Samenvatting

Introduction
This rapport is commissioned by IMK Opleidingen. IMK Opleidingen is an educational institute that provides corporate and personal training and wants to improve personal and organizational performances. The providing services of IMK Opleidingen can be divided in the following categories:
- Management & leadership
- Personal effectiveness
- Customer focus & sales
- Human resource management
- Participation of the works council
Results show that the organisation gets more sales trough offline marketing. The director and owner of IMK Opleidingen wants to gain more brand awareness on the internet, especially through social media. In response to this problem, a study is done based on the following problem statement: ‘How can a social media marketing plan contribute to the binding of current customers and create a top of mind awareness in the minds of prospects of IMK Opleidingen?’.
Research
In order to answer the problem statement desk research along with field research is conducted. The field research is done through an online survey. The online survey is carried out to the target group of the company through the company’s social media pages and groups, external Facebook pages and the company’s newsletter. The results of the online survey are analysed in the statistic program SPSS. In order to give an answer to the problem statement the following sub questions were formulated
- What is top of mind awareness?
- What are current factors of success on social media?
- Who is the current target group of the organisation?
- How does IMK Opleidingen use social media?
- How do the competitors use social media?
- What is the current use of social media within the target group?
- What are the needs, the wishes and the expectations of the target group on social media?
In order to answer the problem statement, the sub questions related to the needs, the wishes and the expectations were separated in current customers and prospects.
Findings
The most significant findings are:
There are several conditions before an organisation can use social media successfully. First of all, the fit between all the divisions within the organisation must be well organised. A second condition for success is the knowledge of the target audience of the organisation. When this is done the content can be selected and adjust to the needs of the target audience.
In comparison with the competitors, IMK Opleidingen has a very high interaction per mille score. This means that the engagement of the current followers of the pages is very high. On the other hand, the reach of the social media pages is very low. Also the quantity of the content is very low compared to the competitors.
The most frequently used social media networks are Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter is only used by 10% of the respondents. The current target group of IMK Opleidingen uses social media to have contact with family or friends and to look for entertainment news and subject-specific content. Examples are literature related to work, developments in the educational environment and practical tips. Facebook is more used for personal desires while LinkedIn is used more for business objectives. Therefore, the way of communicating must be formal on Facebook and informal on LinkedIn.
Recommendations
Based on the research, a social media marketing plan is written for IMK Opleidingen. This plan contains a description of the target audience, main objectives based on the theoretical objectives from Stoel (2015), a strategy and an implementation plan. This plan also describes how the current marketing activities can be used for social media, as well as the internal organisation. Also an action plan is made for the organisation with an acceptable timeline and review of tasks.

Besides the social media marketing plan, there is one more recommendation. The use programs that schedule social media messages automatically is not recommended. Through the tricky algorithm of Facebook and LinkedIn, the visibility of the messages is less than when it is placed manually via the network itself.