Facebook businesses opportunities

: insight on successful stories

Abstract

This dissertation was built with the objective of identifying the criteria that might define a successful business created and / or operating on Facebook and the practices to achieve it, through the social networking website. To achieve this purpose, we extracted information from a sample of businesses operating on Facebook and the users or customers of this social networking website through questionnaires. In order to explore the criteria of success, in both samples is asked to rate criteria options according to importance. Also, to find how customers define success and the necessary actions to achieve it, we analyze how Facebook’s users perceive value from these pages, identifying and analyzing the value for customers and it consequences. We conclude that businesses and users do not define a successful Facebook page in the same way: businesses associate success with financial dimensions and users with other users’ opinions and recognition of the business success. Both samples define successful businesses using the same criteria, although with different importance order. Regarding the successful practices, since those are related with customer valuation and satisfaction, we identify the values and consequences that “move” customers and lead businesses to the features to succeed: Desire of being well informed and actualized; attention and valorization of the customer; Time Value; Identification and admiration for the page – desire to share it; Desire of being part of a group with common interests.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Amaral (Supervisor)