ii Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration / Informatics

Title: Harnessing the Social Network

Authors: Utre Pudzemyte, Trajche Kralev, Viktor Zaunders

Tutor: Börje Boers

Date: 2010-12-08

Subject terms: Social Media, Social Networks, Online Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Online Retailers, Facebook, Swedish Retail

Abstract

In this study we investigate how online retailers can use Facebook in marketing to increase their sales. We look specifically at how corporate Facebook pages can be used in a good way to increase the sales for these retailers. The study will evaluate different features that can be used when doing marketing on Facebook in order to distinguish which ones are most effective.

The main part of this study consists of a survey that was distributed to a number of online retailers that sell different sorts of apparel The data we received was then statistically analysed in order to evaluate what makes some Facebook marketing initiatives more effective then others. We have also analysed the findings from this survey using marketing research and theories that have been previously been put forward on the relationship between online social networks and marketing.

What we have found in our study is that a practice that is made up of the combined use of four elements of Facebook marketing seems to be the most efficient way of using this social network to increase sales. We have named this practice ―engaging the customer‖ and it is made up of the following four activities:

 Posting questions and competitions on the company page

 Posting new content to the company page

 Being active in responding to posts on Facebook

 Publishing excluding material and deals to the company Facebook page followers

Our study found the companies that frequently use of these four practices together have also been those that have seen the largest increase in sales from their Facebook marketing initiatives.

This study also showed that the two individual elements of Facebook marketing that appear to the most useful to increase sales are:

1. Continuously posting good content to the company page

2. Actively responding to and commenting on consumer posts

We believe that the importance of these two activities can be attributed to their heavy influence on word-of-mouth marketing and customer relationship building.