Table 4. Experts and job descriptions.
4.1.2. Complementary survey
In order to complement the findings of the in-depth expert interviews, a complementary survey is held among social media specialists. The target group therefore is social media specialists, which are defined as organizational employees whom are responsible for the social media channels in an organization. Job descriptions of the social media specialists might include social media expert, online communication specialist, social media consultant, new media expert or digital marketer.
The target group is reached through online groups on the social media platform LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business related networking website where people on an individual level can connect for business purposes. Groups on LinkedIn serve the purpose of connecting people with the same field of expertise or interests. The questionnaire is distributed within the following groups: Social Media Marketing, Social Media Today, Digital Marketing and Innovations in Social Media Marketing, which have 357.000, 180.000, 73.000 and 3.700 members respectively. Individuals on LinkedIn can join these groups for free. Sometimes these groups are closed, and the permission of the admin of the group should be received in order to be able to join the group. Others can be freely joined without the need of an admin permission.
4.1.3 Sampling method
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4.2 Variable construction
A questionnaire is carried out among social media specialists or experts in order to examine the effects of the posts’ contents on conversational voice, direct sales and innovation. First, the definitions provided by Yu & Kwok (2011) on business marketing messages on Facebook will be provided in the questionnaire in order to make a clear distinction between direct marketing messages and communication messages. Next, two examples of such kind of messages are provided in order to make it more clear.
There are three dependent variables, of which the definitions will be provided hereafter. First, direct sales are defined as the act of selling a product or service (Merriam-Webster, 2012). That is, a direct sales is the act of selling a product or service directly after the opportunity presented itself towards the buyer. Furthermore, a sale can be defined for non-commercial organizations as, for instance, a donation to a charity organization after a person was provided the opportunity to donate. In order to provide a clear concept for direct sales in the broadest definition, a substitute term is used for direct sales in the questionnaire. For digital marketers, and therefore social media experts, the online sales are often defined as conversions. This is partly confirmed by the most widely used statistical analysis package for websites, Google Analytics, where conversions can be used as a substitution for sales by organizations (Google, 2012). In addition, the expert-interviews confirm this as well (Appendices A-G). Therefore using the term conversions the respondents of all kinds of organizations are able to comprehend the statements given in the questionnaire. For example, a social media expert for a charity organization might not regard a donation as a sale for its organization, but rather as a conversion. From a practical point of view, both can be viewed as a sale of an organization. Second, the conversational voice defined earlier is divided in two parts in the questionnaire. The definition of perceived conversational voice constitutes of two parts, one in which the engaging style of organizational communication is important and the other in which the natural style or organizational communication is important. An engaging style of communication is defined as a style of communication in which it holds the attention of its public and induce its participation in the conversation (Koch 2010). A natural style of communication is a style of communication with an authentic voice (Koch 2010). Third, the dependent variable innovation. Innovation is a broad concept which comes in many forms. In this paper, the definition of innovation follows that from Garcia & Gallantone (2002). Hereby a distinction is made between several categorizations of innovation. The dependent variable innovation is subdivided along two of these categorizations. The first one is incremental innovation, which is defined as “products that provide new features, benefits, or improvements to the existing technology in the existing market” (Garcia & Gallantone, 2002: 123). Respondents are asked to which extend they receive feedback from Facebook where they can improve existing products or services with. The second innovation category is really new innovation, which is defined as “easily identifiable by the criteria that a discontinuity must occur on either a marketing or technological macro basis in combination with a microlevel discontinuity” (Garcia & Gallantone, 2002: 122). Respondents are asked whether, based on the feedback received from users through social media, they are able to create new products or services.
24 In order to give a clear overview, several additional variables are inquired. First, the number of fans of a Facebook Fan page. On Facebook Fan pages with a large number of fans it might be more difficult to have a normal conversation. Second, the percentage of Direct Marketing messages send in comparison with the total messages send. Third, the percentage of Communication messages send in comparison with the total messages send. These last two variables are important, since overusing a certain message might have negative effects. For example, if an organization only uses Direct Marketing messages, it might lead to oversaturation or the wear-out effect (van Bruggen et al., 2010). Furthermore, the position of the person in the organization and the industry the organization is in. In the questionnaire statements are given for each variable tested and respondents are asked to which extent they agree with the statement on a 5-point ordinal scale, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Table 5 gives an overview of all variables.
Independent variables Dependent variables Control variables
Direct Marketing Messages Direct sales Facebook Fans
Communication messages Engaging style of organizational communication
Percentage Direct Marketing messages
Natural style of organizational communication
Percentage Communication messages
Incremental innovation Position in the organization Really new innovations Industry
Table 5. Variables outlined.
4.2.1 Validity, reliability and generalizability
Following Noor (2008), as the number of organizations investigated increases, it should lead to an increase in the validity and reliability of the results. In this research a total of seven in-depth interviews are held and all experts interviewed work in several different industries. Since the experts work in different industries it should increase the validity and reliability of the results as well. In addition, if the same findings are found in very different industries, one can assume that the applicability of the findings increase and therefore lead to a higher generalization. However, since the number of interviews held is limited, a complementary survey is distributed in order to see whether the findings of the interviews still holds for a larger group of experts and to what extent the results are generalizable.
4.3 Summary
In short, the methodology applied in this research consists of a qualitative part and a quantitative part. For the qualitative part seven expert interviews are held in order to get a good understanding of the relationships as described in the conceptual model. Next, for the quantitative part, a complementary survey is distributed among social media experts on LinkedIn.
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5. Results
This section describes the results of the qualitative part and the quantitative part of the research. First, the results of the qualitative part is described and displayed in tables to give a good overview of the results. Next, in order to support the qualitative results from the interviews, the results of the quantitative part, the expert survey, are described.
5.1 Interviews
In the interviews several factors could be identified which are in accordance with the theoretical framework developed in section 3.0. Table 6 gives an overview of the factors identified per case study. Dependent variable R. van de Pauw R. ten Cate L. de Vries M. Jongbloed J. Kuipers H. Worton E. Perry Sales X X X X X X X Perceived conversational voice X X X X X X Innovation X X X X X
Table 6. Identification of dependent variables in the expert interviews
In order to outline the relations between the dependent variable and the independent variable all experts where asked whether Direct Marketing messages had any positive or negative effect on sales, the perceived conversational voice of an organization and the innovation of an organization. The same was done for Communication messages. Table 7 provides an overview of each relation as conceptualized in the model in section 3.0 and the findings of the expert interviews. Next, each relation will be discussed. For each relation, a data matrix (Table 10 in Appendix H) is made of the in-depth interviews with a total overview including quotes of the experts and color schemes.
Dependent variable R. van
de Pauw R. ten Cate L. de Vries M. Jongbloed J. Kuipers H. Worton E. Perry
Direct Marketing messages have
a positive effect on sales X X X X X
Direct Marketing messages have
a negative effect on sales X X X
Direct Marketing messages have a positive effect on the
perceived conversational voice X
Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the
perceived conversational voice X X X X X X
Communication messages have a positive effect on the
26 5.1.1 Direct Marketing messages and the effect on sales.
Experts seem to disagree on the extent to which Direct Marketing messages have a positive effect on the sales of an organization. On the one hand, some experts state that it has a positive effect on the sales of an organization. As one expert states: “In my previous job at the hospitality company Direct Marketing messages do lead to more conversions”. Another expert is very clear about the effect of Direct Marketing messages on sales: “A positive effect of Direct Marketing messages is, as far as it is not an open door, sales”. The additional channel through which products can be communicated to potential customers should lead to more sales because through Facebook organizations are able to reach a new audience to promote their products. This is demonstrated by the experience of one expert with its theater group: “In our case, theater audience is in general fairly old. However, through being active on Facebook, you are able to tap into a far younger public.” On the other hand, some experts say that people are not willing to receive promotions through Facebook because social media is not to be used as an advertisement channel. An additional factor which is mentioned during the expert interviews is that Direct Marketing messages can have strong negative effect if an organization uses too many Direct Marketing messages. Or as one expert puts it, “In the more extreme cases (of Direct Marketing messages usage) you see a waterfall of reactions from users. Companies can be socially ruined.” However, some experts state that if Direct Marketing messages are send and ‘packaged’ not too much of a hard-sell, then Direct Marketing messages might have a positive effect on the sales of an organization. Or in the words of the expert: “I think those direct messages that do convert are going to be the ones that are unique offers to the market place packaged in a way that makes the consumer and follower feel that they are the best things that they have seen in a long time”. However, one expert points out that “on social media you see that users are not stupid. They quickly cut through the marketing ‘tricks’ of Direct Marketing messages.”. Furthermore, as another expert says, a customer should be looking for that certain product which is being promoted at the precise moment a customer needs it. Chances are very little that this happens and therefore a Direct Marketing message might at best be ignored by the receiver.
5.1.2 Direct Marketing messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization.
Most experts agree that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. Direct Marketing messages are meant to sell something to a Communication messages have
a negative effect on the perceived conversational voice Communication messages have
a positive effect on innovation X X X X X
Communication messages have a negative effect on innovation
27 follower, which is not perceived as engaging by fans. As one expert explains: “At the moment there is no dialogue taking place (…) and users clearly see where a company is going with these Direct Marketing messages, it is not interesting for users to engage and this leads more often to a negative attitude towards that company. Therefore you can say that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect.” Another expert points out that it is quite difficult for an organization to be perceived as conversational and at the same time employing direct marketing techniques. If an organization is ‘chatting’ with people on Facebook and suddenly they start to promote their product which is on sale, it will break the flow of a conversation. It might eventually even lead to a negative attitude towards an organization. For two experts interviewed the Facebook page represented an individual (either a fictional or a real person). Both experts state that it would have a substantial negative effect on the perceived conversational voice. As one of the experts puts it “people don’t want to hang out at a bar and have someone walk up to them and saying ‘hey buy this thing!”. However, one other expert stated that it could be a part of the voice of an organization and if a Direct Marketing message might have a negative effect, the organization is doing something wrong. On the other hand, if an organization sends out too many Direct Marketing messages, it cannot be perceived as a conversational voice anymore because most Direct Marketing messages do not engage or invite people to start an online dialogue. One expert thinks that “it is quiet hard to be conversational and also employ direct marketing techniques.”
5.1.3 Communication messages and the effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization.
28 5.1.4 Communication messages and the effect on the innovativeness of an organization.
Not all experts mention whether the innovativeness of an organizations increases by using Communication messages. However, some experts use Facebook and other social media platforms in order to do market research. Organizations are able to ask fans questions and invite them for a conversation about their products and services. However, as one expert mentions, even though organizations do recognize that a substantial amount of interesting information might be gained from social media, they still expect to have access to this information directly. In practice it takes more time to gain this information because the information comes in at one department within the organization, however, it needs to reach the correct departments before the information will be useful. The structuring of the information flows requires time for an organization before it pays off. Feedback on products will reach the product development department so the product development department is able to improve their existing products. This does also apply to large companies according to one expert: “I also think it is very valuable for organizations in general. If you look at KLM, Vodafone and other large organizations, they also ask questions, keep contact and use the feedback they receive to improve their products.” However, not all experts stated that they actively ask people about their products and services in order to improve their products. One expert says they do react in a passive way on feedback received. Often this is in reaction to complaints about products or services delivered of a local restaurant. Since the local restaurant is part of an international chain of restaurants, it is difficult to improve its products or services because of a high standardization in the organization with regards to products and services. Another expert says that “In terms of feedback people are also coming to us with suggestions and tell that certain things are not available etc.”
5.1.5 Summary expert interviews
In conclusion, there seems to be no agreement among experts on the effect of Direct Marketing messages on sales. Some experts say that Direct Marketing messages have a positive effect on the sales whereas other say it might eventually have negative effects on sales. Furthermore, all experts seem to agree that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. With regard to Communication messages, all experts seem to agree that Communication messages have a positive influence on the perceived conversational voice of an organization. Furthermore, most experts agree that by using Communication messages organizations are able to use the information gained from these messages to innovate, although not all experts mention the relation between usage of Communication messages and innovation of an organization. In order to complement the results of the expert interviews, a complementary survey is held. Since the results are only based on seven expert interviews, the complementary survey serves as a confirmation of the results of the expert interviews. A complete overview of the findings in the in-depth expert interviews can be found in Appendix H Table 10.
5.2 Complementary survey
29 of which 163 responded the first time. A reminder was sent to the persons who did not fill out the questionnaire within a week. The result is that a total of 299 respondents filled out the questionnaire, which results in a response rate of 37%. After filtering out incomplete answers, 263 respondents were left. Table 11 in Appendix I outlines each variable and its corresponding statement. Each variable represents a statement and the degree experts agree with this statement. The results of the statements are displayed in Table 8. Next, the results of the correlation between the variables will be discussed.
Strongly disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree DM_conversion 21.7% 40.3% 11.4% 18.6% 8.0% DM_PCV_engagement 3.4% 14.1% 14.8% 40.3% 27.4% DM_PCV_natural 4.9% 18.6% 15.2% 41.4% 19.8% CM_PCV_engagement 2.3% 1.9% 3.8% 27.4% 64.6% CM_PCV_natural 1.1% 1.5% 8.0% 34.2% 55.1% CM_innovation_incremental 0.8% 3.8% 11.0% 27.8% 56.7% CM_innovation_reallynew 1.1% 3.8% 17.9% 39.9% 37.3%
DM_conversion - Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether Direct Marketing messages lead to more direct conversions. Of the respondents, 62% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Direct Marketing messages lead to more direct conversions. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (11.4%) or agreed or strongly agreed (26.6%) with the statement. The majority of the experts therefore think that Direct Marketing messages do not lead to more sales. Figure 3 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
DM_PCV_engagement - Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether Direct marketing message posts have a negative effect on the engaging style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s public. Of the respondents, 17.5% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the engaging style of organizational communication. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (14.8%) or agreed or strongly agreed (67.7%) with the statement. Therefore the majority of the experts agree that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the engaging style of an organization’s communication. Figure 4 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
DM_PCV_natural – Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether Direct marketing messages have a negative effect on the natural style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s public. Of the respondents, 23.6% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the natural style of organizational communication. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (15.2%) or agreed or strongly agreed (61.2%) with the statement. Therefore the majority of the experts agree that Direct Marketing messages have a negative effect on the natural style of organizational communication. Figure 5 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
30 CM_PCV_engagement – Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether Communication message posts have a positive effect on the engaging style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s public. Of the respondents, 4.2% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Communication messages have a positive effect on the natural style of organizational communication. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (3.8%) or agreed or strongly agreed (92%) with the statement. These results show that a large majority of the experts think that Communication messages have a positive effect on the engaging style of organizational communication. Figure 6 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
CM_PCV_natural – Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether Communication message posts have a positive effect on the natural style of organizational communication as perceived by an organization’s public. Of the respondents, 2.7% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Communication messages have a positive effect on the natural style of organizational communication. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (8.0%) or agreed or strongly agreed (89.4%) with the statement. These results show that a large majority of the experts think that the natural style of organizational communication is of positive influence by Communication messages. Figure 7 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
CM_innovation_incremental – Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether with the feedback received on Communication Message posts, an organization is able to improve upon its existing products and services. Of the respondents, 4.6% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Communication messages have a positive effect on the ability of organizations to improve upon existing products and services based on feedback received through Facebook Fan pages. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (11.0%) or agreed or strongly agreed (84.4%) with the statement. Therefore a large majority of the experts think that organizations are able to innovate upon their existing products and services based on the feedback received through Facebook Fan pages. Figure 8 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
CM_innovation_reallynew – Table 8 shows the outcome of the statement whether with the feedback received on Communication Message posts, an organization is able to create new products or services. Of the respondents, 4.9% disagrees or strongly disagrees with the statement that Communication messages have a positive effect on the ability of an organization to create new products or services based on the feedback received through an organization’s Facebook Fan page. The rest of the respondents were either neutral (17.9%) or agreed or strongly agreed (77.2%) with the statement. A majority of the experts therefore think that organization are able to create really new innovation based on the feedback received through Facebook Fan pages. Figure 9 (Appendix I) shows a histogram with the results.
Control variables
