University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School May 2019 Relationship Management Communications by NHL Teams on Twitter Kelsey M. Baker University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Scholar Commons Citation Baker, Kelsey M., "Relationship Management Communications by NHL Teams on Twitter" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7735 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Relationship Management Communications by NHL Teams on Twitter by Kelsey M. Baker A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a concentration in Strategic Communication Management Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Dr. Kelli Burns, Ph.D. Dr. Deborah Bowen, Ph.D. Dr. Travis Bell, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 26, 2019 Keywords: social media, digital communications, brand management, sport management Copyright © 2019, Kelsey M. Baker TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................v Chapter One: Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Social Media in the Sport Industry .....................................................................................2 Chapter Two: Literature Review ....................................................................................................5 Relationship Management Theory ......................................................................................5 Stakeholders in Relationship Management .............................................................6 Stakeholder Relationships in Sport .............................................................6 Value Creation in Relationship Management .........................................................8 Social Media Usage in Sport Organizations .......................................................................8 Twitter in Sport .......................................................................................................9 Strategic Social Marketing .................................................................................... 10 Social Media Usages in the Sport Industry ........................................................... 11 Chapter Three: Method ................................................................................................................. 14 Procedure and Sample....................................................................................................... 14 Measures ........................................................................................................................... 18 Direct Interactions ................................................................................................. 18 Sponsorship Messaging ........................................................................................ 19 Announcements..................................................................................................... 19 Team Promotions .................................................................................................. 19 Community Contributions .................................................................................... 20 Brand Personification............................................................................................ 20 Coding Procedures ............................................................................................................ 23 Chapter Four: Results ................................................................................................................... 25 Stakeholder Appearances .................................................................................................. 25 Internal Stakeholders ............................................................................................ 26 External Stakeholders ........................................................................................... 27 Interactivity of NHL Club Account Tweets...................................................................... 27 Categories of Relationship Management Communications .............................................. 29 Subcategories of Relationship Management Communications ............................ 30 i Sponsorship ............................................................................................... 31 Team Promotions ...................................................................................... 32 Announcements......................................................................................... 33 Community Contributions ........................................................................ 34 Brand Personification................................................................................ 34 Engagement....................................................................................................................... 34 Comparative Analysis of NHL Twitter Accounts ............................................................ 35 New Jersey Devils................................................................................................. 36 Edmonton Oilers ................................................................................................... 38 Washington Capitals ............................................................................................. 40 Minnesota Wild ..................................................................................................... 42 San Jose Sharks ..................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Five: Discussion .............................................................................................................. 46 Stakeholder Identification ................................................................................................. 46 Interactivity ....................................................................................................................... 47 Relationship Management Communications Strategies ................................................... 48 Engagement....................................................................................................................... 50 Comparisons Among NHL Teams.................................................................................... 50 Chapter Six: Limitations and Future Research ............................................................................. 53 References ..................................................................................................................................... 55 Appendix: Codebook .................................................................................................................... 61 ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Number of Tweets per Team Account ............................................................................ 17 Table 2: Examples of Relationship Management Communications ............................................. 20 Table 3: Presence of Stakeholder Tweets, totals .......................................................................... 25 Table 4: Frequencies of Direct Interaction Categories ................................................................. 28 Table 5: Frequencies of Relationship Management Categories ................................................... 29 Table 6: Average Engagement per Relationship Management Category ..................................... 35 Table 7: Comparative Analysis of NHL Teams ........................................................................... 36 Table 8: New Jersey Devils Internal Stakeholder Groups ............................................................ 37 Table 9: New Jersey Devils External Stakeholder Groups ........................................................... 38 Table 10: Edmonton Oilers Internal Stakeholder Groups ............................................................. 39 Table 11: Edmonton Oilers External Stakeholder Groups ........................................................... 39 Table 12: Washington Capitals Internal Stakeholder Groups ....................................................... 41 Table 13: Washington Capitals External Stakeholder Groups ..................................................... 41 Table 14: Minnesota Wild Internal Stakeholder Groups .............................................................. 43 Table 15: Minnesota Wild External Stakeholder Groups ............................................................. 43 Table 16: San Jose Sharks Internal