Conclusion

Call-to-action messaging is an integral part of social media marketing and can be influential in creating high-level engagement metrics. Throughout the entire research process, it has been interesting to learn about how much information goes into a brand-to-consumer marketing strategy and what affects brand loyalty. As discussed in the literature review, the uses and gratifications theory, relationship marketing techniques, fan engagement, and brand loyalty all can contribute to the idea that call to action messaging creates engagement on social media content. The uses and gratifications theory signifies that consumers will use social media for a certain purpose, meaning marketers need to use a specific call to action on specific social media platforms to initiate the response they want. While doing so, marketers need to prioritize interaction and relationships with their followers and consumers, which is the foundation of relationship marketing strategies. By creating content uniquely for different social media platforms, marketers will be able to create relationships, be more effective in their call-to-action messaging, create high rates of engagement, and ultimately increase brand loyalty by having happy, engaged, and interactive consumers. The findings in this research support the hypothesis and research questions and effectively communicate that there is a relationship between call-to-action messaging and higher amounts of engagement.

While this research provides lots of information on how the call to action is effective in the sports marketing and social media marketing industry, there is still more research to be done. Further research on how this compares to the other big four professional sports organizations would be interesting and provide more insight into how sports fans use social media as a whole. It would be interesting to do a similar study with the NFL but look at different social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter. These platforms have different strengths and weaknesses than Instagram, and it would be interesting to see how call to action are used and viewed differently on different platforms by consumers. 

Thank you for taking the time to read through my year-long research. I enjoyed the process, and I am very proud of the work I have created!