Be friends with me! Online political relationship marketing: an analysis of Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye’s use of Facebook accounts

Abstract

This thesis explores the shift in marketing from transactional to relationship marketing in the corporate world and questions the lack of adoption of this concept in a political context, given that relationships are at the core of politics. Moreover, it explores how this marketing concept can be used through the social media site, Facebook, since social media sites place a premium on two way communication and thus are effective tools for relationship building. The focus is on long-term relationship building, and therefore the focus of this research was on non-election periods. This research assessed to what extent politicians are already using Facebook as a platform to conduct relationship marketing techniques with their constituents. In order to do so, a triangulated, mixed methods approach was used. To start, relevant literature was sourced from a range of fields and synthesised to create an original framework on how politicians should use relationship marketing techniques via Facebook to create and maintain relationships with the public. Secondly, this theoretical framework was tested against two case studies on Auckland Central politicians; Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye. Data was collected from a 5 year span between 2011-2015 and a thorough content analysis was performed on the data using a number of metrics that coordinated with the theoretical framework created. The analysis found that although the politicians use some of the techniques identified in the original framework well, others were underused or completely neglected. Most importantly, this thesis found that both case studies severely lacked true two-way communication with the public via Facebook, which was identified as a necessary component of relationship marketing as well as an important factor in the use of social media. The findings from the case studies were used to inform changes and updates to the theoretical framework as per the grounded theory. It was suggested that to add to the scholarship on this field, further investigation should be progressed by applying the final model to more cases in order to deepen the understanding on how using relationship marketing on Facebook can strengthen relations between elected officials and the public.