Organic Social Media Marketing Plan for Taxpayers’ Association of Finland

Abstract

This Bachelor’s thesis investigated how to improve the organic social media marketing of Taxpayers’ Association of Finland (TAF) in chosen social media platforms. TAF is an independent association, which does not accept any public funding, but its operation is based on membership fees. Association provides advice concerning taxation, promotes reasonable taxation and defends citizens’ legal protection in tax matters. Organic social media marketing can be used to increase brand awareness and strengthen the organization’s brand.

The purpose of this product-based thesis was to study, how well the brand communication to members works in selected social media platforms and how to improve it. After setting the theoretical framework, the author examined, which conceptions the association wanted to communicate, and how did the organization lead and communicate its brand in social media. The study was executed as a case study. The desktop research focused on evaluating the social media activities and performance of Taxpayer’s Association of Finland from 1 January to 30 June 2022. These were benchmarked to similar associations in Sweden (Skattebetalarnas Förening) and in the United Kingdom (The TaxPayers’ Alliance) in the same period.

The project objective of this thesis was to identify the best organic social media marketing plan for Taxpayers’ Association of Finland which can also be applied for any other taxpayers’ alliance. The final product is an organic social media marketing plan for TAF’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Literature review was used to form a theoretical framework for this thesis. Through desktop research by evaluating social media activities and performance of TAF and benchmarking the similar organizations in other countries, the author could establish an organic social media marketing plan for TAF. The plan includes examples of social media marketing calendar with primary campaigns and an example of monthly content calendar. Targets for organic social media marketing were set for Q1-Q2/2023 and determined how to measure them.

Organic social media marketing plan helps TAF in content creation and planning organization’s social media activities in advance. In content creation, there should be kept in mind that different platforms have different audiences. That is why the content should be in form the platform favors and the message would be addressed to that specific group. With help of the plan, performance will be constantly analyzed to improve it. Other similar organizations can utilize this thesis as a basis for their own social media marketing plan. However, other organizations need to analyze their own audiences, and social media activities and set the targets that would serve them best.