Why do we "double tap" the image? : A case study on engagement in social media through communicated city center attributes
Abstract: This thesis is concerned with place user engagement on a place brand’s social media account. It is argued that a place brand through communicated place attributes can stimulate place users to engage and interact with the brand. The purpose is to investigate how engagement can be stimulated through communication of specific city center attributes, but in the context of social media. The explorative purpose of this qualitative study calls for an abductive approach. The empirical context of the study is the Town Center Management initiative Handelsstaden Kristianstad. One interview with the chief of operations at the studied organization, two focus groups with students from Kristianstad University, and a content analysis of Handelsstaden Kristianstad’s Instagram feed was conducted with the purpose to shed light on why the place consumer, that is place user, would “double tap” content on Instagram. If engagement is desired on social media, the study indicates how a place manager should communicate well-composed images of unique place characteristics, or images including place users Users are then allured to visit the city center and partake in the city center activities as they are able to recognize or identify the city. Place marketers could utilize these findings in order to focus their energy when communicating the place brand on social media. The context of the study is restricted to a Town Center Management initiative in a small to medium sized Swedish city center. Moreover, only enrolled students at the local university took part in the focus groups. Hence, future research could include other demographics to see whether the findings are transferable to other age groups. This thesis adds original insights to the field of place branding, as the concepts of city center attributes previously have not been researched in relation to consumer engagement on social media.
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