Piloting Snapchat for Finnish Defence Forces
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Piloting Snapchat for Finnish Defence Forces Helena Immonen Master’s Thesis Degree Programme in Communication Management 2016 Abstract 5 December 2016 Author(s) Helena Immonen Degree programme Communication Management (Master’s) Report/thesis title Number of pages Piloting Snapchat for Finnish Defence Forces and appendix pages 82 + 0 This thesis is about piloting Snapchat for Finnish Defence Forces. The goals for the thesis are to find out how Snapchat can be used as part of Finnish Defence Forces’ social media communication and strategy. Conscripts are the most important target group for social media communication in the Defence Forces. Young conscripts are the main target group for Snapchat. This thesis is theoretically based on organizational communication, stakeholder communication and social media communication. Piloting Snapchat was implemented by action research: Snapchat was piloted in action for three months with two accounts: Ruotuväki and Inttielämää. Both accounts were used entirely by conscripts in service, who planned and published all the content. The goal for Snapchat was to tell ordinary stories of everyday life in the military service from conscripts’ point of view. Ruotuväki and especially Inttielämää Snapchat managed to reach young conscripts well. Most of the followers are draftees, conscripts in service, young reservists and young women. Inttielämää Snapchat succeeded well in getting the followers engaged; we get more messages from followers on Snapchat than in any other social media channel used in the Defence Forces. The conclusion is that Snapchat is a good channel for reaching young conscripts. Having conscripts in service to publish on Snapchat is the best way to keep young conscripts interested in the content. The content needs to be authentic and real. The Finnish Defence Forces will continue using Ruotuväki and Inttielämää Snapchat accounts based on the practical guidelines I present in the conclusion part of the thesis. Keywords Social media, stakeholder communication, organizational communication, Snapchat Table of contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 2 Context of the study .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Finnish Defence Forces ............................................................................................ 3 2.2 Communications at Finnish Defence Forces ........................................................... 4 2.2.1 Social media in Finnish Defence Forces....................................................... 6 2.2.2 Ruotuväki ....................................................................................................... 9 2.2.3 Ruotuväki in social media............................................................................ 11 3 Literature review .............................................................................................................. 13 3.1 Communication ....................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Organizational communication ............................................................................... 14 3.3 Stakeholder communication ................................................................................... 16 3.4 The rise of social media .......................................................................................... 22 3.4.1 Practical challenges with social media communication .............................. 23 3.4.2 Facebook is still rules social media landscape ........................................... 25 4 Snapchat ......................................................................................................................... 27 4.1 What is Snapchat? .................................................................................................. 27 4.2 Popular among young people................................................................................. 28 4.3 Organizations in Snapchat ..................................................................................... 29 4.3.1 Yle Sports .................................................................................................... 30 4.3.2 Demi magazine ............................................................................................ 30 4.4 Building a community .............................................................................................. 31 5 Doing research: Piloting Snapchat.................................................................................. 33 5.1 Action research ....................................................................................................... 33 5.2 Objectives for the research ..................................................................................... 36 5.3 Key terms ................................................................................................................ 37 5.4 Data collection ........................................................................................................ 38 5.5 Benchmarking – other officials in Snapchat ........................................................... 39 5.5.1 Finnish Tax Administration .......................................................................... 39 5.5.2 The Police University College ..................................................................... 41 5.6 The pilot process..................................................................................................... 42 5.7 Workshop ................................................................................................................ 43 5.8 The challenges to tackle ......................................................................................... 46 5.9 The pilot plan .......................................................................................................... 46 5.9.1 Target groups and goals ............................................................................. 46 5.9.2 Risks ............................................................................................................ 47 5.9.3 Ruotuväki and Inttielämää Snapchat .......................................................... 47 5.10 Ruotuväki Snapchat ................................................................................................ 48 5.11 Preparing Inttielämää Snapchat ............................................................................. 51 5.12 Introduction day at the Defence Command............................................................ 51 5.13 Inttielämää snapping ............................................................................................... 55 5.14 Overreaction ........................................................................................................... 57 5.15 Wrap-up day ........................................................................................................... 59 5.16 Viewer statistics ...................................................................................................... 61 6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 64 6.1 Communicating with Snapchat ............................................................................... 64 6.2 Ruotuväki findings .................................................................................................. 66 6.3 Inttielämää findings ................................................................................................. 68 6.4 The role of superiors ............................................................................................... 69 6.5 Finding answers to research questions .................................................................. 70 6.5.1 Using Snapchat ........................................................................................... 70 6.5.2 Part of social media toolkit .......................................................................... 71 6.5.3 Reaching young conscripts ......................................................................... 72 6.5.4 Advantages and disadvantages of using Snapchat.................................... 73 6.6 Practical guidelines for using Snapchat ................................................................. 74 6.7 Recommendations for Snapchat ............................................................................ 76 6.7.1 Ruotuväki Snapchat .................................................................................... 76 6.7.2 Inttielämää Snapchat ................................................................................... 76 6.8 End result ................................................................................................................ 78 7 References ...................................................................................................................... 79 1 Introduction Social media has become an inseparable part of organizational communication. Social media landscape is changing faster than traditional communication channels: New social media channels are born and older channels evolve or even fade. Organizations need to determine how they want to utilize social media. Understanding organization’s stakeholders and their interests and needs as well as understanding the characters of different social media channels