JOURNEY THROUGH HONOURS



1. INTRODUCTIONGlobalization has increased global shifts of resources, capital and people, and has intensified the competition among cities for attention, influence, markets, investments, businesses, visitors, talents and significant events. Neighbourhood branding, which is regarded as a strategic instrument to publicize a places competitive advantages, becomes a common practice to market the places history, quality of place, lifestyle, and culture for opportunity, prestige or power in capital accumulation in a competitive environment (Zhang & Zhao, 2009). Neighbourhood branding has become an important focus for many cities that struggle with areas that have become run-down and under appreciated by residents and businesses alike as a good branding can assist in making cities desirable. Part of such a process involves giving the neighbourhood its own "identity" via branding. All areas have positive traits, and these need to be emphasized as the "face of the neighbourhood. This is not branding in a true capitalistic sense, as one of the main goals is to make current residents appreciate their neighbourhood that has previously been taken for granted, and thus through branding, the faith in the neighbourhood can be restored (Fazal, 2012). Social media are incredible (and free) tools that may be used to project a positive image of a neighbourhood. And this can be supported by the fact that the Internet has revolutionized communication, allowing individuals and organizations to overcome geographical and time constraints, which in turn allows stakeholders and their brands to connect around the world at any time (Harris & Rae, 2009). Online communities allow people to gather together on the Internet for various reasons, including searching for and sharing information, discussing communal issues, and making inquiries (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004a). With rapid changes in information technology, these online activities are now performed via a new form of communication technology known as Web 2.0‘ or social media (Gretzel, Kang, & Lee, 2008). Social media are defined as a second generation of Web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secures information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web‖ (Paris, Lee, & Seery, 2010, p. 531), and thus with their increasing use, these sites are perceived as tools for creating online communities of users who share interests, information, activities, and objectives (Bolotaeva & Cata, 2010). Through online member activities, positive attitudes about other members of the community may be generated, and a sense of belonging can develop. This further encourages stakeholders to share their experiences about the brand, especially when they have compliments or complaints (Madupu, 2006) and researchers have emphasized that community members‘ active participation is critical in ensuring an online community‘s long-term survival. Studying social media is especially important because stakeholders interact with these platforms differently than traditional media. Social media encompass an inherent shift of informational power to the stakeholder, in which they are able to decide which content to ignore and which to pass along to others in their network. Many consider this sharing of online content as powerful as word of mouth marketing (Madupu, 2006). It is thus important to spell attention to this phenomenon and how it can benefit neighbourhoods seeking to increase the social capital for the place as such branding does increase the public awareness and positive perceptions of specific neighbourhood. Therefore the research problem would be to explore how social media can be used to establish a neighbourhood community, Melville being the area of research due to its diverse population within the area. Melville has over the past seen a decline in its area in terms of the perceptions and image owing to its crime infested area which led to property within the area slowly deteriorating as not only did residents start to view it negatively but so did transient stakeholders of the areas, that is those that own businesses or come to visit Melville, thus by looking at social media as a way to build neighbourhood communities within an area the study serves to help rebuild the Melville community in terms of helping people connect with the brand by fostering a sense of community online through the use of social media. This is especially important because social media networks are places where stakeholders can meet, engage in common interests, come together, express themselves and communicate with one another and this can in cases serve as beneficial for a neighbourhood. The actual development of a brand can be an opportunity for community engagement and activity, bringing together to strategize on who the people are and how they are going to determining were they want to go for the future (Weber, 2009). As according to Winfield-Pfefferkorncity (2005) a place must have good qualities in order to brand itself successfully, and should thus utilise tactics that can help build the brand that are strategic and goal oriented for a place. In terms of how the work will be presented the report will firstly look at the literature review which is basically the framework of the research under investigation of how a neighbourhood can utilise social media in order to create awareness, reputation and talk ability about its area, when it uses Web-based technologies such as social media to turn communication into interactive dialogues, it also includes a summary of literature from various sources which helped develop and build on the research study. The literature review looks at how a neighbourhood can be built into a community; how they can neighbourhood brand it, Web 2.0, why neighbourhoods should consider social media, online brand community effect and what all these underlying topics will mean for neighbourhoods going forward. Followed by the methodology section which looks at how it can systematically solve the problem which, in it involved the research problem, research questions which are 1. In what ways will social media impact the way in which neighbourhood’s communities communicate?2 What benefits do neighbourhood communities gain from using social media?3. How using social media can help facilitate positive brand reputation perceptions for the Melville community?Followed by the research aims which are 1. To determine how social media will impact the way in which neighbourhood communities communicate?2. To determine what benefits neighbourhood community’s gain from using social media?3. To determine how using social media can help facilitate positive brand reputation perceptions for the Melville community?Followed by the theoretical statements, the data population and sample of the study which was and basically an overview of how research was used or conducted through utilising of qualitative and mixed research methods to help solve the problem in question. This was done through a sample of interviewing twelve experts within the social media industry and distributing one hundred and twenty (120) surveys amongst residents of Melville which and how the study remained reliable and valid, to add on to the research done respondents taking part in the study did it voluntary and did not need consent forms. Experts in the field of research were recorded so as to make sure that everything was verbatim, which ensured that everything was recorded word for word and understood by the researcher. Last is the finding and interpretation section which reports back the findings that were discovered from both mixed research method and the qualitative method that was used to investigate the research problem. Results for qualitative highlighting the themes that came up and from there the similarities and differences through the use of the Huberman and Miles approach which uses a data reduction, data display and conclusion and verification process to formulate the data collected, from there data was interpreted and therefore helped in answer the questions which were to firstly to answer in what ways will social media impact the way in which neighbourhood’s communities communicate, what benefits do neighbourhood communities gain from using social media and lastly how using social media can help facilitate positive brand reputation perceptions for the Melville community. The analysis for quantitative research was done through identifying the themes and quantifying the results using tables and thus interpreting the results. These results were then drawn together and interpreted which helped answer the research problem which was to determine the effectiveness of social media on neighbourhood communities, paying special attention to Melville stakeholders who makes use of social media and what social experts in digital agencies are saying about social media. Thus the phenomena under investigation as stated is to test how social media can be used to establish a neighbourhood community. As it can be seen that online communities is reshaping the way in which stakeholders seek information-and sharing through these interactions among forum users, such as reviewers’ contributions and readers’ feedback, increase the community value which will help build online reputation within the community (Yang, Mai & Ben-Ur, 2012). Studying social media is especially important because stakeholders can interact with these platforms differently than traditional media and it encompasses an inherent shift of informational power to the stakeholder as sharing of online content as powerful as word of mouth marketing which in essence affect the reputation of the area for the good or bad (Kuhn, A. and Burns, 2008). It also helps build upon brand communities within these platforms and as such have been shown to provide a source for the aforementioned desirable brand outcomes (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001). These people then build together a sense of belonging to the community by meeting online due to identification with the brand, a sense of duty toward the community, and shared rituals and traditions surrounding the brand. The social ties among members are what make brand communities desirable and profitable, because they bind the stakeholders to the brand more (McAlexander et al, 2002). 2. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO ESTABLISH A NEIGHBOURHOOD COMMUNITY2.1 IntroductionNeighbourhood branding strategy involves a rigorous assessment of how a place operates, the assets it has, its offer to stakeholders a neighbourhoods ability to survive and grow, its ambition and vision for its future and the resources it has at its disposal to realize that vision, and the identification of the on-brand actions it needs to take to make a reality of. Successful neighbourhoods are usually those with a definite identity and thus branding is a potential option for places to establish a place with desired associations (Rainisto, 2006). They are over 300 regions in the world with more than a million inhabitants competing for the scarce resource of investment, capital, talented people, visitors and residents. This phenomenon is also influenced by technology advances and increasing stakeholder connectedness which has forced neighbourhoods to rethink their strategies to ensure long term sustainability for the area as well as create a positive image (Goellner, 2012). As successful places attract new investment and create a positive success circle, it becomes important that a place looking to survive continues to look for ways to do that so as to remain sustainable over the long run. Social media is one such way in which a neighbourhood can use in helping in the success of an area. Therefore what is to follow is will look at how a neighbourhood can be built into a community, how they can neighbourhood brand it, Web 2.0, why neighbourhoods should consider social media, online brand community effect and what all these underlying topics will mean for neighbourhoods going forward. 2.2 A neighbourhood and building a communityThe term neighbourhood has many meanings and uses. According to Dunne, Lusch & Carverbelmont (2008: 256), neighbourhood can be used to refer to the small group of houses in the immediate vicinity of one's house or to a larger area with similar housing types and market values. Neighbourhood is also used to describe an area surrounding a local institution patronized by residents, such as a church, school, or social agency. It can also be defined by a political ward or precinct. The concept of neighbourhood includes both geographic (place-oriented) and social (people-oriented) components. Every field has a different logic for their definition. Neighbourhood associations and community groups offer their interpretations. City planning departments often designate neighbourhood boundaries along census tract boundaries. And, in fact, community residents quite frequently have a very different mental map of their neighbourhood than the officially designated neighbourhood areas used by planners and policy makers. Neighbourhoods may choose to join a neighbourhood organisation or centre, such organisations are groups formed to address common needs of established goals for the neighbourhood. For example cleaning up rubbish by improving conditions of older buildings enhances voter registrations and voting. Vogel (1997: 42-43) defines a community which is essentialally characteristics by an organized, closely rooted area were individuals are living in relationship with each other with mutual interdependence found within. It is seem as a group which through its processes have a consciousness of kind, totality of attitudes a common lifestyle and common ends, they are in complete agreement who live in a specific area sharing similar ties and interacting with one another.Ashman (2008: 291) differentiates between the different types of neighbourhoods found and these can range from parochial neighbourhoods which are high on interaction and identification but low on community connections. In such a place residents may interact frequently identify with each other and advocate for positive neighbourhood goals and changes. Yet they may not have access to many resources or involvement with the larger community. E.g. Hispanics who speak Spanish may find it hard to communicate with the larger community yet they feel bonded with each other. Secondly diffuse neighbourhoods, have a strong sense of neighbourhood identification but experience little social interaction. They feel they do not need neighbourhood for support of help and require low level of connections to resources and services outside of the community. They are usually exclusive suburbs with luxury apartments in urban settings. Residents may have power and money and perceived identification with the neighbourhood yet not feel interaction is necessary). The stepping stone neighbourhoods is characterized by a temporarily nature of residents, they may positively identify themselves with the neighbourhood but have low levels of commitment to interact with other residents or work on the neighbourhoods behalf because they simple will not be there that long. Are often moving up in their careers and possibly starting and raising families. Because they are on their way they usually have high levels of connect ions with other resources. While transitory neighbourhoods- resembles stepping stone in terms of the transitory nature of residents however they have less access to resources and are probably not moving up in the world. Their jus moving in such residents have low level of interactions and identification with the neighbourhood Lastly anomic neighbourhoods is dysfunctional and provides little social support, the feeling of being in a neighbourhood does not exist examples can be public housing projects for ppl of low income gangs guns may infest its corridors . Many residents may feel little identification with other residents yet have nowhere else to go to. They may live in constant fear often for good reason and larger communities may not provide support. A neighbourhood therefore to function to its best ability needs to have a sense of community within it (Ashman, 2008: 292; Fisher, 1978: 56)The beginning of the community theory was made possible Tonnies by the publishing of his book Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (translated as Community and society) in 1887, he mentioned how relationships were based on natural will that included common bonds traditions or sentiments and Gemeinschaft was characterised by a strong identification with the community emotionalism, traditionalism and holistic conceptions of other members of that community (Tonnies, 2001: 3-4). McMillan & Chavis (1986: 9) provide a definition of the term community in an overall sense. They distinguish between geographical community, the territorial collective of people, and relational community, the relations among people. The “sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together”. While (McAlexander et al., 2002: 38) defines a community as that through its members and relationships amongst themselves identify themselves on the basis of similarities or identification amongst members among their members, whether a neighbourhood, an occupation, a leisure pursuit, or devotion to a brand. Both definitions therefore encompass that through people common bonds and commitments to brands end up sharing a sense of belonging due to the identification with a sense of community toward the community, and shared rituals and traditions surrounding the brand. Building a community within a neighbourhood can prove very beneficial to everyone within the area as this this helps in defining the strengths of a neighbourhood. That is the people are better equipped to tackling the inevitable problems that occur such as crime and misunderstandings. Some of the problems that were mentioned before about neighbourhoods show how because a person feels detached to where he or she lives does not participate in the neighbourhood and so feels a sense of not belonging there. Benefits therefore can be as simple as making a friend, as elaborate as setting up a neighbourhood emergency plan and as unexpected as finding someone who can teach you how to play the violin or share a barbecue (Broom, 2002). It again ensures that a neighbourhood stays organised by encouraging communication with the individual households as we see those creating associations so as to ensure this. These associations are the ones who make it possible for residents to come together, enhance and improve the neighbourhoods as well as solve issues which might impact the community such as crime (Aron, 2006: 26-27). Melville is an example of such a community which has a Melville resident association equipped to solving Melville’s problems. They inform residents of local procedures and policies, and enforce local codes. With the assortment of benefits that neighbourhood associations provide to residents and such areas maintain popularity. Therefore the meaningful involvement of residents in the planning and implementation of redevelopment plans that impact a community is essential to any successful community development project.According to Harris (2007) a good neighbourhood has all these characteristics which enable it to flourish the range from a place in which people can trust that is communicate well with each other and so integrate naturally within the neighbourhood as well as the area possessing within it a relaxed atmosphere. Again were residents are motivated to working with each other and are very worried are about the problems of the area that they are willing to work together so as to get rid of the problem involved. 2.3 Neighbourhood brandingTo unpack this concept one has to understand the role of a brand. It is important because ultimately a brand shapes a stakeholder decision and ultimately creates an economic value. As the brand is a key factor behind the decision purchase in a business to stakeholders operations (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2010: 145). A successful brand delivers a strong message and has the ability to set social economic and cultural processes into motion. It helps identify a brand as a kind of differentiating device which is a “distinguishing name or symbol such as a logo, trademark or package design intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or groups of sellers and differentiating those goods or services from those of competitors..” (Aaker 1991: 56; Bengtsson, 1996: 95)In modern times brands operated as symbols that enabled consumers to identify and separate one producer from another which enabled them to differentiate ones production from the next manufacturer holding it responsible for how good it was in terms of the standards of quality (Johansson, 2010; 10), but today it is ascribed with almost distinct characteristics which serve it as a strategic business asset which is essential for a firm to develop if they are to compete successfully. A brand also serves as an important differentiator from what the competitors is offering and its strengths all boil down to the perceptions which are taken from the stakeholders such as being consistent view or a positive or a negative view of the area. Brands enable stakeholders to differentiate between the great amount of products and services offered by the market. They help stakeholders to diminish the effort they put into choosing products by making them recognizable. Hence, they allow them to assign responsibility to a particular manufacturer or distributor and to repurchase the same brand over and over again if their previous experience has been successful and satisfactory. Therefore, nowadays, business executives recognize that one of the most valuable assets to a firm is the brand it has invested in and developed over time (Keller, 2008: 5).Brands contribute strongly to the profit of a place and can help strengthen a places brand image, as a brand that is well managed and marketed can help reduce uncertainty. Weber (2009) approaches the question of branding relating to the consequences for the branding taking into consideration the emergence of social media. He defines branding as a dialogue one has with his or her client and once the dialogue is strong the brand also becomes strong. So it becomes imperative to move from the traditional ways of which advertising is done through which a brand is broadcasted to its audiences through that linear one way of communication and encourage social media which through its participatory factor can enable a dialogue with its audiences and allow the brand to flourish. Transparency has become very critical if a brand wants customers and stakeholders to trust and engage in a dialogue with (Johansson, 2009: 11).Like companies and products neighbourhoods can also have distinct brand identities, neighbourhood branding is a useful tool for place development and their initiative is to attract and retain resources that is through people and capital. Branding a neighbourhood is much more complex than branding products or services. All the people which include all the citizens of that place, the public and private sector organisations are all decision makers and each may be looking for different benefits, to succeed they must be a strategic examination of trends in the social and economic environments and capabilities that lie within the place that is by determine the opportunities, skills resources and capabilities of the place that allow it achieve a strategy best fit for that area, when the area identifies these differences that make it unique from other areas then can it communicate them to new and existing residents as well as an array of audiences (Dinnie, 2011: 15-18). It has been predicted by Johansson (2010: 3) that with the multitude of new media within the market a brand has to ensure that it stands out from the rest as it has become even more challenging for a brand to create awareness and the winners in the battle for it will be the ones who are able to coordinate their messages through all ideal medias which will enable to reach it consumers effectively. According to Fazal, (2012) neighbourhood branding has become an important focus for many cities that struggle with areas that have become run-down and under appreciated by residents and businesses alike. Cities are taking it upon themselves to create a renaissance in such neighbourhoods by undertaking large-scale revitalization campaigns. Part of such a process involves giving the neighbourhood its own "identity" via branding. All areas have positive traits, and these need to be emphasized as the "face of the neighbourhood. This is not branding in a true capitalistic sense, as one of the main goals is to make current residents appreciate their neighbourhood that has previously been taken for granted. When the "branding" is done correctly residents will begin to demand all that the brand promises: good schools, liveable homes, retail amenities; everything that makes a neighbourhood home (Mills, 2007) and thus through branding, the faith in the neighbourhood can be restored.Thus it becomes important that a neighbourhood initiates new and profound ways in which to reach its stakeholders so as to ensure the sustainability and continued growth of the neighbourhood brand, such is looking at social media and how through this help a brand create connections with stakeholders so as to ensure its desired goals for the area are reached. Hence what is to follow will then look at how social media came about, what tools are entailed in social media and how it can be used in building online communities that can aid the process of branding a neighbourhood. 2.4 Web 2.0 which led to social mediaThe concept of web 2.0 began with a conference of brain storming session between O’rielly and media live international (Laase, 2010: 129; O’Rielly, 2010: 14). It is defined as the change in the philosophy of web companies and web developers, It is seen to be a move toward social, collaborative, interactive and responsive web and has seen to be the change in the philosophy of society as a whole as it makes changes the way one interacts and expresses themselves through the internet as a technology. The way society is interacting has changed as this can be seen through the merging of technology which is seeing the human race increasing their time spent on the internet through the use of their phones, laptops, computers and Ipads.O'Reilly (2010) also supports this definition as he say Web 2.0 is a way in which people connect with other people, he sees it as Interactive Internet which through its technology enables websites to be easy to use so that they don't stand in the way of people using the Internet to share their knowledge. So while Web 2.0 is about creating a social web, it is also about creating a more interactive and responsive web. As it allows websites to communicate with the browser behind the scenes without having human interaction, which allows the website to be more responsive which makes it easier to use. When something is difficult to use the more people shun away from using it, thus web2.0 is made designed in a way to make it simpler so as not to get in the way of people sharing information. Web 2.0 gave rise to social media has is based on which allow exchange of user generated content (Carlosson, 2010; Solis & Breakenridge, 2009: 265). Web 2.0 then led to a social web where the human race is increasingly connecting with people to hear what they have to say on a subject (Nations, 2012). Social media can be best defined in the context of the previous industrial media paradigm where traditional media such as TV, news radio or magazine go one way structure while these web technologies make it easy for audiences to distribute their own content through various platforms and it has become an intrinsic component of how society is living and work (Wright, 2012; Nightingale, 2012; Weber, 2009: 23; Zarrella, 2010: 65). Social media was the term which first appeared in 2004 after LinkedIn created its social network application, it was an application which was an online technology tool which allowed people to communicate easily through the utilising of the internet for sharing and discussing of information. Other theorists see social media through its simple act of sharing information and communicating with others by providing a social glue that is needed to keep society from staying too far from the moment as it keeps people from becoming forgetful and isolated and unable to experience every moment of life, these tools are now used for self-expression, shaping personal and shape public identity and cultivating relations with others (Amerland, 2012: 3; Carr, 2011). To add on Palmer and Koenig- Lewis (2009) define social media as an online application, platform and media which aim to facilitate interaction, collaborations and sharing of content. They further point out that the importance of social network media lays in the interaction between the consumer and the community as well as in the facilitation of immediate, interactive low-cost communications. Koenig-Lewis (2009) defines social media as an online application, platform and media which objectives are to enable interactions, collaborations and the sharing of content., and it also was initially created by individuals and companies on the internet which bring about a world of unpaid media (Weber, 2009: 25), meaning that people did not have to pay large sums of money to get their brands noticed on the internet, opening brand sites on social media sites like Facebook which was relatively inexpensive and thus this made for media coverage which was made inexpensive for the brand. Social Media then from all of these definitions bring out similarities in sharing of information and how through these sharing information is passed on identities are created and distributed and then from this communities are created. Blake (2009: 123) supports this by saying how social media is media through written to visual to audio to audio visual is designed to be shared, which means that people can know easily comment on and send and incur no high costs associated with viewing the media. And due to the connected nature of the Internet, it means that sharing, all of that can be easily all be tracked and measured making it for better.As people change a theory to support this phenomenon called technological determinism explains this best, it suggests that because of technological advancements people also change in their cultures. It is the idea that technology has important effects on people’s lives as it influences human thought and action (Adler, 2006: 7), for example social media is changing the way people interact, more people are going online to chat and meet than doing it face to face. One can easily go online and purchase an item instead of going to a shop to do it physically. Virtual worlds are online popping up each allowing people in the comfort of their homes to socialise without having to live the comfort of the house as well as people know more about their brands than long back as the world wide web gives people all this information. Technologies have indeed made it simpler for society in terms of reach and proximity as well as accessibility of people, it can be seen that social media is one of the most popular network online as it accounts for almost 82% of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users around the world, connecting people with just about everything they watch and buy (Anonymous, 2011a; Radwanick, Lipsman & Aquino, 2011). These changes in technology and stakeholder behaviour allows them to take control of their brands, as stakeholders are now becoming brand owners of brands not only managing or creative directors but taking absolute control allowing them power over a brands fate. This shift then in this power to consumer’s means that it becomes even more imperative for brands even such a neighbourhood to be even more engaging with their stakeholders than before, as the human race knows what they want and how they want it done, they have become all knowing through these technological web advancements as it has given them an accepted voice via social networks.This new phenomena is changing the marketing landscape quickly and dramatically and social media have made the average man in the street a protestor, a brand specialist and a content curator (Anonymous, 2011b; Abel, 2011; Manning, 2011; Patricios, 2012). Zarelle (2010) adds on by mentioning how new web technologies have made it easy for any create and distribute content as a blog post a tweet on twitter or a YouTube video can be produced and viewed by a million virtually for free, which makes it even easier for advertisers as they do not have to pay large amounts of money to embed adverts Again the stakeholder seems to be changing in the industry, their behaviour and preferences are changing ever faster than before, as they are becoming more postmodern, connected or plugged in through social networks as they is a growing digital native is increasingly tapping into their networks of friends, fans, and followers to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services, in ever-more sophisticated ways (Anonymous, 2010; Anonymous, 2011d; Keegan, 2011). Stakeholder experience is seeing to be surpassing awareness, as it is seen that while the traditional role of advertising is to drive awareness the stakeholders experience with the brand builds a deeper relationship. The interactive environment creates opportunities for stakeholders to experience the brand and share that experience with others as a stakeholder advocate for the brand (Woolley, 2011; Patricios, 2012) seeing greater need for platforms that can offer more holistic ways to enable neighbourhoods to succeed, therefore digital playing the role to fulfil this. Media fragmentation has splintered audiences and increased the complexity of effectively reaching most audiences, were stakeholders used to have five major choices such as radio, television, magazines ,newspapers and outdoor), they now have many other platforms from which they can gather information from (Nichols, 2010). A combination of a cluttered media landscape and users who are becoming more resistant to advertising is becoming very prevalent in the market meaning that advertisers will have to think more carefully about where and how they advertise, therefore it becomes ever so important for them to seek better strategies and platforms that serve as more effective than that that of off line but seeing then to integrate the best of two worlds off and online. In the digital web, consumers are becoming all powerful as consumers are now being armed with tools to destroy marketing messages that is from the remote control and the PVR to the computer-mouse the role of the media has increased enormously, with the expansion of access to the internet, satellite television and ubiquitous telecommunications (Charton, 2009; Allan, 2007), thus it is even more important that neighbourhoods build strategies that stakeholders are more prompt in choosing 2.4.1 The types of social networks that a neighbourhood can useTechnology has touched every facet of marketing, and enabled technology solutions, (Anonymous, 2011c), this has thus enabled faster, better decision-making as brands are seeing that when analysing a marketing campaign over weeks or months it becomes possible to measure the results in hours or days. Dialogue within the social web evolves so rapidly in a single day that what is being said can instantly change the relevance of tomorrow's communication. In response, a growing number of places are using social media tools for immediate communication and for revenue generation (Bloom, 2011). Social Media Networks encompass Weblogs , Social Networking Sites like Facebook which is a social media networking tool designed for games, chat, birthdays, fans of authors and products/brands, music groups, and celebrities. It started as a way for college students to keep up with each other, creator MarkZuckerberg had no idea that his simple networking tool would go so big. Midway through 2010, Facebook had more than 500million active users (about one person for every 14 worldwide), making it one of the largest social media networks around. It again is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and co-workers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real‐world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment (Safko, 2010: 10). One can also find Niche-networking sites like LinkedIn (for professional networking), crowdsourcing content like Digg7 (a site that allows users to rank and control media content), text-messaging services (by which mobile phone users can send written messages to one another), micro media services like Twitter (a many-to many communications service that allows users to send messages to each other or post them to blogs). Twitter is a micro blogging social media tool developed by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone that allows users to follow other users in order to keep up with their location and activities. Users are able to follow lists of authors rather than only individual authors. The micro blogging craze has led critics to worry that between texting and Tweeting, the new generation of communication is all about breadth and not so much about depth. Twitter describes itself as “a real‐time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting.” A micro‐blogging site, Twitter allows users to send out messages in short spurts of up to 140 characters per “tweet.” Users can “follow” other users or communicate by searching for hash tags (Comm, 2010:81.). Much of what these services do is allow people to share information and to form groups, at a very low cost, with a very large number people, and to do so interactively. Power laws have also been applied to the study of blogs in addition to commercial Web sites (Shirky 2008; Karpf 2008; Drezner 2007 15-30). YouTube a content sharing site which allows users to distribute content and as well as create it through images, audio and information as well as video. They is no joining fee and user weather viewing it or joining it. You Tube is a very popular site and has up to almost 60% of all online video viewers with up to 79 million viewers in an evening (Yen, 2008) and over 65,000 videos uploaded every day (Blake, 2009: 129). Thus social media such as You tube are seeing more and more brands coming on line to join the social revolution, brands such as BMW, castle lager and many other brands utilise the site to share information with its customers own line. It thus becomes important as ever for brands to utilise these tools in enhancing their brand thus brands are being forced to adapt of die (Bruin, 2012).A major example of the use of social media is the usage of it by Victoria’s secret Facebook page which has more than two million followers were videos, photos and allows customers to take quizzes and print coupons. In politics the most significant use of social media was used in the Barak Obama campaign which used promotional tool such as Facebook, YouTube and twitter. This saw to one of the most successful campaigns alive and therefore its success. Thanks to non-PC connections, more and more consumers are permanently connected to the internet. Many are using services such as Facebook and Twitter across all platforms, creating an integrated internet experience of total and constant connection. More than 39% of Facebook users used more than one platform to access the social network in 2011. Consumers are adding more and more platforms, increasing their connection time, rather than replacing one platform with another (Petersen, 2012). This therefore shows how effective use of social media has been in society and thus with careful consideration and practice in any campaign or aim to reaching people it can prove beneficial to those who are seeking ways to reach a large number of people. 2.5 Why should neighbourhoods consider social media as a brand strategy?Social media reaches all life’s facets today and therefore social media is something a neighbourhood should take into consideration. Due to the ‘democratization of information and media’ that social media has caused (Maymann, 2008), on the Internet companies cannot have complete control over the content of the message, their brands, and the communication process (Scott, 2007;Mangold & Faulds, 2009), therefore It becomes even more important for neighbourhood brands to ensure that they engage with their stakeholders and create relations as stakeholders are becoming activists, participating in online forums, writing their own blogs and comment on others, become and follow opinion leaders, boycotting brands, broadcasting videos and audios, link and tag information, and sharing content with others In an always-connected world, brands must learn to understand how stakeholders are changing their usage and expectations in the social space. Social media is changing rapidly as new platforms become popular and they find new ways to connect with friends, family and brands. The challenge for brands is to ensure they understand how their stakeholders around the world are evolving both their usage and expectations in this space. Stakeholders now want social brands that improve their lifestyle as most stakeholders want brands to connect with them, with people, and be part of their daily routine. This highlights the growing power of recommendation and the increasing need for brands to earn attention. Liking a brand on a social network is popular among stakeholders in all regions, and social marketing techniques are close to matching brand websites in reach. However, brands need to understand the 'rules of engagement' and identify what consumers want from them on these platforms. This doesn't necessitate constant two-way conversation, but requires brands to be attentive to when that conversation is wanted (Petersen, 2012).Neighbourhoods are no different they too are brands and due to this social media can play a major role in not only boosting the areas reputation but creating quite a buzz about the area. The advantages of social media range from that as people find it hard to ignore more of the more traditional media, social media gives the stakeholder an opportunity to interact with its stakeholders through specific targeted communications which customers can choose to engage with for example visiting a Facebook page of the Melville brand opposed to ignoring an advert on radio. People are finding it easier to switch off or ignore traditional advertising. It has the benefits of going viral if promoted well and allows the brand to create a community of supporters for that brand while also gaining admiral insight from feedback that one can potentially gain from supporters and this can potentially help drive the future marketing strategies as well as its future business. Lastly it allows learning more about its supporters likes, dislikes and even behaviours at a cheaper and more efficient way (Strokes, 2009: 143). A good brand should be based on the dialogue that it has with its customers and prospects the stronger the dialogue the stronger the brand. The social web will allow a place or area to have those kind of dialogues more efficiently and less expensively than in the past (Weber, 2009) for example a blog can be used as a marketing tool that through its means of communication can present a view on specific matter of an area/neighbourhood and through it become part of the conversation. Social media influences brand awareness and this can go a long way in getting the neighbourhood such as Melville in the spotlight. It can enable the area to mention, the highlights or events that take place, and basically an outline of what to find in the area and where. This can ensure that people are aware of the destination as this establishes credibility and likability for the area while helping with media and PR efforts since reporters and writers look through blogs all the time for people to quote and interview, as blogs can be used as references. These blogs can help as ways in which to interest customers who may be used to going to other places and are powerful because of their reach with information that is seldom deleted and is thus available long after it has been posted (Strokes, 2009: 138). Social media is a great tool for sharing information and observations especially in times of crisis and when formal communications structures don’t exist, such as in small towns, neighbourhoods or regions. All reports spread quickly, particularly when people are panicked and worried. When the wrong information is posted it causes confusion, frustration, sometimes distrust and often more difficulty (Chan, 2011: 256). However it can also be for good and such is the case with what a neighbourhood can do to better itself important for a neighbourhood.2.6 How brands build online communities Internet offers the advantage of speed to any brand that wishes to use it to communicate online, people who choose to follow a brand’s activity online, either by Facebook, Twitter, or other channel, automatically signal their desire to receive information, which the brand would like to communicate thus it becomes important then, that brands aim to please their online fans with quality content that is interesting, perhaps exclusive, and able to retain the interest of those who are signed up, while attracting new “fans” or “followers . Social media regroups people more or less organically in certain communities in different spaces. Brands, then, are able to choose to integrate themselves into certain “communities” (or create their own) which will be the most adept at transmitting their messages (Anonymous, 2011e). Therefore it means that brands have to ensure that they employ a casual tone for social chatter, facilitate fan enthusiasm and creativity, providing opportunities to share and empower people across an organization to represent the brand's face, as the key is finding an issue that captures people's attention. As people must care about the issue, have opinions about it and the enthusiastic enough to share their views. (Kapelke, 2012). To add on as organisations create online communities on the World Wide Web for their brands, they are building new relationships with their customers and enable stakeholders to communicate with each other, thus brands can build these online communities is by making sure that consumers can interact freely with each other and build a friendly online community, marketers can follow consumers' perceptions about and feelings toward the brand in real time The more communication and interaction, the stronger the community, and the better the feedback. Interactive online media will enable marketers to sense market forces with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency, overcoming the limitations of today’s one-way research methods, and therefore online communities evolve as participants gradually get to know one another, develop ideas about who is credible and responsive, and overtime begin to develop a sense of shared values and responsibilities (McWilliam, 2000).2.7 How online neighbourhood brands then create a community effect A brand community is one that entails a sense of belonging through rituals and tradition and a sense of duty towards that particular community one is found in (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001). Brand communities can be said to be organic or inorganic. That is organic communities are seen to have emerged independently and reflect self-sustaining consumer generated brand building approaches while on the other hand inorganic communities are created and influenced by marketers (Muniz & Schau, 2007). This research analyses both organic and inorganic online brand communities, also defined as consumer-initiated and company-initiated online brand communities (Jang et al, 2008). This research will refer to those kinds of online brand communities as consumer-initiated and company initiated online brand communities. Stakeholder-initiated online brand communities are intentionally built and presented by stakeholders. Conversely, place-initiated online brand communities are built and hosted by the place that owns the brand. Brand community membership influences its pasts and outcomes. That means that social identity is enhanced by membership as well as the brand relationship is improved. That is when one identifies themselves with a certain group in an area a community is formed from it and consumer-brand relationship feels a need to humanize objects to facilitate interactions. That means that brands are able to function as a relationship partner (Fournier, 1998). And this can be added on by the fact that whether consumers can or want to build a relationship with the focal brand is partially determined by the brand’s personality this being a set of human characteristics associated with a brand (Aaker, 1997: 347). Figure 1.1: The brand triad relationship model (Muniz Jr. & O'Guinn, 2001) A community focuses on the social interaction between community members and how it creates value and therefore this becomes very important for a neighbourhood. Figure 1 shows a perfect example of a model by Muniz Jr. & O'Guinn (2001) called the consumer-brand-consumer triad best it describes how brand communities are referred to as social entities that reflect a brands in the day-to-day lives of consumers and the ways in which brands connect the consumer to the brand, and consumer to consumer. This model emphasizes the importance of stakeholder’s interaction in brand communities. It suggests that stakeholders take an active role in creating brands through the social interaction between community members, the community, the brand, and the individual consumers. Thus brand communities have a purpose of unifying people who might share nothing in common but this brand. In this sense when looking at a neighbourhood branding stakeholders living within the community and coming from outside the community could be examples of how a brand which is the neighbourhood could if marketed appropriately create value for both consumers. Communities enable stakeholders to share positive as well as negative experiences and rumours, in both online and offline settings. Thus what a community such as a neighbourhood may want to say about themselves may be different from what the public may say thus why it is becoming even more important to manage and use online marketing properly. These days more and more people are participating in brand communities, that is through the use of the internet it has managed to influence stakeholders in taking action online and allow them to follow their favourite brand on the Internet by, for instance, joining online Facebook because you find a certain area interesting to follow. Online brand communities can be regarded as a certain type of brand community which exists on Internet therefore they share the same characteristics as brand communities. Abrahamsen & Hartmann (2006: 9) mentioned how an online brand community is "a brand community, which uses computer systems as the central tool for mediating interaction between members. While Jang et al. (2008:57) mentions how an online brand community is a focused, non–geographically bound community, based upon social relationships among admirers of a brand in virtual reality. 2.7.1 Word of mouth (WOM)Word of Mouth (WOM) is a form of community-related behaviour where community members discuss the brand, advantages and disadvantages and give recommendations to other members and can either be negative or positive regarding the emotional relationship established with the brand. Consequently, WOM forms part of the outer-oriented practises (Schau et al 2009), because WOM is concerned with the brand more than with the community. WOM can be defined as “a stakeholders -dominated channel of marketing communication where the sender is independent of the market. It is therefore perceived to be more reliable, credible, and trustworthy by stakeholders compared to firm-initiated communications” (Brown et al., 2007: 4) and has a powerful influence on behaviour, especially on information search and on decision making. Godes & Mayzlin (2004: 545) even go thus far to say that WOM “has more potential impact than any other communication channel”. And thus online becomes a powerful player within this field. WOM information is also important for non-members, because they might utilize brand communities, especially online, to get information about a brand. That is why brand communities, particularly virtual communities, have become more and more important for companies and researchers evidence showing that WOM in an online community influences the decision making and attitude formation made by community members found online. It is the most powerful and effective marketing tool as businesses survive as it one of the most important foundations for brand loyalty (Anonymous, 2012). Brand communities are therefore a platform that will enable brands to strengthen consumer loyalty and to incite consumer-driven brand meaning. Brand communities are also of great importance to neighbourhoods because they provide a selection of highly motivated stakeholder to communicate with, therefore reducing the ineffective cost of addressing communication to unreceptive consumers, and enabling them to raise their brand loyalty (Wiegandt, 2009). People online experience will leverage their bond to a community. Building on the shared interest of their members, i.e. the shared interest being the brand, online brand communities offer them the possibility of developing relationships with other individuals sharing the same passion for the brand. Moreover, online brand communities offer communities more than just an additional communication channel as they enable them to obtain valuable information from their customers, (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002). Hence, online brand communities are of value to companies.Therefore the development of online communities has reshaped peoples’ information-seeking and sharing behaviour. It enables them to now writing their opinions and share their consumption experience in various types of online platform such as Facebook, blogs or on twitter, in contrast to offline WOM, where opinions may disappear into thin air, online WOM provides a persistent public record that one can go back to and review. The interactions among forum users, such as reviewers’ contributions and readers’ feedback, increase the community value. Those contributors not only want to help others, but also tend to build their online reputation in the community (Yang, Mai & Ben-Ur, 2012). A brand's reputation, a healthy brand of a successful strategy, nowadays can be driven and developed completely by a stakeholder within a community. This change has the potential to mean newly empowered stakeholder can have a major influence on a brand's success or its failure. That is caused by the effects of new technologies as stated above so as the world opens up, information becomes a currency in its own right. They thirst for information, quenched by the ability to instantly access whatever they feel they need, drives a whole new level of awareness, and this simple fact boils down to that brands can no longer control their own reputations independently (Southgate, 2012). Therefore building online brand reputations is important for a brand.2.8 What does it mean for neighbourhoods? A neighbourhood that is seeking to build its brand image online therefore has to take into consideration all these aspects that have been mentioned towards building a reputable campaign online and in rebranding an area. Social media helps cities in their core mission of reaching more constituents to more broadly share government information and activities and the benefits of using social media are evident as members of that neighbourhood or community can write in common language, raise awareness and participation in municipal activities, and build a stronger community. Social media can also increase government transparency, and it allows the people to communicate directly with residents. It’s is thus fast, vocal it’s viral messages can go out fast and instant, next it can spark civic engagement through people discussions, and lastly it is free as no costs are needed to set up a twitter, blog or Facebook account (Anonymous, 2012b). Neighbourhoods who therefore utilise these tools will enable them to not only enhance them as a community and building the brand but also make it easier for them to engage and communicate. Gone are the days where people had to come together taking time off things they would rather be doing. Social media through its easy accessibility as one can access it from their mobile phones or laptops from the comfort of their homes are then able to gain information which is shared via these sites from everything such as press releases and official statements to breaking news and city-wide announcements. They have been many examples across all social media platforms of non-profit organizations and community movements using the internet to not only get their message out, but in many cases such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and the events of the Arab Spring, using social media to unify people across the country and internationally to take action. The Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1500 cities globally, and a large part of the success of the movement has been the use of social media. Throughout the movement, the Facebook page has been used to share information about where Occupy movements were taking place across the country and even the globe and to share encouragement in the form of quotes from civil disobedience activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. Participants in the Occupy rallies would post pictures and videos to the Facebook page or write on the page’s wall to share their experiences (Ray & Loewenstein, 2011). Another example of a country that utilised social media as a source to engage with it community is New York, it shifted to more cost-effective channels by harnessing the power of social media, with a particular focus on Twitter. Shifting traffic online cuts costs while meeting stakeholder needs at an even higher rate due to the real-time nature of social media. New York also uses a 311 iPhone application, which was very well received and their shift to digital alternatives really saved the New York government in significant dollars while still meeting the citizen needs and allowing government to react to requests quickly (Yang, 2012). Therefore this show cases the advantages of a neighbourhood that is trying to brand itself by utilising social media. 2.9 CONCLUSIONA neighbourhood then can utilise social media in order to create awareness, reputation and talk ability about its area, as it uses Web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues and these ranges from twitter, Facebook or blogs which when utilised properly can create good word of mouth (WOM). Gone are the days when television and radio advertisements captured the attention of millions of consumers. Now brands all over have turned to the Internet and information searching and social networking are dominating the way people research for products, services and places. This dynamic change in the economy means that neighbourhood brands are being forced to revolutionize their traditional ways of reaching consumers in order to communicate with them online. Therefore a neighbourhood which is just like a brand must continue to seek new ways to communicate with its community as social media becomes and easy way to reach its consumers at a low cost.3. METHODOLOGY3.1 IntroductionAccording to Ching (2012) the call for stronger communities is pervasive as politicians and people in every walk of life see that communities can solve social ills and build a happier, more fulfilled society. They are over 300 regions in the world competing for the scarce resource of investment, capital, talented people, visitors and residents and this phenomenon is also influenced by technology advances and increasing stakeholder connectedness which has forced neighborhoods to rethink their strategies to ensure long term sustainability (Goellner, 2012). Therefore the discussion to unfold will firstly look at uncovering the research problem which seeks to find out how the use of social media will be used to establish a neighborhood community for the area of Melville. Secondly the research questions followed by the research aims will seek to provide more detail into the discussion which will look how social will again establish these online neighborhood communities as well as how it will impact these communities over the long run, as these questions stems from the research problem identified. Next in the discussion will look at the theoretical statements, which will look at how exploratory research will be used to uncover the data, through a mixed approach (which includes both quantitative and qualitative questions) and qualitative approach. These approaches or methods will include a structured interview questions for an expert in the social media industry and questionnaire forms for Melville residents. Data analysis will make use of Morse and field, and next to be will be reliability and validity in detail so as to see if this was met in the study. Lastly the conclusion will include a summary of the methodology section and it will highlight some of the limitations that were met in the study.3.2 Research problemA research problem refers to some difficulty a researcher experiences in the context of either a theoretical or practical situation and were the researcher wants to obtain a solution for the problem (Kothari, 2006:26). According to Walliman (2005:32) problem formulation is the logical first step toward this goal. Therefore the research problem is to explore how social media can be used to establish a neighborhood community 3.3 Research questions1. In what ways will social media impact the way in which neighborhood’s communities communicate?2. What benefits do neighborhood communities gain from using social media?3. How using social media can help facilitate positive brand reputation perceptions for the Melville community?3.4 Research aims1. To determine how social media will impact the way in which neighborhood communities communicate?2. To determine what benefits neighborhood community’s gain from using social media?3. To determine how using social media can help facilitate positive brand reputation perceptions for the Melville community?3.5 Theoretical statementsThe following are theoretical statements and provide theoretical grounding for the research questions and aims:Aaker (1991: 56) states that a successful brand delivers a strong message and has the ability to set social economic and cultural processes into motion. According to Palmer and Koenig- Lewis (2009) social network media lays the foundation for interaction and participation in a community as well as in the facilitation of immediate, interactive low-cost communications. Online brand communities such as those found on social media will offer stakeholders more than just an additional communication channel; they will enable them to obtain valuable information from their stakeholders (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002).Online communities has reshaped stakeholders information-seeking and sharing behavior and through these interactions among forum users, such as reviewers’ contributions and readers’ feedback, increase the community value which has helped build online reputation in the community (Yang, Mai & Ben-Ur, 2012).3.6 Methodological orientationsResearch methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem and it may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically (Flick, 2011: 5). Thus this study used explanatory research which uncovered the phenomena which is unknown (Krishnaswam et al, 2006: 161). It thus helped in achieving greater precision in the formulation of the problems and in the development of new courses of action to be taken. That is through the use of face to face interviews which were used in order to uncover phenomena in greater depth as they allow people to convey to others a situation from their own perspective and in their own words (Kvale & Flick, 2007: 1-2). When understanding different methodologies one firstly has to look at quantitative and qualitative as a starting point to understanding the different methodologies found in research. Firstly qualitative methods involve a researcher describing kinds of characteristics of people and events without comparing events in terms of measurement or amounts, it studies things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret the phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and the collection of a variety of empirical materials such as case study’s, personal experiences, life story and meaning (Thomas, 2003: 1). Qualitative research in an inexpensive research method and is fast due to the low number of respondents asked, and although it cannot be generalized to the whole population because of this it however research finding using this method are very valuable for exploring an issue (Nykiel 2007:46). However the disadvantages associated with qualitative methods is that it generalize the data beyond the sample selected for the particular study, for this reason, it is often the preliminary step to further investigation rather than the final phase of a project (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011: 49). Quantitative research on the other hand has the ability to discern patterns over time such and gives the impression of certainty as it provides useful illustrations of trends (Block, 2006: 98) and a good qualitative study can help the reader understand a situation that would otherwise be enigmatic or confusing (Eisner, 1991: 58). However quantitative research is said to be systematic and is restricts itself from the data experiences that qualitative offers instead as it only focuses on numerical data to get to the research conclusions (Rubin & Babbie, 2010: 35). Therefore in the research done firstly it will look at how quantitative and qualitative was utilized to form a comprehensive investigation of the problem which examines how effective the use of social media can help to establish a neighborhood community within the Melville areaThrough the use of a questionnaire a mixed method design was used, this is a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative questions; the underlying premise for using a mixed method design is that it allows the researcher to collect data that will best answer the research questions (Andrew & Halcomb, 2008: 68). The collection of mixed data was achieved through the use of two methods and that was done through a combination of closed ended and open ended questions. These surveys were thus distributed amongst residents who live within the Melville area. The reason for the use of surveys is that they help in understanding of the opinions of the survey takers and the results are important for the generalizing of a larger population (Fowler, 2002: 4). Therefore through this one is able to understand what the general public of Melville in terms of what their social standing was online and through this help in the investigation of the research problem. While qualitative research was utilized through face to face interviews with industry experts in social media, face to face interviews provided contact between the researcher and the respondent and this contact can be a positive reinforcement for participation as it can usually guarantee a higher response rate than that of surveys done in quantitative research (Dantzker & Hunter, 2009: 147). This part of the research helped bring out the importance of social media and further helped in the investigation the research problem. Bamberger (2000: 17-19) supports the use of integration of both quantitative and qualitative methods as the greatest potential benefit from it is that these two very different disciplines draw on the conceptual and analytical frameworks from each other and help broaden the framework of study even further. Exploratory research as conducted in the research as there are very few or no earlier studies to which can be referred to for information about the issue as not much research or were earlier reports have been done after a search was done on the Nexus database, as it showed that there was no such similar research done (Nexus, 2012). 3.7 Population and samplingA population is the total of all the individuals who have certain characteristics and are of interest to a researcher and thus the target population is the group or the individuals to whom the research applies to (Wrenn et al, 2006: 54). In other words those groups or individuals who are in a position to answer the questions and to whom the results of the surveys apply to. Therefore the target group for the research done was targeted towards Melville stakeholders and industry experts within the social media context. Social media experts were chosen from a range of top digital agencies identified from AdReview Magazine as the AdReview is a leading annual resource book which helped identify the top digital agencies in South Africa (Koenderman, 2012). The reason for the use of this population is that it helped answer the research problem which was the use of social media to establish a neighborhood community. Sampling on the other had is a subset of the population and can be can be divided into probability and nonprobability methods. A probabilistic sample is one in which every member of a target population has a known, non-zero probability of being included in the sample. The aim of a probabilistic sample is to eliminate subjectivity and obtain a sample that is both unbiased and representative of the target population and it is made up of simple random, systematic, stratified, cluster and multistage (DeVaus, 2005:71). While non-probability samples are created when researchers have some justification for believing that they are representative of the population and is made up of different types of methods which range from convenience purposive, typical, critical, snowball and quota (Babbie, 2012: 17), however the weakness of all non-probability sampling is its subjectivity and this may add uncertainty to when the population is used to represent people as a whole (Henry, 2005:24). The sample that was used for the study was non-probability and the reasons for this is because the research looked specifically at Melville and sort to answer the research problem which is how effective the use of social media can help to establish a neighborhood community within the Melville area.The sample that the researcher identified and was used is called the purposive sampling method, its purpose is to identify a particular target group in mind that is, it only tests those that are eligible for the sample and qualify to take part in it. In the case of the study and with the research problem in mind, those eligible are Melville residents as no other people could be used, again, through purposive expert industry people who work exclusively with social media were used in the interview stage due to their expert knowledge on the topic, to add on it is purposive quota because they was use of one person from each agency identified within the AdReview magazines and they were also geographically stratified due to their location which was Johannesburg. Therefore to say one engages in purposive sampling implies that sampling becomes a series of strategic choices about with whom, where and how to do research. Through this a researcher is able to gain rich information from participants in particular and so learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of the inquiry thus the term purposive sampling. Through this one is able then to gain rich insights and in-depth understanding rather than empirical generalizations from people (Patton, 2002: 230)3.8 Research design In this report quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized. They are going to be in-depth face to face interviews with experts utilized in the research. An in-depth interview is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular situation (Patton, 2002: 203). It will be semi-structured and allow questions will be very open ended as this allows can uncover valuable insights, and gain more detailed data as respondents are most likely to open up on a one-on-one basis (Tayie,2005: 67). The downside to interviews is that it can be ambiguous, resulting in a more difficult analysis (Minichiello et al, 2008). However Boyce and Neale (2006) support the fact that interviews provide much more detailed information than what is available, that is through other data collection methods such as surveys and thus is the primary reason for why interviews were chosen as a data collection method. The interview took place at the social media expert’s place of work, and a moderator’s guide including the questions that were asked helped guide the meeting that took place. The meeting was recorded using a recording device so as to help in the collection of data. Through the use of a survey which utilized a mixed approach in collecting data through the use of open and closed ended questions, questionnaires were administered to Melville residents, these questionnaires included m which required mainly options in which respondents could pick from. Questionnaires downfall is that at times the forced-response choices that are given in the questionnaire may not allow individuals to respond as they wish (Athanasiou et al, 2010: 487), however they are usually form an integral part of descriptive and opinion related surveys and are beneficial in obtaining information from a large number of people (Anderson &Morgan 2008). The questionnaires given to respondents were in the form of self-administered questionnaires that respondents were requested to complete in their own and a total of 10 per person were required and collated together to form the research findings and further analysis. 3.9 Data collectionIn the research done 120 surveys were collected by each researcher, analyzed and put together to form a comprehensive analysis of the data collected, questions were both closed ended and open ended questions (see Appendix A). The surveys were distributed amongst Melville residents and it was a simple process of handing out questionnaires to those Melville residents who were willing to partake in the survey. A face to face interview was conducted with an industry person. The questions that were drawn specifically for that interview consisted of 6 open ended questions with special focus on social media and how it relates to helping a neighborhood (see Appendix B). A recording device was present throughout the interview as this was used to collect what the expert was saying in detail so as to enable raw data to be kept and revisited on a later stage, again small notes were made so as to capture not only what the respondent was saying but also any nonverbal signs that were important to the report. The data was then transcribed and put in physical format to be analyzed through the Huberman and Miles approach. Summary of the research participants are listed below.AgencyPerson interviewedDate and timeLocationHelloComputer/ DraftfcbDerek Coles15 October 2012 12:30pmSandownGloo digital agencyTemplar wales12 October 2012 10:30pmParktown NorthTrigger IsobarUno De Waal12 October 2012 11:00amHyde ParkMachine/ Habari MediaNakie Ramashia17 October 2012 14h00pmRivoniaOgilvy JohannesburgWarren Hunt 8 October 2012 09:00amBryanstonQuirkMohomed Khan11 October 2012 12:00pmWoodmeadMesh (Draft FCB)Craig Hannabus15 October. 2012 17:00pmSandownTequilaWerner Putcherd12 October 2012 13:30pmFourwaysiProspect,Stuart Fairbairns17 October 2012 14:01pmBryanstonNativeBen Wagner12 October 2012 14:00pmSandownAquaonlineSheena Gates11 October 2012 09:00amHyde ParkLightHouse Freddie Style22 October 2012 15:30pmSandton3.10 Data analysis After the responses were collected from all 120 respondents who were asked to fill in questionnaires data was grouped and put in their constitutive similarities and differences and from there the data was tabulated and analyzed in the form of graphs and charts and interpreted on. The approach that was used to analyse the data that was available for the interviews will be the Huberman and Miles which is a qualitative data analysis approach in analyzing data (Robson, 2002:473). According to Poggenpoel (1998:340) the Huberman and Miles approach comprises of three of the following processes which is firstly data reduction which means reduction takes place before and after data collection, and requires that data be reduced through the use of summaries, abstracts or differences that is found within the data. The second step in the Huberman and Miles approach to data analysis entails data display and is an organized, concise assembly of information that permits conclusion drawing and/or action taking (Poggenpoel, 1998:340). As described by Robson (2002:476), data display fulfills a vital function as data starts to make sense, justified conclusions can be drawn, and it becomes clear what further analysis is called for. The last step in the process is the conclusion drawing and verification stage, this part entails making interpretations and drawing meaning from the displayed data. Furthermore, this verification process entailed the benchmarking of theory with the research problem and thereafter verifying the correlation between the different research aims and theoretical statements pertaining to the specific research aim. 3.11 Reliability and validityAccording to Joppe (2001: 1) reliability is the extent to which results are consistent over time and an accurate representation of the total population under study is referred to as reliability and if the results of a study can be reproduced under a similar methodology, then the research instrument is considered to be reliable. Reliability is a concept used for testing or evaluating quantitative and qualitative research, the idea is most often used in all kinds of research. Thus to ensure reliability in the research, examination of trustworthiness was crucial in the study. This was done by being open and honest to all respondents about what was going on before beginning the interview or giving them the surveys to complete to the extent that if the exactly the same experiment, under the same conditions would be done it would generate the same results. Reliability was achieved by initiating a pilot study before going ahead with the data collection; this was done by asking pre-testing the questionnaires to a sample respondent before it was given to other respondents so as to make sure that questions were clearly and well understood. While validity determines whether the research truly measures that which it was intended to measure or how truthful the research results are. In other words, Researchers generally determine validity by asking a series of questions, and will often look for the answers in the research of others (Joppe, 2002:1). Creswell & Miller (2000) suggest that the validity is affected by the researcher’s perception of validity in the study and his/her choice of standard assumption. Validity looks at internal validity which relates to the extent to which the design of a research study is a good test of the hypothesis or is appropriate for the research question while external validity, meanwhile, relates to whether or not research findings can be generalized beyond the immediate study sample and setting (Carter and Porter 2000:24- 30). How validity can be achieved is through ensuring that all interviews and survey questionnaires are carried out in the same manner and follow the same research structured design so as to ensure validity. Again types of validity include face to face validity and it exists if the measurement looks and feels as if it will capture the construct that is intended to measure (Keyton: 2005: 111), it is easiest to establish as the measurement instrument which was used to ask questions to the experts indeed captured what was indeed needed to be measured. To add on Keyton (2002: 112) states that face validity is strengthened when a researcher uses an expert in the field of study and therefore validity was achieved as they was a face to face interview that was completed with an expert in the field of study of social media. So although reliability and validity are two separate terms they are connected in a fundamental way as the aim of the report is to aim to get both reliability and validity right as for example a questionnaire can be reliable even if the measurement is not valid. But valid measurements are only useful if they are also reliable and both must be taken into great consideration (Keyton, 2005: 118). 3.12 ConclusionThe research problem was to explore how social media can be used to establish a neighborhood community within the Melville area and this will be done through the use of both qualitative which comprised of face to face expert interviews and a quantitative research method which comprised of a questionnaire with closed and open ended questions. The data for the interviews was analyzed through the Huberman and Miles approach while the questionnaires were tabulated in graphs and charts to highlight the results of findings. Reliability and validity were achieved in order to make the study more comprehensive for future use. However limitations were an underlying factor that impacted the research study gravely. The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impact or influence the application or interpretation of the results of the study. They are the constraints on generalizability and utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which you chose to design the study (Anonymous 2010). The major limitations involved were that it industry experts are very time pressured and it was hard getting them to sit down and answer questions to their full potential as they may not have answered in the best possible way. Again time constraints affected the time to investigate the research problem and to measure change within the sample due to the due date of the assignment thus not enough data can be collected to conclusively give a comprehensive study in detail. 4. FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS4.1 Social media to establish an online communityTable 4.1 illustrates a summary of the key findings from the face to face expert interviews that were conducted within a sample of a selected group of digital agencies in Johannesburg namely. The section question that were asked to respondents are as follows: How is social media used to create online brand communities, What are the advantages of online brand communities?; How is Social Media used to build brand reputation?; Does Social Media offer opportunities for place branding e.g. Neighborhoods?; How is Social Media used to defend brand reputations e.g. place brands?; and lastly any suggestions /comments regarding the use of Social Media to create virtual communities for neighborhood communities. The key findings will be illustrated within the table highlighting both similarities and differences. Table 4.1 Section A- Summary of key findings relating to social mediaSub themessimilaritiesDifferencesHow is social media used to create online brand communities?Identifies a common interestkey influencersCreates awarenessWhat are the advantages of online brand communities?market research Instant gratificationAllows for conversationsfreeHow is Social Media used to build brand reputation?Key influencersListening factorRight contentOpenness Getting everyone in the team on boardDoes Social Media offer opportunities for place branding e.g. Neighborhoods?Allows for information sharingHelp change perceptionsPlace branding as a new termAccess as a problemHow is Social Media used to defend brand reputations e.g. place brands?Getting Advocates to defend the brandOnline reputation management (ORM) Standing with peopleOpen and honestyAny suggestions /comments regarding the use of Social Media to create virtual communities for neighborhood communities?Clear goals and objectivesRight contentExperienceMelville as a brand4.1.1 Social media as a way to create online brand communitiesOnline brand communities offer communities more than just an additional communication channel as they enable them to obtain valuable information from their stakeholders, (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002). Communities who therefore utilize social media tools will enable them to not only enhance them as a community and building the neighborhood brand but also make it easier for them to engage and communicate with each other. In relation then to how social media can aid creating online brand communities the overriding finding from 50% of the interviews was that social media needed the right content in order to be able to create brand communities through social media. Wagner, (2012) mentions “how it is important that brands create content that is a hundred percent useful, a 100 percent entertaining and a 100 percent emotive which this increases the likelihood of sharing”, this is further enhanced by Wales (2012) who states that “so when you create the interest and you create content and you start engaging people in that content and you start creating conversations with those people and you can do that through creating destination content. Style (2012) “that if the target is a Castle user there, will be different things that they will be targeted for, which may be soccer, cricket and rugby to amplify that particular content so that the consumer can engage with the brand”. Coles (2012) explains it further by saying that “when we do campaigns for certain of the brands we work on the aim is in the end, to put out exciting content, content that doesn’t feel like it interrupts, but feels like it is in line with what the community is looking for, and through that it builds a community of people who are interested in what that brand has to offer. Gates (2012) enhances the point by saying that “content so you could scream to the whole world to get a million people to come to your page but if your content is not good enough they are not going to stay so a lot of effort comes into planning your content and making sure it regular and that its relevant”, “so we need to identify some kind of like common interest, what do people care about. (Purchert, 2012).Therefore from this is that it can be seen that content is an important aspect which helps a brand become more attractive to its audience and thus pulls in stakeholders to that platform which then around it creates those online brand communities. So in essence the more useful and interesting content is on a social media platform the more successful it will be because people will find a common interest around the content that is available on these social networks. In terms of the other similarities that were noted 42% of respondents pointed out how social media created conversations which help build some of these online communities. Hannabus (2012) points out how social media as a platform “allows the brand to have a two-way conversation with its clients and potential clients” which added on by Fairbairns (2012) notes how then this allows brands to “communicate to different types of people in different places in different ways”. Purchert (2012) states how it is important for a brand add value to the consumer through “how we listen to what they’ve got to say and in the long terms it’s like how can we collaborate with them, so if you can answer this, then you can start building a community”. So it’s a two-way stream now, it’s not just us the brand talking to the community, it’s also the community talking back to the brand as well (De Waal, 2012), to add on Habari (2012) mentions how social networking sites enable users to present themselves; express, establish, and maintain social connections with others; and articulate their own social networks. This has a strong correlation with the literature review in which it was noted that a good online brand should be based on the dialogue that it has with its customers and prospects the stronger the dialogue the stronger the brand. Two respondents mentioned the importance of key influencers as a way to call audiences to a platform, Wagner (2012) points out that “targeting key influencers maximizes the impact and growth of your community and Fairbairns (2012) adds on to this point by stating that “the ultimate outset is that you want to get a community of quality key influencers who are brand ambassadors that are going to speak your messages and share it further on, so obviously it’s on engagement levels and referral levels giving you the maximum exposure”. They were however some differences that came out throughout the findings, Gates (2012) states that “to create a social media from scratch generally we would need budget to create awareness so which is for your banner advertising”. While Khan (2012) on the other hand states that by creating a community online is having “an existing brand and what they do, is they can transfer their offline assets into online and take the discussion further or alternatively you could have brands that have started natively online” This point illustrates how brands are increasingly creating a presence for themselves online as many brands are progressively migrating online to meet their customer’s needs. Therefore what can be identified from these similarities is that social media needs to first of all have these in place and that is content that is interesting to the stakeholder, key influencers that will help drive people online by the number of mentions that brand is said by them as well as allow conversations online that will initially build brand communities online. 4.1.2 Advantages of online brand communitiesOnline brand communities can offer positive aspects for the brand. Some of these advantages can were pointed out amongst the respondents, the overriding finding that came up from 59% of respondents was that online brand communities are provide market research in essence which leads to the brand knowing the consumer better. Fairbairns (2012) says that on online brand communities “you can do all kinds of market research, this point can be further explained by Gates (2012) who mentions that “market research it is a huge thing for our clients, and they rely heavily on our social media community to give them product feedback and services feedback” and to add on to point, Wagner (2012) adds on by saying “generally because they are on social media, they are a certain type of person, so you can do more stuff with it, you can experiment, you can ask questions you can do research - you have an audience you can do something with”. Hannabus (2012) further stresses the issue of marketing research by mentioning how “on-line brand communities give insight into the sociological background of the consumer”. And by this help in better understanding who the fans of the brand are by the statistics that these social network tools produce. Therefore as a brand ultimately starts to get to know their consumers, they can actually start working with your consumers to do stuff and that’s how it’s beneficial to a business.In terms of the other similarities 33 % of respondents pointed out that brand communities offers instant gratifications that in today’s fast paced environment help meet customer need for instant gratification. Fairbairns (2012) mentions that it has become easy to “talk directly to your favorite brand and you get reply instantly, so it bring the sort of celebrity status of brands down to street level and the opportunity there is obvious for individuals, they can talk directly to the brand”. 25% of respondents felt that brand communities help empowers consumers, Khan (2012) mentions how online brand communities help “empowers people by giving them a channel to actually speak”, as “word of mouth influences in the form of social connections/endorsements” Habari (2012). Khan (2012) added on again by stating that the power of consumer allows them to be able to air their views online as “all they need to do really is go on Facebook and complain to your friends”. This has a strong correlation with the literature review which states how WOM in an online community influences the decision making and attitude formation made by community members found online and thus reputations of the brand. Another similarity noted by 42% of respondents is that it creates conversations, as “it allows the brand to talk directly with its people through conversations” Fairbairns (2012). Therefore through identifying the similarities it can be seen that indeed online brand communities such as those found on social media will offer stakeholders more than just an additional communication channel, they will enable them to obtain valuable information from their stakeholders, be able to meet stakeholder needs and in essence build strong communities online. 4.1.3 Building reputations through social mediaA brand's reputation, a healthy brand of a successful strategy, nowadays can be driven and developed completely by the consumer. The consumers thirst for information, quenched by the ability to instantly access whatever they feel they need, drives a whole new level of awareness, and this simple fact boils down to that brands can no longer control their own reputations independently (Southgate, 2012). Therefore building online brand reputations is important. The overriding finding from 58% of respondents mentioned how reputations are managed and built through key influencers which help leverage the brand. Fairbairns (2012) mentions how “reputation is about getting out there and again finding those communities of key influencers, getting them to love your brand and getting them to follow it”, That allows positive experiences of brands to spread through the network and have a wider reach of audience however it is important to note that even through some of these key influencers referrals unfortunately goes the same for negative sentiments, that is if the consumer had a bad experience with the brand they may influence other users not to use the brand. Style (2012) & De Waal (2012) also add on to this argument by mentioning how a community- brand community specifically allows the identifying the influential people in the community pretty quickly and that allows them to influence other people. Influential people are important for a brand as this helps leverage the brand in a good or bad light and thus builds the brands reputation, just like neighborhoods if people were to talk and say bad things about that certain area, it would in essence gain a bad reputation for itself and thus not generate as much due to its reputation, thus this argument stresses out the importance of building brand reputations through maintain good reputations. Another similarity that was noted by 25% of respondents was building reputations through allowing having the right content intact. Habari 2012) mentions that It is “important to ensure that the content is well written as users easily pick up poorly written content and that could go viral for quickly- negative publicity”. To illustrate this Style (2012) mentions that “for the brand to associate itself with content only the brand can disseminate” allows it to target the consumer it is intending to target through its content, he illustrates with Castle Light if for example they would communicate something about Kanye West, it would be something the brand owns because they are the only brand that would be bringing him to South Africa and the only brand to have access to all the details.Again openness as another similarity noted states how through the open nature of social media reputations can be built. Wagner (2012) mentions that “Everything people say and do in the “digital world lives as you can't erase the internet”. Thus he stresses on the importance of having a clear view, tone and personality and thus it “helps to take the positioning of a brand and what a brand is about and put things out there to the market, which would help, build that as a brand” (Cole 2012) this will help ensure that every-one representing the brand online lives the brand - breathes it and knows it. Wales (2012) thus stresses the importance of brands that have customer service ho deal with people’s issues should not hide but instead respond to people’s complains, queries and questions about the company allows for open transparency and in the long run builds reputations online. Lastly another similarity noted by 25% of respondents is the Listening factor that allows a brand to get closer to its customers and so “help understand the service the customer needs better” (Hunt 2012). Habari (2012 mentions the importance of a brand to remain “active, engaging and maintain presence on the social media platforms” which in essence helps build good reputations online for a brand. However a difference can be noted by Gates (2012) who points out that building reputations is not the effort of one person form a brand but “it’s very much getting everyone involved so it’s from the person behind your till counter to the person who signs the cheque book to the person who handles PR and to your legal team an effort of every single person in that organization to buy into social media and they really have to believe in it and they got a work as a team to manage that reputation”. The fore this illustrates how reputations should be built from ground level to where it gets online and this will help people create associations with the brand before they even think about going online to view it. Therefore through the similarities it is important to note that reputation is something that cannot be bestowed upon instantaneously it is something that is built over time and should be continuously managed properly to ensure it stays good. 4.1.4 Does social media offer opportunities for place branding? All 100 % of respondents agreed to statement and therefore the theme that was identified was that social media allows for information sharing, this them can be supported by Gates (2012) who states that social media (2012) is to get the “messages across and get people to start talking to you and talking for you as well” .Coles (2012), adds on by stating that social media allows for “sharing of information about what’s right and wrong, what’s worked and what hasn’t, what people should be aware of, that is a real community”. This can be drawn back from the quantitative data that was collected amongst residents which stated the importance of information sharing as a major theme that was identified. Another similarity that came up by at least a majority of respondents at about 67% of respondents felt that place branding was a new term, it was identified throughout the research that most respondents did not know what place to them and so throughout the discussion this can be picked up as many respondents felt unsure or needed a detailed explanation of what place branding entailed. Gates for example mentions that in terms of “place branding I’ve never heard of before until this morning”. The last similarity identified by 25% of respondents is that social media help form perceptions. Hannabus (2012) mentions how “social media can be used to change perceptions of almost anything. Of course, creating a positive image of something on social media does require a certain amount of truth in real life” while De waaI (2012) adds on to this point by saying that it becomes even more important that brands continue “creating content that changes people’s perception about what the area”. This discussion can be supported by the literature review which also emphasizes that social media does indeed offer opportunities for the brand such as places who when they utilize these social media tools will enable them to not only enhance them as a community and building the brand but also make it easier for them to engage and communicate.4.1.5 How is social media used to defend brand reputations e.g. place brands?Reputation is important for the brand success and thus when one defends a brand it is from harm’s way. The finding identified from 67% of respondents was that social media can be used to defend reputations likely through by getting advocates to defend the brand. Hunt (2012) states that the brand “can use other people to come to their defense”, and Khan 2012) illustrates this by pointing out that “if someone happens to post something negative on the page, before the brand actually responds you will get brand advocates who respond”. Wales (2012) mentions that it can go to the extent to which “if someone complains about something or they need help with something the community jumps in and actually answers before anyone can answer”. 16% of respondents identified online reputation management (ORM) as a way in which social media would help defend the brand, Style (2012) stresses the importance of having a dedicated teams that will react to people’s questions”, which can in essence lead to a brand managing its reputations incase anything came up .Gates (2012) adds that ORM (online reputation management) involve “tools that actually scout the internet for specifically were people mention the brand on Facebook, twitter and you name”. Therefore maintaining true to oneself through ensures the reputation of the brand is met which may mean the target audience may have a strong affiliation with the brand that they will be willing to defend it, and in essence better the brand. However certain differences from different respondents can be noted from this. Fairbairns (2012) note the importance of standing beside people and hold their hands and say “I’m here with you” everyone wants to be involved and you can involve people. Everyone has ideas and thus that’s how you can defend while Coles (2012) states that by understanding how to handle and what needs to be said is important by being “open and honest about what has to be done, and needs to be done”, will in the long help a brand keep their credibility and so increase people defending it no matter the circumstances. Therefore reputation is important in that it helps build online brand communities and in good reputation make for an overall good brand that will reap and remain sustainable, while opposite can be said about the 4.1.6 Any suggestions / comments regarding the use of Social Media to create virtual communities for neighborhood communitiesFrom the finding identified 33% of respondents felt that it was important to have a clear goal or objectives. This can be supported by Wagner (2012) who states that it is important to be “very clear about your "reason for being" - why do you want the community, what do you want to achieve. Khan (2012) states that it is important then to “go back to the objective”, what is it that you want to achieve and base your social media on that”. Another similarity that is identified is that it is important that an online site has the right content, Coles (2012) says that it is important that someone to manage it that is “when there is no content to put up, someone needs to be finding stuff to post, otherwise you don’t hear for a week or two and suddenly you not interested anymore” Again Fairbairns (2012) adds on by saying that brands must “make sure that you have enough content to keep people entertained and make sure if you start a Facebook page, you have at least one update a day, at least, ask people questions, involve them”.The difference noted by one respondent, Habari (2012) mentions that social media “lets the experience gained or offered be the main driver of this virtual community”. While Purchert (2012) points out that it is important to look at Melville as a brand, look at this thing that people would enjoy going out to and to do, the thing that made Melville look cool in the first place music, the pubs, the bars, the having slightly the mainstream music and start talking about all the positive things and bring interest and people back to all those positive things”. De Waal on the other hand saw that for people to first go online it was important to first of all meet in physical form and then get people online he mentions that Melville should “just get everyone to start talking to each other and finding solutions together, that’s the easiest way to start doing it”, which in essence will help people moving forward and thus help create a virtual communities that will be successful.4.2 Social media through sharing of information The following two themes were identified from the surveys done: the sharing of community information and platforms preferred in aiding commination amongst residents. Firstly the theme, sharing community information is a key theme that was identified within the research, this is due to its community’s interest to get information, how information is preferred, shared or received and this evidence can be derived from the data gathered. Firstly it was seen that out of 120 respondents identified in Melville, 118 respondents felt they wanted information regarding Melville. This figure which when converted into a percentage is 98% and thus is can be seen to be a high figure which shows how the community of Melville is highly interested in information within the neighborhood. These types of information that respondents would be most interested in sharing within their community can be seen in table 4.2Table 4.2This table basically looks at the raw data that was collected from all the respondents it can be seen that people within the community are more interested in sharing information about festivals and cultural events which is 70% of respondents were interested in, followed by community events at 68%, crimes incidents 66%, followed by crime statistics 43% and crime alerts 56%, shopping specials 57%, business news 45%, charity 44%, crime statistics 43, tourism 40%, traffic 33%, news reports 30%, local council news 28%, school news 25%, weather 18% and lastly personal at 14% as very few respondents felt they wanted to share their personal lives. Events and cultural events being the highest can be supported by the data gathered from the brand scan conducted by the researcher it can be seen why people within the Melville area would share information about it, Melville has a very rich history and hosts a number of events within the area. Data from the brand scan reports that events include a monthly series of live music and entertainment, which also help to promote the live music in the suburb. So not only is the heritage and history an important factor that is identified in these area for these local residents but it is also one of the major reasons why people would visit the area and also host as a tourist destination to those staying outside the area. Mary-lay (2012) a prominent member of the board within Melville mentions how Melville has a great history as it goes way back to the hay days when times were slow. A lot of heritage is seen in the area, the building in the area show it and still exhibits that old village style living especially along 7th street, which in essence give rise to its events and festivals within the area and could support for its popularity within the area. This phenomenon then could help support the reason why people talk a lot about festivals and cultural events, as the area is home to a lot of history and heritage which then give rise to such happenings. In the data it can also be seen that crime is something that most residents are sharing, this can also be supported by information that was gathered from a brand scan done on Melville (Sidambe, 2012) which gathered vast amounts of data on the Melville area. In it was seen that crime was a major theme finding within the brand scan as it was reported on the most within the area of Melville amongst residents and as well as non-residents. Therefore this can help support why crime is seen to be one of the top overlying things community members would most likely be talking and sharing information about. Crime was seen to be affecting residents through house breaking, car hijacks and muggings, for example one participant said “the crime is a major factor in the area as many muggings are always being reported in the area, I feel very unsafe walking around there most of the times” this just supporting how crime affects the area. Owner of business De le Crème sites his own experience in Melville by saying ‘I was held up once at Service station where while pouring petrol about a year or two ago and that wasn’t fun but it’s what happens sometimes’ show casing the severity of crime within the area. Thus showing the severity of this crime within the area of Melville and why residents would most likely share information on such events pertaining the crime within the area. Personal is the least likely information that community members would most likely want to share within the community. Therefore from this what can be identified is that Information sharing is a vital element in improving outcomes for all residents, as it is a key goal in helping deliver a better, more efficient neighborhood for the community. Sharing information is thus as vital as being able to access it. The next theme that will be discussed is platforms preferred in aiding communication amongst residents. It is important to know where information is being accessed from in order to understand how information is spread within a community, this report will thus will help in understanding what platforms are more important to residents and if so how well are they being utilized and what other avenues can be used in the area to enhance the way in which information is conveyed between the residents of Melville. Identified within the research it can be seen in table 4.3 where residents access information the most from to the least. Table 4.3It can thus be seen in the table that information within the area is most spread through word of mouth at 70% residents. This has a strong correlation with the literature review which states that word of mouth is seen as stakeholders who dominate channels of marketing communication where the sender is independent of the market. It is therefore perceived to be more reliable, credible, and trustworthy by stakeholders compared to firm-initiated communications (Brown et al., 2007: 4) and thus this is a powerful influence on behavior, especially on information search and on decision making. Members of the community share information through each other than through marketing platforms made for them. Secondly the community newspaper (56%) as the second most popular avenue that residents got information from was followed by posters, flyers, email and the least going to online platforms such as email, Facebook, twitter and blogs. However when respondents were asked if they did use social media, 103 respondents out of 125 (82% of respondents) said they did use social media. This thus shows how little social media platforms are being utilized within the Melville community to build and share information. There is an overriding gap as these social media platforms which residents are on are not being made use of to their best abilities by community members within the Melville area to enable residents to receive and share information with each other, even thou a majority of residents seem to be on them. This can thus be seen as an opportunity for Melville residents to create a page especially dedicated to sharing information online about the area. However it is important to note that the remaining 18% of residents who were not found on any social media networks such as twitter and Facebook preferred the offline sources such as the community newspaper, word of Mouth, flyers and posters and these sources of reaching community members should not be overlooked as it is vital to have an offline presence first in order to achieve an online presence for stakeholder use. Residents who were asked to comment as to why they did not support using social media commented as said “I’m too old” and some said “I find social media to be time consuming and the effort involved in maintaining profiles and ‘keeping up’ with everything is far too much for my liking”. Word of mouth is a popular platform that resident’s use this evidence can be seen in table 4.4 as 63% of residents ticked yes to platforms they preferred in sharing information with.Table 4.4Word of mouth as seen in the graph is an overriding figure that is utilized by members of the community in sharing information about the community. Word of mouth is again showing up and this stresses once again the importance of word of mouth as a platform used by members to spread information. It is important however to note that Facebook at 35% and twitter at 20% of respondents are also viable platforms in which members share information amongst each other and this draws back to the importance of a neighborhood community utilizing social media networks as ways in which to inform residents of events, crime and other happenings within the area. Members of the community are using these platforms and this again supports the notion that social media can be used as viable root when special dedication is given to creating a social media network such as Facebook which can be dedicated to sharing and receiving information online for Melville residents. Neighborhoods who therefore utilize these tools will be able to then not only enhance their community communications but also build the community brand and make it easier to engage and encourage participation. This is in strong correlation with the literature review which states that social media helps in the sharing of information and how through this sharing of information, identities are created and distributed and then from this communities are created. Blake (2009: 123). Research done showed that majority of respondents preferred Facebook; this can be seen in table 4.5Table 4.5This graph illustrates the fact that majority of respondents preferred Facebook as asocial media platform in which they would prefer to use. Respondents said because “it’s easy to share and access with others; you can like a page and get news; saves time because you can get it on your phone”, while others felt that it was “easy to share information”. This has a strong correlation with the literature review which states that Facebook had more than 500million active users making it one of the largest social media networks around. Followed by twitter and respondents said they preferred because it “news travels fast on these sites” and that “it is more instant” while email, blogs and foursquare were the least preferred. When residents were asked what suggestions on how social media could be utilized by the Melville Community to create an online neighborhood community, in the findings identified majority of about residents (50%) touched on the importance of Melville creating groups online as well Facebook and twitter page in which they could share and communicate on. Some of the comments said by residents to support this statement are “create a group and see how many people like the group or are following the group and ask those people to invite others to also join” while another resident said “Start a Facebook and Twitter account”. Majority of respondents talked about creating some sort of social platform online that will help communication between residents swifter or easier for them. Again respondents also suggested that they create a webpage for Melville. Respondents mentioned that Melville should “open a website for the whole community where people can share events and information” and suggested “to create a Melville home website with all the information updates and emergency contact numbers”. Therefore this research shows the relevance of online platforms as a way to spread, interact and help share information with residents. The research done has validated that social media will indeed impact the way in which people communicate within a neighborhood. This can be seen by respondents need to want to share and spread information within the area, and social media is a platform that can help facilitate this, thus social network media lays the foundation for interaction and participation in a community (Palmer and Koenig- Lewis, 2009). Overall Identified looked at the importance of sharing information amongst all residents and the platforms that were amongst residents the most popular and potential for use such as Facebook and twitter standing out as the most. Thus through this it is clear that social media does indeed solve the problem as it does have a space in aiding build communities through its easy access and ability to share information instantly which is what through the research seen stakeholders of Melville are looking for. Social media has many benefits and this can be drawn from the advantages mentioned above as well as aiding build the right reputations through which can be good for an area through it being defended by brand advocates. Therefore through the research done it indeed reflects what was found in the theoretical questions and that is that online brand communities such as those found on social media will offer stakeholders more than just an additional communication channel; they will enable them to obtain valuable information from their stakeholders (McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig, 2002) as well as reshaped consumers’ information-seeking and sharing behavior and through these interactions among forum users, such as reviewers’ contributions and readers’ feedback, increase the community value which has helped build online reputation in the community (Yang, Mai & Ben-Ur, 2012). Therefore what had to be done was to test the research problem and that to explore how social media can be used to establish a neighborhood community, with special attention given to Melville residents who would then utilize these platforms as well as looking into what social media experts are saying about social media and how it can benefit those who use it. The results show that indeed social media can benefit communities and assist in creating that diverse disconnected community is into a more connected community and so turn around the negative perception of the area through brand advocates who can help in defending the brand. However limitation of the whole study included time being a major factor in the investigation, time to investigate a research problem and to measure change or stability within a sample is constrained by the due date of the assignment thus not enough data can be collected to conclusively give a comprehensive study in detail. Again the limitation of the study was that research was limited to Melville in trying to solve the problem, research for future recommendation can also look at going outside of Melville and exploring other areas so as to have a comprehensive study, as this research can only be applied to Melville only. Another recommendation would also be increasing the time limit of the study so instead of having it occur at the end of the year have it begin at the beginning so that researchers can have enough time to gather data and so have enough time to collate it properly to further accommodate changes that may occur within the sampled population. 5. SOURCE LISTAaker, D. A .(1991). Managing Brand Equity: Capitalising the value of a brand name. New York: Free Press. Abrahamsen, A., & Hartmann, B. 2006. Online brand community in action. A constitutive netnography: Advancing a wholesome ethnomethodological perspective on brand community. Master's Thesis, School of Economics and Management. 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APPENDIX A: MELVILLE COMMUNITY SOCIAL MEDIA NEEDS ANALYSIS Other QuestionsOptionResponseDo you live in this area permanently?Yes?If NO, stop.?No?Are you interested in receiving information about the Melville CommunityYes??NoIf NO, stopWhere do you receive community information from? Mark as many as is munity newspaperFlyersWord of MouthLook localFacebookTwitterSMS notificationPostersBlogsEmailOther. Please specify.Do you use Social Media? (twitter, Facebook)YesNoIf not, why not?If you do not use social media, which other communication sources do you prefer? Mark as many as you like. Community newspaperFlyersWord of MouthLook localFacebookTwitterSMS notificationBlogsWebsitePostersEmailOther. Please specifyIf you prefer social media as a source of community information, which social medium do you prefer? Why?Do you share information about the community with others in the community?YesNoIf so, which of the following do you use? (Mark as many as applicable)Community newspaperFlyersWord of MouthLook localFacebookTwitterSMS notificationWebsitePostersEmailOther. Please specifyWhich types of community information would you like to share in the community? Mark as many as you munity events and happeningsBusiness newsShopping specialsWeatherTrafficNews reportsPersonal Crime incidents Crime statisticsCrime alertsSafety informationCharity drivesFestivals and cultural eventsLocal council newsTourism informationSchool newsOther. Please specify.Do you have any suggestions on how Social Media could be utilised by the Melville Community to create an online neighbourhood community?SECTION B – BIOGRAPHICAL GenderMale??Female?Age Group<=25??25-35??35-45??45-55??55 and older?Thank you very much for your participationAPPENDIX B: SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT INTERVIEW SCHEDULEHow is social media used to create online brand communitiesWhat are the advantages of online brand communities?How is Social Media used to build brand reputation?Does Social Media offer opportunities for place branding e.g. neighbourhoodsHow is Social Media used to defend brand reputations e.g. place brands?Any suggestions /comments regarding the use of Social Media to create virtual communities for neighbourhood communities? ................
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