Is there more to it than posting a status update?

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non-profit organizations. The present research claims that it is not the relationship with the funder(s) that is the most crucial one for the non-profit organizations, but the one with its customers. Along with the change to customer orientation, new tools of reaching consumers need to be considered. Gummesson (1998, 61) proposed a question in 1998 whether it is possible for an organization to create a relationship with thousands or even millions of consumers. According to him mass marketing was the only solution for this kind of relationship building. Gummesson (1998, 61) also stated that mass marketing, however, is not ‘real communication’ as it is always one-way, impersonal, and indirect. Technology has taken remarkable leaps forward since then and many things are possible today that were not even thought about in the 1990’s. In the beginning of the so-called internet age in the 1990’s, webpages were the most common way for different organizations to join the technological revolution of the internet. Webpages, however, represent the old way of communication, which is by far one-way, impersonal and indirect (Balm & Dogerlioglu, 2011; O'Reilly, 2005 b). Today, the terms web 2.0 and social media are used to describe online actions of either organizations or individuals, as the online behavior of people has drastically changed. Social media refers to a new, uncontrollable environment, for sharing experiences in a real-time online surrounding, the social communication with one’s network of friends (Balm & Dogerlioglu, 2011; Isokangas & Vassinen, 2010, 84; Mitussis et al., 2006). The appeal of social media is undeniable. The users of Facebook, for example, spend an average of 6 hours per day logged in to the application, and a total of hundreds of millions of people are using social media daily. (see Machlis, 2011). People like to attend to activities their friends are also attending, they listen to what their friends are listening, and they like the same things their friends like. For an organization, social media offers various tools for the so- called “viral effect”, where people share the content like a virus; rapidly and extensively. The activity of people online makes it an interesting surrounding for organizations (Kozinets, 2002, 61-62). Yet, as more and more organizations are entering social media, content becomes more important than ever. People are interested in learning about the processes behind the actual service they use (Simon, 2009) which create a possibility for organizations to post current content instead of simply advertisements. 9
1.1 Research questions and structure of the research The present research focuses on Finnish art museums and their customer relationships. A special angle to the managing of the customer relationships is taken on the tools for building and maintaining the relationships; social media applications. Consequently the main research question for the present research is: “What are the specific characteristics of building customer relationships utilizing social media?” The main research question is further explored with the help of two supporting questions: “Why would a cultural organization, such as a museum, focus on building customer relationships?” “How do art museums utilize social media in their marketing actions?”. These supporting questions assist in understanding firstly the reasons behind the possible fostering of customer relationship in museums, and secondly the utilization of the social media applications. The first supporting question investigates the issues that are relevant in marketing of museums in general, and more specifically if building customer relationships is something museums might gain from. The issues of marketing a museum will be discussed in Chapter 2, Background; Marketing a non-profit museum and the possibilities of relationship marketing are explored in Chapter 3, Theory; Relationship with the customers. The second supporting question examines whether museums in Finland utilize the possibilities of social media, and if they do, it further explains the way they are currently utilized. The second supporting question also aims at finding out what do the museums expect from their social media presence, and in case they do not utilize social media, why do they feel it is not suitable for them. These questions are answered in Chapter 5, Findings, after Chapter 4, Methodology. Towards the end of the research, the findings are further discussed in Chapter 6, Discussion. Finally, conclusions and comparisons between the presented literature and the findings of the present research are presented in the final chapter, 7, Conclusions. 10
Page 1 and 2: Is there more to it than posting a
Page 3 and 4: Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus osalli
Page 5 and 6: 5 FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH ........
Page 7 and 8: 1 INTRODUCTION “Winning and keepi
Page 9: museums, are expected to outperform
Page 13 and 14: & Levy (1969) defined it, it is jus
Page 15 and 16: profit, and governmental. Each of t
Page 17 and 18: and the consumer of a service are t
Page 19 and 20: 3 THEORY: RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CUS
Page 21 and 22: 3.2.1 A mindset for customer relati
Page 23 and 24: depends on the customer and industr
Page 25 and 26: to understand in service organizati
Page 27 and 28: fact that a service is created at t
Page 29 and 30: RM, however, is not a new phenomeno
Page 31 and 32: step to creating a relationship. Wi
Page 33 and 34: 25). When the clientele of an organ
Page 35 and 36: all problems, for example, also in
Page 37 and 38: Traditionally customers have seen t
Page 39 and 40: entire process of co-creation of va
Page 41 and 42: messages received by the customers
Page 43 and 44: confused with the technology behind
Page 45 and 46: engage with the organization in soc
Page 47 and 48: media in an organization, and thus
Page 49 and 50: 3.5.1 Social media applications Soc
Page 51 and 52: & Leighton 2011). Kozinets et al. (
Page 53 and 54: approximately 30 percent of the use
Page 55 and 56: developed for the function of filte
Page 57 and 58: important, what will it give to the
Page 59 and 60: 4 METHODOLOGY In order to find out
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interviews, instead of unstructured
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The methods used for data collectio
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with regard to the number of organi
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collections, the museums spent 2,8
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using the internet, but also they a
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Registered as a user in a social ne
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does what, at least almost on case
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wise to consider the style of writi
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there is or how to behave, or what
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Even though a few museums seemed to
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…There, in the online world a mus
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sized museum had, not only customer
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We don’t know whether people from
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Yes, you could day the experience i
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inquired on whether different conte
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6 DISCUSSION In this chapter the fi
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Another concern the museums pointed
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utilization, would be clear to them
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7 CONCLUSIONS In this chapter a dis
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that even when people do arrive int
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large-scale interactions with exter
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8 REFERENCES Alasuutari, P. Laadull
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Conway Tony & Debra Leighton. ”Co
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Grönroos Christian. ”Service Qua
Page 109 and 110:
McDaniel Clay. ”3 Key Metrics To
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Passebois Juliette & Philippe Aurie
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Sorav Jain. ”40 Most Popular Soci
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APPENDIX 1: List of Finnish art mus
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