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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the relationship between organizations and their communication agencies. The paper argues that the relationship is symbiotic; both parties have to understand the importance of adapting their engagement with one another, especially if they hope to produce brand work that is impactful for target audiences and highlights the value of good communications and marketing to leadership.Design/methodology/approach The views expressed in this practice paper are based on the author’s extensive experience in the communications sector in the Middle East.Findings The paper highlights the importance of human creativity in communication campaigns, the need for bravery in marketing communications, and the need to adapt to technology. The best client/agency relationships combine the right degree of closeness and distance that allows agencies to be passionate advocates for the client while also being honest on stakeholder reactions. But, honesty requires courage. Telling a client what they need to hear and putting aside the fear of upsetting those who pay the bills in the search for the most effective creative idea takes nerve. Finally, the greatest change to the practice of communication is technology.Originality/value Although the relationship between clients and their communications agencies has been a topic of interest, much of the focus has been on the bottom line. This has been attributed to multiple reasons such as increased digital focus, or a belief among many brands that developing in-house capabilities provides better returns on investment. This practice paper addresses the agency–client relationship from a different perspective arguing for a symbiotic relationship built on creativity, honesty, bravery and the need to adapt to technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of a particular form of sponsorship disclaimer in sponsored content by social media influencers (SMIs), namely a sponsorship compensation justification disclosure. A sponsorship compensation justification disclosure explains why influencers and brands engage in sponsorship collaborations by providing a normative reason that justifies the existence and dissemination of sponsored content. Design/methodology/approach: An experimental design was used to compare the effects of a sponsorship compensation justification disclosure made by either an influencer or the sponsoring brand, to a simple sponsorship disclosure and a no disclosure control post, on consumers' responses to a product-review video by a YouTube influencer. Findings: The paper offers empirical evidence that sponsorship compensation justification generates more positive consumer attitudes toward influencers receiving sponsorship compensation, and increases source and message credibility, compared to a simple sponsorship disclosure. Research limitations/implications: The hypotheses were tested on one YouTube video, comprising of a single product category, one SMI and one social media platform. Further studies might replicate the experiment on different product categories and on different social media platforms. Practical implications: This empirical study can offer brand communication managers and influencers important information on how to communicate and design sponsorship disclosures to reach-desired responses from consumers. Originality/value: The study is the first study to empirically demonstrate the effects of this particular type of sponsorship disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent to which social media are perceived by local government communicators as an opportunity to facilitate dialogue with communities, and the barriers that prevent dialogue occurring. Design/methodology/approach – In-depth qualitative interviews were held with 11 communication practitioners and managers from eight metropolitan and one regional council in South Australia who actively used social media. Findings – Social media are used and valued more for transmission of information and promotion than engaging in dialogue. Limited understanding of social media by risk averse councillors and management, practitioner competencies in interactive technologies, and lack of guidance for meeting mandatory record-keeping through social media were key factors inhibiting its use for dialogue. Research limitations/implications – The South Australian sample limits generalisability to other locations. However, the findings generally accord with previous, mostly quantitative, studies, and enrich understanding of beliefs and perceptions that limit dialogic use of Web 2.0 technology. Practical implications – Work needs to be done to align the law, community expectations, and policy guidance for local government in their use of social media communication and data storage. Achievement of the dialogic potential for social media requires an investment in people and training and updating of communication record policies. Originality/value – This paper broadens discussions about social media and dialogue in organisational communication by focusing on local government and articulating communicator, organisational culture, policy, and legal considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how online interaction with an organization impacts not only those users participating in the exchange, but also those that witness the interaction and are influenced as suggested by social cognitive theory.Design/methodology/approach This study utilized a mixed methodological approach. First, 20 interviews with social media users were conducted to explore their perceptions of observed two-way communication between organizations and other users within social media spaces. An experiment then compared the effects of interacting with an organization via social media vs simply observing organizations interacting with other users.Findings The findings from both studies support the assertion that publics do not have to actively participate in two-way communication with an organization for an observed exchange to have an impact. When an organization has a conversation with one follower, others see that interaction and are affected by it.Practical implications This study has implications for the practice of online communication by organizations. Practitioners must consider how interactions impact those publics who are observing rather than only the few who are engaging. In the social media realm, priority should be given to followers posting legitimate questions or concerns. Responding to positive comments can also improve perceptions of the organization but is seen as going above and beyond.Originality/value This paper introduces the concept of vicarious interaction – a phenomenon warranting further investigation by strategic communication scholars. Distinguishing between the effects of “vicarious interaction” and direct interaction could have significant consequences for the study of relational or symmetrical approaches to social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges associated with introducing internal social media (ISM) into organizations in order to help them reap the benefits of coworker communication on ISM.Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on an exploratory study in ten organizations. The data were collected in semi-structured interviews with ISM coordinators in Spring 2014.Findings According to the ISM coordinators, four challenges were associated with introducing ISM: coworkers could perceive communication on ISM as not work related; coworkers might not understand the informal nature of communication on ISM, and self-censorship might stop them communicating on ISM; ISM was not considered a “natural” part of the daily routines in the organizations; and top managers mainly supported ISM in words, not in action.Research limitations/implications The study is based on the perceptions of ISM coordinators. Further research is called for to explore both coworker perceptions and actual communication on ISM.Practical implications Practitioners introducing ISM should be aware of these four challenges, and should help coworkers to make sense of communication on ISM as work-related communication among coworkers. ISM coordinators’ perceptions of their own role in relation to coworker communication on ISM make a difference.Originality/value The study provides insights into the key challenges associated with introducing ISM, as well as the role of ISM coordinators as community facilitators and sense-givers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of online sentiments toward a company (i.e. Chipotle) during a crisis, and the effects of corporate apology on those sentiments.Design/methodology/approach Using a very large data set of tweets (i.e. over 2.6m) about Company A's food poisoning case (2015–2016). This case was selected because it is widely known, drew attention from various stakeholders and had many dynamics (e.g. multiple outbreaks, and across different locations). This study employed a supervised machine learning approach. Its sentiment polarity classification and relevance classification consisted of five steps: sampling, labeling, tokenization, augmentation of semantic representation, and the training of supervised classifiers for relevance and sentiment prediction.Findings The findings show that: the overall sentiment of tweets specific to the crisis was neutral; promotions and marketing communication may not be effective in converting negative sentiments to positive sentiments; a corporate crisis drew public attention and sparked public discussion on social media; while corporate apologies had a positive effect on sentiments, the effect did not last long, as the apologies did not remove public concerns about food safety; and some Twitter users exerted a significant influence on online sentiments through their popular tweets, which were heavily retweeted among Twitter users.Research limitations/implications Even with multiple training sessions and the use of a voting procedure (i.e. when there was a discrepancy in the coding of a tweet), there were some tweets that could not be accurately coded for sentiment. Aspect-based sentiment analysis and deep learning algorithms can be used to address this limitation in future research. This analysis of the impact of Chipotle's apologies on sentiment did not test for a direct relationship. Future research could use manual coding to include only specific responses to the corporate apology. There was a delay between the time social media users received the news and the time they responded to it. Time delay poses a challenge to the sentiment analysis of Twitter data, as it is difficult to interpret which peak corresponds with which incident/s. This study focused solely on Twitter, which is just one of several social media sites that had content about the crisis.Practical implications First, companies should use social media as official corporate news channels and frequently update them with any developments about the crisis, and use them proactively. Second, companies in crisis should refrain from marketing efforts. Instead, they should focus on resolving the issue at hand and not attempt to regain a favorable relationship with stakeholders right away. Third, companies can leverage video, images and humor, as well as individuals with large online social networks to increase the reach and diffusion of their messages.Originality/value This study is among the first to empirically investigate the dynamics of corporate reputation as it evolves during a crisis as well as the effects of corporate apology on online sentiments. It is also one of the few studies that employs sentiment analysis using a supervised machine learning method in the area of corporate reputation and communication management. In addition, it offers valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners who wish to utilize big data to understand the online perceptions and behaviors of stakeholders during a corporate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to explore the main characteristics of corporate social media guidelines (SMG) and determine whether companies communicate these guidelines effectively to employees. Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of corporate SMG is conducted using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) formerly used to assess business and ethical codes. The sample is comprised of 20 multinational companies that publish their SMG online. Findings – The results indicate the majority of the guidelines received average scores across the CVF framework, which implies the guidelines barely manage to stimulate change, direct action, provide facts or emphasize the importance of building trust. Research limitations/implications – A possible limitation of the research could be the issue of interpretability of the features of the framework. Hence, the quality of the research depends on the quality of the training raters receive prior to the guideline rating process. Additionally, the researchers were limited with the guideline availability and could analyze only the guidelines available online. This analysis can be broadened by identifying factors that may influence the characteristics of the guidelines (e.g. corporate culture or industry). Practical implications – Managers can use this framework to analyze their companies’ guidelines to reveal the gaps, point to opportunities for improvement or take the findings into account when developing new guidelines. Originality/value – The first paper that analyzes corporate SMG and their respective characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale and framework for examining stakeholder reactions to crisis communication messages in various social media channels. Stakeholders can become crisis communications by entering various sub-arenas of the larger rhetorical arena. The concept of sub-arena is presented and a case analysis used to illustrate the application and value of examining stakeholder crisis communicators during a crisis. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was used to evaluate publicly available social media messages posted on the Livestrong blog and the Huffington Post online news site. Findings – The paper demonstrates that monitoring reactions of stakeholders can reveal how individuals can act as crisis communications in social media messages can serve as barometers the effectiveness of an organization's crisis response. The importance of examining multiple sub-arenas is considered due to the influence of supportive stakeholders in organizational social media. Research limitations/implications – Only two sub-arenas were analyzed using one crisis response during a crisis that extended over a number of months. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for the examination of social media messages from supportive stakeholder and neutral sub-arenas. The results provide indicators of the effectiveness of an organization's crisis response and how stakeholder messages in social media may contribute to or undermine the crisis response. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates the value of monitoring social media comments to gauge reactions to organizational crisis responses and demonstrates how stakeholders can function as informal crisis managers. It also begins the discussion of the value and conceptualization of sub-arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of crisis communication application and theory by analyzing online reactions of discussion board participants to assess the effectiveness of an apology issued online. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a content analysis of naturally-occurring online reactions to an apology issued as a crisis response strategy. The Janis-Fadner Coefficient of Imbalance was used to quantify the magnitude of negative and positive reactions to the apology. Findings – Most posts indicated acceptance of the apology and positive purchase intentions, thus confirming its effectiveness in managing the crisis as prescribed in Situational Crisis Communication Theory. Analysis of rejection reactions provided insights into additional actions crisis managers might take in this situation and how organisations might make their crisis communication more interactive in an online environment. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by the focus on people responding to the apology online. It does show the potential value of online responses as a data source for crisis communication research. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates the utility of the research method for future studies designed to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of crisis communication strategies. Real time monitoring may signal if the response strategy is effective and, if not, reveal stakeholder concerns that should be addressed in follow-up responses. Originality/value – The paper provides insight into how online comments can be used to evaluate reactions to apologies used in a crisis. The method can be helpful when crisis managers have access to online reactions to their crisis communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Following a report released by the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, multinational corporations like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon found themselves in a firestorm of criticism for not paying or paying minimal taxes after earning significant profits in the UK for the past three years. Allegations of tax evasion led to a serious crisis for Starbucks in the UK, which played out in a public forum via social media. The researchers explored whether Starbucks’ corporate ethics insulated its reputation from negative media coverage of alleged tax evasion evidenced in its “hijacked” social media “#spreadthecheer” campaign. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach Using an exploratory case study analysis of news articles, Starbucks’ annual reports, #spreadthecheer Tweets, and David Michelli’s The Starbucks Experience, data collection helped to inform the discussion of authenticity and whether it helped to insulate Starbucks’ reputation during its crisis in the UK.Findings Authenticity is key when organizations face a turbulent environment and active publics and stakeholder groups. Findings from this study also suggested proactive reputation management strategies and tactics, grounded in the organization’s corporate culture and transparency, could have diffused some of the uproar from its key publics.Originality/value Authentic corporate cultures should align with corporate business practices in order to reduce the potential for crises to occur. It is possible that ethical core values and a strong organizational approach to ethics help to insulate its reputation among publics during a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why individuals use corporate pages on Facebook with the aim of developing a usage-specific inventory of incentive factors which describe brand page utilization for consumption, participation and production behavior.Design/methodology/approach A combined perspective of uses-and-gratifications (U&G) and social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied to develop three models of brand page behavior. Based on a literature review, an online survey (N=215) was conducted. Exploratory factor analyses identified motivational factors based on SCT incentive dimensions, which were cross-validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Findings Results indicate that consumption behavior can best be explained by activity, self-reactive-novel and monetary incentives. Status incentives, practical-novel and self-reactive-idealistic incentives drive participation. Production behavior is best explained by social, self-reactive and status incentives.Practical implications The models’ strategic implications for integrated communication management are discussed.Originality/value The results suggest interconnections of incentive dimensions unique to brand page usage, which have not yet been explored in any research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions are reflected on the official corporate Facebook pages from 259 organizations on Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list. This is the first attempt to create a conceptualization of Hofstede’s dimensions for organizational social media use.Design/methodology/approach To determine how Facebook is used by the Global 500 corporations, a content analysis was carried out based on the 2013 listing of the highest revenue corporations throughout the world. As a research method, content analysis allows researchers to examine the actual practices of communication by focusing on the information provided through textual and visual messages.Findings The results paint a mixed picture indicating that the global nature of these corporations is echoed in a somewhat similar overall presence on Facebook; but when the individual elements (About Us, updates, and media) are examined, statistical differences emerge in relation to the reflection of the cultural dimensions.Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work to match Facebook behaviors with Hofstede’s dimensions. This work needs to be replicated with other organizations to determine its staying power. In addition, future research might tap into agency and any consciousness on the part of social media managers in a specific direction. Depending on those findings, they might make important statements on the emergence of a global social media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the linkages between public relations efforts and policymaking activity during a non-election setting.Design/methodology/approach Using a time-lag design, this study used content analysis to examine public relations materials and policymaking activity during the first six months of US President Barack Obama’s second term. The public relations data were collected from the official White House website and social media. The policymaking data were collected from congressional calendars of business.Findings The data revealed varying degrees of support across the three levels of agenda-building for issues, attributes, and issue/attribute co-occurrence. Contrary to the expected relationship that public relations drives policymaking activity, the data suggest that policymaking activity was a stronger predictor of public relations material.Research limitations/implications This study provides modest support for time-lag agenda-building effects across three levels. However, future experimental research is needed to truly assess causal relationships. Future research should also explore alternative sources of data for policymaking activity.Practical implications This study demonstrates that the efficacy of information subsidy types is not uniform and should be chosen strategically. Traditional subsidy types were most effective for driving issues, while digital subsidy types provided more useful outlets for driving issue attributes.Originality/value This study contributes to political public relations scholarship by exploring the temporal relationships between public relations efforts and policymaking activity in a non-election setting. The time-lag design serves as an exploratory inquiry into the agenda-building process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how practitioner culture is maintained despite legal, technical, and educational issues resulting from the deluge of social media. The authors examined the nexus of practitioner culture, social media usage, and regulatory forces like policies, authority figures, and social norms. Design/methodology/approach – To explore practitioner culture, a cultural studies approach was used. Specifically, the circuit of culture model framed data analysis. The authors conducted qualitative interviews with 20 US public relations practitioners. Findings – Social media emerged as integral for cultural maintenance at every point in the circuit of culture. Practitioners expressed shared meanings about the regulations of social media as the reinvention of communication amidst growing pains; blurred public-private boundaries; nuanced rules of netiquette; and new systems of measurement and education. Research limitations/implications – The authors propose a regulation-formality hypothesis and regulation-identification articulations that should be considered in public relations practice, research, and education. Practical implications – Findings suggest best practices to help practitioners negotiate their personal identities and the identities of their organizations because of the unregulated nature of social media. Originality/value – This study fills the need for more qualitative, in-depth research that describes the cultural implications of social media in public relations to better address misunderstandings or gaps between its perceived effectiveness and actual use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of using Twitter on American stakeholders’ crisis appraisal for organizations originated from two foreign countries with distinctively different perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a 2 (medium: Twitter vs news release)×2 (country-of-origin: China vs France) factorial experiment. The participants (n=393) are recruited through the Amazon Mechanical Turk system (Mturks). Findings – The findings suggest that using Twitter substantially mitigates participants’ negative evaluation of the organization undergoing a crisis. Country-of-origin affects how individuals perceive the organization after it has experienced a crisis. In addition, participants’ product involvement intensifies the reputational threat specifically for the organization with a less favorable country-of-origin perception. Originality/value – This study is one of the few empirically based studies in international public relations research, using an experiment to extrapolate the effects of social media and country-of-origin on consumers’ crisis appraisal. This investigation reinforces the need to consider social media not just at the individual level, but also as a form of communication that can have broader consequences at the organizational level. In addition, it is important for company leaders to understand that the organization’s home country image may exacerbate the negative management outcomes during a crisis. It is expected that this study yields theoretically indicative, empirically informative, and culturally relevant results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Over the last years, many corporations have started to maintain profile pages on social networking sites (SNS), but research on how and why organizational stakeholders use these profile pages has not kept pace. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies a combined perspective of uses-and-gratifications (U & G) and social cognitive theory (SCT) to investigate the reasons why politicians and digital natives consume and interact with corporations on SNS. In total, 65 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings – Results suggest that the two stakeholder groups differ in their motivations, as well as behavior to use corporate profile pages. Digital natives seem to prefer Facebook to interact with companies, politicians prefer Twitter. Corporate YouTube pages are almost not important to any of the groups. Research limitations/implications – The qualitative nature of the study does not allow for generalizations of the findings to larger populations. Suggestions for further research are addressed in the discussion section. Practical implications – The study results have numerous implications for the practice of communication management. Fans on SNS do not tend to interact with corporations to a large extent, but are loyal followers. Once a connection between an individual and a company is established, it is likely to last. This enables corporations to gain rich information from their networks to be included in customer service, product development, issues management and recruiting. Originality/value – This is the first study in the field of communication management, which applies a micro-level approach to interviewing users of corporate communication; in order to reveal the reasons why and how they use corporate social networking profile pages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the communication strategies corporations adopt for Facebook and/or Twitter, and the consistency of communication strategies used on both Facebook and Twitter. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of 2011 Fortune 1000 corporate Facebook and Twitter sites was undertaken. Specially, communication strategies on 63 Fortune 1000 Facebook sites and 65 Fortune 1000 Twitter sites in January 2012 were examined. Findings – This study found that a majority of the examined Fortune 1000 companies emphasized a corporate ability communication strategy over a corporate social responsibility communication strategy on their Facebook and Twitter sites. Additionally, none of these companies used a true hybrid strategy on their social media sites (SMSs). Results also demonstrated that these companies were following the one message principle of integrated communication. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to its samples size and the coding time frame. Practical implications – Results of this study can help public relations and corporate communication professionals leverage multiple SMSs to build strong associations, improve engagement, and strengthen relationships with target stakeholders. Originality/value – Through examining corporate communication strategies on SMSs, this study contributes to current social media research along with corporate communication/public relations scholarship. It replicated and extended prior work by examining how existing corporate communication strategies on traditional web sites were incorporated into two new mainstream media – Facebook and Twitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]