Developing Online Marketing in Social Media for DORTMUNDtourismus e.V.

Abstract

The thesis discussed the topic of online marketing in social media. The focus was set on the social media platforms Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. Commissioner of the thesis was DORTMUNDtourismus e.V., the destination management organization for Dortmund, Germany. The research problem was to identify ways to develop online marketing in social media in a cost-efficient and innovative way in order to raise the awareness of DORTMUNDtourismus e.V. and Dortmund in social media and as a destination. The thesis is made up of two sections. One is a theoretical section that displays marketing theory in general, the online and the social media environment. The sources are books, articles and sources that were supplied by DORTMUNDtourismus e.V. The other part discussed the development of marketing in social media for DORTMUNDtourismus e.V. The ideas for development are based on the theoretical knowledge and my personal experiences in the field of social media marketing during my practical training for the company. The results were found on all relevant social media platforms. Basic internal and external communication was discussed. Furthermore, the idea of user-generated content lead to the development of several ideas such as a Facebook user tour and user reports on products of DORTMUNDtourismus e.V. Additionally, development ideas were benchmarking, cross-channel and cross-media marketing, tag and popularity analysis and co-operation with charity organizations in social media. The research showed that social media marketing is a field that offers many possibilities for marketers. Due to the wide spread of the internet and numerous tools to market, companies can find ideas for developing their marketing throughout the whole social media environment. But also many limitations could be recognized especially with regard to communication. For DORTMUNDtourismus e.V. there could be found several ideas that are likely to improve their marketing in social media. The company needs to analyze the suggestions and assess the feasibility even though the resources were accounted for in the development in the process of the thesis project.