MA by Practice

“Pänz wellkumme“ -

A website to rate the child-friendliness of places in Cologne

Critical Evaluation

MA Social Media

Claire-Marie Oberwinter

S11732243

September 2014

Executive summary

This paper is a critical evaluation and reflection of my project that I carried out for my MA

by Practice in Social Media. The project period lasted from mid February to September 12th

2014.

In the first part, I will give an overview of the project, place it into the context of Social

Media, present what roles, tasks and responsibilities I carried out during the project and

talk about its goals. This is followed by an explanation of how I managed the project, what

problems I encountered and what solutions I came up with.

In the following reflective part, I rationalize the decisions I made during the project, reflect

on successes and failures and what I have learned from them. To conclude, I will illustrate

the effect of the project in terms of my personal and professional development.

Last but not least, I will provide a brief outlook on the future of the project after the official

project period.

This evaluation is accompanied by a separate Project Portfolio in which all the results of

the project are being presented visually along with the the original project proposal and the

corresponding feedback.

Table of contents

1) Project summary Page 1

1.1) Overview Page 1

1.2) Professional context Page 2

1.3) Roles, tasks and responsibilities Page 4

1.4) Project aims Page 6

2) Project Management Page 6

2.1) Project stages Page 6

2.2) Problems and solutions Page 7

3) Critical reflection Page 8

3.1) Rationale for decisions Page 8

3.2) Successes and failures Page 10

3.3) Learnings Page 12

4) Personal and professional development Page 13

5) Outlook Page 14

5.1) Monetization Page 14

5.2) Further improvements Page 14

6) Bibliography Page 16

7) Appendices Page 19

1) Project summary

1.1) Overview

The project for my MA by Practice was about setting up an online platform on which

parents in my hometown Cologne (Germany) can enter different types of places (such as

cafés, restaurants, shops, doctor's surgeries etc.), rate their child-friendliness and write

reviews on them. The name of the platform is “Pänz wellkumme” which means “Kids

welcome” in the local dialect.

The idea emerged from a problem I had faced in my life as a mother a few months before.

One day, my husband and I were looking for a café with child-friendly facilities that was

accessible with a buggy where our children would be made to feel welcome. In that

situation, it would have been helpful to consult a website that tells me in advance where I

can find the nearest child-friendly café.

Consulting other rating websites like Tripadvisor or Yelp was not the solution as those

websites only offer general ratings and reviews on places rather then specifically

mentioning their child-friendliness..

Also, unlike two competitive products (two existing apps1), the focus of my platform should

not primarily lie on submitting listings but on rating those listings based on different

factors and therefore give users an idea of which places are child-friendly and which ones

are not. In addition to that, I decided to limit the website to my hometown Cologne and the

surrounding area. I did so for mainly three reasons:

1 “Babyplaces” and “Hipp”; an analysis of the “Babyplaces” app can be found in the project proposal (see separate document).

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1. The limitation works as an USP as the two apps previously mentioned already

cover the entire country.

2. People living in Cologne usually have a high sense of local patriotism and show a

high level of support for local projects.

3. I wanted to work on a project with which I could prove my professional skills and

attract attention in order to become known as a Social Media Professional. This is

something that I believe works better on a local basis.

1.2) Professional context

Rating websites are an essential part of Social Media. Generally, Social Media can be

defined as “mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via

which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated

content” (Kietzmann et al. 2011, p. 241). The focus of this definition is quite clear: Social

Media at its core is about the creation of any kind of user-generated content on the

Internet. Furthermore, it is a voluntary creation (see McKenzie et al. 2012). According to a

report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), user-

generated content has to fulfil three basic criteria in order to be counted as such: 1) it has

to be published on a publicly accessible website or platform, 2) it has to include some

creative effort, i.e. the user has to create something unique and 3) it is created outside of a

professional context, i.e. the user does not create the content for remuneration or profit of

any kind (see OECD 2007a, p. 18).

While user-generated content is often created by individuals, there is also content that is

created collectively by a group of people. These so-called collaborative projects “are a

special form of social media application that enable the joint and simultaneous creation of

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knowledge-related content by many end-users” (Kaplan, Haenlein 2014, p. 618). This

makes it clear that the focus of collaborative projects lies in knowledge-sharing. Generally,

there are four different types of collaborative projects with review websites being one of

them. The two main characteristics of review sites are that the contributions (i.e. user-

generated content) are about sharing and collecting opinions and that the contributions

can be independent from each other (see Kaplan, Haenlein 2014, p. 619f).

The motivation for users to actively use review websites to share their knowledge and

opinions can be found on different levels. The “classical” distinction is the one of intrinsic

and extrinsic motivation. However, as McKenzie et al. (2012) point out in their paper on

user-generated content, motivations for users in collaborative projects are rather led by

intrinsic than by extrinsic motivation2. Thus, the two most important factors for contributions

to a collaborative project are to gain satisfaction from the contributions (McKenzie et al.

2012) and the sense of belonging to a community (McKenzie et al. 2012 and Kaplan,

Haenlein 2014, p. 621).

However, those who actively contribute to online projects of any kind are only 10% of all

users. 90% of all users can be classified as “lurkers” who remain passive (i.e.

read/consume information) and never contribute. 9% of all users are irregular contributors

and only 1% are heavy contributors. In reverse it means that 90% of all contributions are

being made by that 1% of heavy contributors (Nielsen 2006). This is called the

“participation inequality” and can be applied to any kind of Social Media platform.

In summary, I can say that my project was a Social Media project based on a collaborative

approach. By entering listings and rating and reviewing their child-friendliness, users can

share their experience and knowledge with a community of like-minded people and create

2 intrinsic = doing an activity because it is seen as rewarding and satisfactory (see Ryan, Deci 2000, p. 56), extrinsic = doing an activity because I expect a reward (or something similar) for it (see Ryan, Deci 2000, p. 60)

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some sort of knowledge database in a specific area (i.e. child-friendliness).

1.3) Roles, tasks and responsibilities

In the course of the project, I carried out several different roles with the tasks and

responsibilities varying largely depending on the role:

1.3.1) Project Manager

As a Project Manager, I was responsible for developing and maintaining a detailed project

plan, managing project deliverables in line with the project plan, monitoring the project

progress and performance and managing project issues. In addition to that,

communicating with an external web developer (in order to keep track of the progress) as

well as with my tutor were also part of my responsibilities. Writing this evaluation was the

final task to fulfil in this role.

1.3.2) Website Developer

In the role of the Website Developer, I first had ensure the domain registration. I then

continued to do some research on the most suitable Wordpress theme and worked on its

installation and customization. The communication with the hosting company in terms of

technical issues and questions was also part of my duties.

1.3.3) Social Media and Community Manager

In the beginning, I created a Social Media strategy which I revised regularly by monitoring

and analysing all activities and content. After setting up the corresponding Social Media

channels, I took care of the content creation and the interaction with users. I was also in

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charge of finding ways to grow the community, launching contests and campaigns and

managing Facebook advertisements.

1.3.4) SEO Manager

As an SEO Manager, I first of all acquired general knowledge of SEO and afterwards

installed and customized the SEO plugin that I had found to be the most suitable one. I

then mostly worked on the improvements of permalinks and the on-site optimization with

keywords.

1.3.5) Promotion and Marketing Manager

In this role, my initial task was to create flyers about my website, coordinate the printing

and execute the distribution. I also approached my target group twice offline (see appendix

7.10) in order to attract new users.

1.3.6) PR Manager

After the launch of the website, I started to approach relevant media (local newspapers,

magazines, radio and TV stations) to encourage them to report on my project. I tracked the

progress in communication and followed up where necessary. I also collected all links and

clippings of news articles about my project. Lastly, I got in touch with various local

businesses in order to establish partnerships.

1.3.7) Quality Control

In order to maintain a certain quality of listings, I not only had to deal with spam and

unwanted listings but I also set up guidelines for listings. When new listings were

submitted, I quickly checked up on them (e.g. address check) and I cleared

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comments/reviews after their submission.

1.4) Project aims

With this project, I pursued different goals and objectives. The general goals were:

1) Produce a functioning website with all the relevant features

2) Establish a community of interested users

3) Advertise and promote the project offline

4) Obtain some media coverage

In order to be able to evaluate the success of these goals, I set quantitive benchmarks

(see appendix 7.14).

However, the overall objective of the project was to make myself and my freelance

business known through this project and to attract at least one new customer through it. It

should therefore be an important milestone for my personal branding.

2) Project Management

2.1) Project stages

In general, there are five different stages in a project: initiation, planning, execution,

monitoring / controlling and closing (see Portney 2010, p. 14).

The initiation stage of my project was the project proposal at the end of the module

“Production Lab” in January 2014. After a revision with my tutor, the planning process

began in which I worked on the establishment of a Gantt chart (see appendix 7.1), the

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definition of goals and strategies and also the definition of the website requirements, its

structure and concept.

The execution stage was the major part of the whole project. It can be divided in three sub-

stages:

1) Website creation

2) Promotion, marketing and PR

3) SEO, revisions and improvements

However, the monitoring/controlling stage cannot be seen separate from this as it was an

ongoing parallel process throughout the execution stage. Also, the use of Social Media to

promote the project accompanied the entire project period.

The closing stage consisted of the creation of this evaluation and of the separate

production package.

2.2) Problems and solutions

The problems I faced during my project were mostly technical ones. Right from the

beginning of the execution phase, I had a lot of difficulties installing Wordpress correctly.

Thanks to an acquaintance at a co-working space, I was able to overcome those issues

and also achieve clarity about the differences between the offline installation of Wordpress

on Xampp and the online installation on a hosting server.

When I then had found the perfect theme for my purposes, the customization of it caused

a lot of difficulties. As even the theme seller could not help, I had to ask for external help

as I was running out of time for the period of the website creation.

The website developer I began working with also could not resolve the technical issues so

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the easier but costlier solution was to buy a new theme. Luckily, the new theme worked

perfectly and so the setup of the website advanced quickly after that.

Before the final launch of the website, I did a soft launch and let users test my website first.

A soft launch is “a type of release for hardware, software, and websites where the product

is released incrementally with little fanfare, initially to a limited audience” (Wisegeek 2014).

In the case of my project, I had acquired a few testers through an appeal on the Facebook

page of the project and gave them access to the website that was password protected at

the time. Through this testing and the feedback the users gave me, it was revealed that

the major functionality of the website - the ratings - did not work as they should. There was

only one global rating for all the listings. As I felt that the developer I had worked with until

then was not able to solve this issue and so I hired another developer, who had been

recommended to me by an acquaintance. Unfortunately, it took the new developer another

four weeks to fix the issue with the ratings.

On May 28th, I was finally able to launch the website which meant that my project had been

delayed by seven weeks.

3) Critical reflection

3.1) Rationale for decisions

As already mentioned in chapter 1.1, I have limited the scope of my project to my

hometown Cologne. I therefore chose a name for my project in the local dialect Kölsch and

included the icon of the famous “Dom” cathedral into the project logo (see appendix 7.10).

In addition to this, the colours of the logo (red/white) reflect the ones in the local flag. With

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all this, I wanted to increase the local identity with the project and clearly demonstrate my

sense of belonging to both my project and my hometown.

The reason for setting up a responsive website instead of an app lies mostly in the use of

the Internet in Germany. Even though the use of mobile Internet is steadily increasing, the

majority of Internet users in Germany still access the Internet via a laptop or a stationary

computer according to the BITKOM3 (see BITKOM 2013, p. 36). Therefore, the website

constitutes a proper medium and the creation of an app was not necessary at this stage.

As for the choice of Social Media channels, I decided to concentrate on Facebook as I

found Facebook to be the ideal platform for building a community of interested users for

my website. Moreover, I decided to completely leave out Twitter. The reason for this lies

mainly in the use of such platforms in Germany. The vast majority of all Internet users in

Germany (56%) use Facebook actively while only 6% use Twitter at all (see BITKOM

2013, p. 9). Twitter would not have been the right channel for my project in terms of

maximising reach towards my target group. It was therefore a logical decision to keep

Twitter out of my Social Media strategy.

However, even though the use of Instagram is at the same level, I decided to include an

Instagram account into my Social Media portfolio half way during my project. It was mostly

due to the fact that I needed to represent certain activities (e.g. the distribution of flyers)

visually and I needed a place to “store” the pictures. I therefore chose Instagram as this

best served the purpose. Moreover, I considered expanding the activities on Instagram in

the future by asking users to submit their own pictures of places they have rated4.

3 BITKOM = Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media4 This is a campaign that still needs to be carried out. It has not been implemented yet as there are some legal issues in terms of copyright that need to be clarified first.

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3.2) Successes and failures

In my project, I encountered both successes and failures which I will now present in the

following list:

Successes

• Website: the biggest success was that I was able to set up a functioning website

that offers all the features I was looking for.

• Feedback: the extensive positive feedback I received from users shows me that my

project “strikes a chord”.

• Facebook page: I was able to attract around 700 likes on my page and therefore

promote my project properly. As the referrals on the statistics of the website show,

most referrals come from Facebook (see Production Package).

• Facebook ad: in order to test Facebook ads, I launched two ads with one being

successful in the sense that it generated almost 400 new likes for my page.

• Media coverage: my project was presented through articles and (blog) posts in

different media and on Social Media (see appendix 7.18). In total, there were

◦ 1 online article in the local newspaper which was the most successful one in

terms of traffic and increase in publicity

◦ 1 online and one print article in a regional magazine (edition Cologne)

◦ 1 blog post in which my project was presented

◦ 4 Facebook posts from other pages about my project

• Partnerships: I was able to establish 10 partnerships with local businesses,

consisting of linking to each other's website and promoting each other on Facebook

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and via flyers.

• Sponsors: for different types of competitions that I carried out during the project, I

was able to find five sponsors that provided up to three prizes each.

• Goals: I was able to attain about two thirds of the goals I had set and even excelled

some of them.

Failures

• User Award: in order to increase user engagement on the website and to increase

the number of listings, ratings and reviews, I introduced a User Award which was

based on the “Reward and recognition”5 and “gamification”6 approach. Those users

who had entered the most new listings, rated the most places or wrote the most

reviews received the weekly User Award. Once a month, one of those users was

chosen at random to win a prize. Unfortunately, this scheme was not successful as

user engagement did not increase through it.

• Blog: the low access rates of the blog show that the blog does not offer interesting

topics and needs improvement.

• Facebook ads: as mentioned, one Facebook ad was successful in terms of

increasing the number of likes. On the other hand, it also decreased the interaction

rate at the same time. Another ad, aimed at increasing traffic to the website, was

not successful at all.

5 The reward and recognition approach is a theory used in Human Resources. Employees shall be rewarded with both monetary (e.g. a bonus) and non-monetary (e.g. acknowledgement) means and thereby, motivation and performance shall be increased (see Ryan).

6 Gamification is a playful approach to enhancing user experiences and is aimed at supporting the user's participation (see Hamari, Koivisto 2014, p. 2f)

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3.3) Learnings

One of the most important learnings I take with me from the project is that for future,

similar projects, I will work with a developer from the start. If I had done it, it would have

saved me a lot of time and also money. Moreover, I would plan a lot more time for the

development and testing and revision period of the website. I had originally only planned

four weeks for all this, increased it to six in between and ended up with 13 weeks. This

shows that I totally underestimated the complexity of this part of the project.

Another thing I have learnt is that extrinsic incentives do not really increase user

participation. Due to a theoretical understanding (see chapter 1.2) I have gained now, I

understand why the User Award was not successful. Moreover, one strong realization is

that not many people participate and it is important to consider this for future activities. For

my website it means that it will only grow slowly and not many users will actually contribute

even though they truly support the idea and cause behind it.

In terms of Social Media Management, the project was an amazing learning experience.

Not only have I learnt to approach Social Media in a strategic and conceptual way but also

what content is interesting to my target group and where to find it. By analysing the

statistics in Facebook Insights, I was able to improve the type of content to share, find the

right posting frequency and the most suitable time for posting and therefore create an

organic interaction rate that is above the average.

In addition to that, I learnt a lot concerning the use of Wordpress. I am now able to handle

the basic settings and features and find it increasingly easier to customize new plugins, fix

bugs on my own and work with the core code.

Another thing that became obvious again during this project is the value of networks.

Through personal contacts, I got help at the website creation stage and a lot of

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partnerships evolved through this. This proves once again how important and relevant

social capital7 is.

A final point to mention is the progress I made in SEO. Before the project, I did not have

any understanding in that area at all. Now I am at least familiar with the basic concept and

know how to improve my ranking through appropriate permalinks and keywords.

4) Personal and professional development

In terms of my personal and professional development, this project served as an incredible

and very fruitful learning experience. It made me realize that I have definitely chosen the

right path and that I want to continue my career in Social Media. Besides, I have realized

that my strengths lie in strategic, conceptual and mainly creative tasks as I always have

new ideas concerning campaigns and content on Social Media. Another important skill that

was revealed as a true strength of mine is my ability to critically analyse statistics, reflect

upon results and use this information to successfully revise and improve current issues.

As I pointed out earlier, the most important goal of the project was to attract attention to

myself as a Social Media Professional and make myself more well known as an expert in

that area. The project definitely served this purpose as I was able to mention this project in

a recent job interview for the position of a Social Media Manager in a medium-sized

company. Even though I did not get the job, the interviewers were very interested and

impressed by the project and I can say outright that this project is and always will be one

of my most important references in my (future) career – even more so when I earn money

with it in the future.

7 Social capital is a concept that talks about the value of networks. It can be defined as “networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups” (OECD 2007b, p. 102)

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In total, I can summarize that this project revealed my true strengths, made me believe in

my skills even more and boosted my confidence about my future in the Social Media

sector.

5) Outlook

After the official end of the project period, I intend to pursue this project. It has become a

“matter of the heart” for me and due to the constant positive feedback I get, I feel

motivated to continue with it. Furthermore, I have some ideas that I would like to

implement in the future.

5.1) Monetization

In the course of the project, the idea originated that I could generate money with the

project. Parents are a highly profitable target group for many companies that will be able to

advertise their business on different levels on the website (see appendix 7.20).

5.2) Further improvements

Aside from the monetization, I plan on improving the website in different areas:

• SEO: in order to improve the Google ranking of my website, I still need to work on

the topic of SEO. With improved permalinks of blog posts and the use of a Google+

page, I aim to make the website appear on page 1 of the Google search results for

certain keywords.

• Content: concerning the content on Social Media (primarily on the blog), I decided

to focus mostly on tips about day-trips, leisure activities, books and apps, all with a

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local context to fulfil the needs and expectations of my target group and also to

increase traffic.

• “Tick of approval”: to make child-friendly places visible to families offline and also to

make my website more known, I will award some sort of “tick of approval” to well-

rated places. It would serve as an award for child-friendliness in the form of a

sticker that places can display in their window.

• Newsletter: I will introduce a newsletter soon in order to compile the different

channels and inform users about the most important updates there.

• Community: I will integrate a user community on the website where parents can

connect and discuss. This will happen through the integration of the “Buddypress”

plugin.

• App: even though I think the responsive website is good enough for now, the

creation of an app could still be an option for the future.

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6) Bibliography

eBooks

OECD, (2007a). Participative web and user-created content: Web 2.0, wikis, and social

networking. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Available: http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/free/9307031e.pdf [Accessed:

14th of August 2014]

OECD, (2007b) Human Capital: How what you know shapes your life. Paris: Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development. Available:

http://www.oecd.org/insights/37966934.pdf [Accessed: 5th of September 2014]

Portny, Stanley E., (2010) Project Management For Dummies. [online]. For Dummies.

Available: http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=255069 [Accessed: 18 of August 2014]

Online papers

Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., (2014) Social motivations to use gamification: an empirical study

of gamifying exercise. Available:

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/236269293_Social_motivations_to_use_gamifi

cation_an_empirical_study_of_gamifying_exercise [Accessed: 27th of August 2014]

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Kaplan, A.M., Haenlein, M., (2014) Collaborative projects (social media application): About

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Business Horizons, Volume 57, Issue 5, pages 617 -

626. Available: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681314000834

[Accessed: 13th of August 2014]

Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P., Silvestre B.S., (2011) Social media? Get

serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business

Horizons, Volume 54, Issue 3, pages 241 - 251. Available:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681311000061 [Accessed: 13th

of August 2014]

McKenzie, P.J., Burkell, J., Wong, L., Whippey, C., Trosow, S.E., McNally, M., (2012) User-

generated online content 1: Overview, current state and context. First Monday, Volume

16, Number 6. Available: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3912/3266

[Accessed: 13th of August 2014]

Ryan, Richard M., Deci, Edward L., (2000) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic

Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, pages 54–

67. Available: http://mmrg.pbworks.com/f/Ryan,+Deci+00.pdf [Accessed: 5th of

September 2014]

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Blogs and websites

BITKOM, (2013) Soziale Netzwerke 2013. Available:

http://www.bitkom.org/files/documents/SozialeNetzwerke_2013.pdf [Accessed: 19 of

August 2014]

Nielsen, J., (2006) Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute.

Available: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/ [Accessed: 13th of

August 2014]

Ryan, S., (year unknown) Rewards and Recognition. Available:

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/Interventions/incentivesrewards_2.htm.

[Accessed: 20 of August 2014]

Wisegeek, (2014) What is a soft launch? Available: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-

soft-launch.htm [Accessed: 18 of August 2014]

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