Social Media Marketing of Small Charities Essay

For the purpose of this research search engine optimization is defined as the process of improving website visibility which involves designing or modifying websites in order to improve search engine results page ranking (George 2005). The higher the frequency of a site appearance in search results, the more it will receive visitors through the use of search engines (Giomelakis and Veglis, 2015).
Email marketing is defined as an internet marketing tool used to convey short or simple messages that call for action on behalf of the recipient (Pantea and Pop, 2010). It provides opportunities to establish two-way channels of communication that permit relationship building and real time interaction with customers (Chittenden and Rettie, 2003).
Social media marketing on the other hand involves using social media platforms as a medium to potentially find key consumer influencers, engage them and generate brand advocates (Oztamur and Karakadilar, 2014). Social media can be classified into four zones social community social publishing, social entertainment and social commerce, however the study will focus on the social community sector. This sector features a two-way and multi-way communication primarily for building relationships (Tuten and Solomon, 2014).
1.7 Research Structure
The research will comprise of the following chapters
Introduction The first chapter provides a background of the study and discussion on the problem area. It introduces the context of the research by discussing changes in the marketing environment of small charities. This chapter provides a background on small charities in the UK in relation to developments in digital technology, various digital marketing strategy usages and advertising market in UK. The research aim is discussed and objectives are generated, followed by a brief outline of the scope of study. The research structure is the last section of this chapter, which gives details of the contents of each chapter.
Literature Review The literature review chapter provides an overview of related literature on digital marketing adoption in small charities in UK. The first section of the literature review provides a brief discussion of small charities in UK by exploring their communication methods and the rationale for communication within charities. The second session provides a brief discussion of digital marketing, followed by a review on search engine optimization, email marketing and social media marketing. The chapter then reviews the audience for digital marketing as well as the benefits of using digital marketing for communication. The last session will examine the utilization of search engine, email and social media by charities its impact on the communication within small charities and the factors associated with the adoption and non-adoption of the different digital marketing strategies.
Research Methodology This will explore the research philosophy/approach, techniques adopted for data collection and the sampling method used. It will also provide justifications for research design employed. A mixed method approach will be employed in this study in order to generate reliable and valid results. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected via a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with managers/communication directors of small charities and supporters of charities aged 00+