UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

LSS ACADEMY SDN BHD:

“THE EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS FROM CONSUMERS’ PERSPECTIVE”

PREPARED FOR:

ENCIK ZULKEPLY KAMARUDDIN

PREPARED BY:

NURSHEILA BINTI AHMAD

2008500133

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS) (MARKETING)

FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA SHAH ALAM

NOVEMBER 2010

1

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

8 NOVEMBER 2010

Encik Kamal Mohd Nor

The Head of Program

Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) (Marketing)

Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA

40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan

Dear Sir,

SUBMISSION OF PROJECT PAPER

Attached is the project paper entitled “LSS ACADEMY SDN BHD: THE

EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS FROM CONSUMERS’ PERSPECTIVE” to fulfill the

requirement as needed by the Faculty of Business Management, Universiti

Teknologi MARA Shah Alam for your kind perusal.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Nursheila binti Ahmad

2008500133

BBA (Hons) (Marketing)

2

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS) (MARKETING)

FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA SHAH ALAM

“DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK”

I, Nursheila binti Ahmad (NRIC: 850317-14-5760)

Hereby, declare that,

i. This work not previously been accepted in substances for any degree,

locally or overseas and it is not being concurrently submitted for this

degree or any other degrees.

ii. This project paper is the result of my independent work and

investigation, expect where otherwise stated.

iii. All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks and

sources of my information have been specifically acknowledged.

Signature: ______________________ Date: 8 NOVEMBER 2010

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

First and foremost, I would like to thank Allah S.W.T. for giving me

opportunity and strength to accomplish my project paper on “LSS ACADEMY

SDN BHD: THE EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS FROM CONSUMERS’ PERSPECTIVE”.

I would like to express profound gratitude towards my supportive advisor,

Encik Zulkeply Kamaruddin and also dedicated examiner, Puan Norliah Abd Aziz

for their invaluable support, encouragement, supervision, and dazzling

suggestions for my research. I am as ever, especially indebted to my parents, for

their love and strong support throughout my life. Not forgotten, my sincere thanks

and appreciations to my beloved friends and colleagues, who shared their

knowledge, brilliant ideas, and experiences with me.

I am heartily thankful to all my Managing Director in LSS Academy, Dr.

A.Aruleswaran, my supervisor, Denison Chua (Sales & Marketing Manager),

Penton Wong (IT Manager) and all my colleagues whose encouragement,

guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an

understanding of the subject. Last but not least, I offer my regards and blessings

to all the respondents and for those who supported me in any respect during the

completion of this project paper.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Nursheila binti Ahmad

2008500133

BBA (Hons) Marketing

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FIGURES AND TABLES

ABSTRACT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2

3

4

5

7

8

9

TITLE PAGES

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY

1.1.1 MISSIONS

1.1.2 WHY COMPANY INVEST WITH LSS ACADEMY

1.1.3 PRODUCTS

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1.7 HYPOTHESIS

1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

12

14

16

17

23

26

28

29

31

33

34

35

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 SOCIAL MEDIA

2.2 WEB 2.0

2.3 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

40

45

48

51

5

2.4 INTERACTIONS THROUGH SMP

2.5 AWARENESS OF SMP

2.6 CONSUMER 2.0 –WEB 2.0 CITIZENS

54

58

62

3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

3.1.1 DESCRIPTION AND JUSTIFICATION OF THE

METHODS

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

3.2.1 DATA COLLECTION METHOD (PRIMARY AND

SECONDARY DATA)

3.2.2 THE QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

3.2.3 TARGET POPULATION AND SAMPLING

DESIGN (SAMPLING FRAME, SAMPLE SIZE,

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE)

3.2.4 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

3.2.5 DATA ADMINISTRATIVE AND ANALYSIS

72

73

75

76

77

79

80

4.0 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES

4.2 AWARENESS OF SMP

4.3 INTERACTIONS THROUGH SMP

4.4 FREQUENCY TABLES FOR TECHNOGRAPHIC

PROFILES OF SMP USERS –CREATOR, JOINER,

SPECTATOR, COLLECTOR, AND CRITIC

82

88

90

93

5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 112

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDICES

120

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FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 2.1 Online Community Needs

Table 4.1 Frequency Table of Gender for Social Media Users

Table 4.2 Frequency Table of Groups of Age for Social Media Users

Table 4.3 Frequency Table of Races for Social Media Users

Table 4.4 Frequency Table of Nationality for Social Media Users

Table 4.5 Frequency Table of Monthly Income for Social Media Users

Table 4.6 Frequency Table of “Do you aware of SMP?”

Table 4.7 Frequency Table of “Do you / your organization use SMP tools?”

Table 4.8 Frequency Table of “How long have you been using this tool?”

Table 4.9 Frequency Table of “Are you familiar with the concept of UGC?

Figure 1.1 Theoretical Framework

Figure 2.1 Key Social Platforms

Figure 2.2 The Closed Loop of Needs

Figure 2.3 Participation Model of Web 2.0 Service

Figure 4.1 Percentage of Gender for Social Media Users

Figure 4.2 Percentage of Age Group for Social Media Users

Figure 4.3 Percentage of Races for Social Media Users

Figure 4.4 Percentage of Nationality for Social Media Users

Figure 4.5 Percentage of Monthly Income for Social Media Users

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ABSTRACT

Purpose – The evaluation of social media as affective marketing

communications tool and channel, and also the identification of consumer’s

profile of social media in Malaysia.

Design / methodology / approach – The quantitative research was conducted

by arranging consumer survey among social media users. The deductive logic

was used to verify the hypothesis.

Findings – The general Malaysian consumer profiles were identified. The

hypotheses were proven that social media can be a valuable tool and channel for

marketing communications.

Research Limitations / Implications – The research was designed to test only

the users of Social Media Properties (SMP). Even though, it gathered the needed

data to help marketers in their search for suitable tools when marketing in social

media environment.

Originality / Value – The conducted study added the knowledge to the indicated

information gap in academic literature regarding the social media usage for

marketing campaigns from the consumer perspective. It defined the main social

media tools and tested the consumer perceptions about the possible practices.

Keywords – Social media, Web 2.0, social media marketing, marketing

communications.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Social media is a conversation supported by online tools. People are not

just demographics anymore; to connect with them, we need to understand that

relationships are more powerful than marketing. Every company seems to be

jumping onto the social media bandwagon, but some companies do it better than

others.

There is no denying that social media is changing the way companies

communicate in the pursuit of brand building and commerce. Social media is

continuously evolving, and staying abreast of its impact and potential is critical to

the success of our business.

An important transition in the use of social media for marketing purposes

is taking place. A rapidly increasing segment of marketers are gaining the

experience required to advance from novice to competent practitioner capable of

achieving social marketing objectives and proving ROI. Social media has opened

a whole new world of possibilities for marketers.

In the past year, marketers have been captivated by the ample hype about

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media platforms. Their reaction was,

for the most part, counter-intuitive to proven marketing principles. They jumped

into this new medium thinking tactically about the latest social media platforms

they could add to the mix rather than thinking strategically about the objectives

they needed to achieve.

In the year ahead, we see social marketing maturing to the point where a

majority of organizations will be in transition from the trial phase to the strategic

phase of the learning curve. We see marketers first researching the medium

(starting with resources like this report) and monitoring audiences to determine

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realistic objectives, then formulating tactics, and implementing tools for

accomplishing those objectives.

In addition, companies are just beginning to tap the potential of

collaborative, community focused websites, known collectively as social media or

Web 2.0, as a communications medium. Early attempts to integrate social media

into the marketing mix have often treated social media marketing (SMM) as an

experimental, ‘viral’ channel that exists outside the organization’s primary

marketing and advertising initiatives.

These viral initiatives demonstrate a willingness to innovate and can

provide excellent feedback on extreme changes in creative direction. However,

the unpredictable nature of viral success and the uneven return on investment

(ROI) when such efforts are successful, make it an inadequate long-term SMM

strategy.

Furthermore, while companies increasingly understand the need for

ongoing participation in social media, the lack of dedicated time, resources, and

expertise in the medium hinders many companies from developing social media

as a more robust marketing and advertising channel that can be integrated with

the rest of their marketing plan in cross-channel campaigns. These marketers

report inadequate support from traditional marketing vendors in their SMM

efforts, as traditional agencies often try to apply traditional tactics in an online

environment that is typically hostile to those attempts.

Last but not least, detailed planning, execution, and reporting of SMM by

an interactive agency with SMM expertise can make social media a viable and

powerful channel within an integrated marketing campaign, complementing and

enhancing the results from other efforts and increasing ROI for the entire

initiative.

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CHAPTER ONE

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Company

Quality + Speed X Fusion = Sounder Bottom Line

Lean 6 Sigma is the de-facto methodology in the market today for organizations

to adopt continuous improvements and drive towards maximized returns to the

share holders. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Academy Sdn Bhd is a thought leader in

applying deploying Lean 6 Sigma to product and service firms in South Pacific &

South East Asia. LSS Academy’s deep, value-based management expertise

provides them with a clear framework to connect value creation priorities to Lean

6 Sigma project planning and execution initiatives. LSS Academy is creating a

record of successful consultancy, building the thought-leading practices in the

critical areas of value creation and superior shareholder returns.

LSS Academy Sdn Bhd, an MSC Status Company, founded in 2007 by

Dr.Arul Aruleswaran, aims to create the foundations in capability, technology and

cultural change management to accomplish, achieve, and sustain greater returns

of shareholder value and returns. The LSS Academy’s team formerly operated

within IQL Consulting and partner, Kirtland Leadership Propriety Ltd, has

successfully provided consultancy services for several international clients. LSS

Academy is creating a record of successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma

whilst building the thought-leading practices in the critical areas of value creation.

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LSS Academy delivers the strategic insight and execution methodology

that is required to surpass the goals of growth, speed and cost to businesses,

organizations, and the personnel that are driving towards continuous

improvement, innovations, and complexity elimination.

LSS Academy’s unique value creation approach is to build business

culture by addressing all four leadership levels: personal, interpersonal,

managerial, and organizational –that creates a sustainability effect on the

capability to grow and succeed in a changing environment.

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1.1.1 Missions

a) Customer Satisfaction

LSS Academy believes that the success of a business rests entirely

with the successful relationship with its clients. This organization is

designed around client relationships. As a result of the client-centered

approach and the results delivered, virtually 100% of our clients are willing

to serve as references.

b) Intellectual leadership

LSS Academy brings new, innovative solutions to their clients to

help them create strategic insight, improve operational performance, and

deliver sustained value. LSS Academy thoughts leadership is embodied in

principals of Lean 6 Sigma, Innovation and Business Process Automation.

c) Value Creation

LSS Academy works and guides their clients to maximize the

“intrinsic value” of their organization, focusing on value creating activities

aimed at measures such as Customer Satisfaction, Revenue Growth,

Profitability, Market Share, Wallet Share, Cross-Sell Ratio, etc. LSS

Academy is unique as the teams are able to work with all spectrums of

clients from generating strategic insight, to leading hands-on

implementation, to creating deep client capability.

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d) Investing in People

LSS Academy believes in helping their clients to internalize their

methodologies, encouraging trainees, trainers, change agents, Black

Belts, Green Belts, and sponsor to grow to their individual potential. Thus,

with every client relationship LSS Academy creates sustainable human

capital in the client organization, eliminating the need for external

consultation support in 18-24 months.

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1.1.2 Why Company Invest with LSS Academy

LSS Academy prides itself on Business Excellence & Performance,

providing not only Coaching & Mentoring, but also Training & Certifications,

and Change Management & Leadership. Among the benefits that company can

gain by investing with LSS Academy are as follow:

Increase Uptime

Lowering Costs & Lower Cost of Quality

Improve Teamwork Culture & Improve Productivity

Maximize Asset Utilization

Faster Customer Response

Less Inventory

Optimized Shop Floor Utilization

Flexibility-Multi-Product Lines

Simplicity of Operation

Improved Response with a Multi-Product Line

Reduced wait time, queue time, and other delays

Improved product warranty and compliance

Reduced Inventories and Improved Working Capital

Improved Customer Response, Relationships

Gain in Market Share with Improved Revenues & EP

Improve Supplier Performance

Improve Complaint Management

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1.1.3 Products

LSS Academy has come out with LSS Solutions which include different

aspect of product needed such as Leadership Series, Enterprise Performance,

Delighting Customers, Maximizing Shareholders Values, Design & Innovation,

and Technical. The brief introductions of each section are as follow:

a) Leadership Series

This is a program for Champions who play a pivotal role in a successful

Lean 6 Sigma initiative. They serve as mentors to project teams and act as a

bridge between Black Belts and organization management. Without Champions,

efforts can become entangled with internal obstacles, become misaligned with

core business objectives, lose focus and track of time, and may not yield

expected benefits. However, Champions need help to be successful. The Lean 6

Sigma Champion program provides that help by exploring basic Champion roles,

investigating a sustainable support infrastructure for Champions and preparing

Champions to avoid common pitfalls and lead successful Lean 6 Sigma

initiatives.

b) Enterprise Performance

This workshop is designed for senior staff as a major stepping stone on a

journey to creating a Lean Enterprise in their own organization. In order to

develop a truly Lean Enterprise it is necessary for leaders to understand what

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lean thinking is, how it needs to be approached, what their role is in leading the

organization and how they need to instill a set of, often, new behaviors and

levels of engagement. A significant step on this journey is participating in the

‘Lean for Management Workshop’. Participants will learn the following:

Gaining an understanding of what ‘Lean Thinking’ is

Gaining an understanding of what it means to you

Gauging where you are on your lean journey

Establishing a broad implementation plan and the next steps to

take

Using the ‘QS Finance Model’, the workshop will provide you with insights

into what true Lean Enterprise are, the different elements that must be

addressed, where you are on your lean journey, and perhaps most importantly

provide a framework for you to consider how you might go about creating a Lean

Enterprise in your organization. It ensures that the initiative begins with a broad,

cohesive approach to lean transformation, and is led by a knowledgeable, unified

management team.

c) Delighting Customers

This is a program involving intense classroom training. This course

provides the analytical tools and practical skills to bring results to a

manufacturing environment. This course takes candidates through a proven,

step-by-step methodology on the transfer of knowledge and process skills that

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leads to improved project results through support of Black Belt initiatives and

enhanced technical problem solving skills. The widely accepted DMAIC model is

taught, including the popular principles such as histograms, Gage R&R, flow

charts, data collection and measurement, failure mode and effects analysis,

voice of the customer, and many more.

Participants will learn how to apply statistical methods for business

process improvements like:

Communicating a business strategy across the organization

Integrating with Lean Manufacturing, TOC, & other improvement methods

Applying the DMAIC improvement process

Selecting successful Six Sigma projects and project teams

Planning and executing projects

Significantly increasing profitability through Six Sigma projects

Selecting the right statistical tools

d) Maximizing Shareholders Values

Lean 6 Sigma Black Belts are the centerpiece of the program integrating

the strategies of Lean and 6 Sigma. Lean 6 Sigma Black Belts are improvement

experts that are deployed to conduct the project work that delivers to your overall

goals and objectives. Throughout development, participants internalize the

methods and tools of Lean and 6 Sigma. Participants apply the new knowledge

from each session immediately between the training sessions. It is this

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mechanism that ensures progress is being made quickly, and that the learning of

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt methods and tools takes place with real world goals in

mind.

Lean 6 Sigma Black Belt Training program builds competent, data-driven

Lean 6 Sigma practitioners.  The curriculum follows the DMAIC phases, teaching

candidates how to integrate a variety of Lean Six Sigma tools into an overall

approach to process improvement. Participants are taught how to define and

successfully launch a project, how to transition it from phase to phase, and

finally, how to complete a project and evaluate its success.

There will be a hands-on, real-life approach to Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

training. Candidates work on an actual business project and apply classroom

techniques to the project. The Black Belt program is technically challenging to

ensure that all graduates learn how to implement solutions that can produce

financial results. Instructors provide formal project specific feedback to

participants in each phase. Students are also encouraged to schedule one-on-

one mentoring sessions with their instructors to discuss project specific hurdles.

e) Design & Innovation

TRIZ is rapidly gaining popularity as a powerful methodology for

enhancing innovation and creativity inside corporate environments. Research

and development teams, product developers, manufacturers and service

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businesses alike are finding TRIZ to be a powerful tool for solving practical

problems and building new technologies in their business.

TRIZ helps companies generate more solutions of a higher quality in less

time. TRIZ is applicable to every industry and in every environment for the

acceleration and innovation of problem solving. TRIZ is also used to improve the

scope and strength of intellectual property. This program offers an intensive

introduction to the foundational elements of TRIZ and provides an understanding

of how to use them effectively to solve problems in a manner that is predictable,

reliable and creative.

f) Technical

Basic Minitab Training maximizes your ability to improve quality. It will

teach you how to use Minitab to implement successful data-driven improvement

projects. Our training will also help you make more effective business decisions

by teaching you how to more effectively analyze your data with Minitab. You will

learn when and how to apply Minitab and practice your new skills immediately by

working through scenarios and exercises that mirrors your own work. Topics

covered are as follow:

Charts

Histograms

Boxplots

Dotplots

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Scatterplots

Tables

Measures of Location and Variation

ODBC

Advance Minitab Training augments your graphical analysis skills using

Minitab's powerful statistical tools. Develop the foundation for important statistical

concepts such as hypothesis testing and confidence intervals. By analyzing a

variety of real world data sets, learn how to match the appropriate statistical tool

to your own applications and how to correctly interpret statistical output to quickly

reveal problems with a process or to show evidence of an improvement. Learn

how to explore critical features in your processes through statistical modeling

tools that help to uncover and describe relationships between variables. A strong

emphasis is placed on making good business decisions based upon the practical

application of statistical techniques commonly found in manufacturing,

engineering, and research and development endeavors. Tools covered include:

t-Tests

Proportion Tests

Tests for Equal Variance

Power and Sample Size

Correlation

Simple Linear and Multiple Regression

ANOVA & GLM

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1.2 Background of the Study

Technological development has been seen as one of the main factors

effecting company’s processes and profitability in the last century. The birth of

the Internet and its success in changing our society has been largely researched

in various subjects and defined in various terms. But as year’s passes by, the

Internet evolves and creates new rules for companies interacting and doing

business with their customers and partners.

The new applications and services are being developed and offered in

order to catch up with changing information society define new concepts of doing

business. In the last few years the terms of Web 2.0 and social media has

emerged as the definitions for second generation of web based services and

communities that emphasize online collaboration, networking and user created

content (Eikelman et al, 2008).

According to Strategy Analytics report (2007), social media users will

exceed 1 billion by 2012. The enormous growth of social networks (Facebook,

Twitter, MySpace, etc.), Blogs, Wikis and consumer’s participation in these

platforms forces companies to reevaluate their business strategies. The recent

investments by leading companies like Microsoft (240 millions in Facebook) and

Google (900 millions in MySpace) in social networks gives a clear signal that

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company’s presence in dialogue with consumer gains a new meaning in terms of

communication strategy.

LSS Academy is now implementing social media marketing and Web 2.0

due to the emerging ‘world of technology’. Besides promoting and selling its

product through the Internet, LSS Academy also gets the chances to enhance its

marketing communications with potential and existing clients, partners, and also

sponsors.

LSS Academy has a positive judgment that social media marketing is a

great engagement tool with online communities to generate exposure,

opportunity, and sales. It is the process of promoting the site or business through

social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get the links, attention

and massive amounts of traffic. Social media marketing enables marketers to

take engagement to the next level. It is about having a dialogue in which

consumers and marketers are alike participate and respond.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily

give large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to the website

again and again. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, Blogs,

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and many more. It is great for creating

mindshare, branding initiatives, and brand awareness.

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Social media is also a part of brand experience when users interact in

these channels. If the experience is positive, high-energy, interesting or

attractive, all of these elements will support a unique brand experience and

support ongoing initiatives in this area. Both positive and negative experiences

can really have great impacts on a brand. Few examples of positive experiences

include interesting videos, useful contents, flash games, good products, and

attractive contests based on user participation. Each of these methods helps

engage in a deeper dialogue or closer interaction with the existing consumer and

also potential customer.

Back to the basic, the bottom line for many marketing campaigns is to

bring an increase in sales. Sometimes this is done directly and sometimes it is a

very indirect process. It is very hard to create a social media marketing campaign

that will result in direct sales. This is because marketers are reaching consumers

in a non-purchasing stage of the cycle. It contrasts from standard SEO (search

engine optimization) where consumers are looking for what you’re selling and at

the point of purchase already. On the other hand, social media is less intrusive,

and a part of the reason people engaged is because there is more than just a

selling message. Social media marketing is also good for brand building,

relationship management, product development, reputation management,

customer interaction, customer feedback, customer support, community building,

and etc.

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1.3 Problem Statement

Unquestionably, social media has taken the web by storm over the last

few years. As Internet users flock to community-focused and collaborative

websites, marketers have struggled to determine effective ways to communicate

their brand messaging to that audience.

Some companies may still be wondering why they should go to all this

elaborate effort in the first place. The reasons are many and compelling.

Audiences in general are moving from traditional media to the web and from the

static web to Web 2.0 / social media as their preferred free time activity,

according to a recent study by Fox Interactive Media (FIM). Social network users

spend more than seven hours per week on social networks, and most of them list

social media interaction as their favorite leisure activity, above television.

A similarly compelling survey from IT Toolbox, whose participants

consisted of business managers, developers, executive decision-makers, IT

analysts, and IT decision-makers, indicated that social media content was their

most trusted source of information for purchasing decisions, second only to

vendor websites as a reference for purchasing decisions. This same audience of

decision-makers indicated that they spent on average of 2.93 hours per week on

social media websites, as compared to 2.89 hours per week on editorial media,

such as Information Week, CNN, and WSJ.com.

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Nevertheless, there is a clear shortage of academic literature which

defines the social media environment and Web 2.0 application. Moreover, it is

not clear what applications and how they should be used by the company in

order to make these communications more valuable. Finally, this subject is not

enough researched in different environments. The most of the rare academic

literature and professional insights are dedicated to US market and there are no

findings presented how consumers perceive company’s initiatives to influence

their private space on the net in Malaysia.

So clearly, social media is a growing channel with a large and influential

audience that is too big to be ignored for long. Viral standalone campaigns can

sometimes achieve success in this venue, but for social media to reach its

maximum potential as a marketing communications tool, effective strategies for

integrating it into an organization’s primary marketing and advertising efforts

need to be established.

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1.4 Significance of the Study

It is essential to stay current on the latest industry trends because

social media evolves at a rapid pace.

Define social media and Web 2.0 and its benefits.

Evaluate the influence for different types of Web 2.0 applications by

the consumer in terms of communication interactivity.

Analyze the general patterns of the consumer’s perception about the

differences between social media and traditional media in Malaysia

market.

Discover the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

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1.5 Research Objectives

According to Constantinides and Fountain (2008), in order to enable

Social Media Properties (SMP) to integrate into corporate commercial strategy,

these areas must be researched in greater depth; the effects of Web 2.0

applications on consumer behavior, differences between exiting Web 2.0

applications effectiveness and their relationship with traditional mediums. As this

study concentrates particularly on the marketing communication strategies, the

two main aims are identified below, followed by the objectives of the research:

Aim 1 - To determine the social media environment and identify Malaysian

consumer’s profile:

To define the main changes brought by social media in marketing

communications environment.

To identify “Who” are the users of SMP in Malaysia?

To identify “What” SMP are they using?

To identify “Where” and “How” are they using SMP?

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Aim 2 - To evaluate the SMP effectiveness as marketing communication

tool and channel:

To verify if the interactions through SMP could result in positive

outcomes for the company.

To verify if different SMP have to be used for different

communication purposes.

To verify if SMP could be a valuable channel in changing

consumer’s attitudes towards the company.

To verify if communications through SMP triggers the positive word

of mouth.

To verify the level of involvement needed by the company in order

to maintain positive relationship with consumer.

To verify if different type of consumers use different type of

mediums

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1.6 Theoretical Framework

A theoretical framework is the foundation on which the entire research

project is based. The relationship between the literature survey and the

theoretical framework is that the former provides a solid foundation for

developing the latter. Variables are anything that can take on differing or varying

values. There are four types of variables:

Dependent variable

Independent variables

Moderate variables

Intervening variables

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Figure 1.1: Theoretical Framework

Interactions through SMP

Awareness of SMP

Technographic profiles of SMP users (Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic, Collector)

The Evaluation of

Social Media Effects on

Marketing Communications

Dependent Variables (DV)

Independent Variables (IV)

*SMP – Social Media Properties

In this research, there are three independent variables that will influence

the dependent variable:

i. Interactions through SMP

The interactions through Web 2.0 applications generate different

outcomes for the company. Not only is interactivity a

fundamental difference between traditional media and online

media, but the various online tools also differ in their degree of

interactivity.

ii. Awareness of SMP

SMP will create awareness of the public since marketing

communications is evolving and Web 2.0 applications are now

being used widely all over the world.

iii. Technographic profiles of SMP users (Creator, Joiner, Spectator,

Critic, Collector)

To investigate if there is a significant relationship between

technographic profiles (Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic,

Collector) of the consumer and the preferred media channel

chosen.

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1.7 Hypothesis

H0 = Null H1 = Alternate

H0 – There is no significant relationship between the interactions through Social

Media Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

H1 – There is a significant relationship between the interactions through Social

Media Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

H0 – There is no significant relationship between the awareness of Social Media

Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

H1 – There is a significant relationship between the awareness of Social Media

Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

H0 – There is no significant relationship between technographic profiles of Social

Media Properties users (Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic, Collector) and the

evaluation of social media effects on marketing communications.

H1 – There is a significant relationship between technographic profiles of Social

Media Properties users (Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic, Collector) and the

evaluation of social media effects on marketing communications.

33

1.8 Limitations of the Study

In conducting this research, there were certain limitations that the

researcher had discovered. It is very challenging to distribute the questionnaires

to the respondents through web survey. Occasionally, they will give incorrect and

irrelevant answer to each sequence of questionnaire. It is quite tough to control

the obstacle since the research is conducted virtually.

Furthermore, there is a doubt that the respondent may not really exposed

to the terms of Social Media Properties (SMP) and Web 2.0 which can affect their

understanding in answering the questionnaires. Most of the SMP users might

know how to use the Web 2.0 application very well, or can learn it naturally as

they get used with the applications, although they are not really aware of the

terms and definitions.

Finally, the information for this research is very hard to attain because this

subject is not enough researched in different environments. Most of the

academic literature, professional insights, and empirical study are dedicated to

US market and few Europe markets compared to Malaysia market. This limitation

will contribute to the lack of local sources in Malaysia.

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1.9 Definition of Terms

a) Social Media

The real power of people can be noticed in the new revolutionized

media channel – social media. According to Mayfield (2008), social media is

best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most

or all of the following characteristics; participation & engagement, openness,

conversation, community, and connectedness.

According to Anthony Bradley (2010), social media is a set of

technologies and channels targeted at forming and enabling a potentially

massive community of participants to productively collaborate. IT tools to

support collaboration have existed for decades. But for social media

technologies such as social networking, Wikis and blogs, enable collaboration

on a much grander scale and support tapping the power of the collective in

ways previously unachievable.

b) Web 2.0

Web 2.0 should be perceived as the new tools for the marketing

communication mix, facilitator and enabler of social media. Constantinides

and Fountain (2008) defined Web 2.0 as a collection of open-source,

35

interactive and user-controlled online applications expanding the experiences,

knowledge, and market power of the users as participants in business and

social processes.

Accessed from Webopedia.com, Web 2.0 is the term given to describe

a second generation of the World Wide Web (www) that is focused on the

ability for people to collaborate and share information through online. Web 2.0

basically refers to the transition from static HTML web pages to a more

dynamic web that is more organized and is based on serving web

applications to users. Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open

communication with an emphasis on web-based communities of users and

more open sharing of information. Over time, Web 2.0 has been used more

as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis,

and web services are all seen as components of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 was

previously used as a synonym for Semantic Web, but while the two are

similar, they do not share precisely the same meaning.

c) Social Media Marketing

Geoff Livingston (2008), author of Now is Gone and CEO of a Media

Relations Firm said that social media marketing really requires networking

skills first, because we are building relationships, not overtly promoting. It’s a

unique blend of networking skills (relationships); traditional Public Relations

36

skills (building goodwill), marketing skills (giving customers what they want),

and customer service (delivering resolutions to issues).

According to About.com, social media marketing consists of the

attempt to use social media to persuade consumers that one's company,

products and / or services are worthwhile. Businesses use social media to sell

their products or services. To use social media marketing effectively,

businesses have to be perceived as members of the social media community

and willing to interact with other members.

d) Marketing Communication

According to Websitemarketingplan.com, marketing communication is

a broad term that encompasses all the ways businesses interact and

communicate with a market. Those in general marketing, brand managers,

Internet marketers, direct marketers, advertising managers / agencies,

publicists, public relations professionals, promotions specialists, and sales

people, all participate in some aspect of marketing communications. For

most, the ultimate goal is to present an integrated, uniform impression across

all forms of communication. This means addressing product, service, and

company communication, goals in the business and / or marketing plan.

37

According to David Picton (2005), marketing communication is the

management process that integrates the marketing function relates to

audience to realize the wider brand and its consistency.

e) Technographics

According to Wikipedia.com, technographic is a segmentation of

market research analysis tool used to identify and profile the characteristics

and behaviors of consumers through the process of market segmentation.

Traditionally market researchers focused on various demographic,

psychographic, and lifestyle schemes to categorize and describe

homogeneous clusters of consumers that comprise possible target markets.

With the advent of personal computers and home video in the late

1980’s and the explosion in Internet use, personal digital assistants,

BlackBerry, video games, cell phones, and others in the 1990’s, information

and communication technologies have emerged as a central focus and

defining force in a wide range of occupations and lifestyles. Accordingly,

market researchers realized the need for a segmentation scheme based on

the role that technology plays in consumers' lives.

38

CHAPTER TWO

39

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

The last century was a gold age for the media development. The new

technologies as telephone, radio, and television have changed people’s lives

forever. The new ways of communications have been successfully adopted and

become a norm. The last decade of the century brought the new innovative

technology – Internet. As predicted by Newman (1991), Internet:

Altered the meaning of geographic distance.

Allowed the huge increase in the volume of communication.

Provided the possibility of increasing the speed of communication.

Provided opportunities for interactive communication.

Allowed forms of communication that was previously separate to overlap

and interconnect.

Grieco and Holmes (1999) (cited in Combe et al, 2003) identifies three

powerful features of Internet:

1) Disintermediation or the removal of brokers by allowing direct

communication across spatial and sociometric distance.

2) Asynchronicity of the removal of temporality as a barrier to

communications.

3) Oculacy or the ability to communicate messages through images.

40

According to Hermeking (2006), the global spread of modern technology,

including information, and communication technology (ICT), is commonly

regarded both as an indicator of the postmodern era of globalization and as the

very precondition for that era of intensive worldwide interactions of people and

exchanges of goods, services, information, and capital. Hoffman (Hoffman et al.,

1995) argues that the popularity of the WWW as a commercial medium (in

contrast to other networks on the Internet) is due to its ability to facilitate global

sharing of information and resources, and its potential to provide an efficient

channel for advertising, marketing, and even direct distribution of certain goods

and information services.

According to Linda Peters (1998), the “Web” presents a fundamentally

different environment – both as a medium and as a market – from traditional

communication channels perspective. It creates the market space – a virtual

realm where products and services exist as digital information and can be

delivered through information-based channels (Rayport and Svikola, 1994). The

companies and consumers quickly adopted the new concept of the new

interactive world for their own benefits. These interactive channels allowed

companies to reach new markets or have a greater influence in the existing one’s

(i.e. media companies transferred their newspapers in order to reach new

audiences) and the consumers had an opportunity to save time and money by

communicating, looking for information, or buying product and services online.

41

According to Liu & Shrum (2002), emergence of new media (Internet),

brought new models of interactivity; user-to-user and user–to-message.

Contemplating about user-to-user interactivity, Ha and James (1998) suggested

that “The more communication in a computer-mediated environment resembles

interpersonal communication, the more interactive the communication is”. Steuer

(1992) defined users-to-message interaction as follows: “The extent to which

users can participate in modifying the form and content of a mediated

environment in real time”.

Commercial online services and the introduction of the web have created

the potential for a mass interactive dialogue between exchange parties (Peters,

1998). The world have witnessed the evolution of a universal interconnected

network of audio, video, and electronic text communications that blurred the

distinction between interpersonal and mass communication, and between public

and private communication (Neuman, 2003).

The new market space changed the behavior of the people and the

communication models. The shift is then from a “one (firm)-to-many (consumers)”

model of communication to the “many-to-many” model where contribution to the

medium and the message may come from both directions (Hoffman and Novak,

1996). Chaffey (Dave Chaffey et al., 2007) argues that such kind of

communications allows mass customization and personalization and the

messages send through Internet can be targeted more effectively.

42

Moreover, the web is changing the traditional marketing communications

concepts as the consumers can go all the way from “Awareness” to “Interest” to

“Desire” to “Action” (AIDA Framework), all within the same medium and within

the same session (Economist, 2008). Peters (1998) suggests four main changes

in communication model; comparing the new and old media:

i. Communication style - tend to have little or no time lag between the

giving, receiving, and responding aspects of communication between the

parties.

ii. Social presence - or perceived personalness, the feeling that

communication exchanges are sociable, warm, personal, sensitive, and

active.

iii. Control of contact - early research into the willingness of consumers to

utilize technology in shopping behavior concludes that the ability to control

the pace and presentation of product information has the strongest

influence on willingness to engage in computer-mediated marketing

activity (Carson et al., 1996).

Content – the content can be customized either by users or by

senders. Where users are able to control the content or presentation of

the message, it is said to be interactive.

43

Andrew L. Shapiro (1999) argues that the emergence of new, digital

technologies signals is a potentially radical shift of who is in control of

information, experience, and resources. One of the key features of the new

electronic communication media is the ability of consumers to control both

contact and content (Peters, 1998). Sohn and Lackenby (2002) suggest that

individual’s participation in social communication processes is the crucial factor

for increasing the perceived interactivity of the Internet (citied in Stafford and

Ronald, 2005).

Moreover, according to Normann and Ramirez (1994) the consumers

become co-producers, because the value is constantly created in interaction with

many different players, including consumers, suppliers, employees, and

managers. As a result, marketers are losing control over the communication

messages their trying to deliver to their consumers. According to Gatarski and

Lundkvist (1998) when communication, in the meaning of sharing information,

meets interactivity, it creates not simple massages but forms two-way

conversations. These conversations can be applied in production as

implementation of mutual ideas (consumers’ and producers’) in order to create

new enjoyable products or services.

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2.1 Social Media

The real power of people can be noticed in the new revolutionized media

channel – social media. According to Mayfield (2008), social media is best

understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of

the following characteristics:

1) Participation & Engagement: Social media encourages contributions

and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between

media and audience.

2) Openness: Most social media services are open to feedback and

participation. They encourage voting, comments, and the sharing of

information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of

content – password-protected content is frowned on.

3) Conversation: Whereas traditional media is about ‘broadcast’ (content

transmitted or distributed to an audience), social media is better seen as a

two-way conversation.

4) Community: Social media allows communities to form quickly and

communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as

hobbies, current issue, political and economic issues, entertainments,

games, and many more.

5) Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their

connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources, and people.

45

Drury (2008) suggests that when analyzing social media, marketers too

often concentrates on the “media” factor, when “social” element is the key,

because marketing within social media is about building a relationship and

conversation with the audience, where the simple message delivery is changed

by ongoing exchange of perceptions and ideas between company and the

consumer.

Haven (2008) suggests that social media key elements are not entirely

new as features of sharing, connecting, opining, broadcasting and creating has

been long in our lives, but there are several characteristics of new technologies

and behaviors that set them apart from the past:

i. Reach — Historically, audiences for the common person have been

limited; a tribe, family, friends, neighbors, or the local community. Today's

technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.

ii. Accessibility — The means of production for most media used to lie in

the hands of enterprises with unlimited resources (financial or human).

Today's technologies for media creation are available to anyone at little or

no cost.

iii. Usability — The means of production typically required specialized skills

and training, both technically and creatively. Today's technologies simplify

those processes, or in some cases reinvent them. So anyone can create

and operate the means of production.

46

iv. Transparency — People, especially Americans, historically kept personal

information to themselves and had a general distrust of authority

(enterprises, government, etc.). Today, people are willing to share

anything about themselves (interests, location, family situations, health

condition, and others) in a public venue, and today's technologies make

that both possible and purposeful.

v. Recency — When people did have the means of production and

distribution in the past (albeit limited), the time lag between

communications was typically long (days, weeks, or even months). It was

a limitation of the technology or system in which it operated. Today's

technologies enable instantaneous responses and dialog where only the

participant determines the delay in response.

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2.2 Web 2.0

Social media and Web 2.0 are two terms which are often used

interchangeably in the marketing literature, even though they are not entirely the

same. From the marketing perspective, the Web 2.0 should be perceived as the

new tools for the marketing communication mix and facilitator and enabler of

social media.

The Web 2.0 terms was introduced by Tim O’Reilly in 2004. It has

originated from talks about social software and the communities surrounding

these applications. According to Tim O’Reilly (2007) “The companies that

survived the dotcom boom had something in common,” these companies realized

that the “Web” is much more useful for delivering service than being used just as

a platform for “packaged” products (i.e. software).

Constantinides and Fountain (2008) defined Web 2.0 as a collection of

open-source, interactive and user-controlled online applications expanding the

experiences, knowledge, and market power of the users as participants in

business and social processes. Web 2.0 applications support the creation of

informal user’s networks, facilitating the flow of ideas and knowledge by allowing

the efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing / refining of

informational content.

48

Hoegg (Hoegg et al, 2005) suggests that Web 2.0 is the philosophy of

mutually maximizing collective intelligence and added value for each participant

by formalized and dynamic information sharing and creation. Hoegg (Hoegg et al,

2005), and Constantinides and Fountain (2008) classified Web 2.0 into 5 broad

types according their nature:

i. Blogs: Short form for Web logs; the online journals, the most known and

fastest-growing category of Web 2.0 applications. Blogs are often

combined with Podcasts, that is, digital audio or video that can be

streamed or downloaded to portable devices. Examples: Wordpress.com,

Blogger.com, Xanga.com.

ii. Social networks: Applications allowing users to build personal websites

accessible to other users for exchange of personal content and

communication. Examples: Myspace.com, Facebook.com, Tagged.com,

Friendster.com, LinkedIn.com, Hi5.com.

iii. Content Communities: Websites organizing and sharing particular types

of content. For instance, applications of video sharing: Video.google.com,

Youtube.com, applications of photos sharing: Flickr.com, social

bookmarking: Digg.com, and publicly edited encyclopedias (wikis):

Wikipedia.org.

iv. Forums / bulletin boards: Sites for exchanging ideas and information

usually around special interests. For examples: Epinions.com,

YahooAnswer.com.

49

v. Content aggregators: Applications allowing users to fully customize the

web content they wish to access. These sites make use of a technique

known as Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (RSS).

Examples: uk.my.yahoo.com, google.com/ig.

Tim O‟Reilly (2005) argues that Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary,

but rather, a gravitational core which could be visualized as a set of principles

and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate

some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core. Therefore, it

is difficult to classify the Web 2.0 into the precise groupings, because the

applications are interrelated and most of the time a few Web 2.0 features works

on one platform. The mixture of Web 2.0 applications working under one site are

known as “Mash-ups”.

According to Mayfield (2008), this combination of two or more pieces of

contents (or software, or websites) is one of the phenomena in social media that

make it at once so exciting, fast-moving, and sometimes bewildering. But even

more important feature of Web 2.0 applications is the adaptability in the different

platforms. Social applications are becoming more and more popular on mobile

devices (Phones, iPods – via podcasts). In fact, according to BBC News (2008)

one of the reasons the Internet usage on the mobile devices is increasing is

because of Web 2.0 applications.

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2.3 Social Media Marketing

As the prevalence of social media continues to rise, organizations of all

types and sizes are recognizing the ways in which social media can help them

better understand, respond to, and attract the attention of their target audience.

As a result, businesses are now jumping on the social media bandwagon at a

rapid pace, embracing blogs, social networks, wikis, and other vehicles to

achieve their marketing and public relations goals.

There are few types of benefits that can be achieved by corporations with

the use of effective social media strategy:

i. Get the Message Out Faster – and to More People

Social media enables more rapid sharing of information. It may take hours,

or even days, for a new announcement to reach the end consumer through

traditional channels. When a press release is issued, a journalist or writer must

first wade through all the sales and marketing lingo to find the key points. Then,

the content must be re-purposed in article format, and sent to an editor or

proofreader before it is published.

Social media vehicles, on the other hand, allow for instantaneous

dissemination of not just news, but images, audio, video, and other multimedia

51

content as well. And because releases geared toward social media outlets

contain only key highlights, pertinent facts, and hyperlinks to related statistics

and quotes, the information they contain can be immediately picked up and

posted by bloggers and other online journalists.

Social media also provides more widespread coverage, enabling breaking

news to reach a much larger and broader reader base than standard media

outlets alone. While magazine readership and the number of available print

publications continue to decline, the number of consumers using the Internet to

access and share information continues to rise sharply. For example, one recent

study showed that almost one out of every four Internet users over 41 million

people total in 2006 visits MySpace on a regular basis.

ii. Improve Branding

Social media and blogs in particular, can be a highly useful tool for

enhancing both awareness and image. Blogging can help “spread the word”

about a company, its products, and its services to more people, dramatically

increasing brand recognition and awareness.

Additionally, social media can enable executives to gather input and

feedback directly from their target audience, and use that intelligence for more

52

effective reputation management. Insight into why people like or hate a brand is

needed to help change and control audience perceptions and preferences.

iii. Boost the Impact of Direct Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key component of today’s direct

marketing and lead generation strategies, and social media has proven its ability

to significantly complement SEO initiatives. Many social media techniques such

as frequent use of common jargon and key phrases, title tags, ticker symbols,

and links to blogs and other relevant Web content can dramatically improve

search engine rankings.

Additionally, while SEO relies on just a handful of popular search engines

such as Google and Yahoo to drive target prospects to a site, social media

expands the potential audience by creating alternate channels. For example,

when content is published to a site, and that content is then linked from

del.icio.us or Reddit, it can generate a tremendous boost in Web traffic. Many

companies also find it much easier to generate compelling content that is likely to

be picked up by bloggers, than it is to keep up with the “rules” required to rank

high in today’s popular search engines.

53

2.4 Interactions through SMP

The interactivity gains a new meaning when it is applied through Web 2.0

platforms and social media channels as dialogue between consumer and

company becomes much more active and interactive. As summarized in the

media landscape analysis, the past decade was all about two-way

communications and interactions models. Most of the marketing academics

(Kotler, 2003; Pettit and Brassington, 2005) recognized the importance of

creating two-way marketing channels between consumer and company for brand

building, CRM, sales (and etc).

Social media, itself, does not change this idea, but redefines interactivity

and takes it to another level. Armano (2008) argues that social media goes

beyond the interactive marketing which is facilitated by computer-human

interaction, and introduces human-to-human interaction enabled by technology.

The main difference is that the companies instead of pushing the content (i.e.

automated e-mails) through online channels, empower people to engage and

interact with other people and produce new content about the company

(blogging, commenting, social networking, and etc.). Free production of content

and voluntary distribution is the key elements of the social media. Meadows-Klue

(2008) suggests that in social media marketing, engagement replaces

interruption; diversity and self-expression replace conformism and unity; the

54

media of the masses replace mass media; granular insights and rich data

replaces generalization and conversations in marketing replace control.

Another major change from the marketing perspective is the shift from

persuasion to influence. Past decades marketing practitioners were using the

communication mix in order to “attack” consumers with pervasive messages to

make them buy goods and services offered, but in the age where 25 percent of

search results on Google for the world’s 20 largest brands links to consumer-

generated content (Nielsen Buzz Metrics, 2007), to do this is too late, not

practical or impossible, as the messages are already floating out there.

According to Mitchell (2008), this process is facilitated by the change of

information flows from “top down” (B2C) to “bottom up” (C2B), which redefines

marketing environment as marketers do not own the message. Armano (2008)

suggests that people can be divided in different grouping according their

“strength” as the massagers.

The User Generated Content (UGC) can become influential message of

the consumer to the consumer (C2C) about the company and therefore should

be carefully monitored. In fact, the content is the new message in social media

channels. According to Eikelmann (Eikelmann et al, 2008), the best marketers

can do in this environment is to try to engage with the consumers through social

media in order influence these messages. Drury (2008) suggests that instead of

sending simple messages, marketers should provide the content which would be

55

relevant for consumers and would generate conversations among them.

Therefore, influence will become a standard measurement in Marketing 2.0

(Dowdell, 2008). As blogger and social media strategist Douma (2008) put it:

“The age of persuasion is over. Welcome to the age of influence.”

Marketers are forced to look for alternative communication strategies to

market in the social media environment because advertising clutter, growing

advertising literacy, and changing consumer behavior drives down the return on

investment (Biegel, 2008; Constantinides and Fountain, 2008). These strategies

have to consider the increasing fragmentation in the markets which may shift the

rules of targeting into behavioral marketing favor (Meadows-Klue, 2008). Armano

(2008) suggests that micro interactions and permission marketing /

unconventional marketing (Godin, 1999) should be the right strategy to approach

the consumer in the new media world.

Micro strategies are more valuable in fragmented media environment, as

they generate more precise consumer insight and as a result are better targeted.

According to Godin (2008), unconventional marketing principals are effective

because it considers the needs and wants of the people and listens to them.

Therefore it aims to build a more in-depth and lasting customer relationship

based on loyalty and trust (Masterson, 2007).

56

Viral and Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing principals are the essentials in

social media. This medium provides a platform for Web 2.0 applications and

tools, which works as enablers in order to increase reach and speed of the

messages. According to Lockhorn (2007), word of mouth campaigns can take off

very quietly through niche communities and can be powerfully persuasive, or

conversely result in an astonishing backlash. It should be closely monitored by

marketers as various researches (RazorFish, 2008; Internet Consumption

Report, 2008) shows that people make purchasing decisions according what they

here form other people about the products or services.

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2.5 Awareness of SMP

It was only approximately 20 some odd years ago that the average person

was beginning to become associated with the Internet. Prior to that, the Internet

was mostly reserved for academia and various government agencies. Before

that, it was only reserved for the U.S. government (the official origins of the

Internet began back in 1969 with the U.S. military’s funding of a research network

dubbed “Arpanet”). Today, we not only have the Internet, but also social media

tied in there as well.

The term “social media” implies; “media” (place where publications occur)

and “social” implies that there is sharing occurring –sharing of ideas, opinions,

and images. Social media also implies the tools, places, and services that allow

people to gather for social interaction. Social media allows individuals to gather

and express themselves in a much more simple and immediate fashion. By

giving people this capability, they not only have the ability to share ideas,

opinions and other contents, but also (if they wish) gain notoriety, and expand

their influence.

The ability to do so has altered the way ideas change hands and how fast

those ideas spread. At the same time, news and any information that would

usually take days or even weeks to go from one location to another can now

occur in seconds. This ease of communication has never been so available to

58

people around the world as it is now and it is still continuing to evolve.

Remember that throughout history, many countless numbers of governments

have created and held onto their power by controlling information and the

spreading of ideas. Because of social media, many of these types of

governments can no longer function this way any longer. Why? Because the

technology available to a person is so economical and simple to utilize that

virtually anyone with some education or training on the subject can become a

point of contact for the communication of information.

The Delivery of News, the Sharing of Ideas, and the Expression of Opinions

Figure 2.1: Key Social Platforms

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The spreading of an idea, or of news occurring somewhere in the world

can no longer be completely blocked by any organization. As long as one person

is able to connect to the Internet and express their view about a situation or

simply about an idea, then the information that individual will want to share, will

get out into the world. Remember, last year during the Iranian elections when

there were (and to some extent still are) people disagreeing with the “official”

election outcome, the Iranian government attempted to control the

communication and the images of what was occurring in Iran from getting out.

They were never able to control all the information and images that were being

seen by the world in ‘real-time’. In another example, when an earthquake rocked

the country of Haiti, not only were images from the torn country in the aftermath

of the quake being seen around the world, but commentaries and opinions of

what people were seeing were being read and heard (from Haiti). Sites such as

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and FriendFeed allow people to share ideas on not

just news, but also on products and services. Products and services that before

social media, many people would not have even heard about them, let alone

request or want the service.

Needless to say, social media has forever changed the way society works,

whether it’s the sharing of an idea, the communication of news, or the availability

of a product or service. Society today is on the verge of a new way of existing

that it’s never experienced before. No longer will people from one side of the

world be really able to say that they will never see a person or communicate with

60

someone from the other side of the world ever in their life. No longer will people

not be able to share an idea, if they really want to share it (no matter how radical

it may be or no matter how many people may disagree with it). No longer will the

spreading of information or the expressing of an opinion be able to be completely

silenced. As long as there is a person who wishes to express their opinion, share

their music or art, or simply say hello to another human being in another country

or culture, social media will allow them to do so. Here are few questions related

to the awareness of social media:

What are some of your opinions as to how social media has changed

society?

How do you believe social media will be in the future?

What will social media look like in 5 or even 10 years from now? 15 or 20

years from now?

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2.6 Consumer 2.0 –Web 2.0 Citizens

As powerful as it is technology is just enabler and it‘s the technology in the

hands of almost always connected people that make it so powerful (Blume, 1996;

citied in Li and Bernoff, 2008). A decade ago Raaij (1998) identified that social

and technological developments will create new options and possibilities for

consumers and will bring some real changes for marketing managers. For the

past 18 years, the active discussions have taken place in marketing literature

analyzing the relationship of postmodern marketing, semantic web, interactivity,

tribes, and changing consumer behavior (Raaij, 1998; Flart et al, 1995; Cova

1997; Constantinedes, 2004; Simmons, 2008), but only today the discussed

thoughts embrace their real meaning. The mass acceptance of the Web as social

medium is the biggest recent change in internet behavior which allows the

postmodern marketing concepts to flourish (Razorfish, 2008). These changes in

postmodern marketing era are mostly driven by the new consumers.

Digital natives, Millennial, Generation Y, just a few names often met in

marketing literature, describing the new generation of tech-savvy, success

driven, self-confident, independent but community-minded people (Deloitte,

2005). According to Tapscott (2008), it is the first global generation ever which is

smarter, quicker, and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors.

Millennial never experienced life without computers and are just a click away

from the world any minute.

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The reverse accumulation of knowledge is typical for them - the younger

they are, the more they know (Deloitte, 2005). Tapscott (2008) identifies eight

norms that define Net Geners:

They value freedom and choice in everything they do.

They love to customize and personalize.

They scrutinize everything.

They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to

buy and where to work.

They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as

their social life.

They love to collaborate.

They expect everything to happen fast.

They expect constant innovation.

Moreover, Deloitte (2005) suggests that Generation Y is impatient, needs

the flexibility and space to explore, wants to produce something worthwhile and

seeks to make a difference in order to be rewarded with a respect. This

generation fits well the description of postmodern consumer which lacks the

commitment to grand projects and seeks different experiences, and is willing to

see oneself as a (marketable) object in the different situations he / she

encounters in order to make each a supremely exciting and enjoyable experience

(Flrat et al., 1995)

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Even though, they are not the only ones affecting the marketing

environment. So called “digital immigrants” (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008) or fast

adapters of the technology arguably might have even bigger influence on the

ongoing changes in marketing as they are aware about the changing situation

and they have a power, knowledge, and resources to influence this phenomenon.

As both of these consumer groups are very important for marketers they could be

grouped under one term of - Web 2.0 Citizens.

Web 2.0 Citizens worries marketers as their consumption patterns and the

perception of the value are evolving and the old marketing models are not

working on them. Wipperman (Trendbureo, 2008) argues that the Maslow‘s

pyramid of needs is changed with the closed loop (a feedback loop) where in the

process that is never completed self-actualization remains the individual‘s basic

motivation and is increasingly coming to the means of self-optimization.

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Figure 2.2: The Closed Loop of Needs, Source: Trendbureo (2008)

The changing needs affects buying behavior which makes it difficult for

marketers to target the consumer, especially when the new consumer takes the

initiative for transactions, at the place and time they want, what has considerable

consequences for the distribution of goods and services (Raaij, 1998). Easily

satisfied, psychological and safety needs moves the postmodern consumer onto

the search for social and self-actualizing experiences. The consumption

becomes a way for individuals to creatively appropriate and construct self-images

that allow them to become more desirable or likeable in various social contexts

(Dawes and Brown, 2000; Goulding, 2003).

Constantinides and Fountain (2008) argues that in social web era,

consumer preferences and decisions are based on new inputs provided by

parties beyond the control of online marketers; peer reviews, referrals, blogs,

65

tagging, social networks, online forums, and other forms of user-generated

content uncontrollable by the marketers. These content creating people are keen

in building online communities, in order to satisfy their social, self-esteem and

self-actualization needs. According to Kim (2000) (cited in Bowman and Willis,

2003) the hierarchy of needs differ between offline and online communities.

Table 2.1: Online Community Needs, Source: Bowman and Willis (2003)

According to Cova (2002), the main differences are that the brand

communities are explicitly commercial whereas tribes are not, furthermore, brand

communities are concerned about relationship between brand and consumer,

whereas tribes –relationship between consumers. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001)

(citied in Ouwersloot and Odekerken-Schroeder, 2008) describes a brand

66

community as a specialized, non-geographically bound community that is based

on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand. Mairinger

(2008) suggests that:

The brand community is not just formed around a brand; it creates the

brand.

The brand community is not just formed around a product; it is part of the

product.

Therefore, the creation and development of brand communities is one of

the most important tasks of the marketer as it can guarantee the company

success in the long term. According to Mairinger (2008), brand communities can

add real experiences and emotion to the brand, reach the long tail, address both

individualism and collectivity needs and replace the celebrity endorsers with

community brand advocates. Considering that 49 % of people made a purchase

based on friends recommendations on social media property (Razorfish, 2008),

social media can be viewed as an important channel and tool to interact, manage

and enable these brand communities.

Communication Process

Changing consumers requires different communication approach from

marketers. According to Tapscott (2008), Web 2.0 citizens do not accept the one-

way communication approach because they have been immersed in two-way

communication from childhood or their growing frustration with traditional

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communication approaches has reached the maximum limit. This media literacy

evolved into digital media literacy and let the audience to manage and select

their own exposure to marketing messages (Meadows-Klue, 2008). Therefore, a

power shift can be observed from the sender (advertiser) to the receiver

(consumer) where communication obtains a service-oriented (experience

creating) rather than a persuasive role (Raaij, 1998). Flrat (Flrat et al., 1995)

argues that in emerging postmodernity the consumer may be finding the potential

to become a participant in the customization of his/her world by immersing

her/himself as an object into the world of objects, instead of trying to maintain a

position that is privileged to and detached from the objects. Therefore, marketing

has to include the consumer not as a target for products but as producer of

experience. Creating and sharing positive experiences becomes more important

than just sending simple messages to the consumer. Constantinides and

Fountain (2008) argues that changing communications has to consider the new

factors influencing the decision making process of the consumer (online

uncontrollable marketing factors).

Changing customer’s perception of value affects the communication

process as it is difficult to create suitable value proposition and target the

consumer. Lawer and Knox (2006) identified the new drivers of value which has

to be considered when planning communication strategy. Moreover, as the lines

between consumers and producers disappear, the value is gained trough

completely different experiences where consumer becomes a producer –

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prosumer. Creativity and co-creation engages consumer, especially when it

happens in neo-tribes or brand communities where the consumer can share the

experience with others. As a result, the service or product itself can be modified

in order to enable the consumer to take a part in co-creation process and

guarantee a positive word of mouth for the company. Lawer (2006) proposes

eight styles of company-consumer value co-creation.

From the social media perspective, the people could be divided in 6 social

technographic profiles according to their participation level (Li and Bernoff, 2008):

i. "Creators" - Publish a blog / website; upload created videos/music;

write articles or stories and post them.

ii. "Critics" - Post ratings / reviews; comment on blogs and forums;

contribute to articles or wikis.

iii. "Collectors" - Use RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos

iv. "Joiners" - Maintain a profile / an account on social media site

(Social network, Content community).

v. "Spectators" - Read blogs or customer reviews, watch video or

listen to audio (podcasts).

vi. Inactives - None of these activities.

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It is important to understand how social technologies are being adopted by

the company’s costumers as according to consumer’s profile, the social strategy

could be adopted (Li and Bernoff, 2008). Especially, marketers should be

concerned about “Creators” as they are most likely to be the trend setters / brand

evangelists (opinion leaders). Hoegg (Hoegg et al., 2006) summarized the

participation model of a Web 2.0.

Figure 2.3: Participation Model of a Web 2.0 Service, Source: Hoegg (2006)

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CHAPTER THREE

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3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

Research methodology can be defined as a highly intellectual human

activity used in the investigation of nature and matter, and deals specifically with

the manner in which data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted.

This chapter will outline the research methodology, applied techniques,

and procedures undertaken. It will also explain how the research was planned

and implemented. The thorough description of research design will also be

presented in this study.

By conducted a good research design, the effectiveness and efficiency of

the research project can be achieved. A deep understanding of the following

component of research design is required:

i. Identify data and information

ii. Collection of data and information

iii. Analyze the data

iv. Disseminate the information

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3.1.1 Description and Justification of the Methods

There are two general types of the research approaches; scientific and

ethnographic. According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005), the scientific (or

objective) approach is more concerned with understanding the general patterns

of people’s, organisations’ and social systems’ behaviour as an opposite to

ethnographic (subjective) approach which is analyzing practices more than

theories in greater depth and more at individual level.

This research can be considered as a theory-led scientific study, since the

main objective of this research is to verify a set of theories that describe “what” is

changing in the marketing communications environment and analyze consumer’s

behavior according to these hypotheses. Even though it is considered to be

scientific research there are some appearances of ethnographic inductive logic.

Maylor and Blackmon (2005) suggest that sometimes when there is scarcity of

data it may be an acceptable to use two research approaches in one study.

Sometimes it may not be possible to develop any hypothesis at all, if it is being

investigated for the first time as there are no previous data is available

(Bhojanna, 2007). Therefore in this study, because the research subject is

relatively new, the literature review was dedicated not to generate hypothesis,

but to build-up the theory itself and to prove that in changing media landscape,

there are new marketing communication tools and channels requiring greater

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consideration, and that chosen hypothesis are valid. Furthermore, the findings in

the literature review were adopted in data analysis.

The quantitative research strategies are used to count and measure the

data in order to answer the questions “what”, “where”, “how”, “how many”, and

“how much” as an opposition to qualitative research questions “why” and “how”.

There is a debate going on whether qualitative or quantitative research is better,

but according to Maylor and Blackmon (2005), both qualitative and quantitative

research have their advantages and disadvantages and are used for different

purposes.

The success of the quantitative study is based on the validity of the data

and statistical significance of the results that could be generalized. Therefore,

appropriate data had to be collected and processed. According to Maylor and

Blackmon (2005), a suitable way to verify the research hypotheses and capture

opinions, behaviors, attitudes, and facts is by doing a survey. In a result,

according to sample size and time frame, the self-administrated online

questionnaire method was chosen for conducting the survey. In the short time

frame, it is considered to be one of the best tools to gather large amounts of valid

data.

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3.2 Research Design

3.2.1 Data Collection Method (Primary and Secondary Data)

Malhotra and Birks (2003), states that an appropriate data collection

method contributes to the successfulness of research project. There are two

types of data; primary data which has been collected in the process of the study

by the researcher; and secondary data which has been already collected and

analyzed by others (Ghauri et al, 1991). Both sources of data should be used to

achieve efficiency and effective research objective. The secondary data provides

an ability to save time and money. Therefore it has to be analyzed first before the

collection of the new material. The primary data has to be collected as well, as

the secondary data may not always provide the needed answer to all research

questions (Ghauri, 1991). In order to answer the research questions, the primary

and secondary data were used in this study.

First of all, to discuss the reasoning behind the hypothesis, literature

review was performed which analyzed secondary data. The secondary data

was collected from various academics and practitioners sources. Because of the

scarcity of data in the academic literature, some of the most valuable information

was gained through the community of marketing bloggers and research reports

by individual companies. The academic articles and research papers, books,

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published case studies, academic and industrial magazines or solitary articles

where used to generate a broader view on the subject.

In order to answer the main research question and to test the hypothesis

proposed in the introduction, the primary data was collected through the web

survey (self-administrated questionnaire were used). It enabled researcher to

apply statistical analysis methods for the study.

3.2.2 The Questionnaire Design

According Easterby-Smith (1991), within the short time frame and limited

resources, a self- administrated questionnaire is the most appropriate method to

collect data for research. Maylor and Blackmon (2005) suggest that in order to

gather appropriate data with a questionnaire, the design and planning are the

vital parts. In order to produce a reliable questionnaire and minimize biases in the

research, the designer has to consider three areas of main issues; the wording of

the questions, the appropriate categorization of variables, and the general

appearance of the questionnaire (Sekaran, 2003). The simple commonly used

expressions and terms were used in order not to confuse respondents. The

general appearance of the questionnaire was selected from pre-designed themes

for thesis type surveys suggested by the web portal providing the surveying

services (Surveymonkey.com).

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In order to gather necessary data, different types of questions were

chosen. The closed-ended question was mostly used in this research in order to

gather defined answers. Even though, in some questions the combination of

closed-ended and open-ended question were used in order to leave a possibility

for respondents to identify additional concerns.

3.2.3 Target Population and Sampling Design (Sampling Frame, Sample

Size, Sampling Technique)

According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005), the choice of the sample and

correct sampling methods are one of the key factors in gathering valid and

measurable data for the research. Malholtra (2003) suggests the five steps for

sampling design:

i. Define the target population

ii. Determine the sampling frame

iii. Select the sampling frame

iv. Determine the sample size

v. Execute the sampling process

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Population

The target population was chosen considering the objectives of this research.

As a result, only the people who have ever used Social Media Properties

(SMP) were considered as possible respondents.

Sampling Frame

The biggest social networking website, Facebook.com which represents

almost all Web 2.0 features in one site was chosen as the sampling frame for

this research. This sampling frame was used to define the sample size

needed to collect appropriate and valid data for the research

Sampling Size

Due to limited data about the total number of social media users in Malaysia

and short time frame and the budget, only followers from LSS Academy’s

Facebook were considered as the possible respondents. The researcher had

determined the target to get 100 responses from the web survey

questionnaires as the sample size.

Sampling Technique

According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005), if there is an accurate sampling

frame and the probability sampling methods are employed, there is a better

chance to reduce the sampling error. Therefore, probability simple random

sampling (SRS) method was applied as the sampling technique in this study.

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3.2.4 Reliability and Validity

As the questionnaire is a highly structured data collection tools, limiting the

powers of the researcher, the design of questionnaire should include three

characteristics (Bhojanna, 2007):

i. Validity: Validity is the most critical criterion and indicates the degree

to which an instrument measures what it is supposed to measure.

Validity can also be thought of as utility.

ii. Reliability: Reliability means, measuring instrument should provide

consistent results, even if it is measured repeatedly.

iii. Practicality: Measuring instrument must be economical and easy to

use by the researcher. That means researcher must be able to

measure what he intends to measure.

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3.2.5 Data Administrative and Analysis

The researcher attached the questionnaires link at LSS Academy’s fan

page in Facebook. The researcher used different analysis to analyze the

quantitative data generated by the dichotomous, multiple choice, and Likert-scale

questions. In order to investigate the relationship between independent variables

and dependent variable, the researcher used correlation analysis to test and

achieve the objective. Frequencies were used to analyze the demographic profile

and also other data. In addition, reliability measure has been used to test the

reliability of the variables. Finally, Statistical Package Social Sciences (SPSS)

was used to administrate and analyze all the data.

1.

80

CHAPTER FOUR

81

4.0 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS4.1 Demographic Profiles

In order to achieve the “Aim 1” and create a general consumer

profile of SMP in Malaysia, the answers to the questionnaire were

analyzed. The first question was designed in order to find out the

dominating sex of Social Media Properties in Malaysia. As it seen in the

Table and Figure 4.1, the gender distribution among users is very

similar, but female users outweigh the males. 52% of the respondents

represented female and another 48% represented male.

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Male 48 48.0 48.0 48.0

Female 52 52.0 52.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.1: Frequency Table of Gender for Social Media Users

82

Figure 4.1: Percentage of Gender for Social Media Users

83

As shown in the Table and Figure 4.2, the respondents from 21 – 30 years

age group where most keen in participating in the survey with the percentage of

35%, followed by 31 - 40 year olds with the percentage of 28%. It is possible to

make an assumption that theses two groups are the main users of SMP from

LSS Academy’s fan page in Facebook.

Age

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Below 20 years 25 25.0 25.0 25.0

21 - 30 years 35 35.0 35.0 60.0

31 - 40 years 28 28.0 28.0 88.0

41 years and above

12 12.0 12.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.2: Frequency Table of Groups of Age for Social Media UsersFigure 4.2: Percentage of Age Group for Social Media Users

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As shown in the Table and Figure 4.3, majority of respondents, which

represented 41% are Indian. This is followed by 33% of Chinese, and 17% of

Malay. Other races such as Sikh and Caucasian represented the percentage of

9%.

Race

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Malay 17 17.0 17.0 17.0

Chinese 33 33.0 33.0 50.0

Indian 41 41.0 41.0 91.0

Others 9 9.0 9.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.3: Frequency Table of Races for Social Media Users

Figure 4.3:

Percentage of Races for Social Media Users

85

As shown in the Table and Figure 4.4, most of the respondents who

represented 66% are Malaysian citizen, another 34% are non-citizen. LSS

Academy’s Facebook has international followers and customers since LSS

Academy provide training not only in Malaysia, but also in India, China, etc. LSS

Academy also has partnership with international consultation firm.

Nationality

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Malaysian 66 66.0 66.0 66.0

Non-Malaysian 34 34.0 34.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.4: Frequency Table of Nationality for Social Media UsersFigure 4.4:

Percentage of Nationality for Social Media Users

86

As shown in the Table and Figure 4.5, majority of respondents who use

SMP are from the income group of RM 2000 – RM 2999 (35%), followed by the

income group of RM 3000 – RM 3999 (30%). The least are from the income

group of less than RM 1000. We can interpret that the two majority groups have

stable monthly income.

Monthly Income (RM)

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Less than 1000 3 3.0 3.0 3.0

1000 - 1999 28 28.0 28.0 31.0

2000 - 2999 35 35.0 35.0 66.0

3000 - 3999 30 30.0 30.0 96.0

4000 and above 4 4.0 4.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.5: Frequency Table of Monthly Income for Social Media Users

Figure 4.5:

Percentage of Monthly Income for Social Media Users4.2 Awareness of

SMPBased on Table 4.6, 89% of the respondents are aware of SMP and another

87

11%, which contribute the least percentage, do not aware of SMP. We can say

that, most of us today realize the existence and usage of SMP.

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 89 89.0 89.0 89.0

No 11 11.0 11.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.6: Frequency Table of “Do you aware of Social Media Properties (SMP)?”

Based on Table 4.7, 100% or all respondents agree that they use SMP tools

in their organization.

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Table 4.7: Frequency Table of “Do you / your organization use Social

Media Properties (SMP) tools?”

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Based on table Table 4.7, 56% of respondents (majority) have been using SMP

for 2-3 years. It is more than half, that’s mean most of them are aware of the

usage of SMP for quite some time.

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid 1 - 2 years 26 26.0 26.0 26.0

2 - 3 years 56 56.0 56.0 82.0

3 years and above

18 18.0 18.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.8: Frequency Table of “How long have you been using this

tool?”Based on Table 4.9, 50% of the respondents are not familiar with the

concept of UGC and another 50% are familiar with the concept. It is equal, and

we can interpret that the term of UGC are rarely being applied by SMP users.

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 50 50.0 50.0 50.0

No 50 50.0 50.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

Table 4.9: Frequency Table of “Are you familiar with the concept of User-

Generated Content (UGC)?”4.3 Interactions through SMP

Did you (or will you) use Social Media Properties (SMP) recently?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

All respondents (100%) were / will be using SMP recently.

89

How long do you spend your time for Social Media Properties (SMP) per day?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Less than 1 hour 5 5.0 5.0 5.0

1 - 3 hours 38 38.0 38.0 43.0

4 - 6 hours 32 32.0 32.0 75.0

7 - 9 hours 15 15.0 15.0 90.0

10 hours and above 10 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

38% of the respondents spend 1-3 hours for SMP per day.

32% of the respondents spend 1-3 hours for SMP per day.

The least percentage is 5%, which means only 5 respondents use less

than 1 hour for SMP per day.

From where do you use Social Media Properties (SMP) the most?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Home 46 46.0 46.0 46.0

Workplace 30 30.0 30.0 76.0

Educational Institutions

5 5.0 5.0 81.0

On the go Mobile 19 19.0 19.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

46% of the respondents use SMP at home.

30% of the respondents use SMP at the workplace.

19% of the respondents use SMP through on the go mobile (i.e. iPhone, Blackberry, etc).

90

Why do you use Social Media Properties (SMP) tools?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Communication 23 23.0 23.0 23.0

Networking 16 16.0 16.0 39.0

External Knowledge (blogs, internal wikis)

10 10.0 10.0 49.0

Hiring 8 8.0 8.0 57.0

Marketing 18 18.0 18.0 75.0

Community Involvement

8 8.0 8.0 83.0

Customer Analysis 7 7.0 7.0 90.0

Customer Service 10 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

The highest percentage, 23% of the respondents use SMP tools for

communication.

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Are Social Media Properties (SMP) tools met your business goals?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 89 89.0 89.0 89.0

No 11 11.0 11.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

89% of the respondents agree that SMP met their organizational goals.

Does Social Media Properties (SMP) provides any business advantage over traditional media?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Yes 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

100% or all of the respondents agree that SMP provides business

advantage over traditional media.

How do you gauge the use of technology in your organization?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Excellent 57 57.0 57.0 57.0

Good 23 23.0 23.0 80.0

Fair 20 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

57% of the respondents rate the use of technology in their organization as

excellent, 23% rate as good, and none of them rate for poor.

4.4 Frequency Tables for Technographic Profiles of SMP users –Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Collector, and Critic

92

Who are you the most?

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Joiners (Maintain a profile/an account on social media site: Social network, Content Community)

42 42.0 42.0 42.0

Spectators (Read blogs or customer reviews, watch video or listen to audio)

24 24.0 24.0 66.0

Creators (Publish a blog/website: upload your created videos/music: Write articles or stories and post them)

17 17.0 17.0 83.0

Critics (Post rating/reviews: Comment on blogs and forums: contribute to articles or wikis)

10 10.0 10.0 93.0

Collectors - Use RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos)

7 7.0 7.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0

42% of the respondents are Joiners, 24% are Spectators, 17% are Critics,

and 10% are Collectors.

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Most likely actions after the interaction with the company on SMP by Creators

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Make a purchase 3 17.6 17.6 17.6

Trust the company more

4 23.5 23.5 41.2

Interact more with the company

4 23.5 23.5 64.7

Recommend the company to your friends

4 23.5 23.5 88.2

Will interact more with other companies

2 11.8 11.8 100.0

Total 17 100.0 100.0

The Social Media Properties (SMP) used by Creators

Frequency Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid Blogs ( Blogger, Wordpress, Xanga, etc)

5 29.4 29.4 29.4

Social Networks ( Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, etc)

2 11.8 11.8 41.2

Microblog (Twitter, Tumblr, etc)

3 17.6 17.6 58.8

Content Communities (Youtube, Flickr, Digg, etc)

4 23.5 23.5 82.4

Opinion Networks (Forums/Bulletin Boards)

3 17.6 17.6 100.0

Total 17 100.0 100.0

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Most likely actions after the interaction with the company on SMP by Creators

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Make a purchase 3 17.6 17.6 17.6

Trust the company more

4 23.5 23.5 41.2

Interact more with the company

4 23.5 23.5 64.7

Recommend the company to your friends

4 23.5 23.5 88.2

Will interact more with other companies

2 11.8 11.8 100.0

Statistics

The Social Media

Properties (SMP) used by

Joiners

The content preferred by

Joiners

The external reasons for

engagements by Joiners

The obstacles to interact on Social Media

Properties (SMP) by Joiners

N Valid 42 42 42 42

Missing 0 0 0 0

95

The Social Media Properties (SMP) used by Joiners

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Blogs ( Blogger, Wordpress, Xanga, etc)

7 16.7 16.7 16.7

Social Networks ( Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, etc)

19 45.2 45.2 61.9

Microblog (Twitter, Tumblr, etc)

2 4.8 4.8 66.7

Content Communities (Youtube, Flickr, Digg, etc)

11 26.2 26.2 92.9

Opinion Networks (Forums/Bulletin Boards)

3 7.1 7.1 100.0

Total 42 100.0 100.0

The content preferred by Joiners

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid User-generated Content (UGC)

9 21.4 21.4 21.4

Company provided content

6 14.3 14.3 35.7

A mixture of both 14 33.3 33.3 69.0

No difference 13 31.0 31.0 100.0

Total 42 100.0 100.0

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The content preferred by Joiners

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid User-generated Content (UGC)

9 21.4 21.4 21.4

Company provided content

6 14.3 14.3 35.7

A mixture of both 14 33.3 33.3 69.0

No difference 13 31.0 31.0 100.0

The external reasons for engagements by Joiners

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Reward 2 4.8 4.8 4.8

Fast changing content 9 21.4 21.4 26.2

Popularity of the content

11 26.2 26.2 52.4

Relevant content 15 35.7 35.7 88.1

Tools and platforms 5 11.9 11.9 100.0

Total 42 100.0 100.0

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The obstacles to interact on Social Media Properties (SMP) by Joiners

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Privacy 9 21.4 21.4 21.4

Time 13 31.0 31.0 52.4

Poor content 7 16.7 16.7 69.0

Technology capabilities

4 9.5 9.5 78.6

Not enough info 6 14.3 14.3 92.9

No sharing 3 7.1 7.1 100.0

Total 42 100.0 100.0

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Statistics

The content preferred by Spectators

The external reasons for engagements by

Spectators

N Valid 24 24

Missing 0 0

The content preferred by Spectators

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid User-generated Content (UGC)

5 20.8 20.8 20.8

Company provided content

3 12.5 12.5 33.3

A mixture of both 6 25.0 25.0 58.3

No difference 10 41.7 41.7 100.0

Total 24 100.0 100.0

The external reasons for engagements by Spectators

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Reward 2 8.3 8.3 8.3

Fast changing content

5 20.8 20.8 29.2

Popularity of the content

5 20.8 20.8 50.0

Relevant content 7 29.2 29.2 79.2

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Statistics

The content preferred by Spectators

The external reasons for engagements by

Spectators

N Valid 24 24

Tools and platforms 5 20.8 20.8 100.0

Total 24 100.0 100.0

Statistics

The Social Media Properties (SMP)

used by Collectors

The external reasons for

engagements by Collectors

The internal reasons for

engagements by Collectors

N Valid 7 7 7

Missing 0 0 0

100

The Social Media Properties (SMP) used by Collectors

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Blogs ( Blogger, Wordpress, Xanga, etc)

1 14.3 14.3 14.3

Social Networks ( Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, etc)

1 14.3 14.3 28.6

Content Communities (Youtube, Flickr, Digg, etc)

2 28.6 28.6 57.1

Opinion Networks (Forums/Bulletin Boards)

1 14.3 14.3 71.4

Content Aggregators (RSS)

2 28.6 28.6 100.0

Total 7 100.0 100.0

101

The external reasons for engagements by Collectors

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Fast changing content 2 28.6 28.6 28.6

Popularity of the content

1 14.3 14.3 42.9

Relevant content 4 57.1 57.1 100.0

Total 7 100.0 100.0

The internal reasons for engagements by Collectors

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Personal satisfication and actualization

2 28.6 28.6 28.6

Brand myself 1 14.3 14.3 42.9

Develop myself 2 28.6 28.6 71.4

The feel of power and influence

1 14.3 14.3 85.7

The sense of belonging to the community

1 14.3 14.3 100.0

Total 7 100.0 100.0

102

Statistics

The content preferred by

Critics

The external reasons for

engagements by Critics

The internal reasons for

engagements by Critics

N Valid 10 10 10

Missing 0 0 0

The content preferred by Critics

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid User-generated Content (UGC)

2 20.0 20.0 20.0

Company provided content

3 30.0 30.0 50.0

A mixture of both 4 40.0 40.0 90.0

No difference 1 10.0 10.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

103

The external reasons for engagements by Critics

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Reward 1 10.0 10.0 10.0

Fast changing content 2 20.0 20.0 30.0

Popularity of the content

2 20.0 20.0 50.0

Relevant content 3 30.0 30.0 80.0

Tools and platforms 2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

The internal reasons for engagements by Critics

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

Valid Personal satisfication and actualization

4 40.0 40.0 40.0

Brand myself 1 10.0 10.0 50.0

Develop myself 1 10.0 10.0 60.0

The feel of power and influence

2 20.0 20.0 80.0

The sense of belonging to the community

2 20.0 20.0 100.0

Total 10 100.0 100.0

104

Reliability Test for Awareness of SMP:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

N of Items

.321 4

Based on the result, the researcher can interpret that the factor of

awareness of SMP is not reliable because the value of Cronbach’s Alpha

is 0.321, which means the strength of association is low or poor.

Reliability Test for Interactions through SMP:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

N of Items

.746 7

Based on the result, the researcher can interpret that the factor of

interactions through SMP is reliable because the value of Cronbach’s

Alpha is 0.746, which means the strength of association is quite strong.

Reliability Test for Creators:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha

N of Items

.969 2

Based on the result, the researcher can interpret that the factor of

interactions through SMP is reliable because the value of Cronbach’s

Alpha is 0.969, which means the strength of association is very strong.

105

Correlation Analysis of Awareness of SMP:

Correlations

Do you aware of

Social Media Properties

(SMP)?

How long have you

been using this tool?

Do you aware of Social Media Properties (SMP)?

Pearson Correlation

1 .577**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 100 100

How long have you been using this tool?

Pearson Correlation

.577** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 100 100

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

r (sample) = result, p (<,=) number

r (100) = 0.577, p < 0.01, two tailed

There is a significant relationship between the awareness of Social Media

Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

106

Correlation Analysis of Interactions through SMP:

Correlations

How long do you spend

your time for Social

Media Properties (SMP) per day?

From where do you use Social Media

Properties (SMP) the

most?

Why do you use Social Media

Properties (SMP) tools?

Are Social Media

Properties (SMP) tools met

your business goals?

How do you gauge the

use of technology

in your organizatio

n?

How long do you spend your time for Social Media Properties (SMP) per day?

Pearson Correlation

1 .468** .948** .377** .872**

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000 .000 .000 .000

N 100 100 100 100 100

From where do you use Social Media Properties (SMP) the most?

Pearson Correlation

.468** 1 .527** .009 .345**

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000 .000 .926 .000

N 100 100 100 100 100

Why do you use Social Media Properties (SMP) tools?

Pearson Correlation

.948** .527** 1 .419** .921**

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000 .000 .000 .000

N 100 100 100 100 100

Are Social Media Properties (SMP) tools

Pearson Correlation

.377** .009 .419** 1 .565**

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000 .926 .000 .000

107

met your business goals?

N 100 100 100 100 100

How do you gauge the use of technology in your organization?

Pearson Correlation

.872** .345** .921** .565** 1

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000 .000 .000 .000

N 100 100 100 100 100

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

There is a significant relationship between the interactions through Social

Media Properties and the evaluation of social media effects on marketing

communications.

108

Correlation Analysis of Technographic Profile:

Correlations

Most likely actions after

the interaction

with the company on

SMP by Creators

The Social Media

Properties (SMP) used by Creators

Most likely actions after the interaction with the company on SMP by Creators

Pearson Correlation

1 .950**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 17 17

The Social Media Properties (SMP) used by Creators

Pearson Correlation

.950** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 17 17

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

r (sample) = result, p (<,=) number

r (100) = 0.950, p < 0.01, two tailed

There is a significant relationship between technographic profiles of Social

Media Properties users (Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic, Collector) and

the evaluation of social media effects on marketing communications.

109

Finding 1: The Changing of Marketing Communication Environment and

Consumers’ Profile in Malaysia.

In the literature review the social media environment was analyzed and

the main changes were indentified. It was noticed that the interactivity is much

more personal in social media and is based on human to human interaction.

Moreover, it was indentified that social media is changing the communication

processes as the power shifts from company to the consumer and the meaning

of the message itself is changing (content becomes the message). The various

Web 2.0 properties were grouped and defined. The research found that social

media environment comprises the features of medium and tool and is suitable for

marketing to postmodern consumer.

The research had identified the general consumer profile within Malaysia

market. According to technographic typology, 5 groups of Web 2.0 Citizens were

analyzed and the main differences between them were identified. It was noticed

that, that social media in Malaysia penetrates into all aspects of daily life, but the

consumption patterns slightly differs from the consumers in other countries (US)

and it differs amongst the 5 technographic consumer groups as well. Moreover, it

was identified that in general consumers prefers UGC rather than company

provided content, but most of them see no difference between them or wants a

mixture of both. The relevance of the content is the single most important factor

among all the consumers in Malaysia. According to the research results, the

110

personal satisfaction or self-actualizing needs are driving the consumption and

that the biggest influencers of Web 2.0 citizens are their friends, who are most

likely to affect their behaviors and “push” to the interactions. It was found that

most of the consumers are afraid of losing time and privacy when participating in

conversations within social media environment, but these communications push

towards closer relationship with the company and are likely to outgrow into the

monetary relationships.

Finding 2: The influence of SMP on the Consumers and Comparison with

Traditional Media

In order to evaluate the influence of Social media as a medium for

marketing communication campaigns, 3 Hypothesis were tested. According to

the results, the main findings can be summarized. The gathered data suggests

that there is a relationship between SMP used and the positive outcomes after

interaction. Therefore, it could be concluded that interactions through SMP could

result in positive outcomes for the company. The interaction through Social

networks, Content communities and Blogs are most likely to cause grater

relationships with the company and build trust. Moreover, the result suggest that

different SMP have to be used in order to achieve different marketing

communication goals, with a common trend that Content communities, Blogs and

Social Networks can be considered for Advertising and PR purpose.

Surpassingly, according to gather data, irrespectively from the message

111

distributor consumers agree that the messages delivered through social media

are likely to change their attitudes towards company or its products. As a result, it

can be concluded that SMP could be a valuable channel in changing consumer’s

attitudes towards the company. Moreover, it is important for them to approach

the company by themselves or recommendations in order to spread positive

word of mouth about the company. In any case, the assumption can be made

that communications through SMP triggers the positive word of mouth. In terms

of media channels, marketers have to consider that Web 2.0 citizens differ

amongst themselves. In order to integrate social media in to the whole marketing

communication campaign successfully they have to consider what other media

channels are liked most by what type of group of consumers. Due to this, it can

be stated that different types of consumers use different type of mediums.

Finally, according to the results from the consumers perspective there is no

difference who initiates the interaction. Therefore, it can be concluded that the

company can start the conversation with the consumer on SMP without fear to

annoy him / her.

112

CHAPTER FIVE

113

5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The evolving media landscape and changing consumer behavior presents

new challenges for marketing practitioners. The growth of social media properties

forces marketers to consider new tools in approaching the postmodern

consumers. As summarized in the findings, these tools vary depending from the

consumers’ group, media channel, and SMP itself. It is clear that this media /

marketing channel is here to stay, but as it is still developing and changing,

therefore the constant monitoring of SMP tools is required by marketing

professionals and academics. This research achieved its main goals and showed

that the consumers welcome company’s initiatives to communicate through

social media and the Web 2.0 applications can be used successfully as the new

tools in marketing communication mix. Even though, as this research just tested

the theory that that social media is an effective marketing tool and channel, the

further, possibly qualitative research is needed in order to understand the

effectiveness of every tool on the consumer’s behavior.

LSS Academy on the other hand, discovers that the emerging of social

media, social media marketing, and the rapid change of technology forces them

to fully utilize the Web 2.0 applications. Hence, LSS Academy also promotes and

markets its products through Facebook fan page, Twitter, Youtube, and other

social media channels in order to reduce cost of advertisement and also to get

engage with a long-term customer relationship.

114

The implication of this research should mostly concern the marketing

professionals as the data gathered provides interesting insights about the social

media environment in Malaysia. Nevertheless, it gives an opportunity for other

academic researchers to adapt or verify the presented theories in different

marketing backgrounds.

Web 2.0 and social networks drive down the cost of communication, which

accelerates volatility because when people talk, ideas change and lead to action,

and digital conversations happens faster and less expensively. Social networks

are rapidly making the Web human, thereby attracting an ever-larger portion of

all human communications online. In 2009, adoption reached critical mass, ramp-

ing strongly among consumers, so many enterprises are following. The Web 1.0

adoption rhythm is very instructive.

Pervasive Web 2.0 also means reexamination or disruption of most areas

of life, culture, society, government, and business because social networks alter

how many and what kind of relationships people have. The impact is similar to

Ford’s production line, except it is more powerful; it scales relationships. Large

organizations will remain in a profound state of turmoil because they were not

built, with withstand the volatility these forces are unleashing. Many Fortune 500

companies will be confronted with their survival, and some will not make it. Entire

industries will consolidate over the next several years (automotive, airlines, bank-

ing, hotels, food, consumer goods, etc). Web communications mean we con-

115

sume novelty far more quickly, which curtails product life cycles and leads to

ultra-fast commoditization. Companies will require unprecedented innovation to

even stay in place. New entrants around the world compete for customers and

leverage their lower costs and better innovation processes.

Nowadays, we can see that the Knowledge Economy represents a pro-

found shift in society and business. The good news is the way we make our tran-

sition to it will largely determine whether we survive or thrive. The macro trends

are economic uncertainty and increased collaboration tools, skills, and expecta-

tions. Company’s place in the value chain / web and the relationships with stake-

holders will determine how immediately these trends affect us. In

general, customers are consulting each other on what, how, and when to buy

everything, so companies need to be engaged with influencers. It is no longer

about having ads and “content” available, it’s about interacting and creating rela-

tionships. Company needs to know how to show the right people how you care

about them.

As for recommendations, Enterprise should identify, define, understand,

and engage the Web 2.0 ecosystem. Web 2.0 communication and empowerment

are rapidly changing stakeholders’ expectations, and most companies do not

understand how. Enterprise needs concrete answers for:

What are stakeholders (customers, investors, regulators, employees, part-

ners, alumni) doing in Web 2.0 venues?

116

Why they are into Web 2.0 and what are they trying to accomplish?

Which venues do they use and how do they use each venue and why?

How are they engaging with each other, competitors, and other players?

Based on your culture, core competencies and business goals, how can

you engage efficiently and effectively?

Furthermore, Enterprise should develop resident skills with Web 2.0

technologies, processes, and sensibilities. This is a strategic imperative because

stakeholders will increasingly expect us to be available. Our presence will have a

major impact on buying decisions. For many companies, 2010 will be the last

year that they can move ahead of their competitors. Keep in mind, Web 2.0 is all

about social behavior; it’s not a technology we can buy and put in place; our peo-

ple and proxies have to learn how to act, and that’s a process we need to pursue

aggressively.

Blogging is about what we think, not about selling. Leave the latter for your

website. No matter what your business is, you have to share your

thoughts online. This also means engaging bloggers with impact on your

stakeholders by commenting on their blogs.

Contribute to online forums frequented by stakeholders. This might be

LinkedIn Answers, industry forums prominent blogs, MySpace or Yahoo

forums, wherever stakeholders are asking questions and solving

problems.

117

Deploy social business infrastructure internally to drive skill development

and increase productivity; kick off pilots in which teams use wikis, blogs,

microblogging, social bookmarking, and rich media.

Next, Enterprise should assign a top executive to manage our adoption of

Web 2.0 because changing stakeholder expectations will change our business.

This will proactively help to guide stakeholders’ expectations.

Develop a social business strategy that includes your overall approach

considering risks, rewards and business strategy; goals, timelines and

resource requirements; metrics and measurements; a risk-managed

process to scale your initiatives. Your availability to interact with stake-

holders will increasingly drive your brand value because they will expect

you to be present, appropriate and sincere. Your company, employees

and proxies need to learn how to do that. It’s not easy because people

have to unlearn some key things that used to work but no longer do.

The strategy will enable you to create a strategic dialog among manage-

ment; in 2010 and 2011, executives are going to be doing remediation

because social projects are happening all over the enterprise, in some

cases counteracting each other. Having goals and meeting them collabo-

ratively will significantly increase returns.

Create a strategic dialog within the organization and with partners and

people outside. You need an adoption approach that considers the spec-

118

trum of risks and focuses your efforts on rewards that move your business

strategy.

Your champion should have experience leading “innovation”-type initia-

tives that break rules and ruffle feathers. He / She should also be open to

personally embracing social practices (i.e. blogging, tweeting, interacting

online).

In addition, Enterprise should create and maintain a relationship-centric

mindset for your Web 2.0 initiatives and use risk management best practices to

maintain momentum. Keep pilots small, specific and rapid to shrink ROI discus-

sions, measure results, and scale what is working.

Finally, Enterprise should partner with IT on certain initiatives, and engage

“realistic enthusiasts” to understand IT’s capabilities and willingness to syndicate

social content in from outside.

As for individual, here are some useful recommendations to keep track with Web

2.0:

Start blogging.

Take your LinkedIn Profile up a level. People go to LinkedIn when they are

looking for expertise. Remember, Web 2.0 is about interaction, not con-

tent. You can pay for content, but your attention is priceless. On LinkedIn,

this means:

119

Participating in LinkedIn Answers: Answer others’ questions and

ask questions; this attracts attention.

Putting your slides on your profile via Slideshare.

Invoking your blog posts on your profile with the WordPress or

BlogLink Apps.

Commit to tweeting. Twitter is a new mode of communication that you

need to understand because it is transforming communication and creat-

ing new kinds of relationships.

Cut back on unproductive networking. Don’t fall into networking as an

activity trap. You could have written 6 blog posts and answered 4 LinkedIn

questions. When you have a content strategy for your blog, it creates digi-

tal breadcrumbs that are always working for you. If you choose the

LinkedIn questions you answer judiciously, people will discover them at

any time. At face-to-face networking events, the value dissipates much

more quickly. Cutting back on two events per month will give you more

than enough time to ramp up online, where the leverage is far greater.

Relentlessly conduct yourself, so that you increase trust with people who

count. Make introductions, answer questions, give help, ask for help, and

follow through on what you promise. In Web 2.0 environments, other peo-

ple are observing our interactions. We can choose to be creped out by

that, or use it to our advantage. When you are authentic and help people,

other people see. Huge leverage.

120

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Further Reading

Burnett, J. and Hutton, R. B. (2007). New Consumers Need New Brands, Journal

of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 16/5, pp. 342-347.

Bruce, H. (1999). Perceptions of the Internet: What People Think when They

Search the Internet for Information, Internet Research: Electronic Networking

Applications and Policy, Vol.9, No.3, pp. 187-199.

Cova, B., Pace, D. J. and Park, D. J. (2007). Global Brand Communities Across

Borders: The Warhammer case, International Marketing Review, Vol.24, No.3,

pp. 313-29.

Fang, E., Palmatier, R. W. and Evans, K. R. (2007). Influence of Customer

Participation on Creating and Sharing of New Product Value, Academy of

Marketing Science, Vol.36, pp. 322-336.

Ferguson, R. (2008). Word of Mouth and Viral Marketing: Taking the

Temperature of the Hottest Trends in Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing,

Vol.25/3, pp. 179-182.

Mason, R. B. (2008). Word of Mouth as a Promotional Tool for Turbulent

Markets, Journal of Marketing Communications, Vol.14/3, pp. 207-224.

Wright, D. K. and Hinson, M. D. (2008). How Blogs and Social Media are

Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced, Public Relations Journal,

Vol.2, No.2.

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