2010 - Public Relations Society of America

to continue with Apple, CNN, and Disney. After examining the data, the researcher went back to
the t-test means to compare each individual tool mean with the combined mean to determine
which was the lowest. This helped determine which tool, or combination of the tools, provided
the strongest relationship. Interestingly, Apple, CNN and Disney all reported different results for
the strongest relationship. Yet, because e-mail (97.2%) was advanced as the social media tool to
generate the most committed relationship between the company/brand and the Millennial
student, hypothesis one is partially supported. Even though the Apple, CNN, and Disney results
of the current study all reported different preference of company/brand social media tool(s) for
Millennials, of the tools that were significant, e-mail was part of those that Millennials responded
to as interacting with the most while remaining the most committed to the company/brand.
Furthermore, the t-test serves as a guide for both the companies/brands and public relations
practitioners who question using social media tools to attract Millennial students. E-mail showed
a significant difference between Millennials who had received an e-mail and those who had not
and wanting their relationship to continue with each company/brand in six out of the eight
companies/brands. PDA showed the least promise to commitment to the company/brand of the
four social media tools looked at in this hypothesis, having only three of eight companies/brands
show significance between those who had interacted with PDA and those who had not.
Research Question #2. Research question two asked, “What is the relationship between
a Millennial student’s commitment to maintaining a relationship with one of the top 10 most
social company/brand and the interaction of the Millennial student with a social media tool of
that company/brand?” A chi-square test was run for exposure to company/brand social media
outlet (yes/no) and commitment to that social media company/brand. Results indicated out of the
eight social media companies/brands, six had significant differences between the participants
who had and those who had not been exposed to the company/brand social media outlet and his
or her level of commitment to that particular social media company/brand.
The current study reports Apple, Disney, Xbox, Starbucks, MTV, and Sony all having
significant difference in the commitment level between those who had been exposed to
company/brand social media tool and those who had not. Results support the argument that those
Millennial students who had indicated that they had personally interacted with a company/brand
via a social media tool(s) were more committed to maintaining a relationship with that particular
company/brand than those Millennials who reported never having interacted with the
company/brand via social media. Those Millennials who had actually interacted with the
company/brand by using the social media tools most likely had some type of vested interest with
the company/brand, thereby already establishing some type of relationship with the
company/brand. It would suggest that if Millennials are interacting with companies, these users
desire some type of relationship, usually positive, with that particular company/brand.
Interestingly, this study found that for CNN and Dell the reverse proved to be true in
exploring the relationship between a Millennial student’s commitment to maintaining a
relationship with one of the top 10 most social company/brands and the interaction of the
Millennial student with a social media tool of that company/brand. Commitment to maintaining a
relationship with CNN and Dell was not different for those participants who had been exposed to
social media and those who had not. The researcher can only speculate why this finding emerges.
CNN is a company that supplies news to millions worldwide. Millennials may interact with
CNN’s social media tools, but not be committed to maintaining a relationship with the company
because of the nature of news and how it can be communicated in a variety of ways. For
example, although the researcher in this study follows CNN on Twitter, the researcher is not
16