NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH BUI DUC VIET HOANG EVALUATING THE ROLES OF FACEBOOK IN PUBLIC RELATION MANAGEMENT AT PUBLIC BANK QUANG NINH NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH BUI DUC VIET HOANG EVALUATING THE ROLES OF FACEBOOK IN PUBLIC RELATION MANAGEMENT AT PUBLIC BANK QUANG NINH Hanoi, 10/2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The following thesis could not have been possible without the expertise and guidance of Mrs. Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, my thesis adviser. A debt of gratitude is also owed to the Business English Department and National Economics University for providing me with all the documents and equipment necessary for the completion of this study. Much appreciation goes towards all the staff working at the Public Bank for helping and providing me with sufficient data and information for my paper, the surveys and questionnaires could not have been done otherwise.
Many thanks to Mrs. Hai Phuong for your helpful input, pointing me to the right direction and making this a valuable learning experience. Last but not least, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank my friends and family for standing by me throughout the whole journey. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The current state of Facebook PR at Public Bank has become somewhat stagnant.
Two surveys authorized by the branch director at Public Bank Quang Ninh were returned showing the lukewarm attitude of both the customers and employees at the bank when asked about their Facebook PR practice. The reserved and conventional style of Facebook PR needs to be upgraded soon if it wants to compete with the increasingly innovating PR practice from its regional competitors. The study has gathered opinions of overall 75 participants including Public Bank staff members and 53 Public Bank’s customers. The study concludes that even though the Facebook PR practice is sufficed enough for the bank’s current state, it does not explore the vast potential value that Facebook PR has to offer.
Therefore, Public Bank Quang Ninh would hugely benefit from a proper Facebook PR practice both financially and reputation-wise, The study focuses on several areas of PR standardization measurement to reach the final evaluation: e Reach and Impressions/ Opportunity To See e Opinion and Advocacy e Return on Investment e Advertising Value Equivalents Finally, based on the findings established, the study recommends Public Bank to generate regional Facebook Pages, use more picture-based PR posts and conduct more surveys to gather feedbacks which can be used for their own PR quality control. il LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES =CAMHNDSPW Figure 1: Top trusted advertising channels among U. consumers Figure 2: Spending Index for Leading Retail Brands Figure 3: Public Bank’s Group Corporate Structure Figure 4: Public Bank Quang Ninh Organizational Chart Figure 5: Public Bank 2021 key summary sheet Figure 6: Public Bank Quang Ninh Internal Balance Sheet Figure 7: Public Bank Quang Ninh Business Report Figure 8: Customers’ general information. Figure 9: Respondents’ channels of discovery 10.
Figure 10: Respondents’ exposure frequency 11. Figure 11: Public Bank’s attractiveness 12. Figure 12: Appealing PR forms 13. Figure 13: Alternative social platforms 14.
Figure 14: Factors for following 15. Figure 15: Respondents’ attitudes 16. Figure 16: Staff members’ general information 17. Figure 17: The staffs positions at the bank 18.
Figure 18: The staff’s rating of PR practice 19. Figure 19: RI approach 20. Figure 20: OA approach 21. Figure 21: ROI approach 22.
Figure 22: AVEs approach List of tables: Table 1: Public Bank’s Facebook posts frequencies SRYN Table 2: Questionnaire no.1 response rate Table 3: Questionnaire no.2 response Rate Table 4: Public Bank Quang Ninh’s customers predominant traits 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SCAHNDMPFW AVEs: Advertising Value Equivalent BIDV: Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam CIMB: Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad CIPR: Chartered Institute of Public Relations CPRF: Council for Public Relations Firms CPRRS: Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards FDI: Foreign Direct Investment HSBC: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation IAMEC: International Association for Measurement and Evaluating Communication 10. IPR: Institute of Public Relations 11.OA: Opinion and Advocacy 12.OTS: Opportunity to see 13. PR: Public Relations 14. PRIA: Public Relation Institute of Australia 15.PRSA: Public Relations Society of America 16.
ROI: Return on Investment 17. SEO: Search engine optimization 18. UK: United Kingdom 19. UOB: United Overseas Bank 20.
USA: United States of America 21.USD: United States Dollar 22. VND: Vietnamese Dong 1V TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTT,. c0 85086 88686 ii LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES. 0< 5< 5< < 5< s9 0 g0 g0 iii LIST OF ABBREVIA THONNS.
5 <5 < << HH HH TH HH 00009054 1 1 Research Introduecfion.- --- - - S *n*n TH TH HH HH HH ng 1 2 Ratiomalle Am. Purpose and scope Of WOFÌK.-- - G1 SH HH TH ng rệt 2 BD PULPOSE Ầ.1 Primary data colle€fÏ0I.2 Secondary data collecfi0nn.-- --- LH HH HH HH ngư 4 5.- - G1 ng ng gi ng HH nh ng 4 “0c nh.5 Data collection pr0C€dUF€. - -- 2 S13 2+ 3231131131121 Errkrrrrree 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REV LEYW. on HH nung ae 6 1.1 Definition and importance of public relations .1 Definition of public relations .- Sà eects eete estes eee eneetneenenenes 6 1.2 The importance of public relations .2 Facebook as a PR 0n .3 The use of Facebook in the Banking indusfry.4 Criteria and models used for PR effectiveness evaluation.1 Reach and Impressions/ Opportunity To See (OTS).2 Opinion And AAVOCACY.
SG SH HH ngư 13 1.3 Return on Investment (ROD) Ắ.4 Advertising Value Equivalents (AVES) .5 Critical T€VÏ€TWU. 2 Gv HH HH HH HH ngà 15 CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION OF PUBLIC BANK QUANG NINH. About Public BANK. -- Sàn HH HH HH hiệp 17 2.2 History and deVeÏ0JDIH€THE.
tk nh HH ghe 18 2.2 Public Bank Quang Ninh’s organizational strucfure.3 Public Bank Quang Ninh’s business resulfs. Features of Facebook PR. - - Gà SH HH ng Hy 21 2.1 The Group’s Facebook PR.2 Public Bank’s Vietnamese branches Facebook PR. 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
24 BL Staff's (z2 7nnn. 4I CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDA TIONS. on ng gym 42 VI 4.1 Creating regional Facebook Homepages.2 Utilizing picture-based confen(.3 Installing a feedback sysfe1m.- - -G n n*n*HHnHnH H ry 43 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONN.o- (GỌI HH Họ HH HH HH.0 2 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CUSTOMERS. 2 APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STAFF MEMBERS.
5 APPENDIX C: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR PUBLIC BANRB’S STAFPB ooo. ccc Án HH TH HH HH ng 9 Vil Bui Duc Việt Hoàng - 11192054 - Business English 61B INTRODUCTION 1 Research Introduction According to Satista Research Department (2021), as of September 2022, Facebook has amassed 2,934 billion users worldwide. Vietnam ranks at number 7 in terms of Facebook users with nearly 70.4 million accounts, against it population of 98 million people. Its omnipresence among the Vietnamese means that businesses in the country are incentivized, even mandated, to maximize their Facebook PR strategies if they want their business to survive and flourish.
Yet, despite being the 5th strongest bank in the Asia Pacific region as of 2021 according to The Asian Banker, Public Bank’s Facebook presence, especially in Vietnam, is still very much limited. With only 8,400 likes recorded on bank’s home page (facebook.com/publicbankmyTM) and currently no Facebook pages for the smaller provincial branches here in Vietnam, it is high time that changes be implemented in the bank’s Facebook advertising strategy. In this paper, I want to look at the impact of Facebook in the Vietnamese branches of Public Bank, specifically the Quang Ninh branch. Quantitative and qualitative approaches will be employed in order to gather primary and secondary data with the objective of determining the effectiveness of Facebook as a PR tool at the bank.
2 Rationale Ever since its economic reform in 1986, Vietnam has been placing much focus on the industrialization and modernization process, which has resulted in great achievements. The country has successfully built many physical - technological and socio-economic infrastructures to gradually meet the cause of industrialization and modernization, creating an attractive environment that brings in many social resources for its development, a large part of which is foreign. Foreign businesses are by now a norm in most countries, and Vietnam is no exception. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s report titled “Foreign Direct Investment in the first six months of 2022”, Vietnam has reached more than 14 billion USD in FDI.
Banks, being the core to many countries’ economies, are of course also subjected to FDI. The State Bank of Vietnam has confirmed that of all the banks that have overseas affiliation in Vietnam, only 9 are wholly foreign owned, namely: CIMB Vietnam, Hong Leong Vietnam, HSBC 1 Bui Duc Việt Hoàng - 11192054 - Business English 61B Vietnam, Public Bank Vietnam, Shinhan Vietnam, Standard Chartered Vietnam, UOB Vietnam Woori Vietnam, Citibank Vietnam. Being foreign, these banks need more ways to compete with already giants within the banking industry in Vietnam (eg: Techcombank, Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank.) other than offering just their services. This is where public relation comes in.
The Oxford Languages define public relations as "the professional maintenance of a favorable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person". Good public relations equals the survival and growth of a business, so clearly its importance is undeniable. Then there is the question of which platform to use as the bridge to the community. Many online platforms can be effective as a PR tool, but for Vietnamese, none is greater than Facebook.
According to a survey in the first quarter of 2022 published by satista.com, Facebook is the leading social platform among all Vietnamese generations. It is of utter importance that a business needs to master this platform as a PR tool if it wants to expand. For all said reasons, I have decided to start my internship at the Public Bank with the hope of learning about its PR management, all the while looking for problems that could be alleviated. Consequently, I have come up with the subject for my graduation thesis: Evaluating the Roles of Facebook in Public Relation Management at Public Bank Quang Ninh.
Upon identification of the thesis title, I want to examine the online PR practices at Public Bank and using previous PR evaluation methods and theories, I hope to assess and evaluate the current practices. Of course, with the shortcomings being the lack of a universal standardized PR evaluation program along with the immaturity of online PR at the bank, there is room for improvement. Using the knowledge I obtained from this internship and reading PR theories and models, I will try to suggest some possible solutions to help grow the bank’s public relations practices, which with luck, will bring in financial values to the bank. Due to the gaps in my knowledge and experience, it is inevitable that my paper is flawed.
I very much look forward to constructive criticism to further improve my work. Purpose and scope of work 3.1 Purpose The overall purpose of this study is to look at the PR management through the Facebook channel that is currently in use at the Public Bank in order to determine whether this practice is effective or not. This paper also seeks to identify the limits Bui Duc Việt Hoàng - 11192054 - Business English 61B that still exist within the bank’s PR practice and hopefully present some useful recommendations to further improve this practice.2 Scope of work Public relations largely concern the organization’s management of its reputation as well as the relationship between the organization and its publics (PRCA, 2013). Therefore, the focus of this paper is on the public relations practice used by the staff on the social media platform Facebook along with Public Bank’s customers and service users.
The study investigates the PR management at Public bank in the span of 2 years from 2020 to 2022. 4 Research questions What is the current situation of Facebook PR at the Publick Bank?