Using Facebook as a platform of communication tool : largest female annual marathon in Singapore

Social media platforms have gained increasing popularity in the recent years. The value of social media has now extended to the commercial sector especially the sports industry. Hence, the understanding of how consumers behaved on social media platforms is of increasing importance to these companies too. With the exponential increase in mass runs in Singapore, this study aimed to explore how organiser of Singapore’s largest all-female annual marathon - Great Eastern Women’s Run 2016 (GEWR 2016) had uses Facebook as their communication tool at pre - marathon, during the marathon day and post - marathon. Using textual analysis, this study examined in detail user’s responses to organiser’s posts based on 3 common Facebook behaviours (Comment, Like, Share) on the official GEWR 2016 Facebook page. The responses were collected from 31 July to 14 December 2016 in 3 periods of the event: pre - marathon, during the marathon day and post - marathon. The findings revealed that comments by user can be categorised into 4 groups: 1) Questions, 2) Feedbacks (Positive & Negative), 3) Tagging, and 4) Self-Expressions. Additionally, user’s responses were significantly higher in the ‘Post-Marathon’ period as compared to the other two periods. From these results, it supported the theoretical framework of users’ motivational categories of user’s participation on social media. Managerial implications can also be derived from this study which will be beneficial for future organisers, especially in the context of Singapore.Bachelor of Science (Sport Science and Management