Everyone uses the Internet – especially social media – to communicate, participate, and interact with each other. Communication via social media has long since become the norm (White, 2016). Instead of exchanging ideas in small groups as before the Web 2.0 revolution, it is now possible to reach thousands of people around the world with just a few mouse clicks. Anyone who can use an Internet browser, can also set up a blog, write articles and express their opinion to the world – regardless of the accuracy or appropriateness of the content (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). It has meanwhile become clear to most companies that communication via social media is indispensable (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011). Social media has evolved into a recognized marketing discipline in recent years and is used throughout the marketing mix (Grabs, Bannour, & Vogl, 2017). The goal that every company strives for using social media is to be found online. The more vivid and interactive the presence on social networks is designed, the more customer feedback is generated (Eng, 2017). However, this situation not only opens new opportunities but also risks for companies. The importance of customer satisfaction increases enormously through social media – a dissatisfied customer can represent a serious threat to a brand today (Aula, 2010). Due to the relative novelty of social media and the lack of know-how in many companies it is of enormous importance for companies to be aware of the goals, procedures and risks of their social media strategy in advance. Like any other marketing activity, a successful social media strategy is based on a sophisticated and well thought-out strategy, because only a consistent strategy can help to reach goals more securely and quickly. Furthermore, a consistent strategy also supports companies in avoiding risks and generally being more successful on the social web in the long run (Grabs, Bannour, & Vogl, 2017).

The following section serves on the one hand to classify the present paper into the research process of applied sciences based on the research objective described in the previous section and on the other hand to explain the research methodology on which this paper is built. Within the framework of a theoretical research approach, a non-empirical method is chosen in this paper to investigate a suitable social media strategy for the shared flat exchange platform roomtake. The literature research will form the foundation of this paper. Concepts of different methods are used to compile the theoretical foundations in the field of social media strategy. In another step, the qualitative research method will be used to analyze a set of case examples. Figure 1 shows a rough illustration of the research process to be pursued. To meet the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, articles from related research areas, such as social media marketing, content management, and social media management & measurement, are also considered. After an extensive research the structure is refined and the topic is examined in depth in a further step. For the development of a social media strategy, the widely-used POST model (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li is primarily used. Based on the POST framework and other approaches such as proactive, reactive or passive, a corresponding social media strategy is to be derived. In the empirical part of this thesis, various social media monitoring tools (both free and paid) were tested, analyzed and described.

The goal of this paper is to develop a suitable social media strategy for the shared flat exchange platform roomtake.ch and to show markecy GmbH what possibilities exist in this area and how these can best be integrated/adapted into the company's marketing strategy. Ultimately, this paper is intended to offer markecy GmbH a discourse from which instructions for action can be derived. At the same time, this paper is intended to provide a framework that allows markecy GmbH to implement specific approaches for the social media strategy and the associated marketing of its online platform. Finally, this paper should also provide a general basis for this field of research. As a result of this paper markecy GmbH will have a clear vision on (1) what social media is and the challenges companies face, (2) how social media can be integrated into the marketing mix to use communication purposes and thus influence customer decisions, (3) how social media can contribute to the awareness level of the shared flat exchange platform roomtake, (4) which approaches exist for social media strategies and what the prerequisites are, (5) how a strategy can be defined (definition of target groups and personas), and (6) how goals can be set and measured accordingly.