<p> Developing effective social media marketing (SMM) strategies to engage customers is a challenge for business leaders. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the SMM strategies used by small business retailers to engage customers. The conceptual framework for this study was Rogers&rsquo;s diffusion of innovations theory. Participants included 5 small business retailers who had been in business for at least 5 years, used effective SMM strategies to engage customers, and were located in the southwest region of the United States. Data were collected through semistructured, face-to-face interviews. Data analysis resulted in 3 emergent themes: (a) marketing strategies and platforms, (b) social media content, and (c) customer engagement and retention. Small business retailers might benefit from the findings of this study by understanding what other small business retailers consider the most beneficial social media platforms and strategies, what customers desire in social media content, and effective customer engagement and retention processes to create SMM strategies. The implications for positive social change could include providing small business retailers with SMM best practices and strategies to improve company sustainability and growth, generate employment, reduce local poverty, and enhance employees&rsquo; standards of living.</p><p>

<p> This thesis explores the use of Facebook as an advertising tool for small businesses. It views advertising through Facebook from the perspective of a professional writer, looking at the context, audience, goals, and media to provide small businesses with guidelines for building Facebook advertising campaigns. This report will discuss 1) the audience for advertising campaigns, 2) the need for a professional writing approach for context and design, 3) the features of Facebook that complicate marketing efforts, and 4) the analysis of a local marketing campaign on Facebook. In the conclusion, the report will summarize recommendations to small businesses interested in using Facebook for promotional purposes. The report is accompanied by a detailed portfolio including works created for various local organizations.</p><p>

<p> Understanding the complexities of the consumer-brand relationship is an ongoing area of study in multiple fields. Stemming from the notion that brands convey cultural meaning, brand community studies focus specifically on the process of meaning creation. The traditional focus of brand community research has been on social interaction. However, newer research points to the psychological formation of brand communities in the absence of social interaction. The psychological sense of brand community (PSBC) model was created to account for this newer area of research. Mental models are the cognitive model individuals form to interact with the world around them. Based in psychology, mental model research postulates that individuals must first be able to internally represent their external world in order to interact with it. Mental model theory provides a foundation for insight to the individual&rsquo;s reality of the brand community relationship at the social and psychological level. Thus, this study will use a qualitative phenomenological approach to elicit and explore the expressed mental models of members that self-identify with a brand community when exposed to branded media. In particular, this study centers around the Disney brand and how Disney&rsquo;s use of video advertisements activates PSBC among a loyal following. By using a brand exemplar to study this phenomenon, common themes of the consumer-brand relationship are revealed that give insight to the types of internal representations of external reality elicited by branded media exposure. By gaining a better understanding of the difference between psychological and social brand communities, media communication scholars can gain a deeper understanding of how the types of messages created for a brand can foster a sense of relationship with the brand.</p><p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between university advertising and marketing procedures and techniques and the personal characteristics and motivations of nontraditional students who decide to enroll in bachelor&rsquo;s degree programs. The overarching goal was to explore the experiences and decision-making processes of these students in an effort to address the lack of data guiding college and university marketing behavior toward this unique population. This project examined the decision making of college-bound individuals through the lens of electronic marketing, traditional marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing methods.</p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> An exploratory quantitative research design was used. A survey was designed using a combination of previously validated instruments and questions developed by the researcher to measure the influence of marketing on nontraditional undergraduate students&rsquo; enrollment decisions. The sample consisted of nontraditional students who had recently enrolled in a degree/accelerated degree program in one of four colleges/universities in Southern California and had not yet completed a full semester/quarter of coursework.</p><p> <b>Findings.</b> A significant difference was found in the amount of marking exposure among nontraditional students by medium. The analysis indicated a significant difference in the influence of marketing across racial and gender groups that also varied by medium. Females were significantly more influenced by the universities&rsquo; websites, for example. Males were significantly more influenced by word-of-mouth marketing from family members, and females were more likely to seek out friends than family for information. Also, those belonging to the &ldquo;other&rdquo; ethnic subgroup were significantly more influenced by online ads than their African American, Hispanic, or Caucasian counterparts.</p><p> <b>Conclusions.</b> Several significant factors were identified that influence the decision-making process of nontraditional students who are preparing to enroll in an institution of higher education. Exposure to relevant marketing materials varies across a number of variables, and the influence of word-of-mouth marketing may be more important to this population when compared to traditional undergraduates.</p><p> <b>Recommendations.</b> Further research is needed to inform the marketing methodologies in which institutions of higher education engage when reaching out to nontraditional students. This population&rsquo;s motivations for enrolling are unique and, when combined with personal sociodemographic variables, represent an important challenge for university marketing professionals. </p>

<p> This study examines the portrayal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) based on the Twitter feeds of Democratic and Republican leaders. This innovative thesis provides a clear depiction of how divisive and unprecedented political cyberwarfare has unfolded within the realm of computer-mediated communications. This study also uses an original approach in its capability of identifying the political combatants of a divisive topic. This is also the first content analysis of its kind by bringing data analysis to the concepts of Entman and Kuypers, focusing on problem/solution and cause/effect rhetoric that confirms framing as a powerful political weapon. This research combines all of the above concepts and applies them to one of the most popular and current social media sites as a basis of analysis. This research also proves the value of politicians&rsquo; personal Twitter accounts when studying the general framing strategies of the respective parties.</p>

<p>Twitch.tv is a new phenomenon in the world of gaming and online entertainment. Advertising professionals could use Twitch.tv as a new outlet to advertise brands to their audiences. To further understand brand recall of advertisements on Twitch.tv, this thesis examined different variables such as game experience, ad placement, and ad familiarity. The Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) relates to effects on viewer recall of brands in advertisements seen on Twitch.tv, as it is ultimately a new form a television and this model can help understand how its messages are processed (Lang, 2000). A 2x2 factorial design was used to determine interactions between brand familiarity and advertisement placement as well as their effects on brand recall. Game experience was used as a covariate to determine if this variable further made a difference in brand recall of advertisements on Twitch.tv.

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<p> This research was conducted to learn if consumer attitudes and purchase intentions of cause marketing products could be recognized and better understood by applying Icek Ajzen&rsquo;s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Specifically, the researcher intended to learn more about consumer participation in cause marketing programs and to start a discussion about what consumers expect or hope to gain from their participation. This study applied purchase-triggered donation cause marketing to a post-test experimental design to investigate if purchase intentions are higher when a cause marketing appeal was present and to learn more about the application of TPB in cause marketing consumer behavior. Two random samples of 1000 students were invited to participate in this questionnaire-based, online study which yielded an average 24.6% response rate from the control group and experimental groups. </p><p> Analyses of the data showed a favorable application of TPB using a path model and multiple regression and a positive application of anticipated affect, an extension of TPB that factors in expectations of emotions after performing a behavior. Multiple regression revealed that cognitive items influenced by the stimulus scenario were diminished when affect is considered and feelings of happiness, satisfaction, guiltlessness, and responsibility were brought to the forefront. The researcher concluded that cause marketing is an effective marketing tool that plays on the emotions of consumer altruism, and TPB with the extension of anticipated affect is an effective model to study the consumer beliefs and attitudes that contribute to the purchase of cause marketing products. </p><p>

This dissertation examines race inequality inside the United States advertising industry. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted at three large agencies in New York City during the summer of 2010 (including ethnographic observations, affinity-based focus groups, in-depth interviews, and open-ended surveys), I argue that the industry's good faith effort to diversify through internship-based affirmative action programs is overwhelmed by the more widespread material practices of closed network hiring—a system that advantages affluent Whites through referral hires, subjective notions of "chemistry" or "fit," and outright nepotism through "must-hires." Furthermore, the discriminatory nature of White affirmative action is hidden from view, masked by ideologies of color-blind meritocracy deployed by management and interns alike. I conclude that this disconnect between practice and ideology helps normalize and reproduce historic inequalities in the workplace by rebranding diversity as an aspect of individuality rather than a social problem best addressed at the group level.