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What you say? Word of mouth within social media

This paper extends the understanding of the word of mouth (WOM) concept and its new role within social media and thereafter analysing the impact that electronic WOM (eWOM) has on marketing campaigns. Quantitative descriptive research was employed, using the tweets that were part of the Vodacom Twitter network. This data was used to analyse the differences of activity and sentiment within the tweets. The collection of tweets were then measured against a proxy, Vodacom’s rebranding campaign. The researcher was able to identify the impact of the rebranding campaign on consumers through the changes in the responses before, during and after the campaign. The research found that the rebranding campaign resulted in higher levels of engagement between consumers and the brand. During the rebranding process, negative sentiments were lowered, however the end result of the campaign left consumers with more negativity regarding the branding. The paper advances marketing practitioners understanding of how WOM and social media play a critical role in today’s marketing. Consumers are no longer bystanders in the marketing process and are instead turning to social media as a source of information as well as a platform to communicate their opinions and attitudes. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/25221
Date03 June 2012
CreatorsRennison, Robyn
ContributorsMazinter, Luisa, ichelp@gibs.co.za
PublisherUniversity of Pretoria
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria

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