Social Media

: a importância do Facebook na estratégia de comunicação

Abstract

The theme of this dissertation is the importance of Facebook in brands’ communication strategy. Through the literature review we tried to understand how brands can create value through their Facebook profile. We found that Facebook can be a very effective media for brands to communicate with their clients, because this social network site allows brands to be aware of clients’ suggestions and opinions and to persuade them to make a favourable word-of-mouth, by sharing brands’ publications. In order to achieve a better understanding of these conclusions, we studied the different levels of interaction that consumers have brands on Facebook and the motivations behind these interactions. Literature review indicated there are five main motivations for consumers to interact with a brand on Facebook, namely the following: search for information, social influence, entertainment, trust and remuneration. To understand the influence of these five motivations, we developed a questionnaire which was replied by 160 Facebook users. Through this questionnaire we also tried to measure the importance consumers give to the presence of brands in Facebook and the different kinds of interaction between consumers and brands, in this social network. Results suggest that social influence, entertainment and remuneration are the three main motivations behind consumer-brand interaction, in Facebook. Results also indicate the existence of low levels of interaction, in terms of contribution and creation of COBRA’s (comments or shared posts), and even in terms of posts created by consumers in brands’ pages, in Facebook. This situation is corroborated by the literature review. According to the results of this research, we present several suggestions that can help brands improve the level and quality of consumer interaction, both in terms of contribution and creation of COBRA’s.

Date of Award	8 Mar 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Joana Machado (Supervisor)