Developing employee advocacy in event marketing communications : Case: Live Nation Finland
Kettunen, Maritta (2018)
Kettunen, Maritta
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018091315114
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018091315114
Tiivistelmä
In the age of social media people have come to trust their friends and family as sources of information more than companies, celebrities or social influencers. On the other hand, company employees are trusted more than executives or corporate social accounts. Employee advocacy refers to promotion of a company’s messages, products or content by their employees, nowadays increasingly in social media. Advocacy has become popular as an authentic way to push out stories about organizations and reach new audiences cost-effectively while at the same time increasing employee engagement.
This thesis aims to analyze what factors help to engage employees of one of Finland’s leading event promoters, Live Nation Finland, to communicate about the company’s events to their own networks in social media. The objective is to engage and integrate the employees to the marketing communications of events through employee advocacy. This thesis also aims to understand how the employees experience their role as communicators in social media.
Employee advocacy cannot happen authentically if the employees are not engaged enough to communicate. Therefore, the theoretical framework of this thesis focuses on the topics of employee advocacy, employee engagement and integrated marketing communications, including social media and content marketing.
The thesis study follows a participatory action research process. The data was collected through quantitative and qualitative methods, and analyzed qualitatively. Two surveys were conducted, one mapping the starting point in December 2017 and another to follow-up on development in July/August 2018. Workshops were used during spring 2018 as a method to involve and engage the employees in the development project. The follow-up survey’s results were affirmed with an interview with the company’s Marketing Director in August 2018. Internal data and observations also contributed to the research.
The findings indicate that almost all employees were interested in using their social media channels for the benefit of the company’s events as employee advocates, though they had mixed experiences as communicators due to different skill sets and expectations. The research shows development in engaging the employees to communicate about the events already during the action research process and results in a framework which can be used to create more engagement and advocacy at Live Nation Finland. Employees’ feeling of being valued and involved are in the focus of the suggested framework. This research can be utilized as a benchmark case for other organizations that wish to engage their employees to social media advocacy.
This thesis aims to analyze what factors help to engage employees of one of Finland’s leading event promoters, Live Nation Finland, to communicate about the company’s events to their own networks in social media. The objective is to engage and integrate the employees to the marketing communications of events through employee advocacy. This thesis also aims to understand how the employees experience their role as communicators in social media.
Employee advocacy cannot happen authentically if the employees are not engaged enough to communicate. Therefore, the theoretical framework of this thesis focuses on the topics of employee advocacy, employee engagement and integrated marketing communications, including social media and content marketing.
The thesis study follows a participatory action research process. The data was collected through quantitative and qualitative methods, and analyzed qualitatively. Two surveys were conducted, one mapping the starting point in December 2017 and another to follow-up on development in July/August 2018. Workshops were used during spring 2018 as a method to involve and engage the employees in the development project. The follow-up survey’s results were affirmed with an interview with the company’s Marketing Director in August 2018. Internal data and observations also contributed to the research.
The findings indicate that almost all employees were interested in using their social media channels for the benefit of the company’s events as employee advocates, though they had mixed experiences as communicators due to different skill sets and expectations. The research shows development in engaging the employees to communicate about the events already during the action research process and results in a framework which can be used to create more engagement and advocacy at Live Nation Finland. Employees’ feeling of being valued and involved are in the focus of the suggested framework. This research can be utilized as a benchmark case for other organizations that wish to engage their employees to social media advocacy.