Samenvatting

Hipages.com.au is an online service that connects people in Australia with local home improvement businesses; their aim is to make it easier for people get stuff done. The problem that hipages.com.au is currently facing is the fact that some of their social media platforms need more life added to it. Hipages.com.au wants to increase recognition and improve interaction between them and their consumers on social media pages. They are already fairly popular on Facebook and although they have many other social media accounts such as Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+, they are not as popular on those social media platforms as they are on Facebook.
Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to find online communication strategies for hipages.com.au to improve their social media platform in order to generate more interaction between the organization and their consumers. In order to find solutions to this problem, several actions had to be taken, such as desk and field research. The desk research consisted of finding information and books about the company, about social media and about the competitors of hipages.com.au. The field research consisted of a survey that was sent to 2,000-2,300 Facebook likers of hipages.com.au and observation of the growth of the social media platforms; the questions of the survey contained 11 questions and the observation of the growth of the social media platforms took place for four months during the placement period.
hipages.com.au received many compliments and positive comments from the survey, however, they weren’t only positive comments. The answers of the survey gave a good insight on what the consumers want from the hipages.com.au social media pages and what they like/dislike about it. By gaining an insight into the wants and needs of the consumer, it became easier to find solutions to their communication problem. The observation that took place during the placement also helped shape solutions to the problem and it also made the recommendations of the survey stronger.
Although most of the answers of the survey were that hipages.com.au looks professional and informative, some also said it looked boring and repetitive. Thus, the main solution to hipages.com.au’s problem is to create a more friendly and exciting page. Try new things when posting on the pages and comment back when they say something positive or negative about the company; this will increase interaction and improve their reputation.