Final Year Thesis
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KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF ART AND SOCIAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF ART DEPARTMENT OF PUBLISHING STUDIES INTEGRATING THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF THE GHANAIAN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY Atsu Egbemenyo, Queen Edem Dwomoh- Okudzeto, Yvonne Jones, Nash Edinam May, 2014
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Transcript of Final Year Thesis
KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF ART AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ART
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLISHING STUDIES
INTEGRATING THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF THE GHANAIAN
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY
Atsu Egbemenyo, Queen Edem
Dwomoh- Okudzeto, Yvonne
Jones, Nash Edinam
May, 2014
KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF ART AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ART
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLISHING STUDIES
INTEGRATING THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLISHING
NDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF THE GHANAIAN PUBLISHING
INDUSTRY
A Dissertation Submitted To The Department Of Publishing Studies,
College Of Art And Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University Of
Science And Technology In Partial Fulfillment Of The
Requirements for the Award of
B.A Publishing Studies
Atsu Egbemenyo, Queen Edem
Dwomoh- Okudzeto, Yvonne
Jones, Nash Edinam
May, 2014
i
DECLARATION
We declare that the project was done by us under supervision that it has not been
partially or wholly presented by anybody else for the award of B.A Degree.
Atsu Egbemenyo, Edem Queen
Dwomoh- Okudzeto, Yvonne
Jones, Nash Edinam
I declare that this project was written under my supervision and that the students have
my permission to present it for assessment.
Dr. Samuel Smith Esseh
(Supervisor)
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ACKNOWLEDEGMENT
We thank God for the opportunity to pursue this course and the grace to complete it
successfully.
We wish to express our profound gratitude to our supervisor, Dr. Smith Esseh, for his
guidance, patience, tolerance and invaluable suggestions which helped us to complete
this work.
We are particularly grateful to our families for their encouragement, endurance and
support throughout the duration of our course.
iii
DEDICATION
This work is dedicated to our families for their investment and encouragement in our
education.
iv
ABSTRACT
The advent of the internet and social media has revolutionized the way companies
interact with their consumers. A quick literature review reveals that Ghanaian
publishers are not actually exploiting social media as a marketing tool to its maximum
although this is not a new marketing trend. Companies across all industries in Ghana
and other parts of the world use social media as a marketing tool since its inception.
This study therefore was designed to explore whether publishing houses in Ghana
incorporate the use of social media as part of their marketing strategies. The findings in
this research study concludes that even though social media is an important tool in
promoting the products of a publishing house effectively, a great percentage of the
publishing companies in the country have not fully adopted this approach in their
activities. The few publishing companies which have however adopted it do not employ
the use of efficient strategies such as constant update of information to keep their social
media platforms active. To make the use of social media effective, there is the need for
publishing houses to use dynamic strategies to create strong media campaigns for
companies and their products. Such strategies include frequent update of their social
media platforms with good content and engaging participants on their sites with
activities such as games to help promote their products. It is recommended that social
media should be regarded as an integral part of an organization’s marketing strategy and
should not be taken lightly. Publishing houses using the various social media platforms
could employ skilled personnel in social media marketing to promote the company’s
products and monitoring consumer response.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDEGMENT ............................................................................................. ii
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Background ......................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Problem Statement .............................................................................................. 5
1.4 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 6
1.5 Scope of the study .............................................................................................. 6
1.6 Justification ......................................................................................................... 6
1.7 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................... 8
LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 8
2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8
2.2 Definition Of Key Terms ............................................................................... 8
2.3 Different categories of Social Media .................................................................. 9
2.4 Platform Category .......................................................................................... 12
2.5 The Social Networks ......................................................................................... 13
2.7 The Differences of Strategies in Marketing ...................................................... 18
2.8 Principles of Social Media Marketing ............................................................... 20
CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................. 24
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 24
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3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 24
3.2 Overview ........................................................................................................... 24
3.3 Research design ................................................................................................. 24
3.4 Study Population ............................................................................................... 25
3.5 Sampling Size and Technique ........................................................................... 25
3.6 Sources of Data and Data Collection ................................................................ 25
3.7 Data Processing ................................................................................................. 26
3.8 Limitations ........................................................................................................ 27
CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................. 28
DATA PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS ............................... 28
4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 28
4.2. Population and Sample Size ............................................................................. 28
4.3 Types of Media Used by Ghanaian Publishers ................................................. 30
4.4 Social Media Awareness ................................................................................... 32
4.5 Social Media Usage ........................................................................................... 35
4.7 Period of Usage ................................................................................................. 40
4.8 Purpose for Usage ............................................................................................. 41
4.8 Intensity of Marketing ....................................................................................... 44
4.9 Social Media Strategies ..................................................................................... 45
4.10 Information Update ......................................................................................... 46
4.11 Level of Participation ...................................................................................... 50
4.12 Content on SM page ........................................................................................ 51
4.13 Resource Personnel Responsible for Managing Operations ........................... 52
4.14 Challenges faced by Ghanaian Publishers in the use of SM ........................... 53
4.15 Impact of The Challenges on the Brand of the Publishing Companies .......... 55
CHAPTER 5 .................................................................................................................. 58
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION . 58
5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 58
5.2 Summary of Findings ........................................................................................ 58
5.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 61
5.4 Recommendations ............................................................................................. 62
vii
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 64
APPENDIX A. ............................................................................................................... 66
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1 Population And Sample Size…………………………………………. 30
Figure 4.2 Response From Questionnaire…………………………………………. 30
Figure 4.3 Media Types Used by Publishers………………………………………. 31
Figure 4.4 Level Of Social Awareness…………………………………………….. 32
Figure 4.5 Awareness Level Of Social Media Platforms………………………….. 34
Figure 4.6 Level Of usage Of Social Media Platforms……………………………. 35
Figure 4.7 Level Of Usage Of Social Media………………………………………. 37
Figure 4.8 Length/Period Of Usage Of Social Media……………………………... 40
Figure 4.9 Purpose For Usage Of Social Media…………………………………… 42
Figure 4.10 Intensity Of Marketing On The Various Platforms…………………… 43
Figure 4.11 Strategies Employed By Ghanaian Publishers To Send Traffic To
Their Social Networking Sites…………………………………………………..
44
Figure 4.12 Regular Updates……………………………………………………… 47
Figure 4.13 Level Of Participation On Social Media By Followers…………...... 48
Figure 4.14 Content Posted On Social Media Page ……………………………….. 50
Figure 4.15 Availability Of Resource Persons…………………………………… 50
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Percentage Distribution Of Awareness Level…………………………... 33
Table 4.2 Percentage Distribution Of Level Of Usage.............................................. 36
Table 4.3 Purpose Of Usage……………………………………………………….. 41
Table 4.4 Strategies For Driving Traffic To Social Media Pages…………………. 44
Table 4.5 Updates For Information………………………………………………... 45
Table 4.6 Content On Social Media Page………………………………………….. 49
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
This chapter provides a brief overview of the study presented in this thesis. This chapter
introduces the reader to the scope, problem statement, significance of the research, and
research question, as well as the assumptions, limitations, and delimitations of the
research. The overview prepares the reader for chapter 2; the review of literature.
The marketing arena has changed over the years; diverse platforms such as newspapers,
magazines, radio, and television, among others are being employed. However, the
advent of the internet introduced a new vehicle to reach consumers – the social media.
This platform has been exploited in various fields and its application in the field of
marketing is not exempted.
Today’s technology driven world has made social networking sites to become avenues
where businesses extend their marketing activities to a wider range of consumers
scattered in different locations. This form of marketing has a greater advantage over the
traditional forms of marketing as the companies are able to reach thousands of
consumers with just a click of the mouse.
Social media marketing has taken root in Ghana and is growing in popularity, albeit
slowly. It is used extensively by radio stations, television stations, music and movie
production houses. Publishing houses in Ghana, however, have not fully embraced the
use of social media. The very few that utilise the platform hardly exploit fully the
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opportunities it offers. The reverse happens in other developed countries where
publishing houses invest hugely in social media marketing.
In an industry where publishers not only compete among themselves but with a plethora
of providers of various contents (films, audiobooks, the internet), social media can be
used to bridge the gap between the firms and their consumers.
Many publishing houses in Ghana struggle to use social media and have few or no
strategies to employ it. As a result, without a basic understanding of the advantages of
social media and how to use it to engage customers, countless opportunities are missed.
The research aims to acquire an initial understanding of how publishing houses
currently use social media platforms.
1.2 Background
The internet has radically changed the approach individuals, organizations and the
whole society communicate. During its existence, the characteristics of the internet have
changed and it has become a more interactive platform than it was previously. People
are progressively discovering the new communicative possibilities that the internet can
offer. They are no longer connecting to the internet only to find information on different
web pages but also contributing to discussions with their opinions, experiences or other
types of content. Today’s technology driven world has made social networking sites to
become avenues where businesses extend their marketing activities to a wider range of
consumers scattered in different locations. This form of marketing has a greater
advantage over the traditional forms of marketing as the companies are able to reach
thousands of consumers with just a click of the mouse.
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The approaches and tools used by businesses to communicate with consumers have
changed greatly due to the rise of social media.
A new generation of online tools, applications and approaches such as blogs, wikis,
online communities and virtual worlds, commonly referred to as Web 2.0 or social
media, are increasingly attracting the attention of practitioners and, recently, of
academics (Davilla, et al, 2003 as cited in Busscher, 2013). By introducing and using
these new communication tools, businesses face different opportunities and challenges.
Wright and Hinson (2008) as cited in Busscher (2013) mentioned that due to the use of
social media there has been a change in the way organizations communicate with their
employees, customers, stockholders, communities, governments and other stakeholders
and therefore social media could have an impact on the business processes of
organizations. Many business-to-consumer organizations are already actively making
use of social media for their marketing strategies; examples of these organizations are
Ford, KLM, ING, NS and T-Mobile (Alarcón-del-Amo, et al., 2011 as cited in
Busscher, 2013). According to Dearbon (2013)Social media marketing is the online tool
that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives,
knowledge and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and online interaction
between groups of people with similar interests on relevant subjects. Foux (2006) as
cited in Allison (2013) argue that consumers recognise social media as a more
trustworthy source of information regarding products and services than corporate-
sponsored communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion
mix. The viability of these two arguments can be seen in the resources companies
sacrifice to create vibrant campaigns on the various social media platforms available.
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However, it is still not entirely clear in what way and how much social media
applications will change the marketing activities of the Publishing Industry.
The story is however different in Ghana; especially in the publishing industry. There is
little evidence to support the fact that publishing firms in the country have social media
presence. It is hardly exploited by the firms and they do not invest in it. Countless
opportunities are lost in introducing and engaging customers as a result of lack of
knowledge on the basic understanding of the advantages of social media as a marketing
tool. This study therefore aimed at improving the understanding of the business benefits
of Social Media Marketing. An in-depth analysis of the Social Media Marketing
benefits and techniques for businesses will help us in the understanding of the power of
each Social Media channels and their particular use for businesses. As a consequence,
the problem statement of this report will be defined as following: Social Media
Marketing benefits for publishing businesses: Why and how should every publishing
firm create and develop its Social Media Sites? In order to provide understandings and
answers to this issue, the report will start by presenting the notion and concepts of
Social Media and its relation to Marketing, defining the terms and their features. Then,
on the one hand, the theoretical analysis will use a wide literature review to discuss the
main business benefits of Social Media Marketing, explaining why every publishing
business should create their Social Media sites and maintain their presence on them
regularly. On the other hand, the empirical analysis will examine the main marketing
techniques used by companies on the Social Media channels, analysing how publishing
businesses should develop their Social Media Sites. Besides, the limitations and risks
encountered by the firms implementing Social Media Marketing strategies will also be
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presented in order to show the negative aspects as well. Finally, the report will end with
general conclusions and recommendations for businesses using social media marketing.
1.3 Problem Statement
In the current modern societies, social media channels are commonly used in order to
connect people together throughout the world using the internet. Whether it is through
social networks, forums, blogs or media sharing websites, people can now have a
conversation online, also called interactive dialogue, with anybody and on any subject,
permitting them to share their experiences and valuable information.
Looking on a business perspective, it goes without saying that social media marketing
has offered a large variety of new opportunities for companies to promote their brand,
products and services ( Arca, 2012). Publishing houses abroad have taken advantage of
social media as a vehicle to reach out to consumers. The marketing landscape is
however different here in Ghana. There is little evidence to suggest that Ghanaian
publishing houses utilise social media platforms and even if they use them, how
effective these social media are used.
This stresses the need to cognise and document the various social media highly
patronized by the public and also provide insights on how the publishing industry can
use these as a marketing and branding tool in awareness creation. This research study
thus seeks to identify how the publishers in the country are utilising social media in the
marketing of their products.
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1.4 Objectives
This thesis sets to achieve the following objectives:
1. To identify the types of social media platforms used by Ghanaian Publishers.
2. To find strategies employed by Ghanaian Publishers in marketing their books on
social media platforms and how effective they are.
3. To find challenges being faced by Ghanaian Publishers
4. To find out the level of awareness of Ghanaian publishers of the social media
platforms available to them.
5. To suggest ways social media can be used effectively as a marketing tool in the
Ghanaian Publishing industry.
1.5 Scope of the study
The scope of this study is limited to the publishing industry in Ghana. The case
companies are micro entity businesses, meaning it has less than 10 in-house employees
in total. Therefore the findings cannot be generalized to include all the companies that
use social media. However, the findings might fit a micro entity business in the
publishing industry.
1.6 Justification
Social media is a marketing tool that has been exploited all over the world in various
fields. However, Ghanaian publishers have not appreciated the need to take advantage
of this platform and utilise it .The study is necessary because it will identify challenges
faced by Ghanaian publishers and propose strategies and tactics to be able to
circumvent these challenges and exploit various tools that come along with the use of
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social media.
1.7 Methodology
The aim of the research is to provide insights into social media available and the
different kinds of social media used, and also illustrate utilizing social media in
marketing; giving insights on opportunities and challenges it offers to a company.
Therefore, projects that have been done internationally were used as models for case
studies.
An exploratory research method was done to find out what, when and how Ghanaian
publishers are acquainted with social media and their attitude towards social media.
Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data collection method
and selection of subjects. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme
caution. Given its fundamental nature, exploratory research often concludes that a
perceived problem does not actually exist, exploratory research "seeks to find out how
people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions,
and what issues concern them. A literature review will also be done to gain knowledge
on what has been thus far concerning indigenous materials. Questionnaires were
administered in sourcing information from the Ghanaian Publishers to get a picture of
their perception on the use of social media.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
The chapter introduces social media and the different types of social media. In it the
theoretical framework of the study is presented. The literature will be used to support or
refute findings made in this research at the analytic stage of this write up. The reviewed
literature will include definitions of key terms and the impact, strategy and processes of
Social Media Marketing. The literature review makes use of secondary data that are
related to the concept of Social Media Marketing and its impact on marketing in the
publishing industry.
2.2 Definition Of Key Terms
2.2.1 Internet
According to the World Bank and the International Communications Union, there are
more than 2,512,400 billion internet users in the world (Ach, The Current Development
And Trends Of Social Media Marketing Strategies For Businesses, 2013). Since the
year 2000, the number of internet users worldwide was only of 360,985,492 and was
since almost multiplied. This data provided by Internet World Stats shows us how
important internet has become in our everyday life activities. (Ach, 2013)
The internet is a network that links computer networks all over the world by satellite
and telephone, connecting users with service networks such as e-mail and the World
Wide Web. It is the open gate of an incredibly huge amount of information and
entertainment and enables people to share their beliefs, opinions, passions, and others.
People are able to directly communicate with companies or other people and to
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negotiate according to their needs and desires. In parallel, companies are able to reach a
greater audience and to be more visible about their products and services.
2.2.2 Traditional Media
This is any other medium apart from the social media – newspaper, radio, among
others.
2.2.3 Social Media
Theadmin, (2012) define Social Media as “a group of Internet-based applications that
build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the
creation of exchange of User Generated Content”. Safko and Brake (2009) as cited in
Mclennan & Howell (2010) explicate that Social Media refers to activities, practices,
and behaviours among communities of people, who gather online to share information,
knowledge, and opinions using conversational media.
2.3 Different categories of Social Media
Perdue, (2010) explicated six categories of Social Media. The six categories of Social
Media are as follows:
a) Blogs are online journals where people of firm opinions can post images, ideas and
links to other web pages. A blog is “a type of Content Management System (CMS) that
makes it easy for anyone to publish short articles called posts” (Cap, 2011). The
popularity of blogging has increased significantly now that virtually anyone with
Internet access can easily set up a blog with any of the numerous free tools available
(Safko & Brake, 2009 as cited in Perdue, 2010). Popular blogging platforms include
WordPress, Movable Type, and Google’s Blogger. Some common features of blogs are
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commenting, which allows readers to leave comments on the bloggers’ posts; the blog
roll, a list of links to other recommended blogs; and Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a
technology that enables readers to easily view summaries of posts (Perdue, 2010).
b) Social networks are places where people with a common interest or concern
come together to meet people with similar interests and where they can build their
personal websites. A social networking site and social networks “are generic terms for
sites that are used to connect users with similar backgrounds and interests” (Perdue,
2010). Most social networks have the same basic features: a personal profile, the ability
to add friends, photo albums, and a variety of ways to interact with friends and their
content. Generally speaking, social networks fall into one of two main subcategories:
popular or niche. (Perdue, 2010). Popular social networks have a broad appeal and
gather millions of users. Some current examples are Facebook which is a general-
purpose social network that appeals to the masses, MySpace, is another general-purpose
social network that also targets bands promoting their music and LinkedIn which is a
social network for all types of professionals. Niche social networks appeal, of course,
to smaller audiences of specific topics. Examples of niche social networks are Sharecipe
which focuses on recipes and cooking tips. For the Love of Films
(http://www.tcm.com/fan) which connects fans of classic films, and ActiveRain, a
social network for real estate professionals (Perdue, 2010).
c) A micro blog is a type of blog in which posts have a limited length. The primary
example of a micro blogging service is Twitter, which limits the size of each post to 140
characters. Many people incorrectly refer to Twitter as a social networking site because
of its similarities to popular social networking services. Micro blogging facilitates
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conversations while enforcing conciseness. Other examples of micro blogging platforms
include Jaiku which functions similarly as Twitter and Yammer an enterprise platform
that facilitates internal communication (Perdue, 2010).
d) A social news site allows visitors submit and vote on content. In a sense, a social
news site serves as a filter that separates compelling content from mundane content on
the Web. When users find content that interests them (such as an article, video, image,
etc.), they can submit the content to a social news site. If the online community finds
the content interesting, they will vote accordingly and drive the content to a prominent
place on the site. Currently, the most popular social news site is Digg. Other popular
social news sites are Reddit and Mixx. These websites serve fairly broad audiences by
covering a wide range of topics. There are many niche social news sites such as Tip’d ,
which focuses on finance, investing, and business, and Slashdot which focuses on
science and technology.
e) A social bookmarking site is similar to a social news site, users share organized
content from the Web via links, or bookmarks. Voting on submitted bookmarks
determines which ones the site will prominently display. Because social news sites and
social bookmarking sites both focus on helping users find interesting or useful content,
people often confuse the two types of sites. The most popular social bookmarking sites
at this time are Delicious and StumbleUpon. An example of a niche social bookmarking
site is Diigo , which focuses on research and collaboration.
f) A media-sharing site empowers users to upload multimedia content: videos,
images, podcasts, and other forms of media. This segment of social media has become
12
particularly influential through video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Photo-sharing
sites, such as Flickr lets users upload their own images and browse the millions of
images that others have uploaded. Presentation-sharing sites, such as SlideShare enables
users to upload and share presentations. A common feature of media-sharing sites is the
ability to associate a tag with a user’s content; a tag is simply a descriptive word that
helps people find the content (Zarrella, 2010 as cited in Perdue, 2010).
2.4 Platform Category
Facebook Social network - Young people oriented – sharing of random
content: images, videos, opinions, articles.
LinkedIn Social network - Business oriented – sharing of specialized and
professional content: resume, professional tips, job offers.
TumblrSocial network/blog - People and business oriented – sharing of random
content: photos, videos, quotes, music.
Twitter Micro blog- People and business oriented- sharing of short content: text,
articles, and links.
YouTube Video sharing website - People oriented – sharing of random
video content: music, ads, comedy, movies trailers, and any kind of tips.
Flickr Image sharing website - People oriented – Sharing of random content:
photos about any kind of topic.
StumbleUpon Bookmarking website- People oriented – sharing of random
content: websites according to interests.
Pinterest Bookmarking website – People and business oriented – Sharing
of random content: websites, photos and videos.
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2.5 The Social Networks
2.5.1 Facebook
Facebook was originated in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Since December 2012, it counts
more than 1 billion monthly active users and an average of 618 million daily active
users. Basically, the role of Facebook is to get people connected and to make them open
to others, to share their interests and to express themselves about anything. (Facebook,
2013)
(Witek & Grettano, 2012) explain how Facebook works as it offers many
communication possibilities. They talk about the three main functions of Facebook
which are feeds, shares and comments. The feeds appear on your Timeline (profile
page) and in your news feeds, defined as an “individualized homepage”. This is the
content appearing on these two pages, refreshing in real-time and displayed in a reverse
chronological order. The feeds a user receives can change according to the friends you
want to get information from and according to the fan pages you like.
The shares are an important function on Facebook as well as on any other social media.
It enables users to post links of information sources outside Facebook to their Facebook
news feeds.
Facebook automatically shares on a user’s timeline activities which are linked to the
site, for example listening to music on Myspace. The comments are the function you
find underneath any post, in a box combined with the “like” and “share” buttons. This
function is very simple but so important as well as it enables the users to communicate,
to share their opinions and to create relationships with other users.
14
Facebook is currently seen as the biggest social network and there are good benefits
available for businesses if their goal is to reach a large consumer base especially when it
comes to the promotion of their products and services. Indeed, this social network, as
already mentioned, has the biggest user base and keeps on growing. Thus, it has a great
potential for companies, which are able to reach 1 billion consumers and to build
communities. These communities enable companies to increase the brand loyalty with
current customers and more importantly to turn community members into potential
customers.
Businesses are able to build a brand by showing their values and level of expertise.
Facebook provide businesses good tools to reach their goals, such as free business pages
where the relationship with the users is built, promoted posts that enable a company to
make a specific post seen by everyone, and Facebook advertisements, which means
Facebook publishes specific advertisements to an audience according to demographic
factors and also to the users’ interests and hobbies.
The Facebook page is surely a very important tool that gives good opportunities to
businesses. (Jahn & Kunz, 2012) support this idea and explain us that it genuinely is a
“new online service for the customer-brand relationship”. By creating a Facebook brand
page, a business is able to engage, integrate and immerse Facebook users into an active
community. Indeed, the potential for a business to get new leads is big; however things
need to be done properly in order to make it work.
A business can be successful on Facebook if it builds relationship based on values
acknowledged by consumers. Reaching users through a Facebook page is not about
15
advertising or selling always more, it is about delivering valuable content, meaning this
must be interesting as well as innovative and entertaining, in order to attract consumers
and to build loyalty. Facebook is yet progressing and keeps on offering new features
that can totally benefit businesses.
Linked In
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-
Luc Vaillant and Allen Blue and the site was launched on the 5th of May 2003. It is the
largest professional network in the world and is counting more than 200 million
members over 200 countries since December 31 2012.
Indeed, LinkedIn enables companies to reach a large number of professionals who can
be potential future partners, employees or clients and it provides the opportunity to
engage them and to share valuable content, actions that can lead to actions offline.
Some LinkedIn features are used by the members to reach their goal, such as the Talent
Solutions, making recruiting process easier for their businesses amidst others.
(Keenan & Shiri, 2009) see LinkedIn as a niche social website because it is business
oriented and also encourages professional relationships. Indeed, they explain that
LinkedIn is a way to reconnect with associates and colleagues but also to explore the
job market through your connections; a job market invisible in the offline world. It is a
way to get in touch with experts in order to get more insights about a specific topic as
well.
According to J. H. Kietzmann et al (2011), the thing businesses have to focus on when
using LinkedIn, is the relationship building. They explain that LinkedIn offers different
16
features that let its users manage their network in very efficient ways. Indeed, the users
can see how well they are linked to other users and the degree of separation they are
from a specific user they are targeting. Also, companies are able to build their
reputation when they get endorsements from other companies. This becomes possible
due to a feature; recommendation. This feature gives users the opportunity to leave
other users testimonials.
Social media offers a wealth of services on the Internet. This makes it important for
companies to know which ones to use and how to use them. Social media empowers
firms to engage consumers in a timely and direct manner at relatively low costs and
higher levels of efficiency than with more traditional communication tools.
Consumers are able to promote a brand by tweeting, blogging, reviewing, following,
etc. Loyal customers also help generate “online word of mouth” which is very
important for SMEs. Engagement with consumers provides SMEs with opportunities to
use social media as a tool for their marketing strategies (Reyneke et al., 2011).
2.6 Social Media Marketing
It is in the past few years that marketers understood they have to move from a
transactional exchange to a relational exchange, where the value is co-created with the
consumers. Companies who understood this are market oriented, placing the customer
as the concern, getting the customer criteria to match with the company marketing mix
and segmenting the market according to the customer preferences. Companies who
don’t do business this way are internally oriented, placing the price and product
performance as the key and segmenting the market according to the product only.
17
Social media marketing is a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking
websites as a marketing tool. The goal of social media marketing (SMM) is to produce
content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand
exposure and broaden customer reach.
Mangold & Faulds (2009) argue that “social media combines characteristics of
traditional marketing tools (companies talking to customers) with a highly magnified
form of word-of-mouth (customers talking to one another) whereby marketing
managers cannot control the content and frequency of such information.” Companies
are limited in the amount of control they have over the content and distribution of
information. Ignoring such user-generated content is not an option. Companies must
be able to monitor and respond to conversation, both positive and negative, surrounding
the brand. There are ways however, that companies can influence discussions in a way
that is consistent with the organization’s mission (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Social
media marketing enables companies to achieve a better understanding of customer
needs in order to build effective relationships.
Consumers’ behaviour has been changing in the past years especially because of socio-
cultural conditions moves involving that people have less time for themselves. The
value of time has become really important in a consumer life and this can be explained
by the fact that jobs demand more hours of work. These conditions lead people to
reduce the time spent in some activities such as shopping and communication to spend
more of this time saved on activities like leisure. Hence, the use of the internet has
incredibly changed the way people purchase and communicate, favouring fast and
efficient communication and access to a broad range of quality information. In
18
consequence to that, many aspects in marketing strategies have evaluated to adapt the
consequent change in consumers’ buying behaviour.
2.7 The Differences of Strategies in Marketing
In their book, Impact of E-Commerce on Consumers and Small Firms (2006), S.
Zappalà and C. Gray illustrate some differences between the traditional marketing
strategies and the new, internet marketing strategies, through six different areas.
They have firstly described noticeable differences in the information area. Indeed, an
incredible amount and quality of information from businesses are available on the
internet, allowing the consumers to get many details on products, services, companies’
events, special offers and so on. This is one difference with the traditional marketing
way where there is delivery of really few information. The new thing with internet
marketing is that the information not only comes from companies but also from
partners called “infomediaries”; which are people that compare products and services
and also rate companies. Finally, the internet offers an important potential of data
collection for companies which allows them to target their audience more easily and to
adapt their offers to not masses but individuals.
The second area in which we can notice differences, according to S. Zappalà and C.
Gray, is the customer relationship. Basically, there was pretty much no relationship
between the consumers and the companies, or when there was one, it was not direct but
it was made through intermediaries. Nowadays, the marketing strategies require that
companies have a one-to-one and interactive relationship with the customers and
19
directly engage them. Another thing is that businesses are able to create partnerships
more easily in order to deliver specific offers to the customers. What has risen with the
internet is the importance of virtual communities, demonstrating a critical potential for
companies to get leads. People exchange information on the products and the services,
and they also share their interests with other members, enabling businesses to, once
again, target their audience in an easier way.
The third area studied by the two authors is targeting. The way businesses target,
although the internet is a very helpful tool for them to reach more consumers, is more
complex than in traditional marketing. The targeting process is done on the basis of
behavioural patterns such as websites search and transactions made, whereas in
traditional marketing, businesses target according to demographical and geographical
factors.
Communication is the fourth area where differences have obviously been noticed
between the traditional marketing strategies and the internet marketing ones. This area
has been experiencing important changes in the way businesses conduct marketing. The
biggest change is that businesses using internet marketing strategies implement a
personalized and interactive communication whereas the traditional marketing strategies
require mass communication and push advertisement. The “rules of the game” are not
the same for businesses as the consumers are the ones who decide what to do with the
load of information available to them. They are the ones to decide to visit a website and
to receive more detailed information about specific products and services
20
Another area the two authors have studied is accessibility. Obviously, before the
development of the internet companies were facing some barriers in some aspects of
their operations. They were geographically restricted, in terms of selling, dealing hours
and delivery, to their locations.
Now, internet marketing strategies enables access to a website 24/7 on a global scale. A
website is a virtual shop window; consumers can have a look to a business’s products
and services whenever they want and wherever they want. Delivery is not much of a
problem anymore as it can be arranged with the customer.
Last but not least, the sixth area S. Zappalà and C. Gray talked about is the consumer.
The consumer, as explained earlier in this part, has evolved and its purchasing decision
process has changed. In traditional marketing strategies, the consumer was
characterized as someone passive. Nowadays thanks to the internet and all the
possibilities it offers, the consumer has become active, well informed but also more
demanding as well as complaining, as the internet clearly offers more freedom of
expression on products and services.
2.8 Principles of Social Media Marketing
Several principles govern social media marketing, and a company’s efforts in the social
media sphere should always abide by these principles even though social media
marketing activities can assume many forms. Perdue (2010) gives four principles
related to community, content, conversation, and transparency. Each of the four
principles serves a crucial role in supporting the effectiveness of social media
marketing. Perdue (2010) explained that without conversation, social media would not
be social. Without transparency, conversation would not be constructive. Without
21
content, social media would not be media. Without community, content would not be
relevant.
a) Focusing on community. Starting with the community principle, a company
should center its online marketing efforts on communities. There are many facets to this
principle with the most important facet being that social media marketing is about
connecting with groups of people, not blasting the masses with advertising. Connecting
individuals with similar interests is also important: “Social media tools enable like-
minded people—be they bird watchers, Québécois undertakers, or Vietnam veterans—
to find each other. This is a key benefit of social media marketing” (Barefoot & Szabo,
2010). A company is more likely to have success by targeting specific online
communities rather than general groups on the Internet. Instead of finding existing
communities, a company could also build an online community around its products,
service, or even itself (Perdue, 2010). Hunt (2009) states that an important part of
building a community is a core customer.
However, today we can narrow our markets down to an even more personal level
because people often publish their preferences very explicitly in online social networks.
Some social media consultants are calling the further narrowing of this profiling social
graphics—the segmenting of people through what kind of groups they join, preferences
they publish on social networks, the content of their public wish lists, and what they
discuss with their friends in online communities (Perdue, 2010).
b) Publishing content in communities. In regard to content, a company is a
publisher in social media. Remembering that social media are tools that facilitate the
22
creation and distribution of content, companies face the challenge of deciding not only
what kinds of content to create but also the purpose of the content they create. Safko
and Brake (2009) discuss the four pillars of social media marketing strategies, which are
four ways in which companies can engage online communities: communication,
collaboration, education, and entertainment. In other words, companies can use content
to communicate with its audience, facilitate collaboration with or among its audience,
educate its audience, or entertain its audience. Furthermore, a company should invest
significant effort into publishing creative content—the kind that catches people’s
interest and spurs them to share it with their friends (Scott, 2009). If content is boring,
people tend to ignore it. George Wright, the creator, says, “Instead of making ads, think
of making content” (Weinberg, 2009, p. 30).
c) Participating in communities through content. The principle of conversation
simply means that a company is a participant in social media. By its very nature, social
media is interactive, and a company should be jumping into online conversations and
engaging online communities related to its products or services. This interaction does
not mean outright advertising and promotion. Rather, companies can provide
information to online users by answering questions, posting useful tips, or just making
friendly comments (Perdue, 2010).
d) Being transparent in communities while participating through content. The
fourth principle, transparency, insists that a company should be authentic in its
participation in social media. Weinberg (2009) says that “when it comes to social media
marketing, the rules of engagement are different. Altruism rules above all. Authentic
online relationships can further your cause and help foster real relationships that can
23
flourish offline”. Any company involved in social media marketing should strive for the
utmost transparency in all of its online dealings. Those who do not may end up
alienating themselves from entire communities who feel like they have been lied to.
Therefore, no matter what type or level of interaction in social media, a company should
focus on reaching out to online communities, creating compelling content to share with
those communities, participating in the online conversations, and being transparent
throughout its online activity.
24
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter consists of how data is collected and analyzed. This section consists of the
following: research design and type of study, population and parameters of estimates
(sample size), sampling design, source of data, unit of analysis, mode of data collection,
and how the collected data gathered by researchers is analysed. This chapter provides a
description of the study methodology that was followed in conducting the study.
3.2 Overview
Methods employed in collecting data and the detailed steps involved are discussed in
this chapter. As introduced in the first chapter, the subject of the research is to find out
the use social media marketing in the Ghanaian publishing industry. The various
challenges in the use of these social media platforms are explored, what influences and
fuels these challenges and how to address them. Data collection instruments employed
in the study are questionnaires, interviews and review of related literature.
3.3 Research design
The research design used is the survey research method. It was in order to present
empirical evidence to support or disprove an assertion to achieve the objectives of the
study. Respondents for the survey were selected using the purposive sampling
technique.
25
3.4 Study Population
For the purpose of this research, the study population was limited to Publishing houses
registered with the Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA). The population size is
90 registered publishing houses according to the record from the GBPA secretariat at
the Publishing studies department, KNUST Kumasi.
3.5 Sampling Size and Technique
For the purpose of analyzing the research problem, the purposive sampling technique
was used. Purposive sampling (also known as judgment sampling) is any procedure
where a researcher consciously selects a sample that he considers to be most appropriate
for the study (Alan Wilson, 2003 as cited in Aidoo, 2012). (Aidoo, 2012) also asserts
that purposive sampling is particularly appropriate where the sample size for a research
project is relatively small. This will better represent the mix of potential respondents in
the population. The study used a sample of 50 publishing houses out of the total
population (90).
3.6 Sources of Data and Data Collection
Information required for the study will be collected from both primary and secondary
sources.
3.6.1 Primary Source of Data Collection
Primary source will allow the generation of information from the target respondent’s.
The primary sources include the use of questionnaires as a method of data collection.
This method entails the design of guiding questions which will be asked to respondents.
A total number of 50 questionnaires have been distributed and has been used for
analysis.
26
The questionnaire was structured to be quick and easy to fill achieved through the use
of tick boxes and keeping close ended answers (“yes” or “no”) to the barest minimum.
Samples of the questionnaires used for the sample group can be found in Appendix A.
Some of the questionnaires were physically filled by respondents, through phone calls
and some have been distributed via electronic means such as e-mail, and WhatsApp.
This strategy was adopted to increase the number of respondents and also for
convenience. Most respondents were reluctant to fill questionnaires on grounds of not
having time.
Respondents for the survey were from Kumasi (2) and Accra (48).Findings from the
analysed collated data can be found in Chapter Four. Out of the 50 sample size only 35
responded.
3.6.2 Secondary Sources of Data Collection
Secondary data was sought after from books, journals, articles and online publications
pertaining to the subject. Information gathered from these sources was used in making
the literature review. References of the works reviewed were also looked for, for more
relevant information to get clearer objective views on the subject.
3.7 Data Processing
This process involves tabulating, editing and coding data. Quantitative data collected
through questionnaires was analyzed using Microsoft Excel .Completed questionnaires
were edited at the end of each day to check for consistency and accuracy. Questions
omitted will also be noted and reasons for their omission will be established. Data
gathered from questionnaires will be statistically analysed and represented on an
27
appropriate tables and chart in our findings. Systematic combining was used which
means that the researcher will constantly go back and forth between theory and
empirical observations. This activity expands researcher’s understanding of both theory
and empirical phenomena ( Dubois & Gadde, 2002). As the theory is compared with
data from questionnaires form the 35 publishing companies, related literatures and
internet pages, the theory is being investigated through the empirical observation and
vice versa.
3.8 Limitations
Time schedule of respondents was a major problem encountered during the research.
Respondents were too busy with their economic activities to fill in the questionnaires.
Accessibility of respondents, especially the managers was difficult as they were
constantly busy and always on the move. Interviews had to be rescheduled several
times.
Unfortunately, it was also discovered by researchers that the honesty of some
respondents, with regards to their submissions, was questionable; since some answers
were found out to be false after thorough investigation.
Accessibility of resources was one of the major limitations of the research. Much
literature is available on the use of social media. Little has been done on ways of
promoting the use of social media platforms in the Publishing industry. Other resources
that were deemed valuable to the research were inaccessible as they were located in
online libraries that could only be accessed on subscription basis.
28
CHAPTER 4
DATA PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter consists of the analysis of primary data collected by means of
questionnaires from the field. The first part presents analysis of background data and
proceeds to present the results and its interpretation in the light of the research
questions and objectives in the same sequence as listed in chapter one.
As stated beforehand, much research has been done into the social media practices of
various organizations; however, there has been limited research conducted relative to
social media usage and experience specifically targeted at publishing house. It is
imperative to study how a publishing house uses social media to engage the public
because the nature of this model allows for the cultivation of relationships between
businesses and individuals. For the purposes of this research, it was necessary to
administer questionnaires to publishing houses to find out whether or not they employ
social media in their operations and also to identify strategies they use to engage the
public. It was also important to analyse the business’s social media pages’ post. This
chapter provides a detailed description of the research findings from an analysis
conducted on publishing houses. The business’s social media pages were also
examined; the researchers also recognized the large number of ‘fans’ and ‘followers’
the businesses had.
4.2. Population and Sample Size
The population and sample size is 90 registered publishing houses according to the
record from the GBPA secretariat at the Publishing studies department, KNUST
29
Kumasi. Out of this population, the researchers randomly selected 50 publishing houses
throughout Ghana.
Fig 4.1. Population and Sample Size.
Population Size
Sample Size
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
Fig. 4.2. Response from Questionnaires
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
Out of the 50 questionnaires administered to the publishing houses throughout the
nation, 35 publishing houses representing 70% of total questionnaires administered
35
15
Responded
Not- responded
90 50
30
responded whereas 15 publishing houses representing 30% of total questionnaires
administered did not give any feedback at all. Questionnaires were delivered
electronically and in- person.
4.3 Types of Media Used by Ghanaian Publishers
The publishing environment in the country allows publishers to either employ the
traditional or the social media in their activities. Where the traditional media includes
mediums such as the radio, TV, newspaper, personal selling, amongst others. It was
discovered, as shown in the diagram below, that 80 per cent of Ghanaian publishers use
the traditional media only.
Presently, Social Media Marketing is widely used by businesses because it represents a
cost-effective marketing solution. The Social Media Marketing weapons can be used
largely for free and very easily, in comparison with other promotional tools. The main
purposes of using Social Media Marketing are the amplification of word-of-mouth
marketing, market research, general marketing, and public (Levinson, J.C. & Gibson,
S., 2010 as cited in Arca,2012) Indeed, social networks can increase publication
awareness, web traffic, reader loyalty and even increase the success of new book
launches. Not exploiting the benefits of social media, by Ghanaian publishers, implies a
competitive advantage on the side of foreign publishers.
31
Fig 4.3. Media type used by publishers (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
The researchers observed, after analysing the questionnaires collected from the
respondents, that the dominant media used currently in the country by the publishing
industry in their activities is the traditional media. Many of the respondents reason for
not adopting the social media in their publishing activities is due to unfamiliarity with
the social media platforms whereas many others assert that it is by preference. Whatever
the reason may be, only 20% of Ghanaian publishers adopting social media in their
publishing activities mean a great disadvantage in competing with the international
market.
28
7
Traditional
Social media
32
4.4 Social Media Awareness
Fig. 4.4. level of Social Media Awareness (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
The categories A, B and C in the chart and table are representative of the various social
media platforms in each class of social media groupings. For instance category ‘A’ with
a blue indication, in the social media group ‘blogs’ and ‘social networking sites’ is
‘WordPress.com and ‘Facebook’ respectively. Thus, each category is relative with
respect to the social media groupings.
0 5 10 15 20 25
Blogs
Social Networking Sites
Micro Blogs
Social News Sites
Social Bookmarking Sites
Media Sharing Sites
wordpress, 11
facebook, 25
twitter, 19
digg, 5
stumbleUpon, 2
flickr, 3
blogspot 4
MySpace, 4
jaiku, 5
Reddit 0
diggo, 0
youtube, 19
movabletype, 0
Linkenin, 11
yammer, 0
slashdot, 0
0
slideshare, 7
Category C
Category B
Category A
33
Table 4.1. Percentage Distribution of Awareness Level
CATEGORY
SOCIAL
MEDIA
A
&
% of publishers
Ove
rall
ratin
g
B
&
% of
publishers
Over
all
ratin
g
C
&
% of
publishers
Overall
rating
Blogs Wordpress.com
(11)
31.4%
𝟏𝟎%
Blogspot (4) 11.4%
3.6%
Movable
Type (0)
0%
0%
Social Network
Sites
Facebook (25)
71.4%
𝟐𝟐. 𝟕%
MySpace(4)
11.4%
3.6%
Linkedin (11)
31.4%
10%
Micro Blogs
Twitter (19)
54.3%
𝟏𝟕. 𝟑%
Jaiku(0)
0%
0%
Yammer(0)
0%
0%
Social News
Sites
Digg(5)
14.3%
𝟒. 𝟓%
Reddit(0)
0%
0%
Slashdot(0)
0%
0%
Social
Bookmarking
Sites
StumbleUpon(2)
5.7%
𝟏. 𝟖%
Diigo(5)
14.3%
4.5%
Media Sharing
Sites
Flickr(3)
8.6%
𝟐. 𝟕%
Youtube(19)
54.3%
17.3
%
Slideshare(7)
20%
6.4%
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
Columns 2, 4 and 6 represent the percentage of publishers that employ the respective
social media platforms in the various categories whereas columns 3, 5 and 7 represent
the overall rating of individual social media platforms per total social media platforms
expressed in percentages.
34
Fig. 4.5. Awareness Level of Social Media Platforms. (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
It was important to find out from respondents if they were aware of some existing social
media platforms, since there must be some level of awareness before usage. The
findings revealed that all the respondents were aware of at least four SM platforms.
Social media is becoming popular amongst the various industries in Ghana. However,
awareness is not necessarily a proof of use. The graphs and table above sums up the
awareness level of the different social mediums stated. From the figures above, it can be
observed that the first three platforms with the highest level of awareness among
Ghanaian publishers are facebook, youtube and twitter; representing 71.4%, 54.3% and
54.3% of the publishers respectively.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
10%
3.60%
0%
3.60%
0%
17.30%
4.50%5.70%
0% 0%
6.40%
10%
22.70%
2.70%
17.30%
6.40%
35
4.5 Social Media Usage
Fig. 4.6. Level of Usage of Social Media Platforms (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
The categories A, B and C in the chart and table are representative of the various social
media platforms in each class of social media groupings. For instance category ‘A’ with
a blue indication, in the social media group ‘blogs’ and ‘social networking sites’ is
‘wordpress.com and ‘Facebook’ respectively. Thus, each category is relative with
respect to the social media groupings.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Blogs
Social Networking Sites
Micro Blogs
Social News Sites
Social Bookmarking Sites
Media Sharing Sites
wordpress, 3
facebook, 7
twitter, 3
digg, 1
stumbleupon, 1
flickr, 2
blogspot, 0
Myspace, 0
jaiku, 0
reddit, 0
diggo, 0
youtube, 2
movabletype, 0
linkedIn, 5
yammer, 0
slashdot, 0
0
slideshare, 7
Category C
Category B
Category A
36
Table 4.2. Percentage Distribution of Level of Usage (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
Columns 2, 4 and 6 represent the percentage of publishers that employ the respective
social media platforms in the various categories whereas columns 3, 5 and 7 represent
the overall rating of individual social media platforms per total social media platforms
expressed in percentages.
CATEGORY
SOCIAL
MEDIA
A
&
% of publishers
Overal
l
rating
B
&
% of
publishers
Over
all
ratin
g
C
&
% of
publishers
Over
all
rating
Blogs Wordpress.com
(3)
42.9%
𝟏𝟏. 𝟓%
Blogspot (0)
0%
𝟎%
Movable
Type (0)
0%
𝟎%
Social Network
Sites
Facebook (7)
100%
𝟐𝟔. 𝟗%
MySpace(0)
0%
𝟎%
Linkedin(5)
0%
𝟏𝟗. 𝟐%
Micro Blogs
Twitter (3)
42.9%
𝟏𝟏. 𝟓%
Jaiku(0)
0%
𝟎%
Yammer(0)
0%
𝟎%
Social News
Sites
Digg(1)
14.3%
𝟑. 𝟖%
Reddit(0)
0%
𝟎%
Slashdot(0)
71.4%
𝟎%
Social
Bookmarking
Sites
StumbleUpon(1)
14.3%
𝟑. 𝟖%
Diigo(0)
0%
𝟎%
Media Sharing
Sites
Flickr(2)
28.6%
𝟕. 𝟕%
Youtube(2)
28.6%
𝟕. 𝟕%
Slideshare(2)
28.6%
𝟕. 𝟕%
37
Fig. 4.7. Level of Usage of Social Media (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
wordpress. 12%
blogspot.
0.00%
jaiku. 0%
myspace. 0.00%movabletype. 0%
reddit. 0%
yammer. 0%
slashshot. 0%
digg. 3.80%
twitter. 11.50%
slideshare. 7.70%
linkedin. 19%
facebook. 26.90%
flickr. 7.70%
youtube. 7.70%
stumbleupon 3.80%
38
This chart sums up all the rating questions of the survey concerning the different social
mediums stated in this thesis. It represents an average usage rate of individual SM
platforms as against all SM platforms. We can imagine this as Facebook got the best
usage rate, 26.9%, whereas it is a consumer oriented social platform; although it can
definitely benefit Business to Business (B2B) companies in some ways as well.
From the study, Facebook has the highest patronage by publishers since 71.4% of
Ghanaian publishers are aware of it and actively use SM incorporate Facebook in their
SM operations. It was found out that, the rationale behind the choice is that Facebook
has the largest user base and businesses can reach a countless audience. Again,
according to (B. Jahn & W. Kunz, 2012), Facebook enables the interaction with an
active community through a business page. More so, businesses can deliver valuable
content to their community, which (B. Jahn & W. Kunz, 2012) defined as interesting,
innovative and entertaining content. Respondents think that the “replies” feature, as
explained on a famous social media analytics platform, (Social Bakers, 2013), can
enable closer and more direct relationship with a business audience.
The second best used social media platform is the LinkedIn with a rate of 19%.
LinkedIn and according to the respondents, it provides three major benefits for
businesses: the possibility to reach potential partners, employees and/or clients, as it is
explained on website itself (LinkedIn, 2013).This is a business-oriented platform
encouraging professional relationships, as explained by (Keenan & A. Shiri, 2009); the
third benefit is that businesses can join specialized communities dealing with shared and
professional matters, which is highlighted by (M. E. Zaglia, 2013).
39
WordPress and twitter rated 12% and 11.5% respectively which puts them after
Facebook and LinkedIn; relatively, the rates of WordPress and twitter shows they are as
well useful for businesses. Twitter, as it is demonstrated on the website itself (2013),
enables an instant sharing of information and interaction with the customers, through
informative tweets and feedbacks.
Some of the benefits claimed by respondents seem to be unanimous, such as the high
communication activity the platform offers, through quick and short messages, a point
argued by M. Coeckelbergh, 2011). YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare had the same rate
of 7.7%; the respondents are divided on the usefulness of these platforms for publishing
operations.
Digg and Stumleupon got the lower rate with a 3.8% which reveals that a majority of
the respondents do not know how to use this medium or perhaps are completely
unaware of it.
Yammer, Reddit, Movabletype, MySpace, Jaiku and BlogSpot had no rate and are not
really effective platforms in publishing businesses in Ghana.
40
4.7 Period of Usage
To identify the experience acquired by publishers in the use of SM the researchers
asked respondents to indicate how long they have been using SM platforms. As shown
in the chart below it is obvious that majority (57.14%) of Ghanaian publishers actively
involved in using these media within two to five years ; whereas 28.57% use SM for
more than five years.
The extrapolation of this result is that, in the long-run SM will gain the ascendancy in
various marketing platforms; since more than 70% of the respondents who use SM in
their marketing activities have been using it for less than five years. This is mainly
because, in the subsequent years, publishers will have reconnoitred the unexplored
avenues in using SM.
Fig. 4.8. Length/Period of Usage of Social Media (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
14.28%
57.14%
28.57%
0 - 1 Yrs 2 - 5 Yrs 5 Yrs andabove
41
4.8 Purpose for Usage
Table 4.3. Purpose for Usage
What the Social Media Platforms are used for by the 7 publishing houses
The total number of choices made by respondents as to what social media platforms
they use for activities in their companies are 31. The respondents had the liberty to
choose more than a variable.
PURPOSE (VARIABLE) FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Promotion of Company 7 22.58%
Marketing and Sales 7 22.58%
Discussion of Published
Materials
2 6.45%
Acquisition of New
Articles
1 3.23%
News and Information 6 19.35%
Professional Networking 1 3.23%
42
Fig. 4.9. Purpose for Usage of SM (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
The choice of social media platforms used by the respondents was influenced by
information surfing on the internet, competitor motivation and publishing partners’
motivation, contemporary publishing scenes and most of all by the popularity of those
social networking sites. These networking sites are mostly used by the publishers to
promote the products of their companies and the organizations themselves. The next
important activity the social media platforms are used for is the dissemination of news
and information to the members or fans on their social media platforms. Other activities
the sites are used for include professional networking and communication.
Less than 15% of the respondents who use SM utilise it for networking; what this
means is that the publishers marketing strategies are sales-oriented rather than
consumer-oriented. People trusts company more when they are being referred from
people they know. Social Media, in marketing, is chiefly about building trustworthy
relationships and increasing customer loyalty. Therefore if contents posted on SM pages
is only targeted towards sales and company promotion, followers might not find the
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Promotion ofcompany
Sales Discussion Acquisition News Networking
43
page very interesting and might easily be put-off. Businesses can get traffic straight
from the content they publish on their SM pages and from the people who have read the
content, like it, share it and talked about it online
44
4.8 Intensity of Marketing
Out of the 7 respondents using social media, 3 employ Facebook as a platform to focus
intensely on their marketing activities while 3 are not quite intense while 1 is not
focused at all.
Only 3 publishing houses use twitter as a platform for the company’s marketing
activities, however not “intensely” but “somewhat intensely”. Google+ is used by3
publishing houses and they are all not focused on marketing activities when it comes to
its usage.
LinkedIn is used by 3 publishing houses and out of that number 2 are somewhat focused
in using the platform in their publishing activities while one is not focused. Only 1
publishing house uses blogs in their activities, the rest do not.
Fig.
4.10. Intensity of Marketing on the Various Platforms (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Google+
Blogs
Very focused
Somewhat Focused
Not Focused
45
From the chart above it is clear that less than half of the respondents who use SM are
focused on the use of these platforms. Majority of the respondents are not focused at all
on using LinkedIn which is a business-oriented SM platform. A free feature called
Answers exists on LinkedIn; similar to a forum where users can post questions and
contribute their related opinions or solutions, companies, showing their brand identity,
can use it to answer enquiries related to their industry and to demonstrate their
expertise. Also, LinkedIn Groups is a searchable feature that enables users to make new
business relationships by joining industry, professional, or other relevant groups. They
can be created in any subject and by any member of LinkedIn regrouping people with
similar expertise and interests connect, share information, and collaborate on projects.
Non-optimization of this platform by publishers implies an elusion of countless
opportunities.
4.9 Social Media Strategies
Advertising on the company’s website and promotional materials are the strategies
mostly employed by the respondents. The use of social media buttons is the least
employed strategy. Although the use of the company’s website is a good platform for
advertising, consumers rarely visit company websites frequently or on daily basis unlike
social networking sites
46
Table 4.4. Strategies for Driving Traffic to Social Media Pages
STRATEGY (VARIABLE) FREQUENC
Y
PERCENTAGE
Advertising on Company’s
Website
5 41.67%
Advertising using Social
Network Buttons on Company’s
Website
2 16.67%
Advertising on Company’s
Book Promotional Materials
5 41.67%
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
Fig. 4.11. Strategies Employed by Ghanaian Publishers to Send Traffic to their Social
Networking Sites. (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
4.10 Information Update
Our interest here was to measure how frequently publishers update content/information
on these social media platforms to meet consumer needs. The chart below indicates that
majority of the publishers (71.42%) update their site every month whereas none of them
do a weekly update of their sites. Information posted on the various platforms used by
41.67%
16.67%
41.67%
Advertising on Company’s Website
Social Network Buttons on Company’s Website
Advertising on Company’s Book Promotional Materials
47
the publishing houses thus becomes less important to the target consumer. Research
findings by Beuker and Abbing (2010) supports this view as they also say members or
followers of companies on social media platforms are more interested in current and
interesting content. A company involved in the use of social media to promote its brand
should be able to keep its followers abreast with information on a more frequent basis.
This increases the level of interactivity between the company and its social media
audience. This consumer engagement provides many advantages to the company such
as an increased level of consumer loyalty and feedback on how consumers see the
activities and products or services of the company.
Table 4.5. Update of Information
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
Consumers who are interacted with frequently on the SM platforms of the company will
feel a part of the company and will definitely recommend it to their peers and virtual
communities they belong to and they could even create subgroups to support the
existing one of the company they are following.
REGULAR UPDATES
(VARIABLE)
FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Daily 1 14.28%
Weekly 0 ----------
Monthly 5 71.42%
Quarterly 1 14.28%
48
This is supported by the law of Reed. According to this law, functions of large networks
can increase highly with the formation of subgroups. The law greatly emphasises on the
impact on network value by recognising and supporting groups and members. The
supporting groups can be built by providing opportunities to each member added to the
network to be in positions to connect with each other. A well connected network
encourages the formation of strong subgroups and flow of communication which puts
emphases on important information posted by the host company within the networks
(Evans 2008:52). Feedback gotten from consumers is unarguably vital information a
company cannot afford to lose; social media platforms serve as one of the most reliable
ways the publishing house can get that to improve their publications and source content.
Fig. 4.12. Regular Updates (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
The rate at which the publishing houses update information on their sites is a main
factor which is affecting the level of participation between the company and its
consumers; because from the research it has been found out that from each respondent,
14.28% 0
71.42%
14.28%
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
49
that the level of participation of customers on their websites is directly proportional to
the length of time information is updated on the sites. From the research analysis almost
85% of participants on the various networking sites, of the publishing houses using
social media in their activities, are not very active; this however, is not encouraging
because if participation is very low it suggests that the purpose of usage of these
mediums will not be realised by publishers. The low level of participation by followers
on the sites can directly be attributed to irregular update of information on sites as
attested to by the respondents.
High consumer participation has advantages such as increased awareness of products by
other people as the consumer will definitely recommend a product he is satisfied with to
other people he knows. As the publishing business is a competitive one like all other
businesses, the publishing houses using social media as a strategy will have to adopt
ways by which their members or followers can actively participate on their platforms.
The consumer should not only be involved when there is the need for promotion of a
product. This is why there is the need for professional human resource personnel in
social media marketing because they know what content to post to keep participants
interested and active on the page.
50
4.11 Level of Participation
Fig. 4.13.Level of Participation on Social Media by Followers (Source: Field Survey,
2014).
From the above chart, it is clear that less than 15% of the followers, on the respondents
SM page are very active; this may be directly attributed to the fact contents posted on
the SM pages are not networking-oriented as deduced from Fig. 4.9. The implication of
this is that publishers may not fully exploit the benefits of adopting SM in the
operations and may conclude that it is ineffective.
14.28%
71.42%
14.28%
Not active Averagelyactive
Very activie
51
4.12 Content on SM page
Table 4.6 Content on Social Media Page
Source: Field Survey, 2014.
5 of the 7 publishing houses update their social networking sites monthly. These
monthly updates are only done when there is the need to promote a product or respond
to a request. The monthly use of the social networking sites indicate a less vigorous
marketing strategy and the use of the social networking sites as just a platform for the
announcement of new products. To effectively advertise a product, there is the need to
repeatedly broadcast the product to the public (source). The once a month use of the
social networking site does not serve the purpose of promoting new and existing
products.
CONTENT ON SM
PAGE (VARIABLE)
FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
Updates 7 46.67%
Promotion of Products 7 46.67%
Entertainment 0 ----------
Respond to Request 1 6.67%
52
Fig. 4.14. Content Posted on Social Media Page (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
Although some respondents use social networking sites in their advertising campaigns,
the strategies used are not effective as they do not get to their target audience.
4.13 Resource Personnel Responsible for Managing Operations
Fig. 4.15. Availability of Resource Persons (Source: Field Survey, 2014).
Out of the respondents that use SM, 2 of them representing 28.57% have resource
persons within the company that helps in the implementation and support of Social
Media Marketing initiatives whereas 5 of them representing 71.43% do not have such
46.67%
46.67%
0%6.67%
Content on SM Page
Updates
Promotion of Products
Entertainment
Respond to Request
2
5
Yes No
53
resource persons at all. Inasmuch as SM platforms are user friendly and does not need
any special skill for its users, managing a SM page requires a great deal of expertise and
proficiency; what, how and when to post contents are of great importance and will
definitely determine the level of participation of followers.
The implication of more than 70% of respondents who use SM not having skilled
personnel to man SM operations is that, the SM pages of publishers will lack all the
necessary qualities followers look out for and therefore become uninteresting.
4.14 Challenges faced by Ghanaian Publishers in the use of SM
Poor ICT Infrastructure. It has been realised by the researchers that publishing houses
using social media in their activities lack vital resources such as professional social
media marketers, time and some ICT infrastructure. Poor internet connectivity to
manage their social media platforms affect the frequency at which information is be
updated, quality of interactivity and consumer engagement which takes place on the
company’s social media platforms are affected.
Unprofessional Personnel to Man SM Operations. Engaging consumers on
social media platforms with constant updates and posts requires a department of
dedicated staff to engage potential consumers or already existing consumers on
a daily basis with very interactive and informative content. This is however is
not the case for the publishing houses in the country which use social media in
their activities such as marketing, branding and sourcing content. Most of these
publishing houses have no professionals whose job it is to engage with
consumers online and market the company and its products. The human resource
54
which manages social media sites of companies is important in social media
success of companies as they understand the various social media platforms and
the kind of people who patronise them. They then know what to post on the
sites, when to post them and how to post them. They also generally know just
how to get followers or members onto the sites and engage them such that they
bring in more participants. Therefore for a publishing house not to have a
resource person to manage its social media could be a big risk to the
development of the company’s brand. The publishing houses which lack
professionals to manage content on their platforms thus do not make enough
time for their consumers and potential consumers. This factor generally affects
the relationship between the publishing house and its followers or members no
matter what social media platform it is the publishing house is using.
Non-Interactivity on Sites. The company as a brand is eventually affected by this
as its products are not promoted the right way on the social media platforms.
The sites become quite static, not interactive and as a result, the publishing
house does not get insight on what it is doing well or poorly in the perspective of
its consumers. This corresponds with Barwise and Meehan (2010) that the
biggest social media opportunity lays in gathering insights to drive continual
incremental improvements. Therefore interacting with consumers on social
media platforms serves as a way fresh insight or feedback can be gained by the
publishing houses.
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4.15 Impact of The Challenges on the Brand of the Publishing Companies
The following discussion is on the impact the challenges facing the publishing houses
using social media in Ghana has on their brands as a whole.
Facilitates Branding and Networking. Branding and social media are two concepts
which complement each other. The publishing house communicates its brand to the
target consumer on its social media platform. SM is one of the avenues for it (the
publishing house) to interact with prospective or already existing consumers to gain
their attention to purchase their products and or services. Publishing products with
good branding strategies relying partly or wholly on social media have a greater
probability to be purchased than published products with little or no strategies. This
is because products, in this scenario titles, offered around social media get large
audience according to Metcalfe’s law. This law stipulates that the greater the
number of users of a service, the more valuable the service becomes to the
consumers. Thus this law in relation to social media denotes that every new user of
a publishing house’s networking site opens an avenue for viral marketing of the
company’s products and services. It is through this sharing that the chain of
connectivity expands further to others. Secondly, the use of social media by the
publishing house may reduce perceived risks for the potential consumer as they
offer opportunities to engage with the content they are interested in buying before
they purchase it, thereby getting impressions as to whether the product will meet
their expectations.
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Simplifies and Improves upon Marketing Activities. Social media unarguably offers
easy strategies for publishers to promote their company’s products and services to
their target market as opposed to companies from other industries. This because the
publisher’s consumers are assumed to have a liking for literature and the media in
general. The opportunities offered by the various social media platforms also offer
publishing houses which are on tight budgets to easily advertise their products
online.
Competitive Advantage and Content Enrichment. A publisher’s brand is also, if not
even more, relevant on the market for content, where reputation prompts
competition (Pitaski 2010, p. 91). Branding is vital to the publisher in today’s
market as he does not only compete with other publishers, but with the providers of
other content; both digital and print. All of the competition is to gain the attention
of the consumer. The strategies the publisher uses thus to gain the attention is very
vital as it can either make or unmake his company. The reluctance of Ghanaian
publishing houses in the update of information and interactivity on the various
social media platforms on a regular basis could affect their branding strategies
should they have the desire to expand their markets- either by adding new genres or
entering new markets in other geographical locations. The publishing house is not
the only affected party in this case when branding is not done well on its social
media platforms. Other affected parties include authors, the title, and characters in
the literature.
Purchasing Probability. This research can confidently state that social media
strategies applied in the publishing process to produce published materials
57
increases purchasing probability. This is because the publisher is able to ascertain
the kind of literature his target market will like. He is then able to keep them
informed by posting pictures of the book cover and excerpts of the book on the
company’s social media platform. All of these strategies are aimed at reducing cost
of product promotion and arousing the desire of the consumer to own a copy of the
title and finally, by making him aware of when and where he can get copies of the
published title.
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CHAPTER 5
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
5.1 Introduction
This last chapter provides a highlight on the summary of the key findings of study as
well as the conclusions drawn from the findings and appropriate recommendations for
future research.
5.2 Summary of Findings
The primary purpose of this research was to find out the use of social media in the
publishing industry in Ghana. Social media is an important tool which can be used
strategically to build a strong brand. The social media platforms available for use
include blogs, social network sites, micro blogs, social news sites, social bookmarking
sites, and media sharing sites. The literature review revealed the importance of the use
of social media in the marketing activities of companies across all industries.
The researchers gathered data from 50 publishing houses in Ghana by randomly
selecting them out of the population of 90 publishing houses. Fifteen of the selected
publishing houses, which represent 30% of the total respondents, returned the
questionnaire they received.
The first objective of this research was to identify the types of social media platforms
used by Ghanaian Publishers. In meeting this objective, the publishing houses which
use social media had to be identified. The study revealed that respondents are aware of
the social media platforms used currently in marketing. Despite their level of awareness
of the various social media platforms, only 7 out of the 15 publishing houses which
59
returned the questionnaire use either social media solely or a combination of social
media and traditional media in their activities. The remaining 28 publishing houses use
traditional media alone to conduct all activities, especially marketing. It was revealed
through the research findings that 71.4% of publishers are aware of Facebook, 54,3%
are aware of Twitter and Youtube, 31.4% aware of LinkedIn and WordPress. 20% know
of Slideshare while 14.3% of publishers are aware of Digg. 11.4% are aware of
Blogspot, Myspace and StumblUpon. It can be concluded that Facebook is the most
popular social media platform among publishers. Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube follow
before WordPress, Slideshare, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Digg, Myspace, Blogspot and
Flickr accordingly.
The next step in this research was to find the type of social media platform which was
used mostly by the publishers in the industry as awareness does not necessarily mean
the platform is used. Facebook had the highest usage rate of 26.9% as it is a business to
consumer oriented platform. The second best used social media platform is LinkedIn
with a rate of 19%. Wordpress and twitter rated 12% and 11.5% respectively which puts
them after LinkedIn.
57.14% of these publishing houses have however been using the platforms chosen by
them for 2 to 5 years. 28.57% have however used them for over 5 years while 14.28%
have used them for a year and less. The choice of these social media platforms by the
publishing houses was influenced by information surfing on the internet, competitor
motivation and publishing partners’ motivation, contemporary publishing scenes and
most of all by the popularity of those social networking sites.
60
The research findings analyzed showed that publishers using social media used the
platforms to promote their company and its products, for networking. Dissemination of
news, discussion of published materials of the company and acquisition of articles
including other activities. Marketing on these platforms is however averagely intensive.
Using social media to build a company’s brand requires the use of strategic approaches
to drive traffic to the company’s website. This called for the second objective which
was to find the strategies employed by the users of the various social media platforms to
drive traffic to their websites or social media platforms.
Strategies employed by Ghanaian publishers to drive traffic to both their social media
sites and company’s websites include advertising on company’s website, using social
networking buttons on company’s websites and advertising on company’s book
promotional materials. It was however realized through the research findings that the
use of social media buttons is the least employed strategy currently.
The next strategy employed is the update of information. Content posted on social
media sites is a key determinant in how interactive subscribers are on a company’s
social media site. It was realized however that 71.42% of publishers using social media
platforms update information on their sites monthly while 14.28% update information
daily and the rest of the 14.28% update their information quarterly. This is not quite
impressive as the level of interactivity is quite poor on the various social networking
sites. The research findings showed that 71.42% of subscribers are averagely active
while 14.28% are not active and the remaining 14.28% are very active. This denotes the
sites of these companies are less interactive and information not up-to-date.
61
The researchers, after analyzing questionnaire collected realized the challenges faced by
the publishing houses with social media presence are the lack of human resource and
time to manage the company’s social media presence and ICT infrastructure such as
good and reliable internet connectivity. The company as a brand is eventually affected
by this as its products are not promoted using the right strategies on the social media
platforms. The sites become quite static, not interactive and as a result, the publishing
house does not get insight on what it is doing well or poorly in the perspective of its
consumers.
5.3 Conclusion
This dissertation was motivated by the fact that social media, which came about by
the creation of Web 2.0, is being used by companies across all industries to promote
the building of strong brands. As a result the researchers sought to find out whether
the publishing houses in the Ghanaian industry also use social media to promote
their business; this brought about the topic “Integrating the use of social media in
publishing: a case study of the Ghanaian publishing industry”. This dissertation
has revealed the importance of social media in the activities of publishing houses
which use them. Some of the advantages it offers the publishing company using it
include opportunities to engage with its market and learn all about its consumers’
needs, acquire articles for publication and to promote and sell its book products with
ease. This makes the virtual communities quite an uncontrolled environment and
therefore requires a robust social media strategy to manage contents posted by
companies and their subscribers, whether positive or negative.
62
Although social media is now very popular and is also helping companies make a
head way in their brand expansions, publishing houses in Ghana have not yet fully
adopted this contemporary marketing strategy; most of them still use traditional
media in their activities, especially in their marketing activities. This adversely
affects their performance in reaching a large number of their market, especially
those outside Ghana when marketing products and services of their companies. Due
to the low embrace of the use of social media tools by Ghanaian publishing houses,
the researchers see it appropriate for both social and traditional media to be used in
the promotion of products and services of publishing houses in Ghana.
5.4 Recommendations
Social media as a new marketing tool is currently helping businesses which use it to
promote their products and services tremendously. It is recommended that social media
should be regarded as an integral part of an organization’s marketing strategy and
should not be taken lightly. It is thus recommended a further study be conducted to
study this issue in detail and ascertaining the advantages it holds for publishing houses
in Ghana and how it can be used to promote their brands positively. This additional
research is needed regarding which social media marketing tactics are effective for
publishers no matter how large or small they are.
Publishing houses using the various social media platforms could employ skilled
personnel in social media marketing to promote the company’s products. Marketing
personnel in the company could be trained to take up this responsibility if the budget of
the publishing house cannot cater for the extra human resource. The person dedicated to
63
the management of the social media platform should keep the sites of the publishing
house very active, for example by posting content which seeks the opinions of followers
on the social media platforms of the company would enable the company to change its
way of doing things which might not favour consumers and can also enable the
company publish materials which the target audience will like to read. It is also highly
recommended for the Ghanaian publishing industry to use both traditional media and
social media to promote their products. This strategy is an advantage to publishers in
that it helps them to reach their target market no matter how scarce reliable internet
connectivity is in the country.
Publishing houses in the country should measure their performance on social media
platforms by monitoring their number of likes, subscribers or followers and brand
awareness. This growth is only achieved when the companies engage their followers
online to solicit suggestions. Feedback gotten from consumers on the online
communities is important when it comes to a brand and business model development.
Loyalty is gained in the long run which will lead to the subscriber recommending the
products of the company to others. Thus strong online strategies should be focused on
building strong online communities.
Publishing houses in Ghana who are not engaged in some form of social media are
making a mistake in today’s world given the volume of people both in and outside
Ghana who have embraced and utilize social media. However, it can be unarguably
stated that it will be useless when the company engaged in the use of social media does
not keep its site active and interactive enough to get feedback from its subscribers.
64
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APPENDIX A.
KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF ART
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLISHING STUDIES
This questionnaire is designed based on the topic: INTEGRATING THE USE OF
SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF THE
GHANAIAN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY.Any information provided will be used for
academic purpose only and will be kept confidential.
Please click to tick or enter text.
Name of publishing house
Location
1) What platform(s) do you use to reach your clients?
Traditional Media (TV, Newspapers, Magazines)☐Social Media☐
2) What types of social media tools are you aware of?
i. Blogs
Wordpress.com☐ Blogspot☐ Movable Type ☐
ii. Social network sites
Facebook ☐ Myspace☐ LinkedIn☐
iii. Micro blogs
Twitter ☐ Jaiku☐ Yammer☐
iv. Social news sites
Digg ☐ Reddit ☐Slashdot ☐
v. Social bookmarking sites
StumbleUpon☐ Diigo☐
vi. Media sharing sites
Flickr ☐ Youtube☐ Slideshare☐
3) How long have you known of this (these) social media tool (s)?
67
☐Less than a year
☐2 to 5 years
☐5 years and above
4) Do you use any of the social media platforms in question 2?
☐Yes
☐No
5) If No, why?
☐Non- availability of ICT infrastructure.
☐Unfamiliarity with the social media platforms.
☐High cost associated with the use of social media.
☐Possible curtailment of privacy
☐Preference of the publishing house.
OthersClick here to enter text.
6) If Yes, what types of social media do you use in your publishing house?
i. Blogs
Wordpress.com ☐ Blogspot ☐ Movable Type ☐
ii. Social network sites
Facebook ☐ Myspace ☐ LinkedIn ☐
iii. Micro blogs
Twitter ☐ Jaiku ☐ Yammer ☐
iv. Social news sites
Digg ☐ Reddit ☐ Slashdot ☐
v. Social bookmarking sites
StumbleUpon ☐ Diigo ☐
vi. Media sharing sites
Flickr ☐ Youtube ☐ Slideshare ☐
68
7) How long have you been using these tools for your business?
☐Less than a year
☐2 to 5 years
☐5 years and above
8) What influenced your choice of using the social media tools?
☐Information from surfing the internet
☐Competitor motivation
☐Publishing partners
Others GET INTERESTING COMMENTS FROM FRIENDS
9) What do you use social media for in your organization?
☐Promotion of my company / organization
☐For Marketing or sales
☐For discussion of published materials only
☐For acquisition of new articles for publication purposes
☐News and information
☐Professional networking
☐Sourcing content
OthersClick here to enter text.
10) Why do you use such tools?
☐They are popular
☐Participants are more active on such websites
OthersClick here to enter text.
11) Please indicate how focused your marketing is on these platforms
Facebook ☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
Twitter ☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
69
Google+ ☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
LinkedIn ☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
Blog ☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
Click here to enter text.☐ Not focused ☐Somewhat focused ☐ very focused
12) How interactive are participants on your social media page?
☐not active
☐averagely active
☐very active
13) On average how many participants do you have on each of the social networking
sites?
Name of site number of participants
Click here to enter text. Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text. Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text. Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text. Click here to enter text.
14) What is your yardstick?
☐Number of fans/followers/likes
☐Number of retweets
☐Number of comments
☐Number of shares
15) How do you get the participants for your social network sites?
☐Advertising the social network site on the company’s website
☐Social network buttons on company website
☐Advertising the social network site on company’s book promotional
materials ,for example posters, banners, flyers and others
OthersBY REQUEST
70
16) Does your publishing house have a website?
☐Yes
☐No
17) If Yes please provide the address to your website.
Click here to enter text.
18) Does your social media presence drive traffic to your company’s website?
☐Yes
☐No
19) Do you have a social media organizer responsible for your social media
platforms?
☐Yes
☐No
20) How often do you update information on your social media page?
☐Daily
☐Weekly
☐Monthly
Others WHEN NECESSARY
21) What content do you put on your social media page?
☐Updates
☐Promotion of products
☐Entertainment
☐Respond to requests
22) What practices have you adopted to make your site active?
☐Constant promotion of site
☐Constant update of sites
71
☐Frequent interaction with participants
OthersClick here to enter text.
23) What challenges do you face with the use of the social media tools in your
publishing company?
☐Non availability of human resource to manage the social media
platforms
☐There is no time to manage the social media platforms
☐Lack of resources (internet connection, computers)
OthersClick here to enter text.
24) Do you think you meet your participant’s expectations on the social network
sites?
☐Very much
☐Some what
☐Not much
☐Not at all
25) What form of comment do you get?
☐Generating content for new publications.
☐Complaints and suggestions concerning published books.
OthersINTEREST IN OUR BOOKS
26) Which of the following do you use in the publishing process apart from social
networking sites?
☐Websites
☐Emails
☐SMS
☐None at all
27). Do you have internal human resource(s) available within the company for
implementation and support of social media marketing initiatives?
☐Yes
72
☐No
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