Abstract
M.A. (Strategic Communication)
The increasing popularity of social media platforms creates brand communities on social media to be unique. Social media based brand communities are characterised by the collaboration between members who typically engage with one another when discussing their favourite brands on social media platforms. Concepts such as brand innovation and brand value are respectively not communicated in the conventional one-way process from management to passive consumers, but are rather actively co-created by members of a brand community on a social network. Research in various contexts has identified value-creating practices and brand innovation mechanisms that co-create brand innovation as a result of ongoing engagements in brand communities. Considering the above mentioned research, it is worth investigating to what extent these value-creating practises and brand innovation mechanisms may be evident in a social media based brand community in South Africa. Of specific interest to this study were the value-creating practices of the social media based brand community for the City of Johannesburg (COJ) on Twitter in order to establish how brand innovation is co-created. The aim was to establish how digital brand innovation is co-created in social media based brand communities for COJ Twitter account. Literature within the Twitter based brand communities as part of social media based brand communities is not abundant, thus this research aimed to contribute to filling this gap. Two sets of samples were drawn namely; tweets and an in-depth semi-structured interview. Only tweets engaging with the COJ Twitter handle on 16 June 2017 were selected for the sample. The tweets were further categorised into COJ tweets and COJ Twitter account mentions. The COJ social media team were included in the sample as having adequate knowledge about the research problem in order to confirm findings. To collect data, tweets were downloaded and saved into a spreadsheet and a semi-structured in-depth interview was recorded using an audible voice recorder, and then transcribed. Themes were derived from the literature review. However, new themes emerged. These themes revealed some of the value-creating practices and brand innovation mechanisms expressed in the COJ Twitter based brand community. The findings concluded that the identified collaborative value-creating practices expressed in the COJ Twitter based brand community co-create digital brand innovation. Moreover, the identified brand innovation mechanisms and value-creating practises are interlinked and work together in co-creating digital brand innovation. Recommendations for future studies of this nature include a need to measure or calculate the impact of co-creation of digital brand innovation; meaning some quantitative research must be included for further research. The study also recommends the strategic communication industry, specifically brand management, to utilise continuous professional development, education and training in order for practitioners to keep up with emerging industry trends and practices such as social media based brand communities.