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    Engaging fans on Facebook : how New Zealand organisations are communicating on Facebook to build and maintain relationships with their publics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Communication Management at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Gardner, Danae
    research examined how Facebook is being used as a communication tool by commercial organisations in New Zealand to build and maintain relationships with their publics. The research questions were produced by identifying a gap in public relations literature, which revealed a lack of an integrated framework to assess organisations’ communication with publics on social networking sites (SNS) from a relationship management perspective. The research questions explored how Facebook is being used as a communication tool by certain New Zealand organisations and their Facebook fans and how the findings of this study relate to specific relationship cultivation and outcome measures as identified in public relations literature. A content analysis was carried out on twelve New Zealand commercial organisations’ official Facebook pages. The main unit of analysis was a single Facebook post, and 21 days of material was collected. Results showed that organisations used a range of interactive and engaging communication activities/strategies such as conversation exchanges, asking and answering questions, compliments and positive reinforcements, which related to relationship cultivation strategies and relational outcomes. Communication activities such as traditional media-type relations like posting press releases or links to news stories were rarely utilised; however, communication activities such as text-based announcements appeared to substitute this. The results were discussed in light of the research questions and concluded with recommendations to conduct further research in the area of commercial organisations communicating on SNS and the effectiveness of that communication within the relationship management framework.
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    The effectiveness of vehicles promoting eLearning professional development : a research thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Communication Management at Massey University, Manawatu
    (Massey University, 2010) O'Hara, Duncan
    The influence of vehicles, such as email, websites, and newsletters, to promote eLearning professional development is an area of study that is marked by a lack of research. The aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the role that the vehicles used to promote formal eLearning professional development opportunities play in influencing staff awareness of academic development programmes. Using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, seven groups of Massey University staff were asked to recall and assess the effectiveness of the vehicles used to promote eLearning professional development. The research also drew on web metrics data to provide an observational assessment of the popularity of the University eLearning professional development webpage. The results suggest that motivation plays a key part in staff awareness of formal eLearning professional development opportunities and the vehicles used to promote them. Further, motivation and institutional factors, such as an institutional eLearning strategy, are interrelated. Therefore the vehicles used to promote eLearning professional development need to be varied and focused on the strengths of each vehicle. There is also potential to use eLearning professional development courses themselves as effective means of promoting other eLearning opportunities. Additionally, the findings suggest that technology-reliant vehicles, such as email and websites, help in converting staff interest in eLearning into action in the form of enrolment into professional development courses. For staff who are less interested in eLearning, a strategy that involves ii developing relationships within key personnel within departments is likely to be highly effective in changing perceptions and encouraging engagement. It is hoped that the findings will assist academic development units to strategically promote their eLearning professional development to a wider academic audience.