Methods
During this six-week exploratory study, ten interviews were conducted to gain professional insight about the digital marketing industry. Through LinkedIn, a social media that affords professional networking, the team reached out to social media specialists, content marketers, marketing managers, and branding strategists to gage leading information pertaining to our research. The thirty minute to hour-long interviews consisted of conversations that was tailored by a set of questions prepared for them:
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When did you start seeing signs of the emergence of social media use in business?
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What are some interesting trends in types of content that generate traffic in a specific platform?
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What is the key strategy to turn your followers into consumers?
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How long does it usually take to build a strong follower base?
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How should businesses differentiate from platform to platform?
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Can you note some interesting social media campaigns you have noticed?
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Which social media tool is the most helpful for businesses?
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What kinds of content generate more interest?
Gearing the topics around the outlined questions allowed the team to solidify our claims and assumptions. To further support our conclusions, the team gathered qualitative data from peer reviewed sources, business articles, books, and the data collected from our survey.
Using the Survey Monkey, the team was able to gain consumer insights from various groups of people online. The survey was distributed through each of our own Facebook posts and was meant to encourage different types of consumer behaviors to take the survey. Because the team’s main goal was to gain as much data as possible, the survey was intentionally short and concise, consisting of only ten questions, five multiple choice and five free response. Basic demographic questions such as gender and age were included, but the questionnaire geared more towards purchasing behaviour and social media usage. Overall, the survey was meant to gain honest data on consumer behaviour so all the participants’ answers were shown anonymously.