The influence of content marketing initiatives on professionals’ engagement : the case of self-driving cars

Abstract

utomated driving depicts a disruptive technology in the automotive sector. LinkedIn (LI) constitutes herby the social media platform, which connects experts from all over the globe. Experts are active via the LinkedIn feed and within expert groups, however, engagement with the content can be described as low. This thesis aims to investigate this issue, by analysing factors which lead to engagement with Content Marketing initiatives amongst professionals on LI. Engagement factors are divided into the four categories: motivational factors to engage (1), measured with Baldus’ et al. (2014) scale, characteristics of a post (2), the influence of the topic (3) and the format (4) on engagement. Those factors are examined within three subgroups, users solely reading the headlines (1), users consuming the content (2) and users engaging with the content (3). A survey administered on LinkedIn leads to the findings, that professionals are predominantly interested in pure exchange of high quality information and that the engagement increases with the time the professional is in the field and with proximity to the actual research. Those users are best targeted in LI groups. Societal topics, such as ethics have a subordinate effect on engagement. Previous interactions (likes, comments and shares) with the content do not have an impact on the user’s engagement. Professionals utilize a diverse plethora of knowledge sources, where LI constitutes a supplementary online source, which can easily be exchanged. Therefore, the marketer has the obligation to provide timely and relevant content in order to avoid redundancy and stay competitive.

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/25911