AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS

OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES: THE CASE OF FACEBOOK

AND TWITTER IN AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION

Research dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of MBA in International Business Management

Graduate Business School, Griffith College Dublin

WENDY TAPIA
2010

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 Candidate Declaration

Candidate Name : Wendy Tapia

I certify that the dissertation titled “An exploratory case study on the effectiveness of
social networking sites: The case of Facebook and Twitter in an educational
organisation”, submitted for the degree of MBA in International Business
Management, is the result of my own work and where reference is made to the work
of others, due acknowledgement is given.

Candidate Signature: ______________________________

Date : ______________________________

Supervisor Name : Justin F. Keogan

Supervisor signature: ______________________________

Date : ______________________________

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to my supervisor, Justin F. Keogan who with his brilliance and
mentorship helped me throughout the process of this study. The many lessons I
learned each day, his guidance and inspiration have been invaluable.

I would also like to thank Liam Murphy and Karime Tapia who kept me going during
the worst bouts of the writing process, lighting up my nights and thoughts.

I am indebted to my work colleagues Mairead Murphy and Conor Gilmer who

supported me with their encouragement, enthusiasm and patience.

I owe this manuscript largely to the loving support of my family who believed in me,
and especially to my mom who has spent her life working day and night to build a
new, better world and ensuring that I do the same.

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To my parents Silvia and Raul, my sisters Alba, Karime and Sylvana, my love
Liam Murphy and to keep allowing the unexpected to happen.

iv
Abstract

This study explores SNS effectiveness as a marketing tool. The majority of social media
literature has concentrated on describing the tools that compose it showing a discernible
scarcity of some work exclusively on the effectiveness of such tools, which this study
attempts to address. This dissertation starts with a literature review, which describes the
different social media tools available, the concept effectiveness within the marketing context,
and it also examines the three elements that construct effectiveness within the marketing
context. For exploring the effectiveness of SNS an interpretative approach has been adopted
with a case study strategy data collection. The study is based on the case of a third level
education organisation; the data collected was obtained through semi-structured interviews
to marketing staff of the organisation. The paper ends with an interpretation and discussion
of the findings and conclusions of the study. The findings indicate that SNS can be
determined as effective if there are at least two elements in place: strategy and an evaluation
system that includes a measurement process that suits the expected outcomes of the
organisation.

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1  CHAPTER I. THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING – AN INTRODUCTION .......................... 3 
1.1  INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 
1.2  OBJECTIVE ..................................................................................................................................... 4 
1.2.1  Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 4 
1.3  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................. 4 
1.4  JUSTIFICATION ................................................................................................................................ 5 
1.5  CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 6 
2  CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ‐ TRENDS IN SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN MARKETING AND 
ASSESSING ITS EFFECTIVENESS ......................................................................................................... 7 
2.1  INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 7 
2.2  DEFINING SOCIAL MEDIA .................................................................................................................. 8 
2.3  SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS .................................................................................................................... 10 
2.4  SOCIAL NETWORK SITES ................................................................................................................. 13 
2.4.1  Facebook ......................................................................................................................... 18 
2.4.2  Twitter ............................................................................................................................ 25 
2.5  WHY ARE ORGANISATIONS JOINING SNS? .......................................................................................... 30 
2.5.1  Market Size & Growth ..................................................................................................... 32 
2.5.2  Trend and Urgency .......................................................................................................... 33 
2.5.3  Online Word of Mouth .................................................................................................... 34 
2.6  EFFECTIVENESS ............................................................................................................................. 36 
2.7  RETURN ON INVESTMENT ................................................................................................................ 38 
2.8  MEASURABILITY ............................................................................................................................ 41 
2.9  STRATEGY .................................................................................................................................... 47 
2.10  CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 52 
2.11  CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 54 
3  CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY – A RESEARCH DESIGN FOR EXPLORING SNS USE IN A SINGLE 
CASE 55 
3.1  INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 55 
3.2  RESEARCH PARADIGM .................................................................................................................... 55 
3.3  RESEARCH DESIGN ......................................................................................................................... 56 
3.3.1  Planning & Creation of Research .................................................................................... 57 
3.3.2  Selection of a Single Case ................................................................................................ 57 
3.3.3  Study of the case in its context ....................................................................................... 57 
3.3.4  Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 57 
3.4  DATA COLLECTION METHODS .......................................................................................................... 58 
3.4.1  Face‐to‐Face Interviews .................................................................................................. 58 
3.4.2  Profile of Respondents .................................................................................................... 59 
3.4.3  Observation .................................................................................................................... 60 
3.5  DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 61 
3.6  CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 63 
4  CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SNS ........................................................ 64 
4.1  INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 64 
4.2  THE CASE CONTEXT ‐ GCD .............................................................................................................. 64 
4.2.1  Strategy .......................................................................................................................... 65 
4.2.2  Organisation’s Overall Strategy ...................................................................................... 79 
4.2.3  SNS Strategy ................................................................................................................... 81 
4.3  EFFECTIVENESS ............................................................................................................................. 83 
4.4  MEASURABILITY ............................................................................................................................ 86 
4.5  RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) ....................................................................................................... 90 
4.6  FINDINGS & DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 92 
4.7  RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 96 
4.8  CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................................. 97 

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5  CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................... 98 
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 101 
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 105 
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................ 106 
APPENDIX A ‐ ‐ SAMPLE  OF INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE SENT TO MARKETING STAFF.......................................... 106 
APPENDIX B ‐ INITIAL VERSION OF CODE BOOK ........................................................................................... 107 

2
1 Chapter I. The use of Social Media in Marketing – An Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces to the objectives, justification, scope and significance of the study.

The research questions are also presented and some terminology of the study is briefly

described.

Social Media (SM) has been the subject of extensive discussion in publications and forums in

recent years. This has been due to its popularity and rapid growth. Its power to spread

information and engage consumers has been recognized and studied by many researchers in

different disciplines, and in the business environment most of the publications have only

described the features of these tools.

SM can be briefly defined as web application tools that allow users to publish and broadcast

content in order to open and invite participation in conversations. From the amount of

commentary on SM it seems to be a very dynamic ecosystem (Safko & Break, 2009) where

marketing and advertising people have found a new opportunity: it provides an active

conversation between the brand/business and its customers. The most attractive element of

this channel is the potential for interactivity.

The literature reviewed indicates the need for further research and evidence that goes

beyond the description and that can contribute to future marketing techniques within the

social media field. In this chapter the aims and objectives; research questions; justification

and, significance of the study are presented.

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1.2 Objective

This study aims to explore if SNS are effective when used for marketing purposes. For this

purpose effectiveness is defined in the marketing context of social media and then it is

explored the extent to which social media can produce a measurable outcome. The aim of the

research is to conduct an in depth investigation of the aspects related to effectiveness of

SNS.

1.2.1 Research Questions

This study aims to answer the following questions:

1. How can the effectiveness of social media be defined within the marketing

context?

2. Are social networks effective as a marketing tool?

1.3 Significance of the Study

The social media ecosystem is very dynamic, in the sense that its content and facilities are

constantly changing and many of the debates presented in this study are still ongoing. This

study intends to provide a framework of how SNS effectiveness can be defined within the

marketing environment allowing a better understanding of measurement techniques and best

practice. It is also intended to build a foundation for future research.

The nature of this study is exploratory and descriptive and focuses on finding out how

effectiveness can be defined in the use of social media in a marketing context. The data

collected was analysed through an interpretativist approach, in order to provide richness and

depth to the area of study.

It is important to highlight that this study had an important level of input of my own

reflections as SM manager. Griffith College’s SNS were officially launched in 2008, time since

when I have managed the agenda, content and monitoring tools of three SNS: Facebook,

Twitter and LinkedIn.

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This study offers several potential contributions for advancing knowledge in the field and to

provide a better understanding of SNS use as a marketing tool. This should contribute to

future efforts to determine the effectiveness of SNS and to incorporate them into future

strategic planning of SNS implementation.

1.4 Justification

Social Media has attracted the interest of businesses, advertisers and marketers due to its

popularity and because its users are also considered consumers (Shih, 2009, p. 3). Therefore,

they see a commercial potential in these tools and more specifically in Social Network Sites

(SNS). Literature reviewed in this study points out that the existing uncertainty related to

effectiveness in social media is the result of a still immature understanding of the

measurability of the impact of social media (Murdough, 2010, p. 94)

SNS are considered a phenomenon with multiple dimensions that can be studied through

various disciplines. Social media research has been conducted mainly in sociology and has yet

to be formally and more thoroughly explored in areas such as marketing, in which there are

many unanswered questions in relation to effectiveness, a concept which has yet to be

defined within this subject.

Due to the relatively new character of the topic, descriptions are used to provide a context

that allows a better understanding of the subject. One of the main purposes of the study is to

complement existing research by employing a case study. The organisation chosen for the

primary research data collection is a third level education, Griffith College Dublin which

implemented SNS back in 2008 and the particular SNS chosen are Facebook and Twitter.

This study compiles first a summary of the general characteristics of social media and its

diverse categories and develops the topic from the general to the particular. The topics

covered include a definition of SM, and a description of the main features of: SM tools, SNS,

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Facebook and Twitter. Once that the relevant literature has been reviewed the conceptual

framework is explained and then the case study is presented.

1.5 Conclusion

This chapter outlined the objective, justification, scope and significance of this study as an

introductory chapter to this study. Chapter II deals with the literature reviewed which starts

by introducing the reader to the terminology and characteristics of social media in order to

provide with a theoretical foundation as well as reviewing the main reasons why

organisations have joined SNS in recent years as a context reference.

In Chapter II it is also discussed effectiveness and strategy; both concepts of great relevance

to this study as its definitions will contribute to the data analysis, findings and conclusions of

this study.

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2 Chapter II. Literature Review - Trends in Social Media use in Marketing and
Assessing its Effectiveness

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter the literature reviewed is presented and it starts by introducing core

terminology of this study and characteristics of social media in order to provide with a

theoretical foundation that allows a better understanding of the research. It is also discussed

the concept effectiveness, strategy and measurability. Finally, the chapter concludes with a

conceptual framework that will facilitate and contribute to the data analysis, findings and

conclusions of this study.

The previous chapter outlined the significance, justification and objectives of the study. In

this chapter a description of social media categories is presented, the aim of which is to

introduce the reader to the general concepts and jargon of social media in order to facilitate a

better understanding of this context through examples and descriptions.

The chapter is structured in a way that the reader is first informed of the most important

social media categories from the general to the particular, i.e. defining social media,

reviewing its different categories, and giving special focus to one category: social network

sites (SNS).

After the different categories of Social Media have been introduced and explained, the

reasons why organisations are joining Social Networks for marketing purposes are discussed.

This topic will be taken as a comparison to the reasons given by Griffith College for its use of

SNS in the case study at a later stage in this study.

After reviewing the literature and current debates on the use of SNS, a conceptual framework

is presented defining: effectiveness, return on investment, measurability and strategy.

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This study is of an exploratory and descriptive nature and the objective of the presented

literature review is to explore the current practices and research on how effectiveness is

defined within the social media context and of how measurability of SNS effectiveness can be

achieved.

2.2 Defining Social Media

Social Media is a term composed by two words that look familiar and, as such, the majority of

people misconstrue it. This was confirmed through a survey conducted by Safko & Brake

(2009, p. 3) which revealed that 70% of 600+ respondents were not familiar with what social

media was.

One vague description states that SM is all sorts of different things, in all sorts of different

ways, and that SM could be defined as content that has been created by its audience (Comm

2009, p. 2). This attempt at a definition could confuse any reader if it is taken out of its

context; it does not mention crucial elements of SM such as online, computer mediated

communication. Furthermore, why would an audience wish to produce their own content? A

possible answer to this is that users are lately trying to engage in multidirectional

conversations; audiences could feel attracted to be part of what is being released or even

create what is being published Morris (2010, p. 58). Traditional media was about delivering

content to the audience and very rarely a reader would reply to the editor or publisher

through a letter. Moreover the generality was to deliver content through one channel that

didn’t allow immediate feedback or an automatic reply.

Although SM is not only about users creating their own content but is more about establishing

a conversation (Safko & Break, 2009, p. 4) strictly speaking there are many other channels of

communication that could enable conversation, such as telephone or meetings face-to-face.

SM in this sense is different because the tool that allows the conversation is a computer. This

is what is called Computer-Mediated Communication, CMC (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, p. 211). The

way conversations take place in a CMC environment differs from the regular conversational

8
practice due to the diversity of ways that the conversation can be prompted (Safko & Brake

2009, p. 6). The Internet is only one element of CMC and it offers a wide range of

applications that allow users to create and exchange the content they produce (Kaplan &

Haenlein (2009) quoted by Stassen 2010, p. 5). This is the reason why internet based

applications are also referred as conversational media (Safko & Break, 2009) and these are

the tools that make it possible to create and transmit content in many forms, such as: text,

pictures, audio, video, and audiovisual.

Based on different definitions offered by Safko & Break (2009), Morris (2010) and Kaplan &

Haenlein (2009 quoted by Stassen 2010), there are few key words in common: conversation,

exchange, and user generated content. The word conversation can be found in most of the

literature reviewed, so it is implied that a core characteristic of social media is its level of

interactivity (Romero & Fanjul, 2010, p. 126). These common and key words are used to

build a definition suitable to the purposes of this study later in this chapter.

After summarizing the key concepts found in the definitions, SM is then defined in this study:

“SM is a set of web-based media tools, similar to offline media that allow people
to interact by generating and broadcasting their own content with the means to
socialize and/or share information of interests through the internet. The content
can be of personal, professional or commercial character.”

In this study the main focus is on commercial content. This is because the kind of content

that businesses and organisations produce in order to reach their audiences and/or targets is

of a commercial or marketing nature. The significance of analysing the commercial aspect of

SM is that the exponential growth of social media is forcing marketing and advertising to be

redefined and adapted itself in order to align with the new communications model: interaction

with customers (Romero & Fanjul, 2010, p. 125)

Before reviewing the substantive research of this topic, it is important to understand the

general features of what was referred to as web applications. Web applications are tools that

enable users to create their own content and are more commonly called SM tools. Some

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examples of these are: blogs, wikis, social networks, video share sites, live casting sites,

virtual worlds and information aggregators. Their features are briefly explained in the

following section.

2.3 Social Media Tools

In this section a broad summary of the most common SM tools is provided. There is a vast

list of social media tools available and this is the reason why they are only briefly mentioned

in this chapter with the intention of giving an overview to the reader of the size of this

ecosystem.

The internet provides with a wide range of web applications that are similar to traditional

media and the main categories can be established as follows: Publish, Photo, Audio, Video,

Livecasting, Virtual Worlds, Gaming, Productivity Applications, Aggregators, RSS, Search,

Mobile and Interpersonal, Microblogging and Social Networks (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 25-

32).

Publish refers to the sites that allow users to publish and distribute information to audiences.

A good example of it is email. Other similar publish tools are: Blogs like Blogger, Massive

Email Generators like Constant Contact, Content Management Systems like Joomla, Units of

Knowledge like Knol, Presentation Sharers like SlideShare, Content Hubs like Wikia, Open

Content Encyclopedia like Wikipedia (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 472-491).

The photo category of social media refers to sites that allow users to sort, organize and share

photos. Sites that are mentioned as examples are: Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Randar.net,

Slide, SmugMug, Twitxr, Zoomr. The audio category tools allow users to upload, download,

and share audio content. Examples include: iTunes, PodBean, Podcast.net, and Rhapsody

(Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 493-517).

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The video tool allows users to share video content. Some examples of it are: Brightcove,

Google Video, Hulu, Metacafe, Viddler, and YouTube. A similar function is provided by Live

casting tools which enable users to broadcast live video and audio streams to the network.

The most common sites are: BlogTalkRadio, Live 365, Justin.tv, SHOUTcast, and TalkShoe.

(Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 519-549)

Virtual Worlds facilitate users’ interaction in real time. Some examples are: Active Worlds,

Kaneva, Second Life, There, and ViOS. Gaming is also seen as a strong tool to generate word

of mouth by providing with games, such as: 4x4 Evolution, Entropia Universe, EverQuest,

World of Warcraft (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 551-569).

In the Productivity Applications there is a range of tools that can be used by businesses due

to their functionality and productivity nature. Some applications include: Acteva, AOL, Survey

Monkey, Google Alerts, Google Docs, and Zoho (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 571-598).

Aggregators are the next category and refer to sites that keep track of internet contributions,

some examples of this are: Digg, FriendFeed, iGoogle, My Yahoo, and Google Reader. RSS on

the other hand refers to the acronym ‘Rich Site Summary’ and it is a feeder of current content

from different websites. Some examples of it are: Atom, FeedBurner, PingShot, and RSS 2.0

(Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 599-622).

Search refers in this case to Search Engines which allow users to search and locate content

by typing words or sentences. Few examples are: EveryZing, Google Search, MetaTube, and

Yahoo! Search. Another set of promising tools reviewed mobile enabled tools which facilitates

users to use their services on portable devices. The sites mentioned are: CallWave, SMS.ac,

AOL Mobile and Jott (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 623-653) as well as mobile versions of a

number of the previous tools and sites mentioned.

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People-to-people communication tools facilities the interpersonal activity by allowing

communication and contributions between users, some examples are: Go To Meeting, Meebo,

Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, and Apple iChat (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 656-670)

Finally, the two main social media tools that are the subject of research in this study are:

Facebook and Twitter. Although the study is focused on social network sites (SNS), strictly

speaking Twitter is a Microblogging tool of the social media range.

Microblogs allow users to communicate through a mix between blogging and text messaging.

There are three main tools: Plurk, Twitter and Twitxr (Safko & Brake, 2009, pp. 533-538).

This tool will be described in full detail later in this chapter.

Social Network Sites (SNS) allow users to create a profile that includes information, such as:

date of birth, relationship status, hobbies, preferences, interests, etc. These sites were

originally thought as a good way to find old classmates (Page, 2010, p. 425). However,

nowadays these type of sites allow conversations between users through a very characteristic

layout that will be described in full detail later in this chapter.

All the tools mentioned above can support each other as they are complimentary, depending

on the needs and creativity of the user. The better an understanding a user has of the

different functions of the tools, the more enhanced their experience in social media (Safko &

Brake, 2009).

A common misinterpretation is that social media and social network sites are the same.

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, each refers to different things: social

network sites are a subcategory of social media (Safko & Break 2009, p.26). Online marketing

expert McKeown (Enterprise Ireland Seminar, 22nd Oct 2009) gives a simple metaphor for it:

‘Social Media is like a bag of tools and social networking is only a hammer’. For the purposes

of this study both, Facebook and Twitter will be referred as SNS, but this is merely a

12
practicality as this study does recognise the differences between the two sites and this will be

discussed at a later stage.

2.4 Social Network Sites

In the previous section the most common web applications were described with examples

and a brief review of their features. This section focuses on SNS.

Social Network Sites (SNS) are defined in this section with the intention to supply a general

description of what SNS are and what characterizes them. This information will serve as a

foundation for an understanding of the use of Facebook and Twitter and as reference to their

importance within the marketing field.

SNS are a subcategory of SM and it is considered a phenomenon because it has attracted

millions of users in recent years (Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Trusov et al., 2009). In common with

other tools of the social media ecosystem, SNS term is referred to as: social networking,

social networking sites or simply: networking. However, ‘Networking’ emphasizes relationship

initiation, very often between strangers, and this is not necessarily the case in these sites.

Therefore in this study it will be referred to as Social Network Sites on SNS (Boyd & Ellision,

p. 211).

To define SNS we must first review what the term social network meant before computing

enable communication. The term was related to the key words: personal interaction,

interconnection and reciprocity within a social environment. Nowadays the concept remains

unchanged but with one additional characteristic: social networks can be practiced either

virtually or in person. This can be referred to as online or offline respectively.

SNS are web based applications that allow users three main activities: to construct a profile

for public or semi-public use; to create a list of users with whom they share connection; and

to view other users’ lists of connections (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, p. 211). These three elements

13
match with the description of social network: they allow personal interaction through

discussion forums, interconnection by adding contacts and being able to see other user’s

contacts and reciprocity by allowing added users to comment on other users’ profiles.

It can be inferred then that there is a similarity between social network offline practices and

SNS and it is believed that SNS are subject to traditional network effects (Shih, 2009, p. 36).

For example if a group of friends join a SNS, there is a pressure effect for joining the SNS as

a way to enhance the existent offline contact (Westlake, 2008, p. 26). Some are sceptical

about this claim, but available research points out that most SNS use primarily supports pre-

existing social relations (Ellison et. al. 2007, quoted by Boyd & Ellison, 2008). So, if both

social networks behave similarly, what could be determined as the core element of SNS that

makes it so unique and attractive to businesses?

In the literature reviewed, the term ‘core element of SNS’ does not really refer to a single

core, unique element or essence; different authors refer to various features. For example,

Trusov, Bucklin & Powers (2009, p. 92) state that the core of SNS consists of personalized

user profiles. Boyd & Ellison (2008) declare that the unique element resides in users sharing

connections that can result in new connections made and, finally, Westlake (2008) highlights

the far more evident interactivity as the core element of SNS.

It can be inferred then that SNS are unique due to the combination of all these elements. Its

uniqueness is defined by the greater level of interactivity that they offer through the usage of

different applications within the one site, i.e. building a personalized profile, the possibility of

creating a network from existent offline contacts, the potential of connecting with new

contacts, the participation elements offered through discussion forums, creation of photo

albums, sharing information, expressing a positive disposition towards a topic or idea by

clicking on the Like button and provision of feedback by comment on what other users write

about.

14
The interactivity element of SNS can be explained through what Barthes (1974, quoted by

Westlake, 2008) defined in the habits of the reader as writerly text which can be translated to

participatory reading. The internet reader contributes to the text; anyone can generate

content, create text and to link to other’s text and build forums open to comments, responses

and corrections (Westlake, 2008, p. 26). The user experience is about reading in a non linear

way, this means that the user can actually choose the order in which the content is being

read. The user has the choice of clicking on the content of interest, needs and/or demands

(Westlake, 2008, p. 25).

This truly interactive nature of the collective technology allows businesses and organisations

to open a dialogue with their customers (Winstanley, 2006, p. 50) but the question here is to

what extent should businesses open themselves to receive feedback, especially unrequested

feedback? The writerly text or participatory reading could be perceived as a positive outcome

for users and businesses, which participate, and are part of conversations of their interest or

benefit. However it could also represent a potentially negative level of feedback for

businesses in the case that their products and/or services are exposed, criticized or

scrutinized, particularly if the business is not participating of the ongoing conversations.

A regular user can publish anything about any topic at any point in time, from a personal to a

commercial point of view and this can be shared with all their contacts. Furthermore these

users are also consumers who can freely publish and express their opinions and their opinions

can be spread in a matter of minutes, generating a faster word of mouth phenomenon.

The impact of SNS has not only changed the way users interact with businesses but also the

way advertisers and marketers communicate with potential customers. The importance of

these sites has reached the point to which it is argued that a computer page is the same as

an advertisement, that there is no difference between it and an advertisement in the

newspapers (Cocheo, 2010, p. 36) and this highlights the impact of SNS within the marketing

15
field. This could indicate that its impact on the public reach has equalled other media,

although this could be arguable and would require formal research comparing both media.

Another interesting aspect of SNS that has had impact in the marketing field is that social

influence in SNS is similar to the offline experience; a user can influence other users. This

effect works similarly to what a leader of opinion does. While some users are producers of

content, others are consumers of content and those producing have some impact on others.

Although having many friends does not automatically make users influential per se (Trusov,

Budapati & Bucklin, 2010, p. 645), it has been proved by researchers that some users can

have a very strong influence on others.

In recent years the discussion related to SNS has also been centred on matters linked to

privacy. SNS can provide behavioural data about users (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, p. 220) which

would enable marketers to analyse consumers’ patterns, but providing this information to

businesses has proved to be a delicate topic. In fact, another issue directly linked to the

information that is possible to source from SNS is that the metrics obtained are heavily

dependent on the information that the specific site/brand decides to share, due to privacy

issues (Stuart, 2009, p. 23) For example, Facebook provides with general insights of a fan

page activity; while Twitter does not offer any insights service, any metrics must be sourced

from external applications or social media companies that are specialized in obtaining this

data. Therefore marketers and advertisers only have access to the information that the

websites are open to share.

What Westlake (2008, p. 25) explained as a non linear way of reading text, represents a

great opportunity for marketers and advertisers because every time users make a decision of

clicking on links that lead to other content, this information is recorded and it becomes

trackable. Every profile created is a source of accurate demographic information: age,

gender, location, marital status, etc. with this information the numerous brands of SNS can

provide their users with tailor-made advertising but more importantly, they can offer their

16
advertisers more accurate targets than offline media. This is the case of Facebook, which has

included amongst its policies that the general demographics of a user are always public.

Contrary to this, Twitter does not make user’s profiles public and does not require

demographic information when setting up an account for the first time.

This process of using demographics to target specific audiences is called hypertargeting or

microtargeting. Through very specific criteria advertisers can directly deliver messages to a

desired group, offering more opportunities of contact, awareness or sales. This activity is

described by Shih (2009) as a new level of precision and efficiency but users of SNS may not

necessarily agree with this assertion. This is an important debate in which some see that

advertising has great potential within SNS but users question if SNS should advertise in the

first place (review based on Brown, Jones & Kilby, pp. 15-17).

In this debate it is not only users who are concerned about the way their data is being used;

brands are also worried about where their ads are being displayed. For example, sexually

explicit websites are one of the most avoided groups of websites that brands do not wish to

be linked to (Shih, 2009, p. 105). As a user, one must be sensitive about the information that

is provided as part of a profile and especially that which is shown as public material. From an

advertisers point of view many unwanted users may join a brand’s networks too, this

illustrating that both personal and commercial users face advantages and disadvantages of

using SNS and websites in general.

The controversy related to data privacy issues is one of the most discussed topics of SNS in

the literature reviewed, but this aspect will not be covered in depth for the purposes of this

study. The main objective of the research is to focus on the effectiveness of theses tools for

those businesses, brands, advertisers and marketers that are already involved with SNS.

In summary, SNS became a phenomenon because it attracted millions of users in recent

years. Many authors (Trusov, Bucklin & Powers, 2009; Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Westlake, 2008)

17
attribute different core elements to SNS. The core element of SNS defined in this chapter is

the great interactivity generated through the accumulation of diverse application features

within one site. The high level of participation, interaction, and influence that SNS provide

with can be seen as having both positive and negative outcomes. On one side increasing

communication between users and businesses provides feedback, but unrequested feedback

can have potential drawbacks to the image or reputation of a business. The potential of SNS

to track all the decisions made by their users and to analyse demographic, psychographic and

behavioural data has increased the interest of advertisers, marketers and businesses in this

particular area but it has raised data privacy concerns as well.

Issues related to SNS exist, and amongst the major topics that should be further studied are:

data privacy, measurability and effectiveness in advertising and uses of SNS. In the following

section, Facebook, one of the leading SNS is described as an example of SNS features and its

usefulness in the marketing field. Facebook is also the main SNS implemented by the chosen

organisation for the case study, Griffith College Dublin.

2.4.1 Facebook

The previous section called ‘Social Network Sites’ defined what SNS are and its core element:

interactivity. A brief introduction to the main characteristics of these sites was also provided.

In this section we continue describing the main features of Facebook, as well as its impact

and importance within the marketing field in order to provide with an overview of this social

media tool. SNS have experienced rapid growth since their creation and launch only a few

years ago and Facebook is a good example as it appears amongst the most popular.

Facebook use grew three times more between July and November 2008 (that was from 90 to

120 million users) than it did in the three years of it being launched (Shih, 2009, p. 3). In

Ireland for example, the site is reported by Mulley Communications (2009) to have 400,980

users; Figure that represents a double of what the site had back in 2008 and approximately

10% of the population.

18
Facebook has been widely recognized since its origins as a SM phenomenon. It is considered

a platform for users to connect with others by using a customizable interface and user

created content. It is also amongst the most popular for having the more current features

included such as video, audio, games, blogs, albums, applications, etc. (Safko & Brake, 2009;

Westlake, 2008). The popularity of the site has developed its very own subculture and

language (Westlake, 2008, p. 30). It is believed that the visible profiles (Figure 2.1) and a list

of contacts displayed are Facebook’s backbone (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, p. 211)

Figure 2.1 - Visible profiles that can be personalized and a list of contacts

The site also includes other facilities to enhance profiles, such as the text box in which users

answer the question ‘What’s on your mind?’. This box has become popular amongst users

and is called ‘status’. This, can be instantly shared with all their contacts (Figure 2.2)

19
Figure 2.2 - What’s on your mind? Box – It allows users to communicate and share their ‘status’

Among many other facilities users can: receive private messages, news from friends,

notifications of events, upload photos and create albums, open discussion fora or avail of

applications. See example in Figure 2.3

Figure 2.3 - One of the menus includes private and public message, invitations to events, and number of friends.

So far we have a general idea of what Facebook has to offer to its individual users, but what

businesses, marketers and advertisers have recognized in SNS is its commercial potential

because users of Facebook are also consumers (Shih, 2009, p. 3). Users who actively

participate in conversations can recommend products and/or services and furthermore, buy

online.

It was discussed earlier that SNS have a similar behaviour to social network offline activities.

And as such an analogy can be used: SNS offer a social space in which people can have

conversations, shop around, and talk to new people. In the offline environment we are

constantly surrounded by advertising; on billboards, plastic and paper bags, bus stops,

promotional cars, buses, and any other places that advertisers can possibly avail of to remind

consumers that a product or service is there. In Facebook the advertising activity is similar in

that it is placed in the surrounding areas where the main activities take place by using

20
information available through the different SNS providers and there are techniques available

to advertisers to deliver their message through SNS. For example, in the previous section it

was explained that metrics provided by SNS allow advertisers to target audiences with

accurate demographics, psychographics and behavioral data, this is called Hypertargeting

(also called microtargeting). This enables businesses to engage with their target and engage

the appropriate people, making marketing a more precise, personal and social task (Shih,

2009, p. 81). How does this happen? Facebook offers a wide range of tools that are open to

any user. Figure 2.4 shows a customizable profile which is only a start. The second facility

that becomes more attractive is the possibility of creating pages, these pages are like

features of the topic, person, brand or any subject that one wishes to make public.

Figure 2.4 - Facebook enables users to create profiles and also customizable pages.

Another feature of relevance to businesses is that Facebook offers an option to manage

pages created, and also provides ‘insights’ which is the way they call metrics and statistics

offered by the website. Figure 2.5 shows an example of the insights report.

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Figure 2.5 - Facebook’s ‘insights’ report

One of the most popular features of Facebook is the Like button which allows users to

express their positive disposition towards a comment, page or almost any content generated

by other users. Pages created by businesses have this feature on top of the page and this

serves as a way to measure the number of followers of certain brand or business. Figure 2.6

shows the Like button as well as the insights summary provided to administrators of a page.

22
Figure 2.6 - Facebook’s ‘like’ button and insights summary.

The insights summary is also a clickable section that provides more details of the type of

users that have joined a page. Figure 2.7 is only an example of one of the many variables

shown in the insights report.

Figure 2.7 - Facebook’s Demographics displayed, GCD 2010.

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As shown in Figure 2.7, Facebook provides users with what it is commonly known as

‘analytics’. These provide insights of the activity of a specific page through a dashboard of

aggregate user data with and further details are shown by clicking on the different areas

available. Analytics are available in the majority of SM tools and can represent potential value

to a business if read and properly followed up through daily monitoring and understanding of

what the numbers show. In a similar layout Facebook offers advertising to all those who

wish to promote an event, brand or any subject.

In the advertising aspect of Facebook, there are similar tools: advertisements can be placed

anytime and through a step by step process. A user can avail of an ad in a matter of minutes.

The advertisements are tailored to the needs of the user, target audiences are customisable

and Facebook makes suggestions throughout the process, from: layout of the advertisement

to targets. The number of users reached is also shown after the target audience is defined.

Figure 2.8 shows an example of Facebook targets and reach.

Figure 2.8 - Facebook’s Targeting and Reach

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The various tools mentioned represent an unusual way of advertising, in which there are no

media buyers, designers or marketers involved; any user can advertise. This meets one of the

features of SM tools: the ability of users to create their own content and spread it to their

networks or lists of contacts.

To summarise, Facebook is a leading SNS that offers a wide diversity of tools for users to

produce their own content and communicate it to their list of contacts. Users are also able to

produce single pages related to their own interests and are provided with statistical insights

of their day to day activity. These insights also known as analytics can provide very important

demographic information.

One of the most attractive tools offered by Facebook is the advertising tool, in which any user

can produce and pay for promoting any event, topic, brand, product, etc. In such a simplified

process of acquiring advertisement tools it would be easily inferred that every business would

exist in this platform. However this is yet to happen.

The general features of Facebook have been explained in this section, giving special

emphasis to those that are directly related to marketing and advertising. In the following

section, Twitter, the leading microblogging site, is briefly described.

2.4.2 Twitter

In this section the aim is to describe the features of Twitter, a microblogging site that has

attracted the attention of marketers and advertisers due to its very recent and growing

popularity.

The so-called micro blogging phenomenon of ‘Twitter’ invites its users to answer the

question: ‘What is happening?’ in 140 characters. This question actually changed while this

study was taking place, the original question was: ‘What are you doing right now?’ This

25
development gives us an idea of how dynamic this environment is. The site has

approximately 150,000 users in Ireland (Hand, 2009).

Twitter can be described using an analogy related to a regular offline conversation. It is

similar to being on a dinner table with many people and choosing who to listen to, following

only those conversations that are of your interest and only delivering messages to those that

are interested in your conversation. In Twitter the people who wish to see other users’

messages are called followers and it is the equivalent to Facebook’s friends.

Similar to Facebook, but in a shorter version, users are allowed to customise their profiles

through what is called a ‘Bio’ (shown in Figure 1.9). In comparison to Facebook, this Bio does

not include age, gender, date of birth, etc. The objective of a bio is to include a brief

description of who the user is in only 160 characters. The bio is supposed to attract new

followers or people interested in following the messages published.

In contrast to Facebook, which had as one of its core elements a mix of tools in the one site

allowing users to publish their own content in audio-visual and text form, Twitter is known for

its simplicity. Although with the passing of time, it has developed countless add-ons and

applications, making it possible to share photos and other content. However, its core activity

remains to answer what is happening? (Comm, 2009, p.21). This question can be answered

in a box in which the messages are instantly published and is similar to the ‘status’ box

provided in Facebook, excepting that the number of characters is limited to only 140, as

shown in Figure 2.9.

26
Figure 2.9 - Twitter enables users to add a brief profile, called ‘bio’ and to post messages no longer than 140

characters.

The service provided by Twitter is free, and would strictly be categorised as a microblogging

site. Nevertheless, the literature reviewed shows that Facebook and Twitter are both called

and treated as SNS. This highlights the fact that within SM all tools are mistakenly named or

used interchangeably. This could be a crucial factor that impacts the way marketers and

advertisers perceive SNS effectiveness because the expectations are set to get the same

outcome from Facebook and Twitter, while the nature of these tools is different in essence.

For example, compared to Facebook, Twitter does not offer advertising and there is no

analytics facility in which to monitor the daily activity of a single page. Instead, a wide range

of applications that enable users to see statistics of the daily activity, such as Twitalyzer, is

available to users for the purposes of monitoring their own twitter accounts (shown in Figure

2.10).

The format of the information is similar to the dashboard presented in Facebook and it

displays elements such as: impact, engagement, influence, clout, etc. It is not surprising to

find that many of the elements to monitor daily activity are related to popularity and

influence. These concepts are similar to concepts used in relation to traditional or offline

27
social networking concepts, where a user can be influenced on other users just as a leader of

opinion would influence an audience through other media.

Figure 2.10 - Twitalyzer displays a dashboard of daily activity of a specific account.

The applications and services available to twitter users are vast. One of the main tools is the

search tool which enables users to find out what kind of conversations are taking place. The

search of ongoing conversations in real time can be searched through key words and it

automatically shows those conversations that a user could potentially be interested in. This

allows the user to choose the topics of their interest, what to read and what conversations to

follow. The results obtained through the search tool in Twitter do not restrict the users from

replying. Therefore, if a company finds negative feedback, this can be replied to. Many

experts advised that negative feedback should always be addressed and dealt with. There is

also the possibility of contacting those users that have an interest in something that the

brand could offer (Comm & Burge, 2009, p. 201).

Due to the nature of the question that is to be answered in Twitter: what is happening?,

many users post messages related to their location, current activity or even random thoughts.

However, what is of most concern to businesses is that users are now able to promote

purchases or air their grievances, no matter whether the brand, product, service or company

has a Twitter account or not. People actively participate in feedback or criticism coming from

28
other users (Bushey, 2010, p.24). This can be viewed as an advantage as much as a

disadvantage.

Contrasting with this, Bushey (2010, p. 27) also believes that online attacks, referring to

unrequested feedback or complaints from very frustrated customers, represent an

opportunity because listening to people’s concerns can be of potential benefit to a business.

This statement is followed by pointing out that businesses must accept the new terms that

SM tools are imposing. This could indicate the importance of having some level of presence in

SNS, if not in a participatory level, at least in a monitoring level that allows the business to be

on good terms with their customers.

An article in Communication World (April, 2009) is titled: ‘You are no one if you’re not on

Twitter’. This statement lacks supporting evidence. The claim is based on the fact that users

are already talking about brands and jumps to the conclusion that businesses should rush to

be there. An analogy of the offline activities could be useful to understand this might be that

many businesses do not advertise on billboards or TV. This does not mean that they do not

exist, but simply means that businesses have not chosen that specific channel to

communicate its products or services. Contrary to this position is that some believe that

Twitter has reached a point in where it is impossible to keep ignoring it (Fernando, 2009,

p.11).

The issues related to Twitter are very similar to Facebook and SM tools in general; privacy

and effectiveness appear on top of the list of ongoing debates. There is clear interest in these

tools from marketers and advertisers but it seems that, as with other internet tools, many

would like to adopt them at an early stage and many others prefer to wait until it is a well

established tool, similar to what happened in the early days of sales online or e-commerce.

In summary, Twitter offers a simpler version of what Facebook offers, as a microblogging site

it has the purpose to answer the question: What is happening? And this can only be

29
answered in 140 characters. Its simplicity allows thousands of users to join or open a

conversation and users decide which conversations to follow up by creating a list of contacts

to ‘follow’

Twitter has become as popular as Facebook but did not offer advertising facilities until the

time that this study took place. Analytics are provided through a wide range of applications

and a search facility that enables users to identify conversation topics by key words is also

available. The issues raised in the literature related to its usage are very similar to those in

SM tools in general: privacy and effectiveness.

In this section a brief summary of the main features, advantages and disadvantages of

Twitter was presented with the aim of giving a context for the research. In the next section

one of the main current debates of SM within the marketing and advertising fields is

discussed: Why are organisations joining SNS?

2.5 Why are organisations joining SNS?

The previous sections described SNS features, similarities and differences, and some of the

advantages and disadvantages of SNS usage. This section explains the reasons why

organisations are joining SNS, some of the risks involved and emphases the factors related to

evaluating the effectiveness of SNS.

The potential of SM has certainly been recognized, but many argue that there is a gap

between the opportunity that SM tools represent and the willingness to invest in it (Thomas,

quoted by Milman 2009, p.10). This could be attribute to a sense of disappointment

generated by a series of unsuccessful stories (Milman, 2009, p.10). Yet, the question remains

should organisations join SNS in the first place?

Some believe that it is important to be where your customers are no matter where that is

(Shih, 2009, p. 3). Despite the extensive popularity of SNS many businesses prefer to

30
establish relations with their customers through traditional offline methods (Morris, 2010).

This could be linked to the perception of firms which doubt the effectiveness of SM tools, and

specifically SNS. Firms question the extent to which SNS can add to their marketing efforts

and whether it is worth the investment.

Among the negative aspects involved in the implementation of SNS as a marketing tool there

is persistent mention of unrequested feedback. In regular offline business practices, the

product or service is defended and protected during the selling activity. Feedback is valuable

and welcome but rarely in great depth as happens in SNS. There is a clear division of opinion

in relation to level of feedback (Medcalf, 2009, p.30). The points of view vary in this aspect of

SNS; Shih (2009) is very optimistic about implementing SM tools and certainly encourages

her audience to use Facebook and emphases the importance of always being transparent.

Others are more conservative and take a precautionary perspective, warning that the speed

of response of SNS and its constant interactivity are great demands on time and resources

and that the level of preparedness of professionals implementing these tools may be low

(Barnes & Barnes, 2009). However, all business investments imply certain levels of risk and

there are early implementers who prefer to lead in innovation. So far, many of those who

hold this view are already testing and experimenting with SM tools. While there are risks

identified, there must be factors that have contributed to organisations deciding to join the

SM ecosystem.

The literature reviewed suggested that there are various factors why organisations are joining

these tools every day. Three of the most frequently identified factors are: firstly, the market

size and growth that SNS represent; secondly, a perception of urgency; and thirdly many

examples that illustrate the power of online word-of-mouth.

31
2.5.1 Market Size & Growth

Market size is of great relevance in marketing practices as size determines an opportunity.

Through the rapid growth of number of users in SNS there seems to be an opportunity, or at

least that has been the interpretation most commonly found in the literature reviewed.

The evident growth of SNS has generated great enthusiasm (Ross, 2007, p. 5) but it is not

only the rapid growth of the SNS that has attracted businesses but also the fact that, for

some, their target audience is there. Facebook for example can reach a very defined niche or

target based on demographics, psychological and behavioural trends only by tracking the

data that users enter in their personal profiles. It is best practice in the marketing field to

identify market opportunities, then identify targets and finally to design a plan to reach those

targets. SNS offer a place where targets are easily identified and the advertiser or marketer

can focus on following up and monitoring the activity of the ads or comments posted, this has

nearly automated the targeting task.

The business opportunity presented by SNS resides in the size of the audience; the 150

million people around the world using Facebook at present (Shih, 2009, p. 3) has to represent

an excellent market opportunity. However, the challenge is that users do not want to be

harassed with more advertising and they are selective with the contacts including brands and

companies that they add to their list of friends.

On one hand the size of the market offered by SNS represents an opportunity and in the

other hand a big challenge of commitment and constant participation with the audience in

order to create a link with the user that encourages them to add or express their interest for

a particular brand, activity, product or service. The particular question relevant to this

research is if all this effort and time investment can achieve and outcome sufficiently valuable

that organisations consider SNS an effective tool?

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2.5.2 Trend and Urgency

Competitiveness is intrinsic to businesses. Porter (1998) pointed out the importance of

competitive advantage and stressed that for businesses to perform there must be an element

of differentiation that can enable companies to compete with their competitors. This could

explain the urgency of organisations that do not want to be left behind when it comes to the

implementation of new technologies (Ross, 2007). Apart from gaining a competitive

advantage, businesses are facing changes in the way advertising is done. SM has changed

the way media works and this has been reflected in the decline of newspaper circulation

(Stassen, 2010, p. 2) and the recent fall of other traditional media, which are losing out to

the new channel of communication: the internet, a platform in which audiences keep

growing.

It is crucial for businesses’ survival that they are able not only to develop a competitive

advantage but are adaptable to changes to the various forces and influences on their

organisations. The impression is given that organisations are nowadays focused on being

everywhere, any time on any platform (Picard, quoted by Stassen, 2010, p. 2). However this

impression, in theory, is against perceived advertising best practice in which the idea is to

find a suitable market to sell to rather than having an unjustified presence wherever it is

possible to advertise.

In the day to day practice of many organisations’ advertising, there is very little in depth

analysis. In fact there are studies that show little correlation between advertising and

consumers’ behaviour. This is despite the billions that are spent on advertising just because

others are already doing it, thus making the advertising atmosphere a place where everybody

exists. Thus there is little opportunity to have a significant impact on any audience and

leaving a small benefit to each advertiser because of the diluted effort among a crowd

(Castells, quoted by Rantanen, 2005, p.142).

33
The SM ecosystem is not an exception; many businesses have joined SNS in recent years as a

result of the pressure exercised by competitors, each trying to prove their ability to adapt to

new technologies. It could be that online advertising may have similar practices to offline, in

which many will join just to add one more platform on which to advertise without assessing

the suitability of the channel to the organisation.

2.5.3 Online Word of Mouth

Another reason why organisations are joining SNS is the power of these sites to create spread

word of mouth. Word of Mouth (WOM) has been proved to be one of the strongest tools of

marketing. A study conducted by Katz & Lazarsfeld (1955) revealed that word of mouth was

seven times more effective than advertising. Online WOM is another characteristic of SM that

behaves in a similar way as the offline practices: its power to spread instantly has gained the

title of viral marketing; the origin of the term coming from the organic concept of viruses

spreading. WOM can be defined as a group phenomenon in which ideas are exchanged

amongst individuals who do not represent a marketing source (Bone, quoted by Carl, 2006).

However, this definition may not necessarily be accurate anymore; many of the current viral

marketing campaigns are sponsored or even produced by companies with the intention of

influencing audiences’ opinions or to create a stronger link to their brands. In fact, WOM

can also be categorized as ‘institutionalized’ or ‘everyday’ the former being part of an

organized WOM campaign and the latter defined as informal, evaluative communication

between two individuals (Carl, 2006, p. 605). Institutionalized WOM seems to be the closest

description to what has attracted businesses to join SNS.

Some examples of viral marketing campaigns produced by brands are: Cadbury’s gorilla,

Heineken closet and DIT movie trailer. These videos that can be found on YouTube, are

amongst the most popular viral campaigns. Undoubtedly these campaigns have received

enough attention from the public. However, a question remains could the wide popularity

34
gained through the spread of these videos be considered successful and, if so, does

popularity determine effectiveness?

Research conducted by Carl (2006) found that most WOM still takes place offline with 80% of

recommendations made face-to-face and only 8% posted comments on the internet.

However this study was conducted four years ago and the Figure could have significantly

changed, considering that SNS have grown exponentially in the last 3 years.

Certainly for businesses it has always been important to have some influence in WOM,

because many consumers rely on references given at the early stages of purchase (Sever,

2009). A great opportunity to increase the effectiveness of WOM is SNS in that it is possible

to track electronic invitations from users making it very easy to assess the extent of outbound

WOM (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels 2009, p. 90)

In conclusion, organisations are joining SNS regardless of the risks involved and this may

indicate that, although being considered an immature terrain, there are aspects that make it

a potentially effective tool for marketing and advertising in most businesses. The factors

found as the main driving forces of SNS adoption were: market size, urgency, and WOM.

In this section, the driving forces for businesses to join SNS were discussed. This will

contribute to the data analysis stage as there may be a link between the reason why

organisations join SNS and what their expectations are and/or what the organisation

considers effectiveness.

The main research objective of this study is to ascertain if SNS are effective as a marketing

tool. Effectiveness has been vaguely mentioned throughout the introduction because the

main focus was in providing a context for the SM ecosystem. In the following section

effectiveness in the context of this study is defined in order to establish a conceptual

framework.

35
2.6 Effectiveness

In the previous section SM and its ecosystem have been described through brief examples of

brands and its core features, putting special emphasis on Facebook and Twitter. It also

discussed the driving forces for businesses to joining SNS. After defining the general context

of SM and SNS, effectiveness is discussed in order to determine what this means within the

marketing aspect of SNS.

The main research question of this study is to ascertain if SNS are effective as a marketing

tool. The concept of effectiveness appears constantly in the literature reviewed, although no

definition or conceptual frame is given making it difficult to affirm whether the

implementation of SNS is effective or not. The intention of this chapter is to delineate the

conceptions that contribute to categorizing something as effective. The concept of

effectiveness has been the subject of a considerable amount of research and affirmed it

(Wilson & Gilligan 2007, p.18) to be complex to define in the marketing context.

The majority of research available on social media is of a descriptive nature (Cooke and

Buckley, 2008; Safko and Brake, 2009; Del Rey, 2009). It is explained that measurability tools

are at an immature stage and, that as a result of this, effectiveness remains questionable

(Hess & Lamontagne, 2010). Mabry & Porter (2010) also identify the lack of research related

to effectiveness of online promotional tactics.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘effective’ is defined as: ‘producing a desired or

intended result’. This confirms that effectiveness, as such, can only be determined if there is

an intended result. For example, Mabry & Porter (2010) explain Zufryden’s model of

marketing planning in their study of ‘Effectiveness of Official Websites Versus Online

Promotional Contest’ and highlight that advertising increases awareness, awareness affects

the intent and intent affects purchase and therefore, overall revenue (Zufryden quoted by

Mabry & Porter, 2010, p. 1).

36
Effectiveness in the literature reviewed seems to refer to several things but there are two

concepts that appear repetitively within the marketing context: Awareness (Mabry and Porter,

2010) and Return on Investment (Hess and Lamontagne, 2010). But effectiveness is not a

synonym of either of these concepts. Instead these can be inferred to be elements of

effectiveness or factors that are to be achieved; effectiveness is seen as the attainment of

goals.

Marketing effectiveness, for example, is determined by five major attributes of what is called

marketing orientation. This includes 1. Customer oriented philosophy, 2. Integrated

marketing organisation, 3. Adequate marketing information, 4. Strategic orientation, and 5.

Operational efficiency (Wilson & Gilligan, 2007, p.50). Effectiveness within the SNS context

could be constructed by several dimensions or categories.

The common denominator in the literature revealed that effectiveness of social media for

marketing purposes is questionable, due to the lack of pre-set measurability methods (Stuart

and Shaughnessy, 2009). However, if effectiveness relies on an intended result, then the

measure becomes part of establishing what it is to achieve in the first place.

The literature suggests that effectiveness of SM can be determined by: number of ‘liking-

clicks’; retweets or social engagement achieved in a campaign, commonly called ‘Cost-per-

engagement-models’ (Bailey, 2010), or number of customers who purchased a product (Del

Rey, 2010). This diversity of terms associated with effectiveness all match the description of a

goal. It could be implied that each organisation has its own goals and therefore effectiveness

is determined on an individual basis.

If effectiveness is conceived as a goal oriented concept then it should be determined through

the development of a step by step plan with intended goals and expected returns defined

before the implementation process is executed. The issue with setting up goals is that there

37
is a preoccupation to set as goal with outputs, such as: increased sales, greater market share

or higher profits. These are often taken to be self-evident measures of effectiveness (Wilson

& Gilligan, 2007, p. 554). Effectiveness seen as a goal oriented concept should then have

different dimensions that can be measured relatively easily by means of a checklist and

definitions of measurement in place. In this way, the weak areas can be spotted at the

evaluation stage and subsequently improved (Wilson & Gilligan, 2007, p. 50).

The concept effectiveness is therefore seen as the attainment of a goal, this goal can be

determined by various dimensions. The dimensions suggested in this study, are: Return on

Investment (ROI), Achievement of Measurability and Strategy. These three dimensions are

linked, although they are presented separately for practical purposes.

2.7 Return on Investment

Return on Investment (ROI) appears consistently in the literature reviewed as one of the

most desired outcomes of SNS. ROI is defined differently depending on its context,

accountants define ROI differently to what marketers would recognise as ROI (Ross, 2007, p.

4). This highlights the evident ambiguity of the terms used within SNS environment. But, can

ROI mean several things and not only profit? It was also found that when it comes to

measuring SNS effectiveness, there are many other measures rather than ROI, these include:

number of users, mentions, hits, clicks, etc. (Baker, 2009). Nevertheless, Zufryden’s model

(quoted by Mabry & Porter, 2010, p.1) suggests that an element such as awareness affects

the intent and the intent affects the purchase, which impacts on overall revenue, so these

elements could all be linked. Could all these outcomes be considered ROI?

A very simplified statement related to ROI is that user involvement with a site, the time spent

on the site, the number of pages viewed and the amount of personal information revealed,

can directly translate into revenue (Trusov, Budapati & Bucklin, 2010, p. 643). This statement

may be perceived as over-optimistic as the sale cycle is not concluded with the elements

mentions, however it is true that the more information that can be sourced from a user, the

38
more likely that the user can become a new costumer. It is also important to question how

reliable it is to base revenue on analytics reports. This issue will be discussed in detail in the

next section, which is related to measurability.

What has complicated the application of classical measurement modes is that online efforts’

main goals have become more about acquisition or narrowly targeted interaction and less

related to building awareness (Lamontagne & Hess, 2010). This points towards our interest to

discover whether ROI could include the concepts of awareness or public relations activity and

not necessarily the acquisition of revenue.

At the same time, any brand advertising without a quantifiable ROI is going to be under

increasing pressure in the near future (Pearse, 2009). This is the reason why it is imperative

that the any business implementing SNS increase its delivery in tracking and accountability.

Pearse’s affirmation of having a quantifiable ROI makes us assume that social networks will

only be recognized as effective when these sources are able to prove actual revenue,

although not all elements of SM are quantifiable, and this could be highlighting the need to

establishing proper metrics specifically designed for the SM ecosystem.

In contrast to this opinion, Bailey, IAB Affiliate Marketing Council chairman, declares in NMA

(2010, p. 7) that ‘There’s a need for increased transparency across all marketing channels

particularly as we move towards cost-per-engagement models’. This expert refers to

engagement as a variable to measure the effectiveness of a campaign and not ROI as such.

So far, the most popular SNS business model is based on advertising. As users click through a

site, advertisements are displayed on the web pages delivered to the users. SNS firms earn

revenue from either showing advertisements to site visitors (impressions) or being paid for

each click/action taken by site visitors in response to an advertisement (Trusov, Budapati &

Bucklin, 2010, p. 643). Yet, this kind of advertisement needs to be monitored by the

organisation or brand in order to do a follow up of what happened after the user clicked on

the advertisement. ROI is subject to the analysis of two different websites, the website in

39
which the product in being advertised and the actual website of the business or brand. The

CPC report (Cost Per Click) that advertisers provide is not sufficient to determine ROI,

because at that point, in which potential customers click on the advertisement, the SNS user

could have clicked by mistake or have left the website before reading its content, in which

there is a similar result as handing out leaflets that are thrown in the bin before being read.

This means that ROI is not immediately trackable so a constant personal tracking of the

reports produced by Facebook, that present the clicks per user, must be followed by a track

of what those users did after clicking (Del Rey, 2010). A report of clicks will not be enough to

determine ROI unless it is combined with a measurability process, from defining measurable

goals, to evaluation.

It is believed that a report of clicks has a relationship with revenue. However, that may not

necessarily indicate ROI. Seth Godin (quoted by Shaughnessy, 2010) noted that 200,000

followers led to 25 clicks in a day. The author states that this should be a cautionary

comment against thinking that it is numbers what counts, while what counts it is ideas,

referring to engagement with users by enabling conversation. The perception of the author

takes us to the social engagement aspect, in which more than measurements, the actual

communication with customers should be, under the author’s perspective the reason to join a

SNS.

ROI is a dependent outcome of the input (Stuart, 2009) in SNS the input may imply

resources, especially staffing but further than that there is a high level of engagement, time

and creativity that need to be involved. ROI is seen for the purposes of this study as a

desired outcome that is not necessarily related to sales and the investment does not

necessarily have to be monetary, as many of the SNS applications are free or at least incur

charges that are minimal compared to traditional offline advertising. However, it must be

highlighted that the main investment would be in resources, especially staffing as SNS require

close monitoring and participation.

40
In this section ROI was discussed and other components to measure effectiveness were also

identified. In the next section measurability is discussed as a dimension to determine the

effectiveness of SNS.

2.8 Measurability

SNS measurability appears amongst the most popular debates within the literature reviewed.

There are two main issues identified related to this aspect: data privacy and tools of

measurement. On one hand without the data that SNS provide, marketers and advertisers

could not measure the results of implementing SNS, and on the other hand if the information

and tools that are given are insufficient it is also impossible to conduct a proper measurement

of SNS and therefore, to determine effectiveness.

SNS are heavily dependent on the information that a site decides to share, (Stuart, 2009,

p.23). Each platform shares different information. This is because Facebook and Twitter have

to find business models that allow them to become profitable allowing users to get the

service for free. Thus advertising and using the information provided by users seems to be

the only option for generating revenue for these sites until today. Wertime & Fenwick (2008,

p.7) attribute this user’s concern to an emotionally charged issue of data privacy; users feel

nervous about the degree to which they are being tracked and analysed but, curiously, this

practice is not new. For example, Devitt, former Financial Advisor at AIB, points out in an

interview (October, 2009) that banks have used behavioural data of purchases to offer new

products that are tailored to the credit needs of their customers for many years. This

‘business analysis’ might not have raised concern in the past due to users not being as aware

of the practice as they are today.

While data privacy is still a challenge not only for SM and SNS but for the entire internet, the

main focus in this section will be on one of the most controversial aspects of the

implementation of SNS: measurability. Measurability is identified at an immature stage

(Murdough, 2009, p. 94). Some believe that without reliable tools of measurement,

41
effectiveness is not possible to be determined and that the available techniques of

measurement do not provide a full picture, Joly (2009).

The most popular tools of measurement available are able to report the number of times

users click on an ad or link, the number of times they purchase, the number of times users

submit a lead, the number of times users engage with an ad by interacting with it, or the

number of times that the user does any of the actions above mentioned. These are known

as: Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Lead (CPL), Cost per Sale (CPS), Cost per Action (CPA) and

Cost per Engagement (CPE). These are all reports of a quantitative nature. It could be

perceived that a combination of all these reports would provide a full insight of SNS and that

the measurability aspect of it is not an issue. However, these measurement tools have a high

level of imprecision due to contingency and consumer control (Murdough, 2009, p. 95)

customers can, for example, choose not to see any advertisement or never to share

commercial information with their network of contacts. However, Wilson & Gilligan (2007, p.

12) believe that as traditional media has become more digital, it has also become more

addressable and so measurable. Customers have always had the power of choice but now it

is possible to track their activity and how long they take in making a decision related to a

lead, purchase, engagement or WOM.

One of the reasons why measurement is seen as a conundrum is due to the challenges

inherent in analyzing the long-term effects that accumulate with multiple campaigns

(Lamontagne & Hess, 2010, p. 24). Another complex side of SNS measurability is that the

different quantitative measures available may be relevant for some businesses and irrelevant

for others. Furthermore, there is a need to track users’ activities after getting a CPC report,

which seems to be insufficient on its own (Stuart, 2009, 23).

It was established in the SNS features and definition chapter that the core element of these

tools was interactivity, but interactivity cannot be measured only by the number of responses

or dialogues; there are other aspects that would need to be evaluated, such as the relevance

42
of the response. The complexity of measuring SNS is that it involves interaction, involvement,

awareness, and engagement. However, not many will engage in monitoring the results

obtained from the implementation of SNS. In real day to day marketing practice many

organisations have ventured to join SNS but they do not measure its results (Wilson &

Gilligan, 2007, p. 32). This could be attributed to the low cost involved in implementing these

tools. Therefore the complexity may not totally rely on the capacities of SNS tools of

measurement but in the lack of a plan that allows evaluation of results at the end of a

campaign execution (Murdough, 2009, p. 98). For this, a brief model is suggested by

Murdough (2009, p. 94) as illustrated in Figure 2.11

Figure 2.11 - Social Media Measurement Process [Murdough, 2009, p.94]

Murdough (2009) makes reference to 5 phases that follow a cyclic process. The first phase is

to determine what is to be accomplished. This first phase, titled ‘Concept’ requires defining an

objective. This supports the idea that to determine effectiveness there must be a goal in

place; an objective is defined in order to reach a goal. Murdough (2009) suggests that the

defined objective should be measurable and that has to be aligned with key performance

indicators and the establishment of targets. This indicates that, similarly to effectiveness, a

goal for SNS implementation must be formed by various dimensions that can give a better

43
perspective of the overall result. This will make it possible to determine whether a SNS is

being effective as a marketing tool or not.

This multidimensional objective can be seen in what Murdough (2009, p. 95) presents as a

sample of SM metrics framework as illustrated in Figure 2.12

Figure 2.12 - Murdough’s sample of social media metrics framework [Murdough, 2009, p.95]

In using a multidimensional objective there is the risk of creating too many variables which

would make the evaluation process too complex. This is the reason why it is advised that the

variables are focused on only key measures.

The second phase, named ‘Definition’ requires an outline on how SM platforms can interact

with the target audience. The activities suggested to take place during this phase are 1. what

levers might influence 2. Illustrate analysis approach 3. Determine the frequency of

evaluation. This seems to be the design of a strategy treated as a plan. The definition phase

is illustrated in Figure 2.13

44
Figure 2.13 - Sample of the definition phase SM analysis suggested. [Murdough, 2009, p.96]

Murdough (2009, p. 95) states that SM monitoring and measurement quantifies the impact of

dialogue. This matches with the core element of SM: interactivity. For implementing

measurement of interactivity is suggested 1. to monitor the quantity of mentions and quality

of the authors, as some have more clout or influence over other users 2. Understand the

sentiment of the conversation amongst users, and how do these differ from what the

brand/business would like other to talk about 3. Monitor outcomes, here it is stressed the fact

that although a financial outcome may not be the goal it is imperative to measure if any form

of outcome (leads, purchases, engagement) has been achieved.

In the third phase, denominated ‘Design’ the tactics and most appropriate venues for a

brand/business SM implementation are defined. It is required in this phase to establish 1. the

performance data sources programmes from which data will be obtained from. A brief

description and some examples of these are illustrated in Figure 2.14 specify the technical

tracking hooks, that is to enlist the variables in which to focus on, depending on the goals set

as well as specifying the manual interventions (as not all analysis can be automated in these

programmes) 3. set up and configure the performance reporting tools (which are generally

customisable)

45
Figure 2.14 - Performance Data Source - Summary of descriptions

Performance Data Source Description

These tools centralize all discussions that have public access. Some
Enterprise Listening Platforms (ELP)
examples are: Radian, Techrigy and Buzz Metrics.

Semi-automated processes that pull out topic categories. Some

Text Mining Partners
examples are: LexaLytics, OntoGen and SAS.

Similar to the insights pages provided by Facebook in which a

Platform Applications Programming
dashboard displays a report of daily activity. Some examples are:
Interface
Twitalyzer, Twittercounter and Visible Measures.

Provide an insight of website visitors behaviour, including referrals from

Site Analytics Solutions SNS such as Facebook or microblogging sites like Twitter. Some

examples are: Google Analytics, Omniture, and Core Metrics.

The number of metric programmes and services are countless, but it is of great importance

that the appropriate tool is chosen in order to ensure a match with what the organisation is

seeking to achieve.

The fourth phase, ‘Deployment’ consists on ensuring that what is being seen in SM is what it

is expected, this is to ensure that the content, editorial calendars, and brand voice

consistency matches the plan. It is suggested to include three things 1. quality assurance of

the data collection methods used 2. validate performance reports by ensuring that they are

complete and contain the expected variables 3. aggregating multiple data sources in order to

populate the SM dashboard. The deployment phase seems to be an evaluation stage of the

data collection methods.

The fifth phase ‘Optimisation’ consists of reporting and evaluating all the work done in the

different stages. The three aspects that Murdough (2009, p. 98) suggests to emphasis on are

1. Reach, by quantifying the number of mentions and identifying who are the authors of

those mentions, where are these mentions taking place, i.e. Facebook, Twitter or any other

SM tool 2. Discussions, identifying which are the main topics that users are talking about in

46
relation to the brand/business, as well as what the tone of the conversation is, if positive or

negative 3. Outcomes, identifying the referral site sources, i.e. monitoring the business’s

website to find where the traffic is coming from, what site is referring users to that specific

site, as well as the level of engagement as a result of SM implementation, by observing the

time that a user spends in a specific page.

The five phases proposed by Murdough (2009) are a very comprehensive measurement plan

that could set the first attempt to a model for SNS effectiveness measurement. However,

there are elements that have been included but the simplicity in which they are suggested to

be analysed could unbalance the measures. This is the case of the level of engagement which

can be found in reports and metrics but it can also be easily misinterpreted.

In this section it has been identified that data privacy policies limit the access of information

of users of SNS but businesses should accept the fact that this will remain controversial and

make use of the information available. Moreover, the main issue is that many businesses

cannot determine SNS effectiveness due to the lack of a plan or strategy. It was also

reviewed Murdough’s (2009) SM measurement process in order to provide a guideline or

reference that will contribute to identify core elements that could enable a more accurate SNS

measurement process and therefore to determine SNS effectiveness.

2.9 Strategy

Effectiveness has been discussed in the previous sections and it was concluded to be a goal

oriented, multidimensional concept that is formed by various elements. In determining

effectiveness it is necessary to set goals and objectives that give a clear sense of direction. It

was found in literature reviewed that having a plan or strategy is crucial to this task. In this

section strategy is defined and discussed with the aim of understanding if strategy impacts on

determining effectiveness.

The literature reviewed suggests that the best practice in order to achieve measurability and

therefore and effective SNS implementation is to start designing a strategy. It is emphasized

47
that starting with a strategy direction is essential in order to determine metrics that explain

what success means (Shih, 2009, 146).

Strategy is a common term within business literature, although some authors only refer to it

as ‘plan’. In this aspect there are two contrasting opinions; on one hand Hambrick &

Frederickson believe that the concept of strategy is becoming a catchall term and that it

needs to be used appropriately. Contrasting with this, Mintzberg (1987) believes that

strategy can be seen with certain flexibility. The terms used in this context vary: Business

Strategy, Marketing Strategy, SM Strategy, SNS Strategy, Facebook Strategy, Twitter

Strategy, etc. These are all terms mentioned in the literature on SM and SNS topics. These

concepts are used to refer to: goals, targets, achievements, objectives, results, returns, and

even revenues, interchangeably. It is indeed a concept constantly used with several

meanings.

However, strategic management cannot rely in one definition of strategy, so it is necessary to

give the term an intrinsic flexible nature seeing strategy as a plan, pattern, position, or

perspective (Mintzberg, 1987)

Even though literature indicates that the answer to successful social media implementation

can only be arrived at through the design of a strategy, there has been minimal mention of

the topic in descriptive resources. Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001) stress that the lack of

strategy can result in a waste of resources and time and disjointed initiatives. This highlights

the importance of understanding first, what a strategy is, but with the eclectic meaning

suggested by Mintzberg (1987) in order to complement all its parts.

While having a plan is indicated as an essential part of SNS implementation for marketing

purposes, it is rarely explained that this plan should be aligned with the overall strategy of

the organisation. Effectiveness is determined in this study as a multidimensional goal oriented

concept, and if the goals to be achieved by SNS do not match the overall strategy of the

48
organisation it is less likely that SNS will be considered effective. So, what place does strategy

have in the determination of effectiveness?

In Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) model it is highlighted that strategy, which is illustrated in

Figure 2.15, should be an integrated externally oriented concept that is guided by objectives

and an established mission. Many organisations worry the most about inputs, such as

strategic analysis but an equally real important element is the output, the strategy which

sometimes receives less attention. Finally, the strategy must be made relevant to all

Supporting Organisational Arrangements, which include all the operations of the organisation.

Figure 2.15 – [Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001, p. 50)]

Therefore, if an organisation has an overall strategy, a set objective and mission, then the

implementation of SNS should follow similar principles which do not necessarily mean that

they have to be identical, but the essence of the goal should be focused towards the same

direction.

49
There are five parts to strategy content; a set of choices suggested by Hambrick &

Fredrickson, (2001) treated as a unit and that cannot be considered in isolation: Arenas,

Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging and Economic Logic as shown in the Figure 2.16

Figure 2.16 - The five major elements of Strategy, by Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001, p. 51)

The Arenas refer to where the organization is active, what exactly is the business it is in and

how much emphasis is placed to each category. Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001) underline the

importance of being as specific as possible when it comes to determining the product

categories, market segments, geographic areas, and core technologies, as well as the value-

adding strategies.

Vehicles are the means of transport through which the organization will reach the intended

arenas. Some examples of vehicles are internal development, local acquisitions, licensing,

joint ventures, etc. It is important to clearly define the vehicles as a failure in this part of the

strategy can result in extra costs, delays and an evaluation of the most appropriate means of

achieving the objectives of the strategy.

50
The third component of Hambrick and Fredrickson’s model (2001) is ‘Differentiators’. These

define how the organization will win in the marketplace, in other words what will make

customers chose our business over others. This component is self-explanatory, but it is not as

simple as it sounds; differentiators can be intended but the challenge is to make up-front

choices.

Staging is the next component of this model, which is the speed and sequence of the

organisation’s moves and initiatives. The driving forces of staging are influenced by a number

of factors, such as: resources, urgency, achievement of credibility, and early wins.

Finally, the fifth component of Hambrick and Fredrickson’s (2001) model is ‘Economic Logic’

this explains how profits will be generated. When the author’s refer to profits, they talk about

profits above the organisation’s cost of capital.

The model presented by Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001) also states that it is regular practice

to put more emphasis in two or three elements, but no strategy will be properly developed

without attention to all five components mentioned. Hambrick and Fredrickson’s (2001)

model is used to analyse the strategy of the case study presented in this research.

As an output, the implementation of SNS is then identified as one activity that forms part of a

component (perhaps more) of the overall strategy. Consequently a SNS plan should,

theoretically, be a reflection the objectives of the organisation. At the same time,

implementing SNS should also have an input into the strategic analysis of the organisation,

because SNS have the potential to provide with feedback, from external forces such as:

customers and competitors.

In order to determine effectiveness of SNS in the marketing field, it must be first considered

that effectiveness is seen as a multidimensional concept. The dimensions identified in the

51
literature are: Expected outcomes, Measurability, and Strategy. These dimensions are also

constructed by different categories identified in the literature review, such as: ROI,

Awareness, Engagement, Involvement, Plans, Evaluation, etc.

These components and dimensions and dimensions, aligned with the goals and objectives of

the organisation, will be assembled in a coherent whole in the conceptual framework which

follows.

2.10 Conceptual Framework

SM is defined in this study as a set of web-based media tools, similar to offline media that

allows people to interact by generating and broadcasting their own content with the means to

socialize and/or share information of interest through the internet. The content can be of a

personal, professional or commercial character.

There is a wide range of SM tools, and the scope of this study is limited to two SNS:

Facebook and Twitter. In this study, the case chosen to be analysed is Griffith College Dublin,

a third level education organisation that is already using SNS for marketing purposes, leaving

behind the debate of whether to join or not SNS. However, during the data collection process

the reasons for joining SNS were asked during the interview process in order to compare the

findings of the literature reviewed with the findings of the study.

In the existing descriptive literature of SM there are references to business concepts that

seemed to be used interchangeably to mean different things, but eclecticism in the

terminology and flexibility is suggested as a positive practice (Mintzberg, 1987) The literature

available suggested that it is not the meaning in itself that matters, but what the terminology

signifies within the SM context. In order to assess the use of SNS in the case study it is

necessary to have some concept of what was the intention of its implementation. Thus

strategy concepts are used.

52
Strategy is often used to refer to plans and objectives. Mintzberg (1987) suggests that

strategy is consistency in behaviour. Strategy can be a plan or a pattern; amongst other

concepts of the term outlined by Mintzberg. The eclecticism of the term strategy is criticized

by Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) who argue that strategy is being used as a ‘catchall’

term. They also explain a model composed of five elements that should constitute strategy

content: Arenas, Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging and Economic Logic.

Strategy in this study is seen as a pattern, using Hambrick and Fredrickson’s (2001) model to

describe content which is only inferred strategy due to the lack of an articulated strategy for

the organisation.

Effectiveness is another term that may be seen as a broad variable for analysis, the literature

reviewed confirmed that effectiveness is interpreted in different ways and that what defines

effectiveness relies in the expectations, hopes or what the organisation aims to achieve.

Based on the different views found it was concluded that in order to determine effectiveness

of SNS effectiveness is seen as a multidimensional, goal oriented concept that can be formed

by two main elements: expected outcomes and pre-set measurability processes; and these

components of effectiveness are constituted by other elements such as ; ROI and

Measurability.

ROI appears constantly as one of the intended results or main goals of the implementation of

SNS as marketing tool. The literature suggested that, in a similar way to the other concepts,

this requires some flexibility. From the accountancy point of view the concept should translate

into profits. From the marketing point of view, this should translate into awareness and from

the PR point of view, this should be social engagement. The lliterature reviewed found ROI as

one of the most expected outcomes and generally interpreted as a term linked to monetary

return/revenue but in this study is treated as a mix of results expected, seen as constructions

of effectiveness.

53
Measurability has been argued to be the weakest side of SM, as the reports provided do not

reflect an overall view of results. Therefore, measurability is treated in this study as a set of

considerations that can only be defined if there is a goal. Measurability is also seen as an

evaluation process of what the organisation wanted to achieve and what was obtained.

Murdough’s process to measure SM was explained and it will be taken as a reference to

identify core elements of the process of measurement used by Griffith College Dublin.

2.11 Conclusion

This chapter presented the literature reviewed by introducing to core terminology of the

research and discussing the concepts effectiveness, strategy and measurability. A conceptual

framework was constructed based on the literature in order to outline themes that can

contribute to the data analysis, findings and conclusions of this study. Chapter III will deal

with the research design and strategy, including data collection methods and data analysis.

54
3 Chapter III. Methodology – A research design for exploring SNS use in a
single case

3.1 Introduction

The previous chapter presented the literature reviewed and it discussed the concepts

effectiveness, strategy and measurability. The conceptual framework was constructed based

on the themes that emerged from literature reviewed and that will contribute to the data

analysis, findings and conclusions of this study.

This chapter will review the research design and research strategy. The chapter commences

by introducing to the research paradigm and then it explains the research design as well as

the data collection methods. Finally, the chapter concludes with the data analysis and the

code book construction.

3.2 Research Paradigm

The nature of this research paradigm and research strategy is primary exploratory, the aim

being to explore if SNS are an effective marketing tool through a case study. For this

purpose, effectiveness is treated as a multidimensional, goal oriented concept.

The research questions intended to be answered in this study are:

1. How can the effectiveness of SM be defined within the marketing context?

2. Are SNS effective as a marketing tool?

In order to answer these questions an extensive literature review has been conducted. The

limited extent of research available information indicated a need of further research that can

provide a better understanding of effectiveness of SNS within the marketing field. For this

purpose, primary research will be conducted by presenting a single case study based on

Griffith College Dublin, a third level education organisation that implemented SNS in 2008.

55
The paradigm for this research is influenced by an interpretativist approach, the endeavor

being to explore the use of SNS in Griffith College using a case study strategy for the

research.

A case study for the strategy for the research allows for an extensive examination of the SNS

phenomena in a rich content which enables the collection of a wide variety of data from

different sources. This varied and rich data makes it possible to discuss and interpret the

findings in the context of the literature where definitions of effectiveness, strategy and

measurability are contestable, broad and, at times, ambiguous.

The subject of study was characterized by ideas, meanings, motivations and human behavior

and this suggested the need of flexibility. The process of interpretation involved reflection on

the data, the formulation of exploratory questions and writing the reflections and inferences

in memos/notes (Robson, 2002). The exploratory research approach is further justified by the

following reasons:

1. There is specific information that has not been found through the literature review,
this information is crucial to satisfy the research questions of this study.
Subsequently, it has been identified the need of further primary research.
2. There is very limited evidence of standardized measurement models and/or concepts
to determine the effectiveness of SNS. This could limit improvements in this field.

3. There is evidence obtained through the literature review that supports the need of
replicating successful cases of SNS implementation, in order to improve the social
media marketing field, (Milman, 2010). By presenting a case study the aim is to
answer the research questions and provide with an example that is useful for further
research in the field.

3.3 Research Design

In the previous section the research questions were reviewed and a brief introduction to the

exploration and understanding research paradigm and research strategy for this study was

presented. In this section the research design is explained.

56
In order to answer the research questions, a flexible research strategy was designed a case

study using multiple methods of data collection. The rationale behind choosing a case study

was it allowed for the exploration and understanding of a particular phenomenon, SNS, that

needs to be documented within its real life context.

3.3.1 Planning & Creation of Research

The planning stage of this study is based on what Robson (2003) suggests should be

included in the research design of a case study: the selection of a single case, the study of

the case in its context and the collection of data through different techniques, such as

interviews, observation and reflection. These stages are briefly outlined below and will be

further developed in its corresponding sections.

3.3.2 Selection of a Single Case

The choice of the single case was established before any research was executed. The

selection criteria were: suitability, appropriateness, and information access. The case study

focused on Griffith College Dublin (GCD), a third level education organisation that

implemented SNS in 2008.

3.3.3 Study of the case in its context

The study of the context of this case is focused on three factors; the context in which GCD’s

marketing staff decided to implement SNS as a marketing tool, the inferred strategy of the

organisation and the SNS regular practices of the organisation.

3.3.4 Data Collection

The sources of data collection were face-to-face interviews with staff of the marketing

department of GCD, observation of the two accounts implemented by the organisation:

Facebook and Twitter, and input of own reflections obtained as the manager of SNS in the

57
college. Finally, the data collected was used to conduct inferences in order to contrast these

with the literature review in order to establish the findings of the study.

3.4 Data Collection Methods

Consistent with the paradigm and research strategy for this study, qualitative methods of

data collection were used. The data collection methods used for this study focused on face-

to-face interviews, observation of Facebook and Twitter accounts and input of own

reflections. A chronological order was followed for the data collection methods:

1. Analysis of the context of the selected case.

2. Face-to-face interviews to marketing staff members.
3. Observation of SNS activity and measurement activities.
4. Own reflections as active participant of SNS implementation.

3.4.1 Face-to-Face Interviews

Semi-structured interviews were used for collecting the perspectives of marketing staff of

GCD in regards to SNS implementation as a marketing tool. The design of the interviews was

based on the literature reviewed but more specifically in the conceptual frame given that it

underlined the mains themes: effectiveness as multidimensional goal oriented concept,

strategy and expected outcomes. During the first stage of the interviews, potential candidates

were invited to participate. The invitation was distributed by email explaining the research

questions and the significance of the study (a sample of the invitation can be seen I Appendix

A). The invitation was only distributed to staff dedicated to the Irish market, the rationale

behind it was to narrow the scope of study. A total of four interviews were conducted, this

represents 100% of GCD’s marketing staff dedicated to the Irish market. There are another

four members dedicated to overseas markets, in this context, four interviews would represent

50% of total marketing staff.

58
3.4.2 Profile of Respondents

The participants were primarily female, three out of four participants. The predominant age

of the respondents was between 28 – 35 years old. One interviewee hail from a technological

background, two came from marketing backgrounds and one from journalism and business.

Two out of four participants were active users of SNS and had personal Facebook and Twitter

accounts before the implementation of SNS in the organisation. The roles of the respondents

were similar, focused in marketing activities for the recruitment of Irish students. There was

only one exception, as one of the interviewees monitors and controls the organisation’s

website and is not directly related to marketing activities but does have relevant input to

marketing materials. The relevance of the respondent’s profiles is related to the fact that they

were familiar with the jargon and online marketing activities, and are active implementers of

marketing activities.

The interviews were conducted in private rooms on the main campus of the college and audio

recorded. The pre-structured questions were the ones related to effectiveness, strategy, ROI

and measurability. The questions did not have a specific order, instead the flow of questions

rely on the previous answer given by the interviewee, with the intention to find their beliefs,

experience and perceptions. Some of the pre-structured questions included were:

- What is your role?

- Do you participate of the SNS activities implemented by the college?

- Should organisations implement SNS as marketing tool?

- Is there a plan of SNS in place that is being followed?

- What influence does ‘strategy’ have on the use of SNS?

- Does the strategy explicitly include SNS?

- How would you define effectiveness?

- What makes SNS effective?

- How would you define ROI?

- Are SNS a PR or a marketing tool?

- How do you feel about receiving feedback from SNS users?

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 - How market orientated is this organisation?

These questions drawn a line in which the interviewee could add or express opinions and

they were conducted in a conversational tone to encourage the person to provide with as

much detail as possible. Each interview took up to one and a half hours.

The interviews collected were interpreted based on the themes outlined in the conceptual

framework and the code book used for this purpose is fully explained in the data analysis

section below.

3.4.3 Observation

Due to the exploratory nature of this study observation was considered a suitable data

collection method to complement the context of the organisation and the interviews carried

out. Observation as a method includes a full range of monitoring activities and conditions;

these can be classified in behavioural and non-behavioural observation. One of the prevalent

forms of non-behavioural observation methods is record analysis (Cooper & Schindler, 1998,

p. 364) which involves the observation of marketing files of GCD’s SNS activities. The scope

of the observation was defined by the conceptual framework given in this study in order to

bound and focus the coding process used to interpret the data collected and to specify the

observation content.

The SNS chosen to be observed were Twitter and Facebook. The reason of this choice was

that GCD opened accounts in both sites in 2008, this representing a very valuable source of

data recorded of at least a year of SNS interaction. The observation of Facebook and Twitter

involved a scanning process which identified the relevant excerpts that could contribute

towards answering the research question and that were directly linked to the themes referred

in the conceptual framework. These included:

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 1. Comments, private messages and/or interactions that contained specific feedback or

enquiries.

2. Insights reports, that displayed the comparison of GCD’s website traffic before and

after the implementation of SNS.

The recording process of the excerpts consisted of taking screen shots that were copied and

pasted in word processor, adding self memos and notes with reflections similar to a diary.

This provided two components: 1. Observations and 2. Self memos and reflections. The data

collected was then coded. The codes used for the interpretation of data will be explained in

detail in the data analysis chapter.

This section outlined the methods used for data collection. The following section will detail

the data analysis stage and the code book implemented for the interpretation of the data

collected.

3.5 Data Analysis

The aim of this section is to explain the data analysis approach as well as the code book

designed to achieve this objective. The approach taken for the data analysis of this study is of

an exploratory and qualitative nature and as such it allowed enough flexibility to address the

research questions in an exploratory manner which involves the search of indications and

evidence (Cooper & Schindler, 1998, p. 426) to support conclusions.

In the literature reviewed effectiveness appears as an undefined concept with several

meanings linked to several constructs, in which some patterns or consistencies of description

where identified. The patterns observed in the various descriptions of effectiveness helped to

bound the term to a multidimensional, goal oriented concept and its dimensions were named;

expected outcomes and measurement processes. These dimensions contain, at the same

time, categories such as: ROI, awareness, interactivity, metrics and evaluation.

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This critical constructs was taken to assign a code that contributed to the categorisation and

better understanding of data collected. The codebook functioned as a guide for the

researcher and contains the specifications of the application of the coding rules to the

different concepts (Cooper & Schindler, 1998, p. 414).

The main concept that had the most attention in order to reach a better understanding in this

study was: effectiveness, which presented patterns of definitions rather than absolute

definitions. The consistencies of description found were, to certain degree, an extended

version of the concept in which effectiveness is seen as a concept formed or assembled by

various dimensionalities.

Based on the literature reviewed a set of themes was identified and expanded in the

conceptual framework. The themes identified were: strategy, effectiveness, ROI and

measurability. The themes will be taken as codes, specifying the application of it through a

definition (Cooper & Schindler, 1998, p.414). The coding process will contribute to identify

the relevant pieces of data (Zikmund, 2003, p.465) at the data analysis stage. It is illustrated

in Figure 3.1 the final code book used for the data analysis stage of this study.

Figure 3.1. Code Book

Concept/Theme Definition Examples

Effectiveness Multidimensional goal oriented concept Goal

determined by producing a desired result.
Checklist
Objective

Dimensionalities of the Concept

Outcome Desired Result. ROI

Awareness
Interaction
Revenue

Strategy Consistency in behaviour. Plan, Pattern

Measurability Process through which something can be Evaluation Stage

quantified.
Quantitative Process

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The concept/themes used to organise or categorise the data were established were a priori to

the data analysis stage. This coding was applied to the data and revisions were made as

necessary and are shown in the initial code book version in Appendix B.

The themes included in the code book worked as key words and indicators of the data that

was more relevant to the study. Once that a key word or quote matched the description of

the theme, this was highlighted and reflections were made on the side in order to categorize

the findings. A sample of this process is illustrated in Appendix C.

3.6 Conclusion

The objective of this chapter was to explain the methodology and research design

implemented for exploratory, qualitative and interpretative research. For the purposes of this

research a case study was chosen as a research strategy, in which interviews and observation

were the main data collection source. The data collected was analysed through a code book

which built on different themes and its subcategories in order to give clarity and organise

data. The themes were modified as new codes emerged from the data collection methods.

Chapter IV will report and interpret the findings of this study. The discussion of the findings is

based on the themes identified and established in the codebook which was outlined in the

conceptual framework and that was developed from a review of the literature.

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4 Chapter IV. Findings on the effectiveness of SNS

4.1 Introduction

The previous chapter reviewed the research design and strategy implemented for this study.

A case study was chosen as a research strategy, in which interviews and observation were

the main sources of data collection. This chapter reports and interprets. The context of the

organisation is provided as a starting point; then the inferred strategy of the organisation is

outlined following Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) model, subsequently the findings related

to the concepts effectiveness, ROI and measurability are discussed. Finally, the chapter

concludes by answering the research questions addressed in this study and making general

recommendations.

This study is an interpretative exploration of the effectiveness of SNS as a marketing tool.

The conceptual framework developed is based on issues identified in the literature reviewed,

providing a number of themes in which this interpretation was based. Some of the themes

were developed from emerging concepts which arose from the data collected.

4.2 The case context - GCD

Griffith College is a third level education organisation established in 1974 which offers a range

of Diplomas, Higher Certificates, Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees in various

disciplines: Business, Law, Accountancy, Design, Journalism & Media, Computing, and Music

& Drama. The context is limited to the Dublin location. There are also other locations in

Ireland; Cork and Limerick and internationally; Karachi, Pakistan and Moscow, Russia. The

Dublin location of the college has on average of 182 full time staff in addition to a part time

staff of approximately 150.

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4.2.1 Strategy

The literature suggested that the first step to the implementation of SNS should include a

plan, a strategy. The concept of strategy used in the study is one that requires flexibility and

that can be seen as plan or pattern.

In the case of GCD the overall strategy was not very evident or found to be openly

communicated; there was no formal evidence of it in either on the website or amongst

internal communication manuals/publications. This reflected in the interviews in which all

participants affirmed that there was no strategy officially communicated at a corporate level.

However a marketing strategy was mentioned and also plans of the organisation, which

under the flexible concept outlined in the framework could be recognized which involves

seeing strategy as a plan or pattern.

While no document was found that outlined an official strategy, the pattern followed by the

organisation has been broadly consistent and it was inferred from the observed day to day

operations. In the following interpretation, Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) model is used to

identify the different components of the organisation’s inferred strategy.

4.2.1.1 Arenas
The specific arenas of the organisation can be divided in categories: product categories,

market segments, geographic areas and value adding activities. The product categories of

this organisation are: undergraduate courses, postgraduate courses, technical courses, short-

term courses, and corporate training courses. The market segments are defined per product

category, each category targets different segments.

The undergraduate product category focuses on an age group between 18 – 23+ years old,

Leaving Certificate Students, FETAC Graduates, Mature Applicants (23 years or more) and

High School Graduates from all over the world.

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In the postgraduate courses product category, the market segment is focused on a group age

of 23 – 60 years old. Graduates and mature students with relevant experience in a

professional area who do not hold a primary degree but would like to join a masters degree.

The professional courses, technical courses and corporate training courses are focused on

offering technical skills through short-term courses to a wide range of ages from 20 – 60

years old. These courses are predominantly offered with the intention of upskilling

participants in a specific discipline.

The product category is not only limited to the qualification that students achieve, but also to

the disciplines in which they can obtain a degree in. In the undergraduate category, students

can obtain qualifications in: Business, Accountancy, Law, Computing, Journalism, Media, and

Design.

In the product category of postgraduate qualifications, students can pursuit qualifications in:

International Business, Accounting & Finance, International Law, Computing Science, Applied

Digital Media, Training & Education, Journalism & Media Communications, and Music

Education.

In the professional courses category the range of courses offered work on the same basis of

the areas offered in the other two product categories. Due to the extensive number of

courses these will be summarized in topics related to: Business, Marketing, Office Skills,

Computing, Finances, Law, Accountancy and Counseling & Psychotherapy.

The geographic areas have a strong emphasis in an international profile, by covering: major

European markets (Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, UK, etc.); Asia: China, Japan,

Korea, India, Pakistan, and Thailand; North America: Canada & USA; Latin America: Mexico,

Columbia, Chile, Venezuela, and Brazil.

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Some efforts have also been implemented in African and Middle East markets, although the

processes to obtain visas for students has played the major limiting factor that has prevented

the further development of this market.

The value creation stages are the extended application season, the validation/accreditation

provided by internationally recognized bodies, the highly qualified team of lecturers who are

also active participants of different industries and the highly international environment on

campus.

The Arenas were inferred from many sources, including the general prospectus, marketing

materials and summer advertising campaigns. The latter are presented in here as an example

in a line between age groups and courses orientated towards one group or the other can be

clearly seen. Figure 4.1

Figure 4.1 - Advertising directed to different age groups, depending on the qualification offered - Arenas

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4.2.1.2 Vehicles
The organisation uses as vehicles: internal development by recruiting mobility agents that

work specifically for Griffith in different designated areas; through licensing by signing

agreements with study-and-travel agencies all over the world to increase the promotion and

recruitment efforts; through acquisitions of colleges/organisations in national regions, such as

Cork and Limerick and also in key market countries, i.e. Pakistan, China and Russia. There

are also other vehicles such as alliances with accrediting bodies (NTU, ICM, etc.) and

licensing (HETAC/FETAC)

4.2.1.3 Differentiators
The organisation reflects several efforts of differentiation that can be described in three main

categories: Image, Customer Service and Pricing. The image of the organisation focuses on

delivering a message that communicates the reputation that the organisation enjoys in

comparison to other similar organisations. A common example of this was found through the

constant mention of prize winner, and award winning phrases. Figure 4.2

Figure 4.2 - Prize winners as a core message to differentiate from competitors.

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Another example of the message intended to be delivered is the one that appears in the

website, in which the organisation is self described as the first private independent third level

education organisation leading in the market. The high academic quality taught by highly

qualified and experienced lecturers, as well as the formal accreditation given by

internationally recognized bodies such as HETAC, and universities like: Nottingham Trent

University are all also mentioned.

The image of the organisation is communicated in all channels of interest for the specific

target, this includes: newspapers, posters, billboards, education supplements, radio stations,

television, leaflets and promotional materials (USB keys, bags, pens, rulers, etc.) and since

2008 the organisation has also implemented the usage of SNS; including accounts in:

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meebo, Bebo, Skype and MSN.

Griffith College Dublin became an early implementer of SNS within the education industry by

including SNS since 2008 in which only a few third level education organisations had joined

SNS and until today many remain skeptical as to its reach. This is considered a differentiator

by the organisation and it has also been recognized by organisations like ICOS (Irish Council

for International Students) which invited Griffith College representatives to give a conference

in SNS implementation for educational organisations.

In the international markets, similar efforts are implemented but there is no above the line

advertising, with the exception of: Russia, Pakistan and China. Instead, there are printed

promotional materials exclusively designed in other languages, such as: Chinese, Japanese,

Korean, French, German, Polish, Urdu, Spanish and Portuguese. The implementation of SNS

is tailored to the preferences of each country. For example, in Brazil and India, the majority

of SNS users prefer Hi5 over Facebook and promotional materials are designed with online

interactive features, such as electronic brochures (eBrochures) that can be added to the

different SNS of each country.

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Another element that the organisation has tried to stress is the size of the main campus in

Dublin. This was decided based on the results obtained through three focus groups

conducted as part of a brand progression process that aimed to improve the advertising

presence and image of the college. One of the findings was that prospective students were

not aware of the size of the campus. Since then, the size of the campus message is delivered

through imagery in promotional materials, website, and advertising efforts by making visual

reference of it.

Customer service is another differentiator category which the college has aspired to improve.

Different stages of the process have been identified with customer service mainly focused on:

application turnaround, communication of the different stages of the admission process,

delivery of successful offer letter, welcome and registration of the new student. The founders

and directors of the organisation have shown particular interest in developing an organisation

with a highly personalized service, where the students can feel at home. It could be inferred

that this is the reason why the main marketing efforts are focused on direct marketing. In the

prospectus of the college for example, each faculty is presented with a brief introduction

called ‘Best Bits of Griffith College’. This enlists a number of unique selling points, one of

them stresses the importance of the size of the classes which allows a better supervision of

the students and consequently the lecturer can closely follow up the progress and

weaknesses of students enabling constant feedback and further personal and professional

development.

Contrasting the message that is being delivered (largest independent college) and the highly

personalized customer service that the organisation seems to pursuit; this could be a

challenging objective in which Griffith College should have a large number of staff and a

system in place to follow up on students closely or to implement a very selective process of

admission that guarantee smaller groups that can be closely supervised by staff.

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Another aspirational differentiator is the turnaround of the application process. The college is

open to receiving applications all year round for international and national students. This

provides flexibility to applicants. For example; Irish students who are left without options

after the CAO (Central Applications Office) allocation of offers can still apply to the college at

a very late stage. On the other hand, early applications for international students are

convenient because this gives a better frame of time for them to obtain their visa to enter the

country and plan their studies abroad well ahead of the commencing date.

The applications process as the quality assurance manual indicates should ensure that an

applicant receives constant communication of the process, and an official offer letter should

be sent to the successful applicant within 10 working days. The speed in the process is an

aspiration that is part of the customer service differentiator.

A 10 day turnaround of the application process seems an attractive differentiator and this is

feasible during the low season of applications. However, in the normal working of the

admissions department, only two staff members, one senior and one junior, process an

average of 50 applications a day during high season, making the goal of 10 working days

nearly impossible to meet during the highest season.

While the admission process takes place, the customer service process is followed up by the

marketing department staff, keeping the applicant informed and interested in the course by

inviting them to a tour of the campus and a visit with a staff member of the particular course

that they are interested in. There are no career counsellors on campus, but the marketing

staff members help the student to identify the key areas in which they must focus in order to

make a decision. Prospective students are informed of:

- All courses available

- Content of the courses
- Career Prospects and Progression
- Facilities on Campus

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 - Process of Application
- Admissions Selection
- Fees and Registration

This informative session provides prospective students with an overview of the organisation

and it also opens the opportunity to marketers to deliver to the student the unique selling

points of the courses. Although there are ‘Open Days/Evenings’ offered by the organisation

for informative purposes, prospective students are invited to visit the main campus during

office hours.

The process follows a pattern that is briefly explained here: from the enquiry stage,

prospective students are offered an information pack, an electronic brochure sent to their

email addresses or to be part of the ‘news and updates’ of the college through SMS. The

candidate is then assigned to a specific agent, i.e. postgraduate marketing executive,

undergraduate marketing executive, or international marketing executive.

Those students enquiring through SNS are also assigned a marketing executive once all their

details have been obtained (some students may not display their email address or any other

details on SNS). In the case that there is no email available to contact the student, the

communication is established directly online by the SNS manager and the student is

encouraged to contact the generic email address of the college.

The messages sent out after the first call/email or message through SNS, are tailored to give

a brief overview of the students’ course of interest, related disciplines to their interests and

the message is deliver in a casual-friendly format. The customer service that is practiced on a

daily basis shows a pattern followed by staff members although there was no evidence of an

actual manual of which staff were aware of.

First, the enquirer makes contact with the organisation and all their data is collected, this is

then inputted using software called ‘Scholar’. This software serves as a CRM system, but the

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core activity of this software is not for CRM purposes, which makes the process of follow up

complicated. In order to identify the sources from where the enquirers requested more

information there is a field called ‘source’ in which the options of ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’

were introduced a year after implementing SNS.

Second, students are informed of the status of the application; whether further

documentation is required or it is confirmed that they will be contacted in 10 working days. A

third stage is when the student has been offered a place. At this stage students receive a

‘happy call’ to congratulate them and to welcome the student to the college. Finally, the

student is given a registration and induction pack and are also informed of the fee payment

process.

In theory, the process seems simple to follow although in reality these steps are harder to be

achieved; the lack of a real CRM makes difficult to know what stage an applicant is at. Adding

to this difficulty is that the search has to be done manually, representing a major task when it

comes to serving groups instead of individual applications. Another factor that makes the

process complex for new students is that a new registration online system, implemented in

2009, is heavily dependant on the information coming from Scholar, which can be easily left

behind as the software does not have an automated alerting system.

It is clear that the intended objective of the system in place is to achieve a good customer

service experience through personalized contact with prospective students, although not all

resources in place support this intent.

A final stage of the customer service process involves an annual survey of 1st year students

that aims to collect data about how students first heard about the college, what kind of

advertising was the most attractive to them, their first impressions of the college, and their

feedback on their overall experience as customers.

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Personalized customer service would match the strategy pattern of the organisation, if all the

elements required for its execution were met. The process of follow up on prospective

students could be easily mirrored by competitors. What makes it a weak differentiator is that

should be closely observed and constantly improved in order to stand out from what other

third level education organisations are doing to recruit students.

4.2.1.4 Pricing
The pricing strategy of the college is consistent with the image/message that is being

delivered. Griffith College is a fee paying organisation with higher rates than their

competitors’ offer. For Irish students for example, private colleges are not their first choice,

as the public sector offers education for free based on a grade competitive basis. In the

international market, fees are expected to be considerably high comparing to their home

countries, due to currency exchange rates and cost of living.

At the time that this study took place; the organisation has not increased fees in nearly two

years due to the economic environment. Instead, for the first time flexible programmes that

allow the payment of fees in instalments are being offered to encourage students to join the

college. This facility matches the intention of offering good customer service to prospective

students. However, at the same time it adds one stage more to the admission process;

assessing if the candidate is eligible to pay in instalments.

4.2.1.5 Staging
Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) explain that staging is driven by four factors, the first of

these is, resources. This organisation is not the exception, staffing and budgeting seems to

be the first consideration to decide on the speed and sequence of their moves.

The intended strategy and particular objectives of each department in the college can be

seriously affected by staff and budget. The resources have to suffice the demands of the

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objective. For example, in the case of the intended objective of highly personalized customer

service the goal is achievable with a certain number of staff.

At the academic level, the college has with a training and development department that

ensures the constant review and creation of programmes that fulfill the demands of the

different professional fields as well as new types of education. This is a principal issue for an

educational organisation to focus on and in which the majority of its resources should be

invested in. However, this is a decision that management may take depending on the

direction that they think the organisation should take.

International markets also highlight the second part to the staging component of strategy;

urgency. Not all, but some countries may offer an opportunity for the organisation to keep

growing and these should be approached first and aggressively (Hambrick & Fredrickson,

2001, p. 53). An example of this would be that after the Indian and Chinese markets

experienced dramatic falls in number of students recruited, the European market experienced

growth especially in countries like Germany, Norway and France; which at the same time

obtained the highest budgets allocated by the college.

Establishing contact with other markets through acquisitions, investments or licensing

involves also the third part of the staging component of a strategy: credibility. The credentials

of the college have played a major role in obtaining new partnerships nationally and

internationally. The college holds a very strong network of contacts that includes validation

bodies for different disciplines as well as partnerships with universities that recognize its

programmes.

The fourth factor to the staging component of a strategy is the pursuit of early wins which

implies focusing in executing a small part of the strategy that is doable before attempting

unfamiliar initiatives. This has been so far one of the aspects that could be easily identified in

the organisation’s implied strategy; many of the international markets have been entered into

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simultaneously but with limited resources which has resulted in few unsuccessful attempts

and just a few consolidated markets.

In the academic area, early wins have been evident through the development of short-

courses or accreditations that offer students a progression into higher qualifications or offers

them to exit with different awards.

4.2.1.6 Economic Logic

The differentiators component of the organisation’s strategy strongly indicated a desire to

provide a high quality customer service. The customer service process is highly market

orientated and seeks to complete the sales cycle by keeping the prospective student

interested through constant communication from the enquiry stage to the after sales stage.

The source of income of the organisation are the fees paid by students. In comparison to

competitors, this college has higher fees. Through the pricing offered by the college, it could

be inferred that Griffith College is focused on offering premium prices for the quality of the

service, from the aspired highly personalize customer service to the academic level offered by

experienced lecturers and researchers.

In concluding on strategy, the organisation does not have a formally communicated strategy,

but it does have a pattern that has been followed for years. The mission and vision of the

college are not officially stated in the website, or in promotional materials. However, being an

educational organisation an inferred mission could orientated towards promoting knowledge

and building partnerships.

The overall objectives of the organisation based on the inference of promoting knowledge

should reflect an academic aim but in the other hand should also integrate the fact that the

organisation expects a profit from its operations, and as such it should include the generation

of revenue too.

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Taking the five elements that compose strategy proposed by Hambrick & Fredrickson (2001),

the college operates in the arenas of undergraduate, postgraduate, short-term and

professional courses that correspond to third level education. Its target market can be

segmented in ages, although the offer is open to all ages as long as they are over 18 years

old. The geographic scope can be considered worldwide although the organisation may have

to consider that the socioeconomic circumstances of the market are suitable.

Griffith College is a provider of third level education and it also has its own training and

development department which ensures the continuous design and review of academic

programmes. The vehicles of the organisation are focused on internal development and

acquisitions. The differentiators within the education industry can be a difficult achievement,

but it can rely on costumer service and reputation on quality service. These are the two

aspects in which the organisation is inferred willing to improve.

The staging sequence of moves of the organisation has a very international character and

management has attempted entering several countries at once, although the resources in

some cases appear to be limiting the speed of implementation. Early wins have been

achieved through the design and constant evaluation of academic programmes, but efforts

should double up to increase early wins that allow the organisation to gather more unique

elements.

The economic logic of the organisation oscillates between premium prices for service or

proprietary product features. Griffith College management has always shown an interest to in

customer service, although the resources available are a limiting factor that still holds the

organisation in a stage where the customer service can easily be matched by competitors.

The strategy followed by Griffith College does have a certain pattern, but does not necessarily

meet Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) strategy diamond and its five components. The

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differentiators component is one of the aspects that the organisation faces as a weakness;

standing out as a third level education organisation requires more resources that can only be

obtained through certain level of uniqueness. The uniqueness element is not clearly set as

the college delivers a traditional method of education and the recruitment is similar to many

other private colleges in Ireland.

The economic logic and differentiators strongly support the idea of a highly customer focused

organisation, which could be categorized as a market orientated organisation. Kohli &

Jaworski (1990) define market orientation as an ‘organization-wide generation of market

intelligence pertaining to current and future needs of customers, dissemination of intelligence

within an organization and response to it.’ But the lack of a communicated strategy and

limited resources will hold the organisation from achieving a highly personalised customer

service, so the area that could be further explored is the development of unique programmes.

For example, in recent years the college developed an MSc in Applied Digital Media which

appears as a unique programme that only one or two Institutes of Technology offered at the

time of this study.

While there is consistency in most of the components of Griffith College’s strategy, there are

many activities that are executed in the urgency of meeting environmental demands of

innovation. For example, the implementation of SNS as an experimental project at an early

stage in order to exist in that space before competitors. However, this practice would bring

more outcomes if there was a planning stage.

The inferred strategy of the organisation points out that SNS could contribute to meeting the

highly personalised customer service aspiration of the organisation as part of their strategy,

but this will require an understanding of its goals and objectives and how it intends to

achieve them. Having a greater sense of strategy in place would provide greater direction and

purpose for SNS and enhance the understanding of the different elements of the strategic

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direction. Establishing a goal for SNS in particular will provide a clearer direction for

implementation.

In this section the inferred strategy of the organisation was outlined following Hambrick &

Frederickson’s (2001) strategy model, based on examples and observations of regular

practices. The following section presents the interpretation of the data collected through the

interviews and observation.

4.2.2 Organisation’s Overall Strategy

The previous section applied Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) model to Griffith College. In

this section, the aim is to provide an interpretation of the data collected through interviews

and observation.

First, the organisation’s strategy and SNS strategy are interpreted as the literature reviewed

suggested that strategy should be the first step in the implementation of SNS. Effectiveness,

measurability and finally, ROI (Return on Investment) will subsequently be interpreted.

The descriptive literature available in the topic stressed the importance of having a strategy in

order to implement SNS for marketing purposes. It was discussed that strategy required

flexibility (Mintzberg, 1987) and that it should be composed by five elements (Hambrick &

Fredrickson, 2001) and be consistent and coherent.

Based on this information interviewees were asked to identify or outline the strategy of the

organisation. All respondents associated the concept strategy to a plan, which matches with

the description given by Mintzberg (1987) in the following excerpt the interviewee mentions

the existence of a ‘small plan’

“There is maybe a small plan and a certain amount of work that is being done on the
ground but we are lacking maybe a little bit on how that fits into the strategies for
the different types of courses […] types of students that we are trying to attract”

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The interviewee is clearly identifying that coherence amongst all parts that confirms a

strategy is necessary and it can also be inferred from the statement that there are several

strategies that correspond to different courses, treating strategy as a pattern that is followed

by creating categories for the different programmes.

Another interviewee refers to the existence of a ‘marketing plan’ that includes advertising and

direct marketing. At the same time, the interviewee states that not treating strategy as a

coherent whole is a mistake.

“[in the marketing plan]… everything should be brought under the one umbrella.
There should be relationships there in everything. I don’t think we are doing it in the
overall, I think that is a mistake”

It was found by accessing the marketing records of the organisation that there were

individual marketing plans that were consistently divided by campus and courses, following a

pattern. Not all courses had the same level of detail in the plans but there was evidence of a

pattern.

The marketing plans followed no specific format; the majority of them did not go beyond

brief bullet points summarizing the action that would be taken. Some of the marketing plans

left advertising as an addition that would be made at a later stage by a media buyer and/or

PR company. None of them included research of the environment or specifications that were

in any way similar to Hambrick & Fredrickson’s (2001) elements.

Staff interviewed perceived the presence of a strategy but they also agreed that it requires,

under their view, more integration of all the parts that composed it. There was a particular

concern when they realized that a strategy has never been formally communicated, and they

all pointed this out it as a shortcoming.

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It is possible to implement SNS without a formally communicated overall strategy of the

organisation, but in essence Griffith College does have certain pattern that could be an

inferred strategy that encourages the organisation to follow the same direction. The question

would be if a SNS strategy is required in order to consider SNS an effective marketing tool.

4.2.3 SNS Strategy

When interviewees were asked if there was a strategy in place for the implementation of SNS

they seemed to believe that a strategy was in place but that it was not aligned with the

strategy of the marketing department or with the inferred overall strategy of the organisation.

“… the plan for SNS was just to communicate, to be there. I think there was more
interest in just existing in that space and having an account to test its reach. A
proper plan as such was never really thought at the beginning, as it grew some goals
were drawn, but they were only little tasks like increasing the number of friends or
the number of queries”

The implementation of SNS as this statement reveals was not part of a formal plan, it had an

experimental nature, it was improvised. However, the respondent who was involved in the

technical side of the website management of the college seemed to have a more defined idea

of what the intention of SNS was.

“the main […] strategy for the website is to get as many viewers or visitors to the
website that are potential students. […] In general [SNS are aligned with the overall
strategy] they do direct traffic to the various campaigns or news items or current
events that are happening in the college…”

The respondent is talking about strategy as a plan, and his affirmation seems to match a

specific goal: increasing the website’s traffic. Although when this same respondent was asked

to state the overall strategy of the organisation it failed to go into detail and instead

responded with what it was inferred to be the overall strategy of the website in itself.

Based on the respondents answers there were at least four different strategies; or what were

believed strategies: the overall strategy of the organisation, the strategy of the marketing

department, the strategy of the website and SNS strategy. However, by what the

respondents indicated, the majority of these were not strategies but operations of a specific

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department, which would be part of the ‘supporting organizational arrangements’ (Hambrick

& Fredrickson, 2001)

SNS literature suggested that the lack of a plan to follow for the implementation of SNS

would lead to a waste of time, although evidence gathered from the observation based data

collection points out that the organisation has a defined message being delivered through

SNS. The messages are directed to three different audiences: prospective students, current

students and alumni.

Some of the posts found in Griffith College’s SNS accounts are related to the promotion of

new courses and how to apply. Other messages were announcements of timetables,

registration processes and academic calendar. The third kind of message found was for

alumni, although scarce, there were few mentions related to graduation ceremonies and

potential jobs and recruiters.

This could indicate that the implementation of SNS is possible without a plan, while it is not

the most advisable procedure; it still facilitates communication with an audience and serves

the purpose of communicating. After all, the improvised implementation of SNS may bring

some level of results, but this may not bring the expected results of a marketing tool.

If we refer to Murdough’s (2009) five phases to the implementation and measurability of SNS,

the first phase is the ‘concept’ which is a stage to define what is to be accomplished and the

second phase, ‘definition’ serves to outline, in more depth, what is to be achieved through

three main concept subcategories:

1. Quantity/Quality

2. Topics/Sentiment

3. Site traffic/Purchase intend

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During the observation based data collection, no document or reference was found that could

be linked to any of the above when the organisation implemented SNS. However the college’s

Facebook wall and tweets seemed to follow a similar pattern, in which there was an average

of 2 -3 messages a day (quantity) which could be reduced to only one message if the content

of the post was very important (quality). The topics match the three different targets, i.e.

prospective, current students and alumni. Lastly one of the respondents actually pointed out

the importance of increasing traffic as an expected outcome of the implementation of SNS.

In this way it is possible to see that a goal is essential for the implementation of SNS; a goal

can be drawn in an improvised context but it will invariably require a structured goal that

allows improvement or otherwise the tool will tend to disappear as it will be of no significance

to the organisation if it does not contribute with a positive outcome.

Having reported the findings on strategy, the main theme of this study, SNS effectiveness as

a marketing tool will be dealt with in the next section.

4.3 Effectiveness

The concept of effectiveness in this study is seen as a goal oriented concept. This means that

effectiveness is constructed by defining a goal, and then if the goal is achieved, effectiveness

exists. The respondents were asked to define effectiveness; the majority provided an actual

description of what they believed was effectiveness. For example, in the following excerpt the

interviewee states:

“The key measure would be, contact from clients or prospective students […] Is to
be able to see some sort of an increase or some sort of an injection of people. […]
Can we in anyway influence people so they pick up the phone and contact us…”

The interviewee seems to interpret effectiveness as a key measure, something that is

measurable, achieving something that ends up in the ultimate result of a potential customer

contacting the organisation. Words such as: increase and injection communicates a sense of

improvement, enhancement or augmentation.

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Based on the opinion of the respondent, we can infer that one of the goals in the marketing

department’s operations is to increase the number of leads, or to increase the number of

contacts from customers. Influence is also mentioned as a desired result that could achieve

effectiveness.

Another interviewee thought that effectiveness should be defined by:

“How many people have joined your Facebook from let’s say an open day […] you
would see the Facebook sign-up […] that would be a measure of how much they
would be interested in the college”

This excerpt shows the importance of setting a goal, a desired outcome of a specific activity.

The respondent points out that the number of people joining Facebook after visiting an open

day could indicate effectiveness, although this would only indicate that the open day has

been effective but not the SNS in itself. Instead, increasing the number of ‘friends’ or

‘followers’ in SNS as a result of the messages delivered through Facebook and Twitter, would

indicate a successful outcome from SNS.

This respondent also mentions the term measure when referring to effectiveness. In the

literature review one of the definitions given stated that effectiveness was about producing a

desired result, so effectiveness can be measured by meeting the goal, and this is the

parameter that sets the measure and that could then verify effectiveness.

Here there is another example in which the respondent refers to increase in awareness as a
way to describe effectiveness.

“Effectiveness in SNS is increasing awareness. It is not expected that SNS do magic,

there are marketing efforts all done simultaneously and if SNS can increase the level
of awareness that is the job done.”

The statement reveals a desired result, but it does not define effectiveness as a concept.

Awareness then becomes an inferred desired result that the organisation wishes to reach.

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Effectiveness is a variable that is difficult to operationalise. Indeed, the concept in itself

depends on the definition of an intended result. A metaphoric example could be a training

programme for a marathon and a training programme for a speed competition. Would the

marathon training programme be effective for the speed competition? Maybe not, because

the goal of a marathon training programme is focused on endurance to run a long distance,

while the speed competition requires a fast pace in a shorter distance.

This analogy between the training programmes and effectiveness serves to affirm that a goal

has to be given in the first place to then decide the direction and actions that can be taken to

accomplish that (goal). The evaluation stage then will reveal if the goal set has been

achieved. Then, success can be determined and the tool categorized as effective or not

effective.

Another factor that is mentioned as a desired result from SNS that could verify effectiveness

is ‘recommendation’. This is linked to WOM an element that had been referred to in the

literature review as one of the strongest points that had impact on customer’s

perceptions/opinions. In the following excerpt, it is clearly stated that spreading the word is

an ideal outcome to establish effectiveness:

“… When people start spreading the word about something you are offering or when
they are talking about an event in the college, that is a good result, that is
effectiveness”.

Through the interviews conducted it was found that there was no official goal and this makes

it difficult to identify if the organisation is getting a positive result out of SNS implementation.

However, the interviewees mention several desired results, similar to a checklist that gives a

glance of the outcomes expected. The respondents mentioned a few of them: WOM,

interaction with customers, informing current students and increasing traffic for the college’s

website.

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4.4 Measurability

The respondents associated measurability to effectiveness. Statements such as: ‘the key

measure’ confirms that there is a direct link between being able to measure and determining

effectiveness.

The following respondent attributed measurability to setting ‘parameters’:

“… with SNS the measurement is pretty difficult because […] we are not setting
parameters in place […] maybe if we were to set parameters […] Maybe, I’m not
sure how it works”

The respondent was clear about setting parameters in order to set a measurement system

that could validate the effectiveness of a SNS, but it is evident that there is no knowledge as

to how this can be implemented.

Contrasting with this, the interviewee that came from a technical background states that SNS

effectiveness is measurable, that there are tools in place to see its contribution to the

strategy of the website:

“Numerically talking […] Facebook and Twitter have been responsible for extra traffic
to our website, there is no doubt about. […] It has increased that Facebook and
Twitter featured in the top 10 suppliers of traffic, where as the first three or four are
either direct or via search engines […] but Facebook and Twitter have featured
there, regularly enough and they are even higher than a lot of the banner ad
campaigns that would feature on external websites.”

This is an important statement because the respondent is indicating that the organisation has

obtained tangible, quantifiable results from SNS. Results obtained from online banner

campaigns are included in annual reports but SNS are not part of this report yet.

The quoted respondent affirms that SNS have shown measurable results. If we observe the

different elements that compose the points made by the interviewee, we can infer that there

is a very clear goal: increasing website traffic. There is also a measurability system in place:

Google analytics and finally there is an evaluation that allows comparison. An example is

shown in Figure 4.3

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Figure 4.3 Google Analytics – Report excerpt

The table above is graphic evidence of what was found during the observation process. The

data was sourced from the analytics system of Griffith College’s website and it supports the

reference of the interviewee. Facebook is the third source of traffic of the college website.

Although, Twitter did not appear in this list, this could be due to the time frame that is being

used in the report. Compared to Facebook, Twitter has not had the consistency that

Facebook has shown, a comparison can be made through Figure 4.4 which shows Twitter in

place 25th of the same report.

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Figure 4.4 Google Analytics – Twitter 25th place

The interviews match the claims of the literature review in which it was explained that

measurability is arguable but that SNS could be measurable to some extent. The

understanding of measurable methods to interpret the impact of SNS in a business has to go

beyond numerical statistics and involve qualitative methods too. Most importantly it involves a

good understanding of SNS behaviour and setting a goal beforehand.

Through observation, it was found that the main tools of measurability are of a quantitative

nature, although there are a few variables included in Facebook reports that could indicate

and attempt to include qualitative data in the near future, but nothing in depth that can be

considered qualitative. Figure 4.5

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Figure 4.5 - Excerpt of statistics from Facebook

The SNS, Facebook as shown above is providing a report that quantifies the number of

interactions, but the relevance of the content of those interactions is not analysed what

makes this results inaccurate because it only quantifies the number of boxes with text, but

not the actual content. For example, if a user types random text that will be quantified and

included in this report, but the content is of no relevance to be counted as interaction. This

highlights again the issue of measurability being arguable, as automated parameters can be

set but they may not suffice to give an appropriate description of SNS effectiveness.

Another example is measuring effectiveness by the number of friends, which as discussed in

the literature review, is only one indicator of SNS activity but it is by no means indicative of

an effective campaign, unless the goal is to produce a viral marketing campaign in which the

objective is that the information is spread over a large network in a short period of time. On

89
viral campaigns Griffith College has never attempted to launch one, so this aspect could be

studied in further research.

Effectiveness has also been found in literature reviewed to be linked to increasing revenue.

However, the concept cannot be reduced to a financial goal only. Nevertheless the

expectation of many businesses is related to ROI. The next section deals with this concept.

4.5 Return on Investment (ROI)

The expected ROI found in the interviews is not directly linked to the generation of revenue;

instead the respondents believe that the ROI can be reflected through other outcomes, such

as: awareness, WOM and interactions with potential students.

One of the interviewees recognizes that while revenue is the ultimate goal of a business, it is

difficult to relate SNS activity on outputs in financial terms.

“[ROI]... does not have to be within financial terms, ROI in terms of an education
provider could be awareness, an increase in recommendation, could be anything, an
involvement of our current students… “

The respondent points out that ROI could be anything. This affirmation could indicate that

due to the lack of a defined goal for the implementation of SNS it is difficult to identify what

is to be expected; nearly anything that can be obtained out of it will be embraced. This being

a risky posture because SNS could bring as many positive and negative outcomes, similar to

the ones that have been mentioned in the literature review which are associated to negative

PR.

On the other hand, other respondents believe that ROI can be seen when students access the

website and see the marketing material available. While this is an expected outcome, it is not

necessarily linked to SNS in itself but to the college’s website. This indicates the presence of

an unintentional goal: increasing the college’s website traffic in order to attract potential

90
students to read the college’s marketing materials and facilitate the recruitment of student

and ultimately the generation of revenue.

The literature reviewed showed that within the SM context there were several concepts that

would be considered ROI, even when this may be questionable under the point of view of an

accountant. Nevertheless, it has also been learned from the literature review that the

majority of concepts require some level of flexibility without missing the essential meaning of

the concept and so ROI can then be represented by various expected outcomes: an increase

in quantitative indicators, such as: clicks, friends and followers; intended or actual purchase;

awareness, engagement, and interaction.

During the process of observation for data collection, one of the activities was to track the

logical steps that a prospective student had followed and to find, in the internal database of

the organisation, if the student had joined the college. An example of this can be found in

Appendix D in which we can see a way in which this particular organisation could monitor if

the ultimate goal, ROI, had been achieved.

The observation process started by identifying queries coming from Facebook, and then

accessing the internal database of the college searching for the name of the enquirer and

matching relevant data, such as: email to see if the enquirer was the same person. Once that

the enquirer had been found in the internal database the course that the student had joined

was identified and the fee of the course looked up in a fees list to estimate the revenue

generated from that lead.

This process could be used to find more quantifiable results for ROI, although it had two main

limitations: the first one was that it requires an important time investment, it is a time

consuming task, and the second that many users prefer not to display personal data, such as:

email or date of birth. Therefore, there is no other source of information that can help to

identify if the student in the system is the same person who enquired through Facebook.

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4.6 Findings & Discussion

The previous section interpreted the results obtained during the data collection stage which

involved interviews and observation. This study has explored a number of aspects related to

the effectiveness of SNS as a marketing tool. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that

effectiveness is a complex concept that can be constructed by several dimensions that should

be pre-set through a strategy. The dimensions that compose effectiveness have been drawn

from the input of the literature review and the data collection process of this study. There are

three dimensions that help to build effectiveness; desired outcome, strategy and

measurability.

Contrary to what some respondents in the interviews believed, not everything can determine

effectiveness. The organisation has obtained several outcomes from the implementation of

SNS but no specific strategy or goal was officially set in the first place, and as a result it is

difficult to determine SNS effectiveness. The implementation of SNS has been a supportive

task that remains vague and that could be determined as effective by meeting a pre set goal.

Thus, there are significant opportunities that the organisation could accomplish from defining

a clear goal for the implementation of SNS and even further opportunities would open if the

organisation officially communicates an overall strategy for the organisation to lead all

departments into pursuing the same direction.

Strategy is the first step to providing structure to a set of plans. In this case the organisation

follows a pattern that has been fairly consistent throughout the time but it requires more

development to facilitate further organisation development. The current inferred strategy of

the organisation seems to work but there are areas that can be improved, such as: the

differentiators and the staging components of the diamond strategy of Hambrick &

Fredrickson (2001).

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The aspired differentiators could be leading the organisation in the right direction; the intent

of focusing on customer service and high quality academic programmes is supportive of the

overall inferred strategy and could bring positive results. Although in practice the staff and

budget resources seem to hold the differentiators from becoming a reality, therefore low

budget alternatives such as SNS could be a promising way to stand out from competitors.

The first phase/stage to define for SNS to be effective, based on the literature reviewed is the

definition of a goal. Griffith College did not define a goal when launching SNS. However there

have been outcomes that show the potential of these SM tools, such as: increase in the

college’s website traffic, direct queries from prospective students and interaction with current

students and alumni. The organisation may not be able to determine if the implementation of

SNS has been effective in relation to a pre-set goal but it can be affirmed that positive

outcomes were obtained from SNS.

The outcomes obtained could be evaluated in part through a measurability system but in

order for this to exist a set of parameters should be in place to identify desired results for

quantification. In the literature reviewed it was discussed that while there were many desired

outcomes from SNS, the majority of organisations focused on obtaining ROI, where ROI is a

concept that refers to revenue.

ROI from the accountancy point of view is a formula that allows comparing what has been

invested and how much of that investment the business got in return. Nevertheless within

the SM ecosystem organisations see ROI as a flexible concept that includes: increase in

awareness and interaction. The staff interviewed at Griffith College affirmed that the ultimate

goal of the organisation was the generation of revenue, but that SNS were not expected to

generate revenue but to increase the number of queries that could then lead to an increase

in the number of students enrolled in programmes having an indirect impact in number of

enrolments.

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The literature reviewed showed that ROI was a difficult outcome to measure in SNS. However

this could be achieved by setting clear parameters of measurement and using the internal

resources of the organisation such as software and databases to support the process of

tracking information during evaluation stages. In the case of Griffith College, there is a

database which although its core function is not CRM, it can be used to track queries from

prospective students. Trackability of queries sourced from SNS is possible, although it is time

consuming.

Tracking queries from SNS may already be part of another relevant stage that can contribute

to determine effectiveness: evaluation/measurability. In order to set a measurement method

that can determine effectiveness it is necessary to understand the resources of the

organisation and the purpose for SNS implementation in order to outline clear parameters of

measurement.

Measurability of SNS is recognized as a difficult task in the literature reviewed but after

interviewing staff of the organisation and interpreting the expectations that they have of SNS,

measurability is possible. The main expectations to be obtained from SNS were: awareness,

increase in leads and increase of website’s traffic. For each of these desired outcomes, there

are tools to measure results.

Awareness can be superficially measured by interpreting the insights provided by the SNS, in

which they breakdown the number of clicks and times that people have forwarded the

information to other users, this, per se cannot be considered awareness but it can be

assumed that the more forwards that a link has, the more a network will get to know of the

existence of that particular organisation, in this case Griffith College.

The increase in leads can be directly monitored from the chat facility in Facebook and the

private messaging facility that both SNS offer. The leads can be recorded in the internal

database and be categorized as sourced from SNS. The measurability system will then be

94
similar to the queries coming from the website, by running a report in the internal database

that shows how many queries are coming from SNS.

The website traffic can also be measured through the already implemented Google Analytics

that provides statistics of traffic sources. These reports were already in place when this study

took place but they were never formally presented to the marketing department.

Quantitative data is available and if the organisation seeks to answer the outcome question

with quantifiable elements, it is possible to measure the efforts that this organisation is

executing as the tools are in place. From the qualitative point of view the effect that Griffith

College is having over its users would represent a more challenging study and probably be

quite time consuming.

The only model found related to measurability of SM was the one proposed by Murdough

(2009) in which it is explained through a five phases model how to measure SM. Murdough

(2009) suggests that the defined objective should be measurable and that has to be aligned

with key performance indicators and the establishment of targets.

Murdough’s (2009) model is a good starting point, although due to the dynamic nature of

SNS it is advised to the organisation to design their own method following Murdough’s (2009)

five phases only as a guide.

The organisation could leverage its differentiators by continuing the usage of SNS and

establishing a plan, goals and parameters that can indicate the overall on effectiveness. SNS

represent a good opportunity for the organisation to differentiate from competitors by using

this channel to communicate with their prospective students. At the management level, the

organisation is strongly advised to communicate a formal strategy that includes a mission and

vision, this could lead to an even more consistent pattern that all departments can follow and

it would encourage integration.

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4.7 Recommendations

The findings of the study have been interpreted and discussed some crucial aspects of

improvement for this organisation have also been outlined. In this section some

recommendations are suggested to the organisation in order to improve its implementation of

SNS.

The organisation is urged to set up SNS post-hoc goal, and a plan that matches the strategy

pattern followed until today. Griffith College holds a good reputation amongst comparable

organisations and it should seek further improvement and differentiation in order to gain

more of the national and international market.

The recent decrease in traditional media and the constant growth of SNS indicates an

excellent opportunity for the organisation to build early wins in this field. Considering that the

college has a very international profile, it should take advantage of this and exploit SNS as a

way to gain direct communication with prospective students by using all the resources

available in SNS; advertising, interaction, posts, albums, etc.

In relation to advertising within SNS it is recommended that the organisation uses the new

advertising channels but that the overall marketing plan of the college includes a mix of

different channels to reach audiences. By combining traditional media with SM the

organisation may experience better results and a relevant impact on their targets.

Finally it is recommended to the organisation design a SNS policy that invites staff from all

departments to participate in this communication channel to increase the interest from

prospective, current student and alumni. While keeping a structure of rules in which their

users are informed of the nature of information that they could post and to design a system

of SNS management.

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4.8 Conclusions

This study aimed to find if SNS were effective as a marketing tool. It was first found that

effectiveness is a complex concept and it is composed by various dimensions. While

effectiveness of SNS is generally linked to ROI, financial returns are only an incentive for the

organisation to continue investing. Based on the specific case of Griffith, effectiveness as

such cannot be determined due to the absence of a goal. However, the implementation of

SNS has brought some outcomes to the organisation that properly designed and planned

indicates that SNS presents a good opportunity.

It has also been argued in the literature reviewed that measurability is impossible to achieve

within the SNS field. However this depends on the outcomes that the organisation is

intending to achieve. The majority of the outcomes are measurable through quantitative

methods, while quantitative research would only provide with one side of the overall result,

qualitative research to determine effectiveness of SNS may result in a time consuming task.

Qualitative data in SNS is of relevance from the managerial perspective because identifying

those users that have more power of influence within SNS is vital. Trusov, Budapati & Bucklin

(2010, p. 644) pointed out that a proper understanding of how users influence others permits

a more precise ad targeting as well as the increase in number of users.

Depending on the expectations of the organisation, SNS should be able to provide with

reports of awareness and interaction of a quantitative nature. If effectiveness is seen as a

goal oriented concept for the purposes of SM this will allow a higher level of adaptability to

the specific needs of an organisation. Tailoring the term effectiveness should not be confused

with using the term interchangeably or incorrectly, but as a goal that is clearly delimited

whether the organisation is being successful or not.

This chapter presented the findings and discussions. Chapter V deals with the overall

conclusions of this study and it also presents the reflections of the research process.

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5 Conclusions

This study aimed at exploring if SNS are effective as a marketing tool. In order to respond

this defining effectiveness within the SM context was necessary, this was described by

conducting extensive literature review that could contribute to build a conceptual framework

to define the main concepts to analyse during the data collection process. The research

paradigm was of an interpretative nature and had an important input from my own

experiences of the implementation of SNS in Griffith College.

Based on the interpretation and discussion of the data collected, in this chapter an overall

conclusion of this study is presented as well as a reflection on the research process. This

chapter presents first the comparison and similarities between the literature reviewed and the

findings of the study, then the research questions are addressed and responded and finally it

is presented a reflection of the research process as well as the limitations, contributions and

recommendations are outlined.

The literature reviewed showed that one of the most expected outcomes from SM

implementation was ROI, and more specifically financial returns, while this is a desirable

outcome it is not the main expectation. There are other positive outcomes such as awareness

and engagement that would fulfill the expectations of SNS implementers.

A similarity found between the literature reviewed and the findings was that the

implementation of SNS requires a plan, and ideally this should be aligned with the overall

strategy. This, in contrast with what happens in real practice is desirable but not always

executed, although it is strongly recommended to set up a plan and a method of evaluation

that allows comparison before and after the implementation of SNS or over a period of time.

Measurability of the activity of SNS can represent a challenge as found in the literature

reviewed and specially if there is no goal clearly defined. However it is attainable if there is a

98
system in place that includes parameters and quality assurance processes that allow the

organisation to find areas of improvement. The measurability process of Griffith College is at

an immature stage but there are some resources in place that could contribute to further

development.

In order to explore if SNS are effective as a marketing tool it was first described how could

effectiveness of SM be defined within the marketing context, based on the review of

literature and reflections of this specific case study it can be concluded that effectiveness of

SM within the marketing context is a multidimensional, goal oriented concept which can be

constructed from determining a strategy and an evaluation process. SNS are concluded to be

effective for marketing purposes if there is a goal to be achieved, in the specific case of

Griffith College SNS are effective as there have been positive outcomes from its

implementation, although the design of a post-hoc goal and strategy is recommended for the

organisation to increase the outcomes from the implementation of such tools. The main

findings that emerged out of this study were:

- Effectiveness is a complex concept to define, however within SM it can be seen as a

multidimensional, goal oriented concept.

- Setting a goal and plan for the implementation of SNS as a marketing tool is

advisable although outcomes can be obtained if there is consistency in operations.

- Measurability of SNS from a quantitative point of view is possible although clear

parameters and tools should be in place in order to evaluate the impact of SNS.

- Measurability of SNS from a qualitative point of view could represent a very

challenging and time consuming task, but it could be achieved by narrowing the

scope of study to a very limited sample.

- ROI within the SM ecosystem requires certain flexibility to be seen as an outcome

and not necessarily revenue as such. Awareness and Interaction can be sources of

new enquirers and indirectly impact on the revenue generated.

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This research was based on a case study focused on one organisation only; therefore

generalization is not advised, this being the main limitation. Another limitation was that the

scope of study was narrowed to only two specific SNS, yet the amount of information

extracted from these SNS had to be further narrowed as these sources of data can be

overwhelming. Research beyond the scope of this study is to further explore the different

elements that compose a measurability of SNS effectiveness model. This suggested study

should address the above limitations and explore a broad range of cases.

The data collected in this study and its interpretation could set a reference point for future

further research in this field. This study will also contribute to further development in SNS as

a marketing tool activities implemented by Griffith College.

100
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Bibliography

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Success. John Wiley & Sons. New Jersey, USA.

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105
Appendices

Appendix A - - Sample of invitation to participate sent to marketing staff

Dear Colleague,

The reason of my email is to cordially invite you to participate of a research project that I am

currently developing to obtain an MBA. The reason why you’ve been contacted is because

your role is directly related to this research and your perspective and opinions in this field are

of great relevance to this study.

As the social media manager, I have keen interest in further developing our current efforts

and this research could significantly contribute to this endeavour. The purpose of this

research is to answer the following question:

1. Are social networks effective as a marketing tool?

The interviews will be conducted in a private room, and will only be audio recorded. Your

contribution will be totally confidential and neither names nor specific roles will be mentioned

in this study. The recorded material will not be reproduced partially or totally at any time.

If you wish to participate of this research, please reply to this email with the possible day and

time that you would be available for the interview. Your contribution to this project will be of

great relevance and a copy of the study will be made available to you as its conclusion.

Thanking you in advance for your help and support on this,

106
Appendix B - Initial version of Code Book

Code Book
Code Subcode Definition
Effectiveness Producing a desired or intended result.
Goal A final purpose or aim to reach or attain.
Checklist An ordered array of items.

Return on A metric used to evaluate the efficiency of

Investment (ROI) an investment.
Monetary A performance measure used to compare the
efficiency of a number of different investments.
Outcome An end result; a consequence.
PR Practice of managing the flow of information
between an organization and its publics
Awareness The ability to be conscious of.
Interaction Action that occurs as two or more subjects
have an effect upon one another

Long term plan/pattern of action designed to

Strategy
achieve a particular goal.
Plan To organize a series of actions to achieve a
specified outcome.
Pattern Reoccurring events.

Estimating the magnitude of some attribute

Measurability
relative to some unit of measurement.
Evaluation Determination of merit, worth, and significance
of something.

107
 \

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