![Business use of social media in the UK](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Business_use_of_social_media_in_the_UK.png)
Corporate social media is the use of
social media platforms
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social media ...
, social media communications and
social media marketing
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for ...
techniques by and within
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
s, ranging from
small business
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...
es and tiny
entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
startups
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses t ...
to mid-size businesses and huge multinational firms. Within the definition of social media, there are different ways corporations utilize it. Although there is no systematic way in which social media applications can be categorized, there are various methods and approaches to having a strong social media presence.
Social media currently can be crucial to the success of growing numbers in a companies value chain activities.
For marketers, Social media is a mandatory element within the promotional mix.
Marketers also need to understand that marketing on social media can come with difficulties and challenges, and face both reputation and economic risks.
This big push to move to Social Media to is thought to create a better experience with the consumers, as corporations are able to target specific content to their target audience. Another benefit for corporations through usage of media is that this will attract more people, and in return also create a more well known brand.
History and development
In the 2010s, an increasing number of corporations, across most industries, have adopted the use of social media either within in the workplace, for employees, as part of an
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in c ...
or using the publicly available
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. As a result, corporate use of
social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
and
micro blogging sites such as
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
,
Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
, and
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
, has substantially increased.
A 2010 report indicated that two-thirds of companies had or would have social media initiatives in place.
According to an article by the ''
Harvard Business Review
''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massach ...
'' from 2014, "Fifty-eight percent of companies are currently engaged in social networks like Facebook, micro blogs like Twitter, and sharing multimedia on platforms such as
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
." The Harvard Business Review cites an additional 21 % of companies as being in the process of implementing a formal social media initiative. The 2014 HBR report indicates 79 % of companies have or will have social media initiatives in place.
According to research conducted in 2021, 91.9 percent of marketing employees working for large corporations (100 or more people) use social media on a daily basis in their jobs. This statistic has changed a lot over the years, and continues to grow.
Budgeting and corporate roles
Budgets for utilizing corporate social media is growing every year by millions of dollars. Jobs like social media managers and coordinators have made it so this is an entire department of a company. It goes hand in hand with the marketing, communications, and PR teams in order to optimize strategies for the corporation to be connected to their audience.
Types
Aichner and Jacob (2015) give the following typology:
Policies
Social media has grown rapidly over the last decade and has become an integral component of business models. Because of the global use of social media, corporations are developing and implementing formal written policies for how their corporation will present itself on social media. In addition to this, corporations are often conscious about how their employees present themselves and their company on social media. Before social media, a company had complete control with what they communicated to the public. Now, virtually any employee can speak on behalf of the company, even without proper permission or following protocol. This can create conflict between corporate policy and those in decision making roles versus employees. For example, the
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) is a formal U.S. government interagency body composed of five banking regulators that is "empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms to promote uniformity ...
, a consortium of bank and credit union regulators, implemented in December 2013, formal social media guidance for its banks and credit unions. In the eyes of regulators, risks associated with social media use are of a level that requires formal attention. At a minimum, regulators require that organizations "listen" to what is being said about them on social media platforms in an effort to identify legal, compliance, and reputational concerns.
Corporations have legitimate concerns when it comes to their employees’ use of social media. Social media environments have created the need for distinct and often strict
reputation management
Reputation management, originally a public relations term, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. The growth of the internet and social media led to growth of reputation managem ...
practices. Some corporations have resorted to monitoring the social media accounts of its employees in order to spot posts and comments that are related to workplace issues or the employer, potentially harmful to business or even leak private corporate information.
Many corporations have used social media during the hiring process as well. Survey data shows that within a one-year period 15 percent of finance and accounting professionals found new jobs through social media. Social media can be both helpful and detrimental to those searching for employment. Hiring managers sometimes search social media to look for reasons not to hire a job applicant. According to a 2013 survey from CareerBuilder.com, 43 percent of employers use social networking sites to research potential hires. Another 45 percent are researching the "fit" of a job candidate with their company by conducting a search via Google or another search engine. 51 percent of employers who research candidates on social media say they've found postings which have caused them to not hire a candidate. Job applicants who have racist or homophobic jokes, inappropriate photos, offensive content, or photos depicting
drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main p ...
or other potentially undesirable behaviors may be screened out of hiring processes. Some observers have stated that employer viewing of job candidates' social media profiles may raise privacy concerns.
Benefits and risks
Despite there being risks to consider when utilizing social media, corporations are identifying the benefits associated with adopting a comprehensive corporate social media strategy. Benefits include lower cost and more effective, personal, and engaging marketing and advertising initiatives (as compared with traditional marketing methods such as
billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
ads and
TV commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
s), improved internal and external corporate communications, enhanced overall brand awareness, and better operational efficiency and innovativeness. As a result, corporations are investing at an increasing rate in social media software and external services to strengthen their online presence. The belief is that the benefits outweigh the potential risks of bad press, customer complaints, and brand bashing.
Benefits also include being able to interact one on one with the consumers and talking directly to them through social media platforms. This creates trust in businesses and gives customers more chances to build loyalty and commitment to a brand.
Conversely, businesses can find themselves in a bad situation when they use social media poorly. An example of poor social media execution came in November 2013 when JP Morgan decided to have a question and answer session via Twitter. During that time, 2 out of 3 tweets received were negative due to prior scrutiny they had faced. In this case, using social media and interacting with the public did not help to promote them in a positive way. Another example came on September 11, 2013, when AT&T posted a picture on Twitter of a cell phone capturing a picture of the Twin Towers memorial lights with the caption "Never forget." The tweet was met with great backlash from consumers for using a tragedy as a marketing opportunity, with many customers threatening to leave AT&T. After seeing the backlash it was receiving, AT&T removed the post and apologized within about an hour of its posting.
Risks also include, losing the interest of the people on social media because there is a lack of activity, the content is not interesting, or it is not professional or honest.
See also
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Enterprise social networking
Enterprise social networking focuses on the use of online social networks or social relations among people who share business interests and/or activities. Enterprise social networking is often a facility of enterprise social software (regarded as a ...
*
Enterprise social software Enterprise social software (also known as or regarded as a major component of Enterprise 2.0), comprises social software as used in "enterprise" (business/commercial) contexts. It includes social and networked modifications to corporate intranets a ...
*
Social media use by businesses
Social media use by businesses includes a range of applications. Although social media accessed via desktop computers offer a variety of opportunities for companies in a wide range of business sectors, mobile social media, which users can access wh ...
References
Further reading
Navigating Social Media Legal Risks: Safeguarding Your Business2011 Fortune 500 – UMass DartmouthBig Bird Tweets: How corporations use social media to gauge public persona - ComputerworldSocial media is reinventing how business is done – USATODAY.comHow To Use Social Media To Promote Your Small Business – ForbesBrand Ambassadors in the Age of Social Media Social Media Growth From 2010 To 2018
{{Aspects of corporations
Social media
Public relations
Social information processing
Promotion and marketing communications