Deciphering the Crowd : A study of a company’s presence in social media from a consumer’s perspective

Abstract: New social media technologies like that of Facebook, have given companies new avenues in order to research their consumers and target market at a much faster pace than ever before. Though, with these new technologies companies are still focusing on traditional ways of advertising and marketing that have not equated to success over Facebook. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to better understand why consumers decided to engage with companies over Facebook and what they wanted out of this experience. This in turn will help companies readjust their focus when approaching Facebook. The authors explored these questions by looking at one company’s Facebook interactions with consumers in the form of a case study by conducting qualitative surveys with consumers as well as netnography observations of Chipotle’s Facebook page. Through this process the authors identified three reasons why consumers decided to engage with companies over Facebook. By doing so they were able to distinguish how these relationships contribute to the overall customer experience. Looking at social media interaction between businesses and consumers, from a predominantly consumer focus, the authors hoped to draw attention to potential aims as to why consumers decided to engage in this process in order to improve the business to consumer relationship for companies.