Social media marketing guidelines for NGOs to
engage users on Instagram
A case study of the non-profit organization Kompis Sverige
Fanny Hammarlund Malmö university
Media Technology: Strategic Media Development (ME620A) Master thesis, 15 credits, Advanced Level
Supervisor: Suzan Boztepe Examiner: Fredrik Rutz Final submission: 2019-08-20
Keywords
Social media marketing, social media, Instagram, marketing strategies, non-governmental organizations
Abstract
As social media continues to expand in usage, so does marketing on the platforms. The performance of social media marketing includes both possibilities and challenges, which depends on the user. The possibilities and challenges naturally correlate with the sender’s requisition. Most companies and non-governmental organizations exist on social media to communicate with private users who are customers or potential customers. This creates challenges performing social media marketing that engage users since there are so many who compete for users attention. Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms that has increased in popularity through the past years. Even though social media is easy to access there are more successful ways of performing social media marketing than others. Previous studies indicate that social media marketing is a complex concept. Therefore, this study addresses the possibilities to explore what strategies engage users and captures their attention. Minor NGOs with less than 10.000 followers compete with other users with more followers. What strategies are most efficient for creating engaging content? Kompis Sverige is a minor NGO who experiences knowledge and economics as challenges when using social media marketing. Therefore, this research concern what strategies are most efficient for creating engaging content, which resulted in a guide to simplify social media marketing for Kompis Sverige. By allowing a focus group to engage in Instagram posts based on different strategies and by analyzing the challenges for Kompis Sverige the guide is based on three themes that were expressed during the analysis. To engage users through social media marketing on Instagram, the sender should focus on content, context, and emotions. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how to engage users on Instagram and what challenges and possibilities social media marketing on Instagram implies for minor NGOs.
Table of content
1 INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE ... 3
1.2RESEARCH AIM ... 5
1.2.1 Research question ... 5
1.3KOMPIS SVERIGE AND THE STRUCTURE OF NGOS ... 5
1.4LIMITATIONS ... 6
1.5OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS ... 7
2 LITERATURE REVIEW ... 8
2.1DEFINITIONAL ISSUES ... 8
2.2SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON INSTAGRAM ... 10
2.3USER ENGAGEMENT AND THE USER ENGAGEMENT PROCESS ... 12
2.4SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING APPROACHES ... 13
2.5E-WOM ... 17
2.6ADVOCATES ... 18
2.7CONSUMER DECISION JOURNEY ... 19
2.8USER ENGAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY ... 20
2.9SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONTENT AND ENGAGEMENT ... 21
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 25
3.1ACTION RESEARCH ... 26
3.1.1 User-centered design ... 27
3.2RESEARCH DESIGN ... 28
3.3SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ... 29
3.4PROTOTYPE ... 29
3.5FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION ... 30
3.6ANALYSIS ... 30
3.7ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND REFLECTION ... 31
4 PHASE 1: SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ... 33
4.1PARTICIPANTS ... 33
4.2DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES ... 33
4.3DATA ANALYSIS ... 34
4.3RESULTS FROM PHASE 1 ... 34
5 PHASE 2: FOCUS GROUP AND DATA GATHERING PROTOTYPE ... 35
5.1PROTOTYPE 1 ... 35
5.1.1 Text and images ... 35
5.2FOCUS GROUP AND DATA COLLECTION ... 38
5.2.1 Participants ... 39
5.3DATA ANALYSIS ... 40
5.3RESULTS FROM PHASE 2 ... 40
6 PHASE 3: POSTS FOR KOMPIS SVERIGE ... 42
6.2PROTOTYPE ... 42
6.3DATA ANALYSIS ... 46
6.4RESULTS FROM PHASE 3 ... 47
7. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ... 48
7.1NGOS ASSUMPTIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ... 48
7.2CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR NGOS IN RELATION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ... 51
7.2.1 Challenges ... 51
7.2.3 Opportunities ... 53
7.3FACTORS FOR HIGH LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ... 56
7.3.1 Content ... 63
7.3.2 Context ... 64
7.3.3 Emotions ... 66
7.4SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING GUIDELINES FOR NGOS ... 67
8. CONCLUSION ... 69
8.1DIRECTION FOR FUTURE WORK ... 69
Table of figures
Figure 1: Definition table ... 10
Figure 2: Social media marketing model ... 17
Figure 3: Research design ... 28
Figure 4: Result table for focus group discussion ... 30
Figure 5: Findings from phase 1 ... 34
Figure 6: Structure of posts ... 36
Figure 7: Focus group post 1...42
Figure 8: Focus group post 6 ... ... 37
Figure 9: Focus group post 11... ... 42
Figure 10: Focus group post 16.. ... 37
Figure 11: Focus group discussion posts ... 38
Figure 12: Focus group discussion posts after engagement ... 39
Figure 13: Focus group during discussion ... 39
Figure 14: Table of participants ... 40
Figure 15: Theme-table ... 41
Figure 16: Instagram post for Kompis Sverige 1 ... 43
Figure 17: Instagram post for Kompis Sverige 2 ... 44
Figure 18: Instagram post for Kompis Sverige 3 ... 45
Figure 19: Instagram post for Kompis Sverige 4 ... 46
Figure 20: Results of engagement in posts ... 47
Figure 21: Focus group top posts result ... 57
Figure 22: Focus group post 6 ... 57
Figure 23: Focus group post 11 ... 59
Figure 24: Focus group post 10 ... 60
Figure 25: Theme-table ... 61
1 Introduction
Social media is being used by millions of users worldwide and as a social network it provides opportunities for communication, social connection, political and social change, and individual entertainment in a wide range of forms. Social media has opened up for social media marketing. A concept that describes how companies and organizations strategically use social media to accomplish their efficacy, for example, reach their target group or create awareness about products or services. One of the fastest-growing social media platforms is Instagram which had 800 million active users as of September 2017 and reached 1 billion active users per month in June 2018 (Constantinides, 2018). It is a photo-based sharing platform that allows users to share photos, both live and pre-produced, with other users.
Due to the emergence of social media, new forms of marketing approaches took place as a natural result of social media communication opportunities. According to Evans and McKee (2010), social media marketing seeks to engage users in online platforms where they naturally spend time. From a marketing perspective in the field of social media an action can be described as a transaction (Evans & McKee, 2010). On one side of the transaction, there is a user, and on the other side, there is a producer, independently if it is within retail, business, a voter in a political election or a donor for a non-profit organization (Evans & McKee, 2010).
The one thing that all social media users have in common despite which side of the transaction the user is placed, is access to information. It provides users the freedom to create and spread content and to share information about services or products made by others (Zarrella, 2010). Creating and sharing information is related to value co-creation. It means that value is jointly created by the producer and the consumer (Vargo & Lusch 2004). The concept positions users as a crucial actor in creating value since it is always co-produced with the customer. “The enterprise can only make value propositions.” (Vargo & Lusch 2004, p. 331).
According to Vargo and Lusch (2004), engagement is a process that refers to both mental and physical effort, indicating that users must contribute with both to co-create value. One of the main factors that drive the user to engage is the customer-perceived quality, which is the excellence that a customer experience about a product or service. Since the character of a
consumer has changed, the consumer can affect the quality by applying the role of a prosumer. The concept prosumer refers to the changed characteristics of a consumer, implementing traditional producer characteristics as being a sender into the concept (Ritzer, 2017). The concept is described as a new form of media consumption, where communication not only goes one way but has evolved into a two-way communication where consumers/receivers and producers/senders are seen as interacting actors (Jenkins, 2008).
Value co-creation relates to user-generated content. However, as participants in co-creation of value, companies need to offer users tools for participating in creating content on social media (Evans & McKee, 2010). Social media may seem like the ultimate tool to use for interacting with users and customers (Constantinides, 2014). Yet, like any innovation, it brings challenges. Despite the opportunities, companies must acknowledge aspects as financial means and knowledge of how to perform engaging social media marketing to be successful. Even though there are no financial obstacles to mere use, there are still actions that companies should perform on social media to engage users in co-creation that include financial investments. Tuten and Solomon (2018) explain that paid ads on social media are important for companies to reach their audience. But that could be challenging for companies or organizations that cannot pay for advertising on social media. This effects the engagement on social media since organic advertising, which is the opposite of paid advertising, expects to create less engagement compared to paid advertising (Tuten & Solomon, 2018). This can be challenging for smaller organizations that do not posess financial capital. Since organic advertising is expected to increase engagement, there are other challenges for minor organizations, such as knowledge. The emergence of social media has opened up for a discussion regarding that the internet is contributing to engaging people. The lack of balance between media abundance and attention shortage creates fragmented attention among users (Strömbäck, 2014). Social media platforms open up for unlimited media supply, which entails, on one hand, liberty in the choice of what information to embrace. On the other hand, it increases the demand of the public to engage and choice of what to engage in (Strömbäck, 2014). This implies that several minor businesses and organizations that work with non-commercialized products or services stand in the shadow. For example, NGOs need to have expertise in competing for users attention on social media. This work will explore social media marketing strategies for NGOs to increase user engagement. Specifically, it will focus on the challenges and opportunities for NGOs'
performance of social media marketing and explore strategies that are most efficient for high levels of user engagement. The NGOs must be on social media to achieve their goals. And to be successful on Instagram you need to create engaging content. The marketplace is currently run by the companies with the most money to create paid ads. What kind of strategy is required for minor NGOs to win users attention? The research concludes specific guidelines for creating user engagement for minor NGOs. The guidelines could be used for any actor striving to create engaging social media marketing. The result of the research, however, is connected to the specific organization.
1.1 Background and rationale
Social media allows people, organizations, and companies to consume and produce information. This makes social media an important tool for marketing since it provides many communication functions such as text, image, video and audio. The access of information sharing however, contributes to an information overload which makes it hard for NGOs to stand out in social media and additionally create high levels of user engagement. Social media platforms are crowded since it has become a desirable space for marketing, which creates challenges for both non-profit and profit actors on social media. To attain high levels of user engagement actors must guide users beyond the act of consumption toward co-creating actions to collaborate and produce an experience that improves over time (Evans & McKee, 2010). The value is in the mere co-creation and focus on the process, not in the end product.
Instagram can be described as a part of a platform society, a concept created by Van Dijck (2018). The concept is explained as “...an emerging society in which social, economic, and interpersonal traffic is largely channeled by a global online platform ecosystem that is fueled by data and organized through algorithms.” (Van Dijck, 2018, p. 7). The platform ecosystem consists of three levels that platforms should be approached at. The micro-level of individual platforms, the meso-level of the platform ecosystem and the macro-level of platform geopolitics (Van Dijck, 2018). Since the research is limited to Instagram and the actions and actors within the platform, the main focus will be on approaching Instagram at a micro- and meso-level. The marketing possibilities and challenges within these levels can be derived into two larger aspects. The access to create and share information, and the information overload that emerges as a result creating challenges for standing out in social media.
Social media in general, allows people to interact and connect despite geographical obstacles. It has also been used as a democratic sphere for sharing ideas and opinions (Van Dijck, 2013). However, there are two sides to how democratic social media is since many groups with non-legal activities have the possibility to structure and practice non-non-legal activities on the platforms (Van Dijck, 2013). Focusing on social media marketing, Instagram is an attractive platform because of its usability. Compared to for example Facebook, Instagram requires less effort from the user to sign up and become a user.
Social media has opened up for the creation of stronger relationships between consumers and producers, and many utilize the use of social media as a tool for interaction (Constantinides, 2014). However, the enabling of social media marketing fed the corporate colonization of social media (Fuchs, 2014). This implies that social media does not entail interaction and relationships of a democratic character but is rather a platform colonized by corporations that dominate attention and visibility, which excludes smaller companies and non-governmental organizations (Fuchs, 2014). According to Fuchs, today's media landscape needs to be advanced, which demands production of non-profit media.
Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro (2012) discuss both challenges and opportunities for social media marketing in today's boundaryless world. The authors suggest five axioms to help managers understand the new structures. The axioms are; 1) social media is always a product of technology, culture, and government of a specific context, 2) local events are unlikely to remain local, 3) global events are usually interpreted or reinterpreted locally, 4) creative consumer actions are dependent on technology, culture, and government, and lastly 5) technology is historically dependent (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro, 2012). Some of these axioms are relevant since they concern marketing in social media and creates a clear background for the challenges and opportunities. The second axiom, for example, concerns the risk of social media marketing gone wrong and the viral attention that can follow. Local events or campaigns seldom remains local since social media provides users to share opinions and information about certain events. Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro (2012) explain that marketing managers continuously need to monitor local news that concerns the company since minor local issues easily can grow into global observation. Thus, this can be seen as a challenge. It can also be an opportunity, which naturally opens up for the third axiom; general issues seldom remain general in the age of social media. Global phenomenons are often interpreted in local contexts. Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro (2012) state that this has always been the
case. However social media has affected the process making it quicker and more uncertain. A clear example of this is the “10-year challenge” that infused social media platforms at the beginning of 2019. The viral event initially focused on social media users who shared how their appearance had changed the past 10 years (Stefanello, 2019). NGOs around the world within the environmental field took advantage of the viral event and contextualized it by raising questions about the consequences of climate change (Stefanello, 2019). Greenpeace, for example, used the opportunity to share how global warming has affected the Arctic by comparing pictures from the past with the current state referring to the original 10-year challenge (Stefanello, 2019). This is a clear example of how global phenomenons are transformed into specific contexts for social media marketing.
1.2 Research aim
The purpose of this research is to explore what efficient social media marketing strategies non-governmental organizations can execute on Instagram to create user engagement. To fulfill the aim, I will focus on the non-profit organization Kompis Sverige, which matches Swedish citizens with newly arrived immigrants to provide mutual exchanges that widens citizen perspectives, reduces language barriers, and breaks prejudice between ethnicities (Kompis Sverige, n.d.).
1.2.1 Research question
The thesis aims to answer the following questions whereas the first one is the main research question and the following two are sub-questions.
● What are the effective social media marketing strategies for NGOs on Instagram? - What are the challenges and opportunities of social media marketing for NGOs? - What already existing social media marketing strategies encourage user engagement?
1.3 Kompis Sverige and the structure of NGOs
The organization Kompis Sverige is a Sweden based nonprofit organization that strives to create meetings between immigrants and Swedish citizens. The organization was founded in 2013 to contribute to a more open, integrated, and solid community. Kompis Sverige is based on the
concept that knowledge about different cultures generates less prejudice and inclusive communities.
According to Kompis Sveriges website, there is a problem concerning natural meetings between established Swedes and immigrants creating segregation and exclusion. Through in-depth interviews, Kompis Sverige matches Swedes and immigrants to help immigrants practice Swedish and to create a cultural exchange for both parties. The mere match is based on interests, life situation, and personality. The demand from Kompis Sverige is that the matched pairs shall meet for at least 6 months but hopefully longer. Their vision is to create a community where trust and equality are keywords.
NGOs can be described from different perspectives focusing on their marketing and what their actual mission is. Johnston (2018) presents four different types of missions that NGOs can strive to through social media marketing. These are; 1) community engagement and education, 2) brand building and reputation management, 3) program recruitment, and 4) fundraising. Moreover, the reason why social media marketing is stated as an opportunity for NGOs is because of the possibility to share their story and engage with supporters (De Jong, 2018). The mission of Kompis Sverige on social media is to recruit new members to their program and inform their members about upcoming events and activities.
1.4 Limitations
Social media marketing is a rather new concept that has been studied concerning corporations. Therefore, I focus on NGOs and in particular the Swedish non-governmental organization Kompis Sverige. Instagram is the central social media platform due to its increasing usage among both private users and companies. Moreover, engagement can be discussed in different aspects. Within this context, engagement refers to the act of liking or commenting posts on Instagram. The different approaches that are presented are divided into active and passive approaches. Since the research focuses on what NGOs actively can do to create engagement on social media, the passive approach is not further handled. The guide that this research has resulted in directs minor NGOs on Instagram. Specifically, NGOs with less than 10.000 followers since Instagram provides more features to accounts that have more than 10.000 followers. Accounts that have less than 10.000 followers are therefore more restricted in their social media marketing possibilities and in a greater need of guidance.
1.5 Overview of the thesis
Following an introduction to the reader and a brief background to social media marketing, what user engagement implies, and the limitations of the thesis, is the literature review presented. The literature review aims to state the perspective of the thesis as well as critically evaluate research within the field. The literature review guides the reader through existing knowledge to create an understanding of the study and justify the motives behind it. Firstly, the definitional issues are discussed followed by social media marketing on Instagram. Thereafter social media marketing approaches are presented. Chapter three describes the chosen methodology, which includes methods for data collection, prototype, and analysis. It is followed by ethical considerations. Thereafter, the design strategy for the thesis is presented in chapter four, which is concretized by a design strategy model. Subsequently there is a more in-depth presentation of the phases that the design strategy consists of. Phase 1: data gathering prototype, is to be found in chapter five, phase 2: testing, in chapter six and phase 3: final prototype, in chapter seven. The phases are followed by chapter eight, where the results and discussion are presented. Lastly, the conclusion is stated.
2 Literature review
2.1 Definitional issues
There are several definitions of social media marketing because the term refers to rather complex issues including computing technology and techniques, software applications, and social effects (Constantinides, 2009). The current social media environment is rich in both platforms and its functionalities, which strengthens the desire for contextualizing social media definitions (Kietzmann, Hermkens, Mccarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). The traditional marketing definition is no longer relevant, and even though there is no consensus on the definition of social media marketing, there seems to be a consensus regarding that there is a need for re-defining marketing approaches Constantinides (2014). Existing definitions of social media highlight different perspectives as the main focus of its usage. Constantinides (2009) discusses social media and the Web 2.0 interchangeably and defines it as:
“Web 2.0 (or Social Media) is a collection of interactive, open-source, and user-controlled Internet applications enhancing the experiences, collaboration, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes. Web 2.0 applications support the creation of informal users’ networks facilitating the flow of ideas, information, knowledge and promote innovation and creativity by allowing the efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing of content” (p. 4).
The definition highlights users as empowered actors and the technical aspect of social media platforms. This provides users with tools to share and create content. This definition focuses on social effects, stating it as the most important aspect of social media since it focuses on the users rather than technical aspects. However, one must keep in mind that the technical functionalities provide social effects. Boyd and Ellison (2007) similarly focus on users when they define social networking sites. They see social media platforms as web-based services with mainly three functions. Firstly, allowing individuals to construct semi-public or public profiles within a restrained system. Secondly, individuals can explicate lists of other users they share a connection with. Thirdly, individuals can intersect their lists of connections and lists by others within the restrained system (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
On the other hand, Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro (2012) define social media as “the perspective of technological innovations in terms of both hardware and software that facilitate
inexpensive content creation, interaction, and interoperability by online users” (p. 263). This definition does not only focus on private users of social media, but includes companies use of social media as well. Tuten and Solomon (2018) have a similar perspective by focusing more on the marketing aspect, following the latter definition of embracing organizations as well. “Social media are the online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration, and cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people, communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility” (Tuten & Solomon, 2018, p. 5).
Tuten and Solomon (2018) state that their definition is complex, but that the natural cause to the complexity is that social media exists within a complex and accelerating environment. The presented definitions are focusing on different aspects of social media, which is the foundation of its complexity. Social media is dynamic, which makes the definition dynamic as well. Constantinides (2009) strengthens this by explaining that the complexity is due to factors such as computing technologies and techniques, software applications, and social effects. The factors naturally result in that some definitions point to openness, and some definitions highlight economic aspects. Openness refers to user participation and network effects whilst the more economic angle highlights economic, social, and technical trends that shape the structures. The exact nature of social media is not collectively agreed on, but the focus has shifted from the importance of a collective definition to a contextual definition that is well-motivated and relevant for studies (Constantinides, 2009).
Similar to Tuten and Solomon (2018) is the definition by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), saying that social media are applications that are accessible on the Internet involving developing, consuming, and sharing user-generated content. As Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) highlight the communicative aspects, Felix et al. (2017) focus on the strategic approaches made by organizations. Felix et al. (2017) mean that social media marketing “covers an organization's decisions about social media scope (ranging from defenders to explorers), culture (ranging from conservatism to modernism), structure (ranging from hierarchies to networks), and governance (ranging from autocracy to anarchy)”.
Stated at the beginning of this section, there are several definitions of social media marketing, and some of the most relevant ones are presented in Figure 1. The various definitions focus on
different aspects of the concept, but value is a collective aspect that social media marketing strives to achieve.
Figure 1: Definition table
I will mainly adopt the more user-centered definitions since they focus on what strategies are engaging users to like and comment on Instagram posts. Hence, social media will be defined as online means for value co-creation through engagement processes between users and organizations enhanced by the richness of functionalities as engagement attributes (likes and comments) that are available to users.
2.2 Social media marketing on Instagram
Instagram is defined as a media sharing and mobile-based application that launched in 2010 (Ting, de Run, Ming, & Choo, 2015). Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms with 4 880 000 users only in Sweden (Napoleon cat, Jan 2019). Instagram is often
Author Definition Key aspects
Constantinides (2009)
“Web 2.0 (or Social Media) is a collection of interactive, open source and user-controlled Internet applications enhancing the experiences, collaboration, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes. Web 2.0 applications support the creation of informal users’ networks facilitating the flow of ideas, information, knowledge and promote innovation and creativity by allowing the efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing of content”
- Interaction
- Collective
- User control
Boyd & Ellison (2007)
”Social media platforms as web-based services with mainly three functions. Firstly, allow individuals to construct semi-public or public profiles within a restrained system. Secondly, individuals can explicate lists of other users they share a connection with. And lastly, individuals can intersect their lists of connections and lists by others within the restrained system.”
- Individual control
Berthon et al. (2012)
“The perspective of technological innovations in terms of both hardware and software that facilitate inexpensive content creation, interaction, and interoperability by online users”
- Content creation
- Interaction
- Interoperability
Tuten & Solomon (2018)
“Social media are the online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration, and cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people, communities, and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility”
- Communication
- Colloboration
- Interconnection
- Communities
Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) ”Social media is based applications accessible on the Internet which includes
developing, consuming and sharing user generated content.” - User generated content
Felix et al. (2017)
”Covers an organization's decisions about social media marketing scope (ranging from defenders to explorers), culture (ranging from conservatism to modernism), structure (ranging from hierarchies to networks), and governance (ranging from autocracy to anarchy).”
- Interaction
- E-WOM
used as a hub to exchange ideas and information, but the actors who participate are no longer only private users. Companies, both small and big as well as non-profit organizations are utilizing Instagram to interact with their customers about services and products (Ting, de Run, Ming, & Choo, 2015). According to Instagram's website, more than 1 million advertisers worldwide use Instagram for social media marketing. Social network sites, such as Instagram, allow users to share information and connect with other users. The particular activity of communicating with consumers is essential for companies since the action entails being a part of a process, which social media marketing strives to accomplish (Ting, de Run, Ming, & Choo, 2015). Instagram is explained as an efficient marketing platform since it provides video- and photo-sharing possibilities. Companies can visually present brands, services, and products but also clarify the message through a caption (a text feature Instagram provides along with the video- and photo.sharing) (Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2017). Instagram has become an unavoidable platform to generate user attitudes, expressed through user engagement, for example, liking and commenting posts (Ting, de Run, Ming, & Choo, 2015). Relationships on Instagram do not always imply reciprocal activities which means that a user is free to follow whoever without asking for permission (Veirman, Cauberghe, & Hudders, 2017).
Latiff and Safiee (2015) explain the increased use of Instagram as a marketing platform for companies based on a qualitative study through in-depth interviews with sellers on Instagram with over 10,000 followers. Their research resulted in nine themes where four of them are described as the most important to explain why companies choose to share their businesses on Instagram, as opposed to other platforms. Firstly, there is the editing tool that Instagram provides, which is easy to use and provides a more professional touch (Latiff & Safiee, 2015). The editing tool has pre-set filters that edit images automatically, but users can also edit images manually. Secondly, there is the theme popularity that both refers to the platform and its users. Instagram attracts famous people to create accounts that companies can use as an advantage, without any third party to advertise products or services through (Latiff & Safiee, 2015). Thirdly, the study showed that the respondents were united in that, even though Instagram has a wide range of users, the right audience for their market exists there. However, the respondents also stated that the former theme, using specific users for marketing, is a way of gaining several customers just by having a relationship with one (Latiff & Safiee, 2015). The fourth and last theme refers to eWOM (electronic word of mouth). Since Instagram is based on the action of sharing content, users can easily mention a company in posted content and exchange opinions with former and potential buyers. Reviews and ratings can be shared and noticed by the
company itself but also by other users (Latiff & Safiee, 2015). This clearly demonstrates the possibilities of social media marketing, but the study by Latiff & Safiee (2015) is also open to critique regarding what is required to accomplish it.
2.3 User engagement and the user engagement process
Engagement happens when consumers act in an open and participative social environment (Evans & Mckee, 2010). Organizations and companies strive to create engagement on social media since engagement spreads in individual users’ social network. The reason for highlighting engagement is that social media resembled the traditional way of marketing, characterized by one to mass communication into providing users to interact with actors in the business field. Consumers are no longer satisfied with being informed about products or services. Consumers want to engage in business processes, which social media platforms allow users to do (Evans & Mckee, 2010). On social media, user engagement is an indication that users are participating in an organizations marketing process. “Engagement in a social context implies that customers have taken a personal interest in what you are bringing to the market. In an expanded sense, this applies to any stakeholder and carries the same notion: a personal interest in your business outcome has been established. This applies to customers, to partners, to employees, to anyone and everyone who can express and share an opinion or idea somewhere along your path to market” (Evans & McKee, 2010, p. 11). The focus is on the user-engagement and points to the importance of including users in a marketing strategy. This is in line with Vargo and Lusch´s (2004) evolution of marketing that points to a new dominant logic where customers co-create value.
A social engagement process is an approach that seeks to guide users beyond the act of consumption toward co-creating actions to collaborate and produce an experience that improves over time (Evans & McKee, 2010). The first stage in the social engagement process is consumption, which in the context of social media includes any form of digital content that is received. Evans and McKee (2010) stated that it is almost impossible not to consume content on social media, which naturally places consumption as a starting point. Curation is the second stage, and it refers to the action of describing content through, for example, commenting, liking, and following (Evans & McKee, 2010). In this stage, users are engaging from a socially interactive point of view. The third stage is creation or content creation, similar to theories of user-generated content (Evans & McKee, 2010). This points to offering users tools for
participating in creating content (Evans & McKee, 2010). The last stage of the social engagement process is collaboration, which is explained as a collective performance of the earlier individual stages (Evans & McKee, 2010). It occurs naturally between users within platforms and guides users beyond consumption. It opens up for collaboratively shaping content through the possibility of engaging users to work alongside companies and organizations. The social engagement process focuses on users and does not highlight the advantages it brings for the organizations. The last stage of the process concerns dialogues between users, and the dialogues are valuable data for the organization’s development. Unlike the last stage, the first stage focuses on users as consumers who co-create value. Co-created value relates to the second stage of the process since it highlights the actions of liking and commenting on social media posts. The social engagement process is relevant for this research since it concerns engaging actions.
There is a distinct focus on the exchange of knowledge and skills between organizations and users. On one hand, it can be perceived as an opportunity to perform social media marketing since knowledge is collectively shaped and involves more people, adding knowledge. On the other hand, knowledge about strategies is still required to initiate the mere engagement process, which will be presented in the following section.
2.4 Social media marketing approaches
The use of social media marketing by companies and organizations can be described through two different approaches (Constantinides, 2014). The passive approach refers to employing social media as representing the user and the active approach employs social media as a communication tool. The passive approach is characterized by taking information in and listening to the users. It focuses on collecting information from users and their actions online concerning the company or organization to reduce damage or develop better services, products, and communication (Constantinides, 2014). Companies and organizations can collect feedback and information about their actions just by existing on social media and passively collecting it. Traditional marketing demanded heavier approaches, like focus groups and surveys, but social media marketing has opened up for approaching users and customers in a more passive manner to detect what users engage in. New strategies include more technical aspects that also put more pressure on the marketing managers.
The algorithm angle for social media has gotten more attention lately but it is still certain that users trust each other more than any advertisements (Kingsnorth, 2019). There are two different perspectives on the link between social media and ranking on search engines such as Google. The first perspective suggests that social media and search engine algorithms are connected while the other perspective agrees that there is a link, but that is not the main reason that users engage in social media content (Kingsnorth, 2019). Social media serves as the function of a discovery tool and 30 % of web traffic is driven from social media. Users access social filtering as a means of discovering products, brands, and organizations (Kingsnorth, 2019). Moreover, social media allows targeted advertising, which is based on two types of data; demographic and behavioral. Demographic data points to a certain audience and is built on user data. Behavioral data focuses on users' previous navigation on the web from which assumptions are made (Kingsnorth, 2019). To clarify the concept, Kingsnorth (2019) exemplifies a car purchase that is browsing for a new car on the internet. Consumers seek information about products and services in order to make a decision to purchase or not.
The active approach of social media marketing can be divided into four different sub-categories (Constantinides, 2014). The first sub-category refers to use social media to attract public dialogue into businesses' accounts spheres where users interact (Constantinides, 2014). In that way, companies and organizations steer user engagement into their field allowing them to control it much more. Extending that category further, companies and organizations tend to steer and control their user’s participation in a single forum, but they also have the opportunity to easily facilitate a forum on any social media that drives users to engage. It can be a forum that is related to, for example, a specific product, activity, or service (Constantinides, 2014). The second sub-category refers to using relevant spokespersons as advocates for a specific product, service or activity. On Instagram, this is a common approach defining spokespeople as Influencers who communicate commercialized content to their users, which from a company or an organization's point of view could be potential customers. Influencers establish contact with users communicating a certain message that profit the company or organization (Constantinides, 2014). The third sub-category refers to using social media to individualize users experiences, empowering the user and involving them in their actions (Constantinides, 2014). This strategy strengthens the increasing user need for individual experiences rather than treating users as a solid mass. The fourth sub-category focuses on engaging users as a part of innovation processes and points to that users can review and rate a company, organization, or either of their actions (Constantinides, 2014). In a broader sense, it includes the co-creation of
any activity that is posted on social media, for example, posts about business strategies, products, and services. The co-creation of innovation processes and the outsourcing of in-house processes are considered as gaining both the senders and the receivers.
The active approach, including its sub-categories, can be reconstructed using the four principles of marketing in social media proposed by Parise and Guinan (2008). The four principles consist of; 1) facilitating users in generating content, 2) focusing on building a community, 3) ensuring the authenticity of the message and, 4) looking for marketing opportunities through experimentation (Parise & Guinan, 2008).
The first principle refers to the feature of having real-time dialogues with customers and users. This means to answer comments and questions on social media within a short amount of time. Parise & Guinan´s (2008) research mainly focuses on microblogs and how companies develop a communications reward system with customers and users who participate by commenting on blog posts. Furthermore, the study also showed examples of how companies invited their customers and users to be a part of developing products or services, which they performed through the micro-blogs. Companies posted surveys, questions, and invitations to workshops to successfully develop their products (Parise & Guinan, 2008). This principle is related to active approaches by the fact that it attracts users into organizations' field that demands real-time dialogues. Additionally, the first principle is related to the co-creation of value, a process that occurs between users and producers.
The second principle highlights the importance of creating a community. This means that the use of Web 2.0 technologies must be beneficial for a firm's members and not only contribute to the firm itself. The study exemplifies this by referring to companies that have created forums for specific debates that do not necessarily concern a specific product, service, or activity. The debate, however, is relevant to the company in some way (Parise & Guinan, 2008). A non-governmental company that works with animal justice could, for example, have a forum on social media or on their company blog where members can share ideas of how to take care of different pets. The creation of a community can be extended and strengthened through sub-category two that points to using advocates as a marketing strategy. These advocates can be discussed as consolidating communities further if they follow the same direction.
The third principle is characterized by the more passive approach and implies that users are taking control over messages through posting reviews and home-videos on their private channels about a specific product, firm, or brand. This principle could create a huge risk for companies. The study exemplifies a home-video that went viral showing what happens when dropping a Mentos (candy pastille) into a glass of coca-cola (Parise & Guinan, 2008). The study also highlights the importance that companies are aware of their brand and how consumers shape the perception of, for example, social media content. Companies can not monitor private users actions on their private channels, but companies can observe related messages on social media to react to unwanted events (Parise & Guinan, 2008).
The final principle states that marketers need to experiment with digital media to increase user engagement and perform different ways of developing their strategies instead of focusing on planning and creating strategies. One of the examples that Parise and Guinan (2008) present point to the rich media possibilities that Web 2.0 is allowing, which means that different formats and content can be shared and posted. Similar to this principle, sub-category three focuses on maximizing marketing possibilities on social media by making profits from individualized experiences.
To define how the marketing principles are relevant to the social media marketing approaches a model has been constructed (Figure 1). The model represents the structure of marketing principles and how they relate to the sub-categories of the active approach. This model is the foundation for the research phase and prototypes since it creates a structure of the existing social media marketing strategies. Following is a more in-depth presentation of relevant social media strategies.
Figure 2: Social media marketing model
2.5 E-WOM
A central aspect to that the Internet diverges from former mass communication technologies is that it enables a bi-directional nature, which means that private users can make their opinions accessible to users in the Internet community (Dellarocas, 2003). This has led to online reputation mechanisms, as an extension of word of mouth. Vázquez, et al. (2014) explains word of mouth as a “non-formal exchange of information between at least two individuals, which is perceived as trustworthy” (p. 68). Compared to traditional media that represents “one to all” communication, this is more trustworthy and genuine. The digitization of the concept renamed it as Electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM) and implies that feedback information can be accessed independently of time and space through social media. E-WOM can be described in terms of consulting. Users research environment has grown from consulting their friends and family to have a possibility of consulting other users reviews and feedback without really knowing them (Vázquez, et al., 2014). Since the definition of social media marketing is focusing on the users, this approach is presented as a passive strategy. The active aspect of e-WOM refers to firms’ active choice of opening up for feedback, but since Instagram is offering comments and likes, the feedback feature is already included.
“Whereas traditional word-of-mouth networks tend to deteriorate with scale, Internet-based reputation mechanisms can accumulate, store and flawlessly summarize unlimited amounts of information at very low cost.” (Dellarocas, 2003, p.5).
Dellarocas (2003) explains online reputation mechanisms as an ancient concept in a modern setting, which means that the function of the mechanism existed outside the internet and before social media was developed. The main differences, however, rely on the unlimited capacity that the Internet provides, which the quote confirms. E-WOM have the same function as the traditional word of mouth where social and economic issues spread and reached citizens through interaction. This creates issues regarding control of social media marketing. Business accounts on Instagram can publish content that gets viral though e-WOM, which can create consequences.
E-WOM allows existing users to exchange experiences about services and products whilst their comments and contributions can influence potential customers as well (Vinerean, 2017). Organizations or companies can observe the interaction between the users and develop their strategies based on that (Vinerean, 2017). Similar to Dellarocas (2003), Vinerean (2017) highlights the capacity of social media concerning e-WOM since it results in a more intense and extensive impact compared to traditional WOM. The critical point of view raises the aspect of that e-WOM on social media, based on organizations or companies posted content, is less prominent to result in a transaction of any kind compared to interactions between friends on the same platform (Vinerean, 2017). This means that organizations should strive to create social media marketing strategies that engage users to interact with their social network and not to just anyone.
2.6 Advocates
This strategy is similar to e-WOM since it includes the principle that users tend to desire feedback on products or services from people outside their social circle. Constantinides (2014) lists this strategy as central for social media marketing to user engagement and states that influencers and advocates can inform users much earlier than traditional media about new products or services. The current communication is more directed to certain groups compared to traditional media marketing. Mangold (2017) presents a model that states that users of digital
media have a limited capacity to process information. That is a great reason for the increased focus on social media marketing since it is full of information. Much of the research focuses on content and what content means to users but Mangold (2017) agrees with Constantinides (2014) stating that it is important to post relevant content to create user engagement. In terms of relevant, both of the mentioned authors focus on advocates. Further on, Mangold (2017) questions if this strategy can be described in terms of manipulation or disinformation. Critique pointed to describing the use of advocates or Influencers as manipulative is based on that digital communication should not be studied by dividing objects and individuals, it is the processes between the different actors, independently of their character. Not only has the character of a consumer transformed into a prosumer. In the last decade, consumers' action of gathering information about services and products have radically changed (Vinerean, 2017). The process of gathering information could be described through the consumer decision journey.
2.7 Consumer decision journey
Consumer decision making is often presented as a journey. The different stages within this journey represent the flow of a consumer’s path against consumption. The traditional 3-step model including stimulus, the first moment of truth (shelf), and second moment of truth (experience) has been supplemented with the zero moments of truth. The traditional model means that customers acknowledge a product, goes to the shelf, and experience a process (Lecinski, 2011). Lecinski (2011) argues for a new mental model of how consumers actively make consuming decisions, which is relevant for marketing strategies. The new mental model highlights that customers are information seekers, and before they are making a decision, they search for relevant information to base the decision on (Lecinski, 2011). Another version of the model is the traditional purchase funnel, a marketing model for the process that customers go through when making a purchase, thus it has developed due to social media (Vázquez, et al., 2014). The updated version of the model, acknowledging social media, considers the influence of social media and user-generated content (Vázquez, et al., 2014).
The model consists of four stages, which are awareness, evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase. It is also stated that this model is not merely for the consumption of products or services but also for consuming contexts (Vázquez, et al., 2014). Awareness is the first stage and refers to the first contact with a product, brand, company, or organization. The second stage is evaluation, which means that customers investigate the product, brand, company, or organization to gain information and to compare it. The third stage is the purchase stage, which
indicates that customers actively convey their decision to an action. Depending on the action, it could either be purchasing a product or commenting on an Instagram post. The final stage is post-purchase and refers to the action of sharing experiences of the purchase (Vázquez, et al., 2014). This is relevant since the purpose is to explore different social media marketing strategies concerning engagement. This model defines purchase based on what the transaction entails, which is important since engagement on Instagram is the mere transaction represented by engagement actions a user can perform. Liking and commenting are examples of transactions and as presented, included in the social engagement process which explains the relevancy of the model.
2.8 User engagement and technology
In the sphere of digital marketing and in particular, social media marketing, there are many terms discussed as crucial for successfully communicating with users. Nielsen & Loranger (2006) explains usability to the web as a quality attribute, which states how quickly people can learn to use something, the efficiency of the actual use, how memorable it is, how error-prone it is, and how much users appreciate the use of it. According to Obrien and Toms (2008), the term usability has been limelight by engagement since successful technologies are not only usable but engaging. Based on previous research, Obrien and Toms (2008) suggest certain attributes that characterize an engaging action or experience. The attributes consist of pleasure, endurability, attention, aesthetic and sensory appeal, feedback, variety/novelty, interactivity, and perceived user control.
Obrien and Toms (2008) present four theories that are related to engagement that they use to examine user engagement. The four theories are flow theory, aesthetic theory, play theory, and information interaction. The first theory implies that people are so involved in an activity that nothing but that activity matters. The activity engages a person to the extent that the consequences of the action are irrelevant compared to the flow of the action (Obrien & Toms, 2008). The flow theory has been used concerning engagement with the purpose to predict and design such experiences to understand why users use applications. Even though the flow theory is not merely based on engagement, Obrien and Toms (2008) state some similarities with engagement such as attributes of focused attention, feedback, and control. Moreover, flow is a theory that explains how some actions results in the total exclusion of outside events. The second theory refers to the visual appearance of the design interface of the software, which is
not completely relevant due to the limitations of effecting Instagram. However, some features are accessible within the software which can be described with the theory of aesthetic. Play is the third theory and refers to physical activity. The theory has been concerning engagement focusing on attributes as increased motivation, affect, and challenge (Obrien & Toms, 2008). Obrien and Toms (2008) explains that play is a physical activity that “...encourages learning and creativity, develops and satisfies psychological and social needs, and involves aspects of competition and collaboration” (Obrien & Toms, 2008, p. 938).
Following is information interaction theory which refers to the communication between users and the computer interface. The theory highlights the mere process of interacting with content within a system and occurs when individuals are using systems (Obrien & Toms, 2008). In this theory, engagement is stated as a holistic framework for understanding the correlation between user and system, and how they are combined to mutually expand user experience from being solely casual to be memorable and pleasurable (Obrien & Toms, 2008).
Previous research has aimed to conceptualize social media engagement but since it includes many different aspects there is no general model for engagement on social media (Obrien & Cairns, 2018). Focusing on integrating overlapping elements that fills that gap, Obrien and Cairns (2018) discuss action and participation as an element. Action and participation focus on that social media features can enhance engagement through actions and participation, which is relevant for this study since it focuses on engaging actions on Instagram. Even though these features are available there are large groups on social media that are not participating. The participation varies and the majority of users are only observing activities on social media (Obrien & Cairns, 2018). The observing group of users has been referred to as “lurkers” since they participate in the mere information but not through the features the platform provides. How can social media marketing transform the lurkers into engagers? This is the reason for the importance of this research. To create and strategically perform social media marketing that enhances engagement.
2.9 Social media marketing content and engagement
Both text and images are included in Instagram posts, and mere content has become an integral part of social media marketing strategies. The content is what users engage in (Swani, Milne, Brown, Assaf, & Donthu, 2017).
Conversations in online communities are stated as vital for success, driving followers as individuals and as a group to engage (Burke, Joyce, Kim. Anand, & Kraut, 2007). Previous research shows that some messages are more prominent to create engagement than others, and the dissimilarities are expressed in the mere wording (Burke et al., 2007). There are mainly two factors that increase followers to engage through replies, which is relevant since that is one of the activities that non-governmental organizations want to accomplish with social media marketing. The factors consist of introductions and requests. Introductions describes the sender’s relationship with the users. Burke et al. (2007) divide the first factor, introduction, into group introductions and topic introductions. Group introductions refer to the strategic use of previous engagement and behaviors in the community, such as referring to previous posts or knowledge of the followers. Topic introductions refer to revealing more personal relationships to the topic that is presented (Burke et al., 2007).
“Introductions serve two key purposes: signaling legitimacy and signaling commitment.” (Burke et al., 2007, p. 3).
This states how text can demonstrate personal expertise and indirectly express the status between senders and receivers. Text can legitimate relationships through topics, which are relevant for the community structures. Burke et al., (2007) focus on details regarding texts on social media by discussing grammatical issues. A pronoun is used to express the relationship between senders and receivers. The use of pronouns can point to a strong or vague connection. First and third pronouns are stated to generate more engagement compared to second pronouns that contend to reduce response (Burke et al., 2007).
Moreover, Berger and Milkman (2009) state that content that evokes strong emotions are more likely to get viral attention. Viral attention is based on engagement. If social media content becomes viral, it means that users are engaging in the content. The authors also state, based on their study of articles in the New York Times, they found that positive content is more likely to be shared and therefore have more chance of getting viral than negative content (Berger & Milkman, 2009). But more important for this particular thesis is that emotions that evokes activating emotions have more credibility becoming viral. Activating emotions include anger, joy, and other strong emotions. Berger and Milkman (2009) explain that the relationship between emotions and transmission of social media activities such as liking can be understood by manipulating certain emotions in a controlled setting. The correlation is explained as
complex and more complex than valence alone since arousal drives social transmission. From a marketing perspective, the fact that specific emotions evoke engagement on social media implies that companies and organizations can strategically create content that brings on that type of transmission (Berger & Milkman, 2009). Instead of creating content that highlights a specific product or service in a positive light, content should be produced with the strategy of provoking activating emotions. The focus is therefore not on a negative or positive character but on the mere activation of emotions where high arousal emotions such as anxiety and anger are characteristics that should be included for accomplishing viral content (Berger & Milkman, 2009).
The problem regarding social media marketing is that most online conversations take place between consumers, which exclude marketers. The challenge includes that strategies within social media marketing have taken a turn from promotionally based content to content characterized by engaging followers and consumers in terms of liking, commenting, and sharing social media content (Swani et al., 2017). To create post popularity, Swani et al., (2017) present two ways of establishing engagement which are; (1) encourage brand fan membership and fan likes and (2) by encouraging brand post likes and comments. The two approaches focus on the value of the act of sharing, commenting, or liking posts by followers or consumers, which reaches every particular followers’ network. The value derives from the level of the mere follower’s engagement with the social media content so that their engagement through likes, comments and sharing eventually increases the organization's popularity throughout their unique social media network and social circle (Swani et al., 2017). This strategy is based on social media engagement in forms of liking and commenting, which are actions that correlate with the popularity of social media content. The presented approaches are similar to the active approaches of social media marketing where for example, one of the sub-categories are referring to steer users into their own social media spheres where they can facilitate and co-create value with the users (Constantinides, 2014)
Another factor which is discussed as significant for acquiring social media content engagement is the number of likes and comment a post signalizes. Posts with a higher number of likes and comments tend to receive more engagement than a post with a lower number of likes and comments, regardless of the content (Swani et al., 2017). Moreover, previous research highlights that there are some differences between social media actions that are taking place between businesses and social media actions that are taking place between businesses and
consumers. Corporations brand names are more popular in business to business communication compared to business to consumer communication, whereas product names in social media content do not differ due to communication actors (Swani et al., 2017).
Visual content and engagement have a strong correlation, and the engagement level can vary depending on content. Bakhshi, Shamma, and Gilbert (2014) show that content that includes images with faces generate more engagement than photos without. Social media content that lacks images has been proved to generate less engagement. In a study of the platform Twitter, which is similar to Instagram, Rogers (2014) states that content with images got more likes and comments compared to content without images. Twitter has a similar function to Instagram, where users can share both text and images. The study shows that there is no consistent factor that represents what type of content on Twitter that increases engagement, but images and videos generally got more engagement than content without (Rogers, 2014).
Previous research has focused on what kind of images NGOs are using to engage citizens in activities and to create awareness. One study analyzed images that 20 of the most relevant and international NGOs during 2017 had posted (Carrasco-Polaino, Villar-Cirujano, & Martín-Cárdaba, 2018). All the images that had been posted by the chosen organizations were downloaded and randomly sampled into 340 photographs. Both images and text were used in the analysis to contextualize the content (Carrasco-Polaino et al., 2018). Regarding engagement, previous research points to some content characteristics, which resemble previously presented literature. Content that presents and promotes the organization itself tends to result in more engagement compared to content that focuses on the organization's mere activities and benefits (Carrasco-Polaino et al., 2018). It is also clear that positive emotions create more engagement than negative emotions. Social media marketing is used to mobilize society and create awareness about what the organization strives to. The analysis showed that the most common type of image that the NGOs used was not the type of images that generated the most engagement (Carrasco-Polaino et al., 2018). This stresses the importance of not generalizing social media marketing.
3 Research Methodology
In this chapter, the research methodology and design process for this specific study is presented and described. The chosen methods are following explained and motivated. Additionally, reliability, validation, and ethical considerations are discussed in relation to the study.
Qualitative methods aim to find relations and structures within phenomena focusing on text and images rather than quantifiable data (Bryman, 2012). The method is appropriate since the thesis aims to create an understanding of a specific concept based on relations in a more general perspective, which qualitative methods intend to do (Brennen, 2017). The study builds on an inductive approach that indicates that conclusions are drawn from empirical data from which generalizations are created. One important aspect of the approach is to understand the contexts where the actions appear. The material from the study has, therefore, been interpreted concerning the context that the material originates from, in this case, the focus group discussion and the organization Kompis Sverige.
Moreover, the understanding of the study builds upon a theory of interpretation. Leavy (2017) explains that the interpretative paradigm “...examines how people engage in processes of constructing and reconstructing meanings through daily interaction” (p. 129).
The paradigm focuses on patterns of people’s interactions, which is relevant concerning the chosen methods. The research for this study is based on design- and action research. This implies to gather new knowledge meanwhile designing and developing a prototype. Zimmerman and Forlizzi (2008) explain the research through design approach as focusing on real-world problems by designing products that both explicitly frame the actual problem and articulates the context of use, which the product is intended to be used within. The prototype for this study aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of social media marketing approaches, by allowing participants to engage in the prototypes. The design of the prototype is based on a user-centered design since end-users influence how a design takes shape.
Action research allows the researcher to investigate participants' reactions to a prototype, and at the same time, collaborate with the actual users to develop and create context-specific and engaging products (Edwards & Burns, 2015). The reason for using action research in this study is to include relevant stakeholders in the process of developing the guidelines that are relevant
for the actual users. The stakeholders are project managers from the organization and a focus group consisting of frequent and experienced users of Instagram. The stakeholders did not decide on the design of the prototype, thus their reactions and engagement contributed to shaping the concluding guidelines for NGOs' usage of social media marketing.
The prototype for this study aims to explore how participants of the focus group reacts and engage in different social media marketing approaches and image attributes, which represent the research through design approach. The findings are the foundation for developing the posts that were to be published on the organization's Instagram, where the organization's users spend time. Since all of the data gatherings had means for the final product of this study, which are social media marketing guidelines for NGOs to create user engagement, an iterative process is relevant.
3.1 Action research
This research method is characterized by constant cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The research method is suitable for new media and communication studies where there is no predictable outcome and where processes of innovation and change are continual (Hearn & Foth, 2005). Usually, the action research process is performed to either design or evaluate aspects of a (new) technology. This means placing the users and producers in the center of the research process to develop useful, analytical, and, action frameworks (Hearn & Foth, 2005). The relation between the method and design is described by Hearn and Foth (2005) based on three main aspects; 1) Active participation, which indicate that the people who should benefit from the research participates actively at the beginning of the process, 2) Action-based methods means that the findings from the focus group discussion generate knowledge in combination with knowledge from more formal methods suitable for the study, and 3) Generating action, which means that the research aim to result in artifacts. The reason for that this approach is suitable for this particular study is that it involves stakeholders to evaluate prototypes based on different social media marketing strategies, which in this case resulted in guidelines for the organization Kompis Sverige.
Wing, Andrew, and Petkov (2017) present a four-step model to use action design research. The first stage builds upon practice-inspired research and a theory ingrained artifact to focus on creating a framework for the research design, in this case, the social media marketing model
