Developing Social Media Communication for Metropolia UAS Alumni

Abstract

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences seems to have active social media presence. The thesis gives a suggestion for better social media communication of the Masters of Business alumni group of the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The objective includes a suggestion for organizing social media communication considering the different roles of the social media channels identified in the studies by Kietzmann & al. (2011) as well as the roles and responsibilities of the different departments in content creation. A set of measurement tools is given to help following through the success of the new organization and work as a driving force for implementation of the new suggested organization. The presumption is that the similar method of social media communication could be implemented into Metropolia level social media communication and in this way also help the marketing and sales of the educational products. The scope of the study is narrowed into these areas: the organization of social media communication of Metropolia business alumni, the roles and the responsibilities of different departments in content creation, the roles of different social media channels in effective communication and measurement tools for the social media communication.

The conceptual framework of this study is done by studying general research made of social media strategies and channels in both B2B and B2C marketing. The literature and articles include studies of social media, the drivers behind the different social media channels and the basic need for individuals to communicate. The thesis is divided into conceptual framework and action research based analysis and suggestion of organizing social media communication for Metropolia UAS Alumni.

The conceptual framework of the proposal is based on the social media strategy developed by Brian Solis called the framework of social corporate philosophy (2015). He calls this framework “a philosophy” because it follows through the whole organization rather than operates merely as a strategy of an individual action such as corporate communication. The framework is supported by SMART implementation plan introduced by Quesenberry in 2015. The implementation plan relies on the idea that all social media actions should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely in order to be effective. The channel specific measurement tools are based on the study by Hoffman and Fodor (2010).

Additional research papers and articles have been studied of in order to find arguments for and against these methods of developing social media communication and in order to establish a view of all the fields of corporate communication social media has an impact on such as marketing mix and lead generation, CRM, content marketing, SEO, SEM, blogs, brand building, recruiting, customer service and sales and PR actions.

The measurement of actions in social media channels is as important as the development of an organization for content creation. The measurement tools were developed on basis of the aforementioned principles of Solis in addition to the categorization of effects introduced by Kreuzer & Land (2015) and Hoffman & Fodor (2010).