Social Media Organizational Identity And Public Relations

Public relations has been swift to grasp social media, yet its impact on public relations practice remains relatively unexplored. This book focusses on a way of understanding organizational identity construction in a virtual context, developing scholarship on the importance of a virtual presence in PR management, and further, to make sense of these identities as authentic, legitimate or plausible. Through a diverse group of empirical case studies, this book explores the global perspective on organizational identities which transcend global boundaries via the internet including Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and Monsanto and organized social media protests. It also explores crowdfunding – an emerging form of capitalist development constructed through sensemaking in social media. By looking at the emergence of organization in today’s social media environment, it identifies how the interactive is created on a digitally mediated platform, sharing knowledge and engaging individuals in organizational identity construction. Viewing the social construction of organizational identities through this lens, this innovative book locates how identities are plausible, authentic and legitimate - or not – through their ongoing communication via social media. It will be of great interest to academics teaching and researching in public relations, organisational communication and social media.

Social media is having a profound, but not yet fully understood impact on public relations. In the 24/7 world of perpetually connected publics, will public relations function as a dark art that spins (or tweets) self-interested variations of the truth for credulous audiences? Or does the full glare of the internet and the increasing expectations of powerful publics motivate it to more honestly engage to serve the public interest? The purpose of this book is to examine the role of PR by exploring the myriad ways that social media is reshaping its conceptualization, strategies, and tactics. In particular, it explores the dichotomies of fake and authentic, powerless and powerful, meaningless and meaningful. It exposes transgressions committed by practitioners—the paucity of digital literacy, the lack of understanding of the norms of social media, naivety about corporate identity risks, and the overarching emphasis on spin over authentic engagement. But it also shows the power that closely networked social media users have to insert information and opinion into discussions and force "false PR friends" to be less so. This timely, challenging, and fascinating book will be of interest to all students, researchers, and practitioners in Public Relations, Media, and Communication Studies. Winner of the 2016 NCA PRIDE Award for best book

Social media is having a profound, but not yet fully understood impact on public relations. In the 24/7 world of perpetually connected publics, will public relations function as a dark art that spins (or tweets) self-interested variations of the truth for credulous audiences? Or does the full glare of the internet and the increasing expectations of powerful publics motivate it to more honestly engage to serve the public interest? The purpose of this book is to examine the role of PR by exploring the myriad ways that social media is reshaping its conceptualization, strategies, and tactics. In particular, it explores the dichotomies of fake and authentic, powerless and powerful, meaningless and meaningful. It exposes transgressions committed by practitioners—the paucity of digital literacy, the lack of understanding of the norms of social media, naivety about corporate identity risks, and the overarching emphasis on spin over authentic engagement. But it also shows the power that closely networked social media users have to insert information and opinion into discussions and force "false PR friends" to be less so. This timely, challenging, and fascinating book will be of interest to all students, researchers, and practitioners in Public Relations, Media, and Communication Studies. Winner of the 2016 NCA PRIDE Award for best book

Given the high rate of social media use by the public, organizations are compelled to engage with key audiences through these outlets. Social media engagement requires organizations to actively participate with public groups, and this highly-interactive exchange raises a new set of ethical concerns for communicators. In this rapidly changing communications environment, the long-term implications of social media are uncertain, and this book provides the much needed research to understand its impact on audiences and organizations. Through an examination of a broad range of ethics concepts including transparency and online identities, policies, corporate responsibility, and measurement, this book explores a variety of topics important to public relations such as diversity, non-profit communication, health communication, financial communication, public affairs, entertainment communication, environmental communication, crisis communication, and non-profit communication. The chapter authors, expert scholars within their fields of public relations, offer insights drawn from original research and case study examples of ethical dilemmas raised by social media communication.

This book continues the groundbreaking work begun in Intercultural Public Relations: Theories for Managing Relationships and Conflicts with Strategic Publics (Routledge, 2018), by applying the theoretical framework of intercultural public relations to actual practice. Practical public relations contexts examined by the contributing chapter authors—both scholars and practitioners—include corporations, government, military, healthcare, education, and activism. The book covers real-world situations, including the training of practitioners to become more interculturally competent, identifying and understanding publics or stakeholders with different cultural backgrounds and identities, building and maintaining relationships with these publics/stakeholders, and managing conflicts with them. Offering practical guidance while examining both best practices and difficult challenges, this book is useful for public relations researchers, practitioners, and students as they explore how intercultural public relations contributes to organizational effectiveness and social change.

Diverse in economic development, political and mass media systems, the countries in South East Asia cast a unique light on the parallels between development-cum-participative communication and corporate social responsibility. In our globalized environments, knowledge of power, culture and the colonial histories that influence and shape business and governance practices are increasingly important. Focusing on six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam— the book discusses how PR and CSR discourse are constructed, interpreted, communicated and enacted in this diverse emerging region. By connecting the disparate disciplines of participatory and development communication with public relations and corporate social responsibility discourse, this innovative text explores the tensions between concepts of modernity and traditional values and their role in engendering creativity, compliance or resistance. This book will be of interest to researchers, educators and advanced students in the fields of public relations, communication, corporate social responsibility, corporate communications and South East Asia studies.

In Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional, social marketing pioneer Deirdre Breakenridge teaches and demonstrates the eight new skills and mindsets PR/marketing pros need to build brands and engage customers in a social world. This concise, action-oriented book shows practitioners how to systematically expand their roles, improve their processes, and sharpen their strategies to engage with today’s more sophisticated and socialized customers. Drawing on her extensive client experience, Breakenridge helps you respond to consumers who demand control over their own brand relationships... marry communications with technology more effectively, and become your organization’s go-to resource on social technology decisions... reflect social media realities throughout your policies and governance... generate greater internal collaboration, eliminating silos once and for all... listen to consumers’ conversations, and apply what you’re learning... build communications crisis plans you can implement at a moment’s notice... develop profound new insights into how consumers construct and perceive their brand relationships.,. practice “reputation management on steroids”... take the lead on identifying and applying metrics... and much more. For all PR, marketing, and communications executives and professionals; and for students intending to enter these fields.

This text gives academics, practitioners and students a solid review of the status of academic literature in public relations, stressing the role that public relations can play in building relationships between organizations, markets, audiences, and publics.