eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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Objective of the Study The objective of this study was to investigate the link between social media and reputation management from the point of view of professionals from four Finnish organisations involved in the social media and from that of other professionals knowledgeable of social media. The study explored the use of social media in the target organisations and the lessons learned by the researched professionals in order to answer the main research question: “What is the link between social media and reputation management, as perceived by the interviewed and surveyed professionals?”

Methodology and the Theoretical Framework The source of data in this qualitative study consisted of four semi-structured interviews with communication, marketing and social media professionals from four international Finnish organisations and of an online survey of sixteen young professionals. The interviews were conducted in person, by telephone and by email, and the online survey was administered through Facebook. The theoretical framework of the study included social media activities in four fields of corporate communication: PR, marketing, crisis and HRM communication. The reputation of an organisation can be managed when organisations engage in these activities in the social media.

Findings and Conclusions Four uses of social media in the target organisations were identified in the data analysis: engaging in dialogue with external stakeholders, maintaining relationships with internal stakeholders, creating news whilst responding to the needs of the public and generating ideas through consumer participation. In addition, six lessons from social media were learned by the interviewed professionals, including the fact that social media is not hype, that social media should be taught to the employees, that social media should not only be used for marketing purposes and that social media require active organisational engagement. As a result of these findings, it was determined that the link between social media and reputation management is threefold: first, how social media and reputation interact depends on each organisation; then, organisational reputation can benefit from social media as these tools allow organisations to open up; last, organisations should participate in the social media with a genuine interest in building relationships.

Key words: social media, organisational reputation, reputation management, corporate communication, professional perceptions