Using Social To Go Local: Analyzing How National And Local Companies Use Facebook To Reach Customers
Degree Name
Master of Science
Graduate Program
Mass Communication and Media Arts
Advisor
Xie, Wenjing
Abstract
Facebook has developed into an important marketing tool for many different companies. Facebook and other forms of social media allow businesses to generate and encourage two-way interactions with current and potential customers. This study examines the differences between how national and local business pages use Facebook to market and brand themselves and build online fan communities. The author conducted a content analysis of twenty Facebook business pages to ascertain how frequently businesses were posting content, what types of content were being posted, how many comments, likes and shares did the post receive, and were businesses replying to fan comments. The results of this study show that national companies are able to effectively deploy a consistent social media strategy due to their wealth of resources. While local businesses could develop a strong social media strategy that is grounded in their literal place within a community, national companies are currently more adept at negotiating the social media landscape.