How Real-Time Marketing Affects Social Media Engagement

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a comparison and measure what effect the integration of real-time in transmedia storytelling has on social media engagement. Furthermore, this research aims to add new insights to the social media engagement and real- time marketing field, by incorporating knowledge from the transmedia storytelling literature. Problem: Previous research argues that transmedia storytelling has made it easier for brands to engage with consumers, which is further enhanced through the usage of social media. In addition, a new marketing strategy has arisen, called real-time marketing, which is believed to increase social media engagement. However, there is not sufficient research in the effects of real-time marketing, neither of how to measure the effects. Hence, literature argues that this field needs to be further explored and that there is a need for measurement tools that can account for the investment of companies’ marketing activities. Since previous literature has not addressed the effects of integrating the factor of real-time in transmedia storytelling, and further how it affects social media engagement, this study will fill a gap in existing literature and develop existing knowledge. Method: A proposed conceptual framework is developed by the authors, influenced from the social media engagement literature and the framework Consumers’ Engagement with Brand- Related Social-Media Content by Schivinski, Christodoulides and Dabrowski (2016). This framework divides social media engagement into three levels of engagement; Consumption, Contribution and Creation. The proposed framework is tested through quantitative research, by a survey, and hypotheses are developed. The data collection is followed by a data analysis in order to answer the research question and fulfil the purpose of the study. Findings: The study shows that the factor of real-time integrated in transmedia storytelling increases the level of overall social media engagement, compared to transmedia storytelling without the factor of real-time. However, the findings show a varied effect on Consumption, Contribution and Creation, where a significant difference in favour of real-time is showed for Consumption. The findings both support previous assumptions, but also contribute with opposing results and new insights to the literature streams of real-time marketing, transmedia storytelling and social media engagement.