COMMUNICATION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS AND DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISTIC DESTINATION BRAND IMAGE

Abstract

Contemporary marketing communication intensively implements the potentials of information technology and software tools and contributes to development of digital and electronic marketing. It tries to use social networking information about products, services and the company to shape a marketing mix and marketing strategy. Social networks are a channel of communication with potential and existing customers, they are a powerful means of shaping attitudes, opinions and image about the product or service. They are a direct customer communication and an in-house development tool. Exploring and understanding customer opinions have tremendous practical value for the enterprise because they provide proactive action and can direct the company's operational activities to customize the properties and quality of products or services to customer requirements. The paper reviews the opinions of users of social networks (potential or current buyers) about the brand by analyzing the content of their messages. Therefore, sentiment analysis is implemented in the paper. It is a process that finds the attitudes, feelings, or emotions of customers in textual data as an essential component of an image of a product or service. The main hypothesis of the paper is that social networks contribute to development of brand image. Designing a brand image can be effectively influenced through the social network. So first we explore the „presence” of the brand inside messages and communication between users of social networks Twitter and Facebook. Then, from both social networks we create word clouds and compare views, opinions, and internal images. On the basis of such analysis it is possible to make proactive marketing actions that can timely affect the brand image.

Keywords

• social network communication
• sentiment analysis
• marketing analytics
• brand