Since 2009, Vorarlberg has been a pilot region for e-mobility. In cooperation with illwerke vkw, students on the Bachelor’s degree programme in Business Administration examined the ways in which social media can be used to increase awareness among Vorarlberg’s population regarding a sustainable changeover to e-mobility.
Since 2009, Vorarlberg has been a pilot region for e-mobility. In cooperation with illwerke vkw, students on the Bachelor’s degree programme in Business Administration examined the ways in which social media can be used to increase awareness among Vorarlberg’s population regarding a sustainable changeover to e-mobility.
Vorarlberg is to become energy-independent by 2050. This is also the declared objective of the energy service provider illwerke vkw in Bregenz. One of the methods the energy supplier is using to achieve this is e-mobility. For the past four years, the use of electric vehicles has been explored in practice in the VLOTTE pilot project. Overall, around 360 electric vehicles are being used.
Cooperation
In order to achieve the objective of energy independence in the medium and long term, illwerke vkw wishes to expand the process of increasing awareness among Vorarlberg’s population. Social media are to be used to impress upon young people, in particular, the advantages of e-mobility, and to mobilize them to make the changeover.
Yet by what means of communication and via which channels can the company reach the target group of people aged 20 to 40? Andreas Neuhauser, Head of Communications at illwerke vkw, hoped to find the answers among the target group itself, and found them among the Business Administration students at the University of Liechtenstein.
Focus
The task given to the students was to develop an awareness-raising VLOTTE communication strategy for social media. Here, the Business Administration students Claudia Mehl (22), Christoph Hinteregger (26) and Simon Schöch (22) decided to concentrate on Facebook, YouTube and blogs. These are among the most important social media tools in Austria. Their strategy focuses on a VLOTTE blog, which continuously reports on the progress made in e-mobility.
Networking
The key advantage of a company blog is that its content is very easy to share via other social networks such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. The blog thereby assumes the function of a “communication hub”. It should be integrated into the www.vlotte.at website in a way that is clearly visible.
In addition, the students deem a dedicated VLOTTE Facebook page and YouTube channel to be useful. Both should be linked with the blog. Audio-visual content can therefore be published on YouTube and disseminated via Facebook and the blog.
In order to strengthen the relations between Vorarlberg’s population and VLOTTE, the students also wish to implement a VLOTTE online game and incorporate this into their strategy. This will lead to the creation of a dedicated VLOTTE online community, which will promote a change in attitude with regard to e-mobility, especially among Vorarlberg’s 20- to 40-year-olds.
illwerke vkw and students benefit
The communications expert Andreas Neuhauser is convinced by the students’ concept and its feasibility: “I can well imagine installing and maintaining such a blog as a communication platform on our website. However, we will first have to examine in detail what kinds of costs this would involve.”
Christoph Hinteregger, a student on the Bachelor’s degree programme in Business Administration, at the presentation of the project results.
Yet it was not only the company that benefited from this cooperation – the students did so too. Christoph Hinteregger states that he greatly enjoyed the teamwork, and adds: “It was exciting to experience how scientific theory is put into practice. Our project demonstrated that this can be done.”
Claudia Mehl was also able to gain valuable experience: “We learned that the first approach is not always the best. Our interim presentation contained a major error. We had to fix this, which has only made our project that much more well rounded, and it was thus well received by the management at illwerke vkw.”
More information regarding the Bachelor’s degree programme in Business Administration is available at www.uni.li/bachelor-bwl.