Corporate blogging and microblogging: An analysis of dialogue, interactivity and engagement in organisation-public communication through social media

Melanie King University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)

PhD thesis in Public Communication, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

2014

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Certificate of original authorship

I certify that the work for this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text.

I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis.

Signature:

Date: 5 November 2014

ii Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Acknowledgments

I’d like to acknowledge the help and guidance of my supervisor, Professor Jim Macnamara of UTS.

Without the assistance and participation of the interviewees, this study would not have taken place. I’d like to thank them all for their time and effort: Rachel Beany Stephen Bradley Danielle Clarke Tim Clark Niki Epstein Nathan Freitas Susan Galer Angela Graham Ameel Khan Gareth Llewellyn Samantha Locke Frank Mantero Mat Medcalf Scott Monty Andrew Murrell Dana Ridge Leon Traazil Daniel John Young Sam Zivot And the 3 participants who chose to be unidentified

Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge my husband, Serge Lacroix, and children, Jordan King-Lacroix and Justin King-Lacroix, without whose support I never could have embarked on this journey.

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Table of Contents Page

List of Tables & Illustrations vi

Abstract viii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Existing literature on social media and corporate blogging and microblogging 20 2.1 The Internet 20 2.2 The Web 23 2.3 Web 2.0 24 2.4 Social media 30 2.5 Social networks 51 2.6 Blogs 63 2.7 Microblogs 78 2.8 Social media monitoring and listening 88 2.9 Social media use in crises 93 2.10 Interactivity and engagement 97

Chapter 3 Theoretical literature framing and informing this study 103 3.1 Social media theory 104 3.2 Public relations theory, including excellence theory 106 3.3 Corporate communications theory 116 3.4 Dialogic theory 118

Chapter 4 Methodology 138 4.1 Conceptual framework 138 4.2 Research approach 139 4.3 Research questions 141 4.4 Research methodology 142 4.5 Research methods 144 4.6 Sampling 156 4.7 Coding 161 4.8 Analysis 163

Chapter 5 Overall findings, findings on dialogue and interaction 166 5.1 Overall findings 167 5.2 Findings on dialogue and interaction 168 5.3 Social media as responsibility of marketing 194 5.4 Brand advocacy 198 5.5 Community 204 Discussion 211

Chapter 6 Findings and discussion: How organisations use blogs and microblogs 215 6.1 Overall findings on blogs and microblogs 215 6.2 Blogs 216 6.3 Microblogs 222 Discussion 230

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Chapter 7 Findings and discussion: How social media are evaluated 233 7.1 Overall findings on social media metrics and measurement 233 7.2 Social media monitoring and metrics 234 7.3 Success 239 Discussion 243

Chapter 8 Findings: How crises are managed in social media 245 8.1 Overall findings regarding management of crises 245 8.2 Case studies of crises in social media 248

Chapter 9 Findings and discussion: Other findings that impact an organisation’s communication in social media 263 9.1 Overall findings on organisational communication 263 9.2 Strategy and objectives of social media 264 9.3 Organisational voice 266 9.4 Responsiveness 267 9.5 Training 270 9.6 Brand 271 Discussion 273

Chapter 10 Conclusion 275 10.1 Implications for theories 289 10.2 Significance and implication of findings 290 10.3 Limitations 293 10.4 Reflections 295 10.5 Recommendations for future research 296

Glossary of Terms 298

Appendices 303

References 367

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List of tables and illustrations

Tables Page Table 2.1 World Internet users 22 Table 2.2 Top online destinations 22 Table 2.3 Social media statistics – Australia 43 Table 2.4 Social media statistics – Global 43 Table 2.5 Chinese social networking sites 53 Table 2.6 Top global Facebook pages 55 Table 2.7 Top Australian Facebook pages 56 Table 2.8 Top Australian Facebook pages by engagement 57 Table 2.9 Bloggers worldwide 68 Table 2.10 Corporate blog types 70 Table 2.11 Top 10 global corporate blogs 72 Table 2.12 Corporate blog taxonomy 73 Table 2.13 Social media monitoring tools 88 Table 2.14 Social media metrics 90 Table 2.15 Definitions of mediated interactivity 97 Table 4.1 Posts studied 155 Table 4.2 ASX industry classification 157 Table 4.3 Sampling frame 160 Table 4.4 Participating organisations 160 Table 4.5 Codes used in MaxQDA analysis 162 Table 4.6 Coding categories based on Kent & Taylor (2002) 163 Table 5.1 Use of social media by participants 166 Table 5.2 Overall themes 168 Table 5.3 Degree of dialogue or conversation 174 Table 5.4 Content analysis of Facebook and Twitter posts 176 Table 5.5 One-way vs two-way interaction 184 Table 5.6 Relationship with marketing 196 Table 5.7 Community on Facebook, Twitter and blogs 206 Table 6.1 Blog comments 220 Table 6.2 Twitter as customer service channel 225 Table 6.3 Internal microblogging tools 228

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Table 7.1 Monitoring tools 235 Table 7.2 Determinents of success 242 Table 9.1 Response time 269

Illustrations Figure 2.1 Dimensions of Web 2.0 26 Figure 2.2 Highlighted applications of this study 29 Figure 3.1 Communication channels 117 Figure 4.1 Conceptual research framework 139 Figure 4.2 Process of sample selection 159 Figure 4.3 Data collection and analysis 164 Figure 5.1 Initial ladder of engagement 200 Figure 5.2 Revised ladder of engagement 202

Appendices 303 Appendix 1. Non-participating organisations 304 Appendix 2. Date of participant interviews 305 Appendix 3. Sampling frame parametres 306 Appendix 4. Coding categories 307 Appendix 5. Visual display of matrices 308 Appendix 6. Blog, Facebook and Twitter analysis 309-362 Appendix 7. Blog benefits and rationale 363-366

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Abstract

Corporate blogs and microblogs are social media channels created by and on behalf of organisations. Social media channels are designed to be collaborative, dialogic and participatory (Flew 2008; Kaplan & Haenlein 2010; Logan 2010) based on their technological capabilities like networking (Flew 2008), as well as being self organised (or bottom up) (Johnson 2001 cited in Macnamara 2014) characterised by the philosophy of interaction.

This study investigates whether there is dialogic interaction on social media between organisations and publics, and explores the factors that influence dialogic engagement. A number of previous studies have concluded that social media are not being used dialogically by organisations. This study looks chiefly at how organisations communicate with publics, and their interpretation and implementation of dialogue in corporate blogging and microblogging. The study examined blogs and microblog posts (Facebook and Twitter) of major organisations in the US and Australia.

Methodology for the study was qualitative with one hour, in-depth interviews with the social media managers of primarily Fortune 500 and ASX 200 companies (n=21) to understand whether they engaged in interaction or dialogue with publics and if not, why not. Methodology also included content analysis of blog and microblog posts, including Twitter and Facebook, of all participating organisations (n=20). The posts were coded and analysed for the presence of dialogue, against definitions drawn from Kent and Taylor (2002), interaction against definitions drawn from Kiousis (2002), Rafaeli (1988), and Downes and McMillan (2000), and engagement against definitions drawn from Mollen and Wilson (2010). Blog and microblog posts were analysed manually first, then using MAX QDA software to determine actual back-and-forth interaction between organisations and publics.

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Organisation-public dialogue is an important interactive process moving from confrontation to consultation and cooperation demonstrating trust and engagement. Social media allow organisations the opportunity to build relationships with publics in a dialogic way. The investigation was based on what the theory suggests and the technology allows – interaction, engagement and dialogue.

However, the results reveal social media managers are using two-way dialogic channels in a one-way transmissional way. This can be attributed to two thirds of social media managers are managed within marketing. Communication as part of the marketing discipline has traditionally been one-way, focussing on promotion and transaction. This study’s findings also indicate limited interaction between organisations and publics, with most interaction between peers or individuals, and no dialogue as defined by Kent and Taylor (1998, 2002). Social media managers sought engagement, often defined as low level or high level. Low level engagement includes ‘likes’, shares and retweets, even comments (Flew 2008) which can be argued is not engagement at all based on scholarly definitions (Mollen & Wilson 2010; O’Brien & Toms 2008; Sashi 2012). Participants pursue these types of engagement although research has not yet investigated the true meaning of a ‘like’ (McCorkindale, DiStaso & Sisco 2013). Users are not personally vested in an organisation when ‘liking’ it; they are more so when they ‘friend’ it, (McCorkindale, DiStaso & Sisco 2013).

High level engagement in terms of social media interaction is conversation in comments sections of blogs and microblogs, sharing of individually produced content, and sharing an organisation’s message in other networks (Flew 2008). Considerable interaction was found on Twitter and Facebook within a customer-service/complaint model or between individuals.

The importance of this study’s findings is that it provides new information about how social media managers use social media to communicate with publics as well as new insights into who in the organisation implements social media and

ix Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 for what reasons. There have been previous studies investigating dialogue between organisations and publics, most of which found little or no dialogue. This study aimed to discover if lapsed time from previous studies to now have allowed social media managers to grasp the importance of dialogue and thus evolve their commitment to interaction. Additionally, as both Australian and American organisations participated, any differences between the two types of organisations would have lead to an interesting finding, but there was no difference in how American and Australian social media managers communicate.

Dialogue between organisations and publics could enhance greater dialogic discourse in society as “communication as dialogue is being advocated to play an increasingly central role in contemporary human communication behaviour” (Johannesen 1971, p. 382).

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Understanding how communication works has been studied for centuries. The study of communication and media has been studied intensely since the early 20th century (Macnamara 2014). Various communication theories have emerged in an effort to explain the process that takes place between at least two people and elicits a response. Communication is “the organising element of human life” (Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 4) and involves “talking and listening” (Craig cited in Griffin 2009, p. 6). It is the “verbal exchange of a thought or idea” (Hoben 1954 cited in Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 3) and, as Littlejohn and Foss (2008) further explain, is the creation, exchange and interpretation of messages. ). “Communication creates a thriving, industrious society” through which matters can be examined, analysed and dissected in depth (Bowen 2010, p. 569-570) and it is also the transmission of social values and the sharing of experiences (Hiebert, Ungurait & Bohn 1974).

Communication is interpreted as a dynamic two-way interactive process (see Macnamara 2012, citing Carey 2009; Dance & Larson 1972The various communication theories showcase the diversity of human life and, says Craig, communication “constitutes reality” (1996, cited in Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 6). Within the context of Craig’s seven traditions of communications, this thesis is situated in social-scientific scholarship as part of phenomenological and sociocultural traditions, interpreting the interaction through dialogue.

When examining theories about mass communication and media, one can begin with McLuhan’s (1964) theories that media impact individuals and society. McLuhan argued that media are extensions of the human mind and people learn to adapt to their environment through new (whatever is new at the time) media. McLuhan focused on mass media (also referred to in this thesis as traditional media: television, film, radio and sound recording, and

1 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 print – magazines, newspapers, books, newsletters and direct marketing), where media involved one-way communication with centralised production and content ‘talking’ to the audience, reinforcing social stratification. Mass media provide limited opportunity for feedback from publics, which would have allowed the communicator to alter his/her message. In mass media, “feedback is delayed or diffused” (Hiebert et al. 1974, p. 14).

Mass communication led to several theories arguing that mass media were “powerful tools of dominant ideologies” (Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 337) and that they influenced opinion leaders who then inspired (in some way) members of the public (e.g. two-step theory, N-step theory). There were theories about mass media informing the public (e.g. diffusion theory) and telling people what to think about (e.g. agenda-setting). Audiences, or publics, are passive participants in mass media, receiving information and selecting channels, deciding to whom influence is granted (e.g. uses and gratification theory) (Guth & Marsh 2012). Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding (Littlejohn & Foss 2008) evidenced a process of communication using television as an example, in which producers encoded content with messages, distributed it and audiences decoded it based on their framework of knowledge. In mass media, the one-way communication flow from sender (producer) to receiver makes for an asymmetrical power relationship, but was considered acceptable. In newer media like social media, publics are using two-way communication, aiming for a more symmetrical, equal relationship. They participate in conversation, they collaborate and create virtual communities, and they feed back to both other individuals and organisations. Social media are interactive where traditional or mass media are not. The main way for individuals to interact with traditional mass media is to turn off the set. Social media provide ideal conditions for dialogic communication (Romenti, Murtarelli & Valentini 2014).

Organisations play a key role in society, and as a result organisation-public communication enhances public discourse. Organisations as collective

2 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 entities consist of human beings with a sense of purpose, and Hall’s encoding and decoding of messages is imperative for analysing organisational messages and their impact on society. Whether in mass media or social media, organisations should endeavour to incorporate two-way communication, argue Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (2002), because it produces mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with publics. They contend that negotiation and dialogue, involving listening rather than domination or persuasion, are the most ethical methods of organisation-public communication.

In order to critically discuss, evaluate and investigate communication, it is important to note several pivotal concepts relevant to this study and there are 14 terms at the core of it whose definitions are included below (there are also specific key terms defined in the Glossary at the end of this document):

Definitions Public relations Public relations has been defined in many ways (see Grunig, Grunig & Dozier 2002 for a review; for a complete overview of PR’s 472 definitions, see Harlow 1976), but Bernays (1977) is credited with outlining the concept of public relations as a profession in his 1923 Crystallising Public Opinion, in which PR professionals counsel and advise clients ethically as well as play a role in society (Bivens 2013). Bernays believed persuasion to be an essential aspect of public relations but he also believed that PR counsel “interprets the client to the public and the public to the client”, shaping public opinion but making “sense of events for the public” (Stoker 2014, p. 351).

Some of the earlier definitions focus on how the organisation communicates in a one-way method. Weaver et al. define public relations as “the strategic attempt to control the agenda of public discussion and the terms in which discussions takes place” (Edwards 2011, p. 13). Grunig, one of public

3 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 relations’ leading theorists, has, with Hunt, defined it as a management function overseeing the management of communication between an organisation and its publics. Grunig later came to theorise that within that communication, public attitudes are evaluated and programs are executed to earn public acceptance of an organisation’s policies or procedures “using research and dialogue to manage conflict…and build relationships with publics” (Grunig (Ed.) 1992, p. 39). He also believes that public relations is similar to public diplomacy, which includes skilled negotiation (Grunig 1993b). Several other theorists define public relations as a management function that fosters mutually beneficial relationships (e.g. Cutlip, Center & Broom 1994; Guth & Marsh 2012; Ledingham & Bruning 2000).

Over the past few decades, there has been a rise in critical thinking and a shift to a broader sociocultural perspective. Edwards argues that mutually beneficial relationships within public relations can also be mutually influential (2011), and Coombs and Holladay (2007) agree that communication exists in an intertwined environment of relationships across multiple stakeholders. Heath and Coombs (2006) also define public relations as “collaborative decision-making to help an organisation…listen to, appreciate and respond” to those publics whose mutually beneficial relationships (based on dialogue rather than self-interest) it requires to reach its goals (p. 7). In this context, dialogue may exist, although controlling the agenda would not permit the dialogue to be genuine.

Publics Hallahan (2000) describes publics as audiences, market segments or communities with shared experiences or values, likely to respond to organisational messages in similar ways. Similarly, Guth and Marsh (2012) define public as “any group of people who share common interests”, particularly those they might be willing to act upon (p. 5). The latter definition is most appropriate for this thesis, where publics interact on social media with organisations they admire, perhaps even dislike, but do not have

4 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 a financial stake in the organisation. Publics who follow organisations on social media would be considered by Grunig (2011) to be active because they seek out information from the organisation and pass it on to others.

Stakeholders The terms publics and stakeholders are often used synonymously in public relations (Grunig 1992, 2011), but publics are stakeholders if they are affected by the decisions of the organisation, if their decisions affect the organisation (Grunig 1992) or if they have a financial or moral stake in the organisation’s goals (Grunig 1993b). Hallahan (2000) refines the definition further, distinguishing stakeholders as a category of publics with an interest in the organisation directly impacted by the actions, policies or practices of an organisation, someone with a stake in the organisation’s success. They include employees, communities, investors, shareholders, donors (for not- for-profits), suppliers, governments, government agencies or regulatory agencies. The behaviour of the stakeholders and the organisation can impact one another. In this study, the terms public and stakeholder are not synonymous.

Public sphere Habermas’ (1991) conceived the public sphere as citizens coming together as equals to engage in rational critical debate concerning rules governing society. In an ideal public sphere, there is the principle of universal access (1991) where anyone can participate in debate and express opinions, desires or needs (Ruiz, Domingo, Micó, Diaz-Noci, Meso & Masip 2011) – although this notion is widely seen as normative. Nevertheless, a healthy public sphere is “the cornerstone of democracy” according to Habermas (2006) and he said it should not be dominated by commercial interests (Habermas (1991), its purpose being public discussion. He feared the state and business together could diminish the public sphere, because a “world fashioned by the mass media is a public sphere in appearance only” (1991, p. 171). However, Habermas (2006) later suggested the Internet offers hope for a

5 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 viable public sphere because it is an independent, intermediary system and it has “reactivated the grassroots of an egalitarian public” (p. 423), contrary to the asymmetrical character of broadcasting.

In contrast, Moloney (Fawkes & Moloney 2008) identifies the “persuasive sphere”. In it, business and activist movements have colonised PR and turned the public sphere into the persuasive sphere (Adi & Moloney 2012) in which publics are inundated with one-way persuasive PR messages or “weak propaganda” (p. 207). Moloney critically contends persuasion is central to public relations, a key contributor to the persuasive sphere and the opposite of the range of voices in Habermas’ (1991) public sphere.

Symmetry (or two-way symmetrical communication) Two-way symmetrical communication is a model of public relations developed by Grunig and Hunt (1984) wherein the interests of the organisation and its publics are allegedly balanced. Symmetrical communication is based on research, uses communication to manage conflict (Grunig, Grunig & Dozier 2002) and involves a “give and take of persuasion and collaboration” in interaction between an organisation and publics (2002, p.551). Grunig and Grunig (1992) claim the symmetrical model of public relations makes organisations more effective and is the ideal standard.

Public relations was practiced in a persuasive, one-way method from its modern inception in the mid to late 19th and early 20th centuries until the 1940s, when scholars began to re-consider one-way communication. Goldman (1948) wrote that public relations was a “two-way street”. Thayer’s (1968) synchronic (persuasive) and diachronic (negotiated) approach to communication (Brown 2010) was built upon by Grunig and Hunt’s two way symmetrical model (1984), Kruckeberg and Starck’s community participation model (1988, 2004) and Pearson’s dialogic model of public relations (1989). Stoker (2014) equates two-way symmetrical communication with dialogue.

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Dialogue Dialogue is two-way interaction where one appreciates, respects and listens to the other without attempting to impose one’s own truth (Johannesen 1971). Dialogic characteristics include mutuality, honesty, frankness and intent. In dialogue, all freely express opinions, demonstrating a desire to listen without interfering or competing (Johannesen 1971). In this study, dialogue, as a theory of public relations used in online communication, is based on mutuality (the recognition of organisation-public relationships), propinquity (spontaneity of interactions), empathy (support of public goals or interests), risk (willingness to interact on their own terms), and commitment (a commitment to dialogue by organisations to interaction with publics) (Kent & Taylor 2002).

Conversation Conversation, as defined by Goodwin and Heritage (1990), is “casual talk in everyday settings” (p. 284) or evidence of a spoken encounter. Conversation can be seen as casual, even superficial, although Gadamer says that “conversation is a process of two people understanding each other” (cited in Kent & Taylor 2002, p. 25). Gadamer’s description as described is similar to dialogue, which includes a deep understanding of and respect for the other and with both sides equal in influence.

Searle (1997) presents an argument that while conversations involve shared intentionality and topical understanding, they are but a sequence of utterances. Conversation, from a sociological standpoint, is ordinary talk in a highly socially ordered form with interchanges of thoughts in spoken word with body gestures. In this study, conversation takes place in social media where body gestures and vocal or facial displays of emotion cannot be considered. Dialogue, as defined by Buber, involves a deep understanding of the other, as well as of the between-ness of two parties – those words that may not be said. Dialogue in social media, as defined by Kent and Taylor

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(2002), demonstrates an understanding of different perspectives respectfully listened to and appreciated, with “unconditional positive regard” (p. 22) leading to mutual acknowledgment.

Interactivity Computer-mediated interactivity, or person-to-person interactivity in a computer-mediated environment, as defined by Rafaeli (1988), has users responding to one another with messages flowing bilaterally with reciprocal influence by at least two sources and recipients – two-way communication with comments and responses wherein messages refer to previous messages. Interactivity must include messages in a sequence relating to each other (Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997) and comments must be reciprocal (Kiousis 2002). In this study, Facebook and Twitter posts between organisations and publics are examined for reciprocal and sequential interactivity as well as dialogue.

Interactivity and engagement are intertwined and difficult to separate. Interactivity can lead to engagement or be seen as part of engagement (Kim, Spielmann & McMillan 2012; Rafaeli 1988). Yang, Kang and Johnson (2010) define audience engagement as increased perceived interactivity.

Engagement In this thesis, engagement involves an individual or a community and how it/they interact with other individuals or content in a computer-mediated environment. Engagement “is characterised by involvement, being energised, being active, expending effort, and the full use of cognitive capability” (Gutherie 2004 cited in Mollen & Wilson 2010, p. 922) and is “an orientation that influences interactions and the approach that guides the process of interactions” (Taylor & Kent 2014, p. 384). In social media, high engagement is collaborating, creating and writing, with sharing at the low end of high engagement (Flew 2008, p.32). Creating and sharing content can also be seen as medium engagement, with high engagement evolving into offline interaction resulting from exposure to a social media application (Neiger,

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Thackeray, Van Wagenen, Hanson, West, Barnes & Fagen 2012). Engagement is an essential concept in social media.

Participation Web creator Berners-Lee equates interactivity with participation (Flew 2008). Participation in social media involves more than passive receipt of information (Logan 2010) and a participatory culture is “one of the great promises of new media” (Flew 2008, p. 106). Jenkins’ (2006) participatory culture involves the democratisation of media access, although the extent of participation in social media is variable (Flew 2008). Hallahan’s participatory interactive model of public relations in social media includes participation through email, blogs, chat rooms and threaded discussions as well as exposure to an organisation’s messages without participation in conversation (in Heath (Ed.) 2010).

Social media New or emergent media based on platforms or technologies that allow collaboration, creative and participatory interaction are part of Web 2.0 (or the Social Web) and are referred to as social media. Social media include a new way of thinking that incorporates openness and authenticity. Social media “foster a new, more egalitarian and participatory form” of engagement (Flew 2008, p. 107) and allow the user to engage in interactivity and two-way communication (Logan 2010), controlling of the flow of information (Logan 2010). They include microblogs, blogs, content sharing sites and some social networks.

Blog A blog is an online journal or website that is frequently updated with posts listed in reverse chronological order, in which an individual or an organisation posts information about himself/herself/itself and topics of interest (Baker & Moore 2008). In this thesis, the context of blogs is organisational – how organisations use blogs to communicate with publics.

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Microblog A microblog is a short form of blogging, often limited to 200 (or so) characters per post, but enriched with features “for social networking and with a strong focus on mobility” (Bohringer & Richter 2009, p. 294). Twitter is the most popular form of microblogging and Facebook wall posts are also considered to be microblogs. In this thesis, the context of microblogs is organisational – how organisations use microblogs to interact with publics, both within the organisation and externally.

Brand Wood (2000) cites Bennett (1988)’s definition of brand as a name, term or design that identifies one organisation’s product as distinct, by virtue of its features, from others. The specific attributes of a brand may be real, emotional, illusory or invisible and they are “carefully selected…benefits and attitudes that are communicated” (Gensler, Völckner, Liu-Thompkins & Wiertz 2013, p. 243) to publics, with an assumption that all individuals will understand the brand in the same way. Brand awareness is the presence of brand in an individual’s memory and how well that person will recall or recognise the brand (Bruhn, Schoenmueller & Schäfer 2012). In this research, brand refers to an organisation or product of an organisation.

Overview of social media and social networks After a long Modernist focus on mass communication and mass media, the era of social media and social networks enabled by the Internet, or its main platform Web 2.0, has greatly enabled increased opportunities for mediated (that is, computer mediated) forms of communication in two-way interaction, dialogue and engagement. This is an overview – a more detailed discussion follows in Chapter 2, with theoretical frameworks discussed in Chapter 3. The “relationship between technology and society is one of mutual determination” in which technologies help shape the future (Siapera & Veglis 2012, p.12). Mass media’s effects are considered to be weakening because

10 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 many can no longer deliver a mass audience to advertisers. Web 2.0-based applications like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, electronic newsletters and email reach millions of people daily, but to specific, concentrated audiences. The Internet allows information to be distributed to all and has removed the monopoly from mass media owners. There is a new process of information creation, production, distribution and consumption and it is through social media.

To clarify, social media are at their core vessels for human communication, possessing characteristics of participation, openness, conversation, community, and connectedness (Veil, Buehner & Palenchar 2011, p.110). Social media’s DNA is dialogic and without dialogue the essence of social media’s collaborative and interactive nature is undermined. Blogs and microblogs on platforms like Facebook and Twitter encourage communication and conversation between organisations and publics, or between any two interested parties or interactants. Dialogue may result, so consequently, dialogue is an important framework for its study.

Dialogue as ethical communication is the basis of Kent and Taylor’s (1998, 2002) theory for webbed (or online) public relations. It is evident that dialogue is fundamental for organisation-public communication to succeed when success is defined as the ability to listen, to practice mutual respect, and invite reciprocity (Woodward 2000). “The public should be just as likely to persuade the organisation’s management to change attitudes or behaviour as the organisation is likely to change the publics’ attitudes or behaviour” (Grunig & Hunt 1984, p. 23). Although Grunig has made clear his distaste for persuasion in any way, this illuminates the concept of mutual power balances in a truly dialogic relationship.

Some organisations may feel unable to reveal themselves through dialogue to publics in social media, so they employ a lesser form of interactivity or engagement. They prefer control of the message and of their reputation.

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Interactivity and engagement are central features of social media and this study investigates whether dialogue is evident in social media, what kind of interaction exists between organisations and publics and how it is implemented, and how engagement is manifested. McMillan (2000a) says interactivity should lead to dialogue or at least an expectation of an information exchange with knowledge acquired. This is not a high expectation, and yet has proved difficult to execute as other studies have shown. Other scholars (Kim, Spielmann & McMillan 2012; Rafaeli 1988) claim interactivity is part of engagement, “the creation of experiences that allow companies to build deeper, more meaningful and sustainable interactions” with publics (Sashi 2012, p. 256).

Through these sustainable interactions, social media afford opportunities for two-way interaction in organisation-public communication that did not exist previously except in occasional face-to-face interaction. Social media interaction has been studied to determine whether an organisation can build relationships online, but it has not been positively proven that those relationships are mutually beneficial. Barnes and Lescault (2014) study Millenials to analyse where their social media interaction leads to greater brand loyalty. They discover that it does, although not as a result of dialogue, but due to organisations providing discount and promotional coupons on social media (e.g. Facebook). McCorkindale et al. (2013) similarly find that Millenials ‘friend’ organisations “if there is an incentive or benefit” (p. 74). This study seeks to ascertain whether there is dialogic interaction between large organisations and publics when they are ‘friended’ or ‘liked’ on social media.

In contrast, organisations can structure engagement so as to manipulate publics with the organisation controlling the communication (Foster & Jonker 2005). This would be a monologic way to impose the organisation’s view on publics. Organisations, and the public relations practitioners who work for and with them, therefore have the option of implementing one of several

12 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 strategies in social media – they can ignore interaction with publics in social media, and conversation about them can take place without their input; they can engage in a traditional one-way transmissional method of communication and not utilise social media for their intended purposes of engagement and interaction whilst monitoring what is being said about them by both those who do not like or admire them and those who do; or they can engage in dialogue with respect for the publics who admire them and benefit from enhanced relationships.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether organisations are using the social media genres of blogging and microblogging to communicate dialogically with publics, as well as to determine how they are engaging and interacting, and to explore the potential benefits of this engagement for organisations, publics and society at large. Public relations practices involving interactivity and engagement between organisations and publics in social media have not been examined, and practices involving dialogue have not often been studied qualitatively. There have been a number of quantitative studies investigating dialogue in social media like blogs and microblogs and they have focused on the numerical aspects of interaction between organisations and publics (e.g. the number of responses, number of bloggers, etc). Many previous studies investigating dialogue did not find any, but they did not additionally investigate the existence of conversation, or the types of interaction or engagement.

This research investigates if, how and why organisations engage in dialogue with their publics. The research gap this study is addressing is the lack of qualitative research examining dialogue and interaction in social media between organisations and publics, as well as to determine how dialogue and whether dialogue is undertaken and why. And if dialogue is not undertaken, how do organisations engage with publics and in what way do they interact? Previous studies exploring dialogue in social media found that organisations either do not understand the benefits of the dialogic nature of

13 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 social media or they choose not to employ collaborative communication strategies. While it is clear from previous studies that the dialogic tools of websites and social media are often ignored or underutilised, it is not clear why. This study explores both whether organisations and publics engage in dialogue and the “why” or why not.

The theories that frame this study include excellence theory (Grunig 1992; Grunig, Grunig & Dozier 2002), corporate communication theory (Argenti 2009, 2013; Cornelissen 2011), dialogic theory (Buber 1996, 2003; Bakhtin (cited in Baxter 1992, 2004b, 2007); Pearson 1989b; Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002), interactivity (Downes & McMillan 2000; Kiousis 2002; McMillan 2002; McMillan & Hwang 2002; Rafaeli 1988; Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997), engagement (Mollen & Wilson 2010; O’Brien & Toms 2008; Sashi 2012) and social media theory (e.g. Fuchs 2014; Kaplan & Haenlein 2010). There is more in-depth discussion on these framing theories in Chapter 3.

Significantly, social media are characterised by their affordance of interactivity rather than transmissional approaches to communication. While using the theoretical frameworks as the primary analytical lenses, this study also notes that healthy democratic societies depend on a ‘public sphere’ that is open to a range of voices and is participatory, rather than limited to a top-down information flow from elites (Habermas 1991, 2006). The significance of this research is that dialogue and interactivity in social media within the context of public relations are aspects of a new and developing area, and ongoing research is essential to better understand it. This research contributes to the collective intelligence and perceptions of dialogic interaction in organisation-public communication on blogs and microblogs.

Most research studies investigating dialogue in public relations have used Pearson’s or Kent and Taylor’s theories of dialogic communication as the framework for their work (see ‘Frameworks’ in Chapter 3). It is important to

14 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 study dialogue through the lense of social media theory and public relations theory because public relations practitioners liaise with publics on behalf of organisations, often as community builders (Kruckeberg & Starck 2004), and community, for example, is an integral aspect of social media. As social media has gained in popularity, organisations are implementing communication strategies using them, and public relations practitioners can be the source of information flow using those, as well as traditional, media channels. Social media have been defined as two-way communication channels (e.g. O’Reilly 2009) and as channels for corporate communications (Argenti 2013). Public relations practitioners, as part of the corporate communications function (Argenti 2013; Cornelissen 2011), implement organisation-public communication using social media (Esrock & Leichty 1998). It is therefore appropriate to examine corporate social media use through the inter-related framework of human communication, social media and public relations.

Social media provide channels to communicate dialogically. It is crucial to analyse whether social media are being used in a one-way asymmetrical method akin to that of traditional mass media, and this research explores whether organisations engage in one-way communication or dialogue using social media in their interaction with publics.

Using qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and content analysis of organisational blogs and microblogs (Facebook and Twitter), as well as a review of relevant strategies and evaluation reports, this study investigates if dialogic principles are being utilised by organisations and with what aims, objectives and results. Johannesen (1971) questions whether dialogue can even be “subjected to empirical research” (p. 378), because dialogue is difficult to measure quantitatively. The study involves 20 major organisations in Australia and the US across multiple sectors to yield insights into interaction on social media between organisations and publics through context-specific findings.

15 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

It interrogates dialogue further than previous studies by not only exploring dialogue, but also scrutinising interaction and engagement. Engagement can be considered high or low level with participation considered low with a click to “like”, or high with ongoing conversation or dialogue. The challenge for organisations is accepting the risk of openness and interaction with publics, as well as the lack of control over messages; the reward is a dialogic exchange resulting in greater loyalty by publics with a potentially equal power balance between organisations and publics, and increased dialogue in society.

The research questions posed in this study examine the objectives and aims of corporate blogs and microblogs; whether, using those tools, organisations engage in dialogic communication with publics and to what extent; and how they measure the effectiveness of those tools. Corporate or organisational blogging and microblogging are not well understood. There have been few qualitative studies in this area (a noted exception is Kelleher and Sweetser (2012) studying social media adoption by universities), so this study contributes to the body of research in this contemporary field by qualitatively investigating whether major organisations dialogically communicate with publics. In the study, the term corporate is used to denote a corporate body, which includes corporations (public or private companies), government departments and agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and not-for-profit organisations (NFPs). Corporate blogging and microblogging, or organisational blogging and microblogging, therefore refer to social media communication undertaken by such public entities via the Internet applications identified.

Previous research about dialogic interaction in social media between organisations and publics demonstrates while theorists support two-way, dialogic communication, practitioners do not implement it. One objective of this research is to understand if dialogue is not applied, the reasons why (for

16 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 example, one reason might be that public relations practitioners have not have been trained in dialogic interaction in social media (e.g. DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011; Taylor & Kent 2010), although this is not a focus of this study). Another objective is to determine the kind of interaction that takes place, and whether it exists as defined by Kiousis (2002), Rafaeli (1988), and Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997) – that is, whether there are reciprocal messages in a sequence that refer to previous messages on blog and microblog posts. A last objective is to analyse how social media are used – whether communication is one-way or two-way.

The main findings reveal a lack of dialogue in organisation-public communication in social media and a lack of consistency across social media measurement and evaluation. While some of these findings reflect those of previous studies, several new insights are provided by this research. They include: - The responsibility for social media is managed by marketing - There is a focus on controlling the message by organisations, which can be linked to marketing’s responsibility for social media - Although there no dialogue was found, there are various levels of engagement and interaction - The measurement and evaluation of the effectiveness of social media are not standard in the public relations industry and rely on traditional media metrics which may not be efficacious

The findings inform understanding of how social media are being used by organisations that, in turn, inform practice, as well as the teaching of emergent media use in public communication and some aspects of organisational communication. They also contribute to the growing body of research on social media and dialogue, identifying directions for further research.

17 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

While scholarly discussion about dialogue in public relations has been ongoing for at least 50 years – Johannessen discussed the ethics of dialogue (1971), dialogic theory in public relations was introduced by Pearson (1989), and dialogic theory specifically focussing on online public relations was introduced in 1998 (Kent & Taylor 1998) – this study finds that dialogue is still not common in communication practice on social media. While these findings cannot be generalised, they can be interpreted as an important overview of organisation-public interaction on social media.

The results of this study inform a deeper understanding of dialogue and interaction in the open environment of social media. This can then be extended to the benefits of public dialogic discourse. The potential for the democratisation of relationships between organisations and publics can be applied to other relationships in society, including government-publics, government-activists and organisation-activists. The findings can be used by public communication educators. Additionally, the finding that most social media use by corporations is undertaken through marketing departments points to a need for the transformation of marketing communication to more dialogic approaches, especially given contemporary marketing’s focus on engagement.

The impact of these findings (alongside other studies) makes it evident that despite the availability of dialogic tools and collaborative technologies in social media, organisations and publics do not fully respect and understand the “other” enough for dialogue, nor do they engage in ongoing interaction (reciprocal, sequential messages with relevance to previous messages). If organisations consider becoming more dialogic, future studies may find dialogic communication has improved. It would also be prudent to study dialogic interaction on Facebook and Twitter from the individuals’ perspective and understand why they follow organisations, what type of content they prefer, and what kind of relationship they expect from those

18 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 organisations they admire and follow. Some initial work in this area has been done by Pew Internet and American Life Project (2014).

In an overview of the next chapters, Chapter 2 introduces a literature review of existing scholarship around public relations and corporate s, as well we those encompassing the background of the Internet and the Web, Web 2.0, social media including the genres of blogging and microblogging, social networks, and online communities. Chapter 3 outlines the theoretical frameworks of the study including public relations theory and Excellence theory, dialogic theory, and social media theory. Chapter 4 presents the methodology of the study and Chapters 5 through 9 present the research findings. The last chapter is the conclusion including limitations and recommendations for future study. At the end, there is a glossary of terms, followed by Appendices and References.

19 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Chapter 2

Existing literature on social media and corporate blogging and microblogging

This chapter examines the various theories used to frame this study, including several focussing on public relations and corporate communications. There are also a number of theories reviewed that apply to the Internet and social media, and a focus on dialogue, both dialogue in general and dialogue within public relations.

Technology has revolutionised the way humans communicate. We are connected to each other and to massive amounts of data through globally linked networks and personal computers. This infrastructure allows for a speedy and efficient exchange of information through the Internet, an international network of computers using specific protocols. Its original purpose was intended for the military and academics in universities and government to share information, but since the inception of the World Wide Web (the Web), information is freely available to all. This review analyses the technology related to the Internet and its main functional application, the Web, then analyses Web 2.0 – the evolution of the Web – followed by social media and networks and the social media genres of blogging and microblogging.

2.1 The Internet The most widely used communication medium in the later twentieth and early twenty-first century is the Internet. Barton says, “The Internet is without a doubt one of the most influential developments in the history of communication, at least as important as the invention of radio and television” (2005, p. 177). (For a history of the Internet, see Castells 2010; Flew 2008;

20 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Leiner, Cerf, Clark, Kahn, Kleinrock, Lynch, Postel, Roberts & Wolff 1997; Macnamara 2014; McChesney 2013).

The Internet, say Lievrouw and Livingstone (2002), is not a single medium but a bundle of different media and modalities making it the most complex of media. It is defined as a “cooperatively run, globally distributed collection of computer networks”, not owned by any company or government agency, offering an array of tools to use for information retrieval and communication (December 2006, para 2). It is “the backbone of global computer-mediated communication that links up most computer networks” (Castells 2010, p. 375). In order for the general public to use the Internet, the World Wide Web (the Web) was developed providing a graphical user inferface (GUI) to access a range of applications. The Web, as a subset of the Internet, is a “system for linking documents…using hypertext” (December 2006, para 7). It can also be described as “a global electronic publishing medium accessed through the Internet” (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013, p. 212), and a place where previously unrelated publics come together for a cause or interest.

2.1.1 Internet usage There are more than three billion Internet users worldwide (www.internetlivestats.com 2014) with the highest penetration rate in North America (87 per cent – 78 per cent of the adult population), followed by Australia/New Zealand (73 per cent – 90 per cent of the adult population) and Europe (70 per cent) (www.internetworldstats.com 2014). China has the most users in terms of numbers (650 million) but per capita penetration is slightly less than half that of North America (www.internetworldstats.com 2014). Internet usage rates exceed 60 to 80 per cent of the population in developed countries, 20 to 40 per cent in developing countries (Castells 2009; Poe 2011) like India, Pakistan and those in South America, and hover at the 20 per cent mark in African countries (Nigeria has the highest penetration at 70 per cent and Tanzania the lowest at 7.6 per cent) (www.internetworldstats.com 2014). Over 60 per cent of the planet has

21 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 access to wireless communication (Castells 2009) and 40 per cent has an internet connection (www.internetlivestats.com 2015).

Table 2.1 World Internet users (as of October 2014) Rank Country Internet Percentage Total country % of pop. users of internet population w/ users Internet 1 China 642 mil 21.9% 1.4 billion 46% 2 USA 279 mil 9.5% 322 million 86% 3 India 243 mil 8.3% 1.2 billion 19% 4 Japan 109 mil 3.7% 127 million 86% 5 Brazil 107 mil 3.6% 202 million 53% 6 Russia 84 mil 2.8% 142 million 59% 7 Germany 71 mil 2.5% 83 million 86% 8 Nigeria 67 mil 2.3% 178 million 38% 9 UK 57 mil 1.95% 63 million 90% 10 France 55 mil 1.90% 64 million 86% 11 Mexico 51 mil 1.74% 124 million 42% 12 South Korea 45 mil 1.55% 49 million 92% 13 Indonesia 42 mil 1.45% 252 million 16% 14 Egypt 40 mil 1.38% 83 million 48% 15 Viet Nam 40 mil 1.36% 92 million 43% 16 Philippines 39 mil 1.35% 100 million 39% 17 Italy 36 mil 1.25% 75 million 60% 18 Turkey 35 mil 1.21% 75 million 47% 19 Spain 35 mil 1.20% 47 million 74% 20 Canada 33 mil 1.13% 35 million 93% 26 Australia 22 mil .73% 23 million 89% (www.Internetlivetsats.com 2014)

What people do on the Internet differs from country to country, but they are most likely to bank, collaborate in wikis, seek news, send and receive email, buy travel services, participate in online auctions, download music files, buy or trade stocks and bonds, or use social media or social networks.

The top online destinations, in a comparison of 2007-2014, are shown in Table 2.2: Table 2.2 Top online destinations 2007 - 2014 Top online destinations 2007 2014 Google UK Google.com Yahoo.com Facebook eBay UK YouTube Google.com Yahoo.com Microsoft Network (MSN) Baidu (Chinese language search engine) BBC Newsline Ticker Wikipedia MySpace Amazon.com

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YouTube Twitter Amazon.co.uk Qq.com (Chinese portal) Windows Live Taobao.com (Chinese online shopping) Wikipedia LinkedIn Blogger.com Google.co.in (Indian version of Google) Microsoft Corporation Live.com Bebo Sina.com.cn (Chinese site)

Based on Phillips & Young (2009) and Alexa.com (2014).

The next section of the literature review outlines the technology and applications related to social media – from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, to social media and two of its main genres, blogging and microblogging.

2.2 The Web The words Internet and Web are often used interchangeably, even though, as defined here, the Web is a platform of the Internet. The first incarnation of Web sites, now referred to as Web 1.0, comprised a static, undynamic collection of brochure-like repositories of information, with one-way distribution of information. Those websites were text-based and did not allow the “opportunity to engage in long term conversations” (Henderson & Bowley 2010, p. 239). “Companies used the Web to offer information; users called up this information” (Grinnell 2009, p. 577). “The lack of two-way Internet-facilitated communication may be attributed to Web site design” (Taylor, Kent & White 2001, p. 267). What is referred to as Web 2.0 is specifically a focus of this study, as it is a set of tools and practices for participation and interaction, rather than transmission of and access to information (see ‘Web 2.0’).

The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, created the hypertext mark-up language HTML used to create the Web in 1989, built the first web address, and in 1991 designed the first web browser (Macnamara 2014; Weinberger 2007). He saw the Web as a place where individuals could interact through connected pages. In Web 1.0, says Macnamara (2014), content from traditional media sources were ‘shoveled’ onto the Web with little or no

23 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 change and no opportunity for people to comment, give feedback or create content, except in limited comments sections. The public could only passively receive information.

Berners-Lee had envisaged a collaborative workspace “where everything was linked to everything in a single global information space” (Anderson 2007, p. 5), accessible to all (Lanier 2011). He said the Web’s potential for participation and mass collaboration was “inherent in the Web from the outset” (cited in Harrison & Bethel 2009, p. 158), but the technology to encourage that participation was not available until the creation of Web 2.0.

2.3 Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is an evolution of Web 1.0, a collection of applications and platforms that is the second phase of the Web, and its applications recapture Berners-Lee’s collaborative vision that form the basis for the next generation of the Internet (Faase, Helms & Spruit 2011; Murugesan 2007) (For a complete history of the Web, see Macnamara 2014). Macnamara (2014) has a timeline which indicates that Web 2.0’s development began in 2001, with rapid evolution in the creation of social media from 2004 to 2008, culminating in 2010. In that year, focus began turning to developing Web 3.0.

O’Reilly is credited with inventing the term Web 2.0 in 2004 (Flew 2008; Macnamara 2014). His definition of Web 2.0 is: “A platform spanning all connected devices…delivering software…that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources…while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others…[all of which] creates network effects through an architecture of participation” (Fuchs 2011, p. 288).

Web 2.0 applications are delivered by broadband telecommunications, which “allows users to, at no cost, upload and share” content, as words or images (Lovink 2011, p. 5), and allows them to copy, edit, syndicate and reproduce information (Constantinides & Fountain 2008). O’Reilly considered Web 2.0

24 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 as a new culture, a new way of thinking, not just new technologies. It’s an authentic way of communicating between “real people” (Macnamara 2014, p. 43). When users create content, they actively produce commodities (Beer & Burrows 2007), which Fuchs (2008, 2011) believes is work without pay for the profit of others. But for users, Web 2.0 becomes a shared canvas to which each person can contribute. This collaborative opportunity is significant for organisations that wish to participate and interact with publics (Ahuja & Medury 2010; Lovink 2008) and for people who wish to interact socially with each other.

Web 2.0 applications are designed to be used in an interactive, dialogic, collaborative way (Junco, Heibergert & Loken 2011) to facilitate content creation and sharing, and are about “openness, trust and authenticity” (Macnamara & Zerfass 2011, p.6). These behaviours are important aspects of this research, the core of which is to explore whether organisations and publics communicate dialogically or interactively using social media, of which blogging and microblogging are two genres.

A further evolution of the Web is referred to as Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web (Berners-Lee 2006; Guth & Marsh 2012; Pavlik & McIntosh 2013) where massive amounts of data (Keen 2012) will be created due to a reduction in software incompatibility, and a formal system will allow information to be understood by all computers. It will use more sophisticated data language (Macnamara 2014), which will move from word matching to gathering and interpreting information through concepts and meanings in text as well as video search (not currently possible with Web 2.0 which searches text and images only) and harvest information for corporate purposes.

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Figure 2.1 Dimensions of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 dimensions

Applications Effects Technologies

Open blogs empower- ment source social RSS networks participation communities Wikis openness

forums conversation/ Widgets dialogue content Mashups aggregators user control AJAX

RIA

______

Based on Constantinides, Lorenzo & Gomez-Boria (2008), p. 7

Easy-to-use software and the availability of high speed Internet access has led to the popularity of Web 2.0 and the development of online social networks and communities (see ‘communities’), with one-to-one, one-to- many and many-to-many connectivity. Flew (2008) describes Web 2.0 applications as being simple and user-focused in their design, and are expected to evolve over time. As new Web 2.0 sites are created, more people join and participate, because interaction is at the core of these applications. Web 2.0 has allowed people to create social networks in technology spaces and social media lets people plug into those networks (Pewinternet.org). Seventy three per cent of online adults use a social networking site (Pewinternet.org 2013) and 42 per cent use several social networking sites. Facebook is a social networking site offering users the ability to microblog on its wall posts. It is the most popular social network, followed by LinkedIn.

Anderson (2007) contends there are six essential aspects of Web 2.0:

26 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 x Individual production and user-generated content (UGC) x Harnessing the power of the crowd (based on O’Reilly’s ‘collective intelligence’, expanded upon by Surowiecki (2005) and Shirky (2008), that a group has more knowledge than an individual) x Data on an epic scale x Architecture of participation (the network of applications designed to be interactive) x Network effects or enabling services x Openness

There is a great deal of exaggerated excitement around the positive attributes of Web 2.0 for individuals, for business and for society (c.f. Christakis & Fowler 2009; Rosenberg 2009; Shirky 2008; Solis & Breakenridge 2009; Surowiecki 2005), particularly with regards to collective intelligence (the sum of all participants’ knowledge). Shirky (2008, 2010) supports the “hive mentality” and sees Web 2.0 as great progress in collective thinking. Surowiecki (2005) similarly theorises that the “wisdom of crowds” is where everyone participates in online discourse, as does Jenkins (2006) because users can “pool our resources and combine our skills” (p.4). Keen (2008, 2012), however, a Web critic, does not agree, arguing the collective supplies little that is intelligent, and Jenkins, Ford and Green (2013) note that some users’ actual experiences are a far cry from the “happy collaboration” being touted by optimists (p. 49). Breakenridge (2008) sees Web 2.0 as completing revitilising public relations.

There is an underlying debate as to whether one describes social media and its parent platform Web 2.0 as collaborative, dialogic and participatory because of the technologies that enable those activities (e.g. Agostino 2013; Carpentier 2009; Conway, Kenski & Wang 2013; Harrison & Barthel 2009; Kelleher & Sweetser 2012; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012), or whether those interactive activities, and the theory behind Web 2.0, are principles

27 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 defining the attributes and philosophy of social media applications (e.g. Jenkins 2006; O’Reilly cited in Macnamara & Zerfass 2012). Fuchs (2014) says social media are both and labels them techno-social: technological structures interwoven with social and human activity. This is an accurate analysis because Web 2.0 and social media are inherently interactive and two-way based on the technology and method of utilisation, even if they are not always used in that fashion.

There are a number of Web 2.0 skeptics (see Flew 2008 for an overview). For example, Lanier (2011) calls Web 2.0 applications “petty designs” promoting freedom of the Web for machines not people (p. 3), demeaning “interpersonal interaction” (p. 4). Van Dijck (2009) sees Web 2.0 as “the result of hype…pushed by commercially driven social platforms” (p. 862). McChesney (2013) cites MacKinnon (2012) and Morozov (2011) who reject that Web 2.0 will enhance democracy, because “the bad guys” are in power with the “resources to regulate [and] manipulate” (p. 10). Keen (2010) criticises crowdsourcing – defined by O’Reilly (2009) as a large group of people collaborating on work “whose value exceeds that created by one individual participant” (p. 2) – and believes Web 2.0 drags civilisation to a new ‘idiocracy’ by lowering societal intelligence. Jenkins (2006) initially supported mass collaboration and creativity, particularly in participation in the creation of new content, but more recently, with Ford and Green (2013), has tempered his views.

Fuchs (2009) acknowledges that access to open information, open resources, and cooperative production where people voluntarily produce knowledge and content is a new way of thinking. He refers not just to open source software like Linux, but also to the concept of people producing content for fun and sharing with no expectation of reward. But he argues that the fruits of their labour (e.g. YouTube videos, photos on Flickr, etc.) should not be available for others to monetise for profit (i.e. Facebook or Google selling data to advertisers) and warns of the commodification of human creativity.

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While Van Dijck, McChesney and Fuchs are critical of corporate ownership of Web 2.0-related applications and companies, and critical of those same companies profiteering from individuals’ collaboration, these and other criticisms do not impact on the opportunities organisations have to engage in dialogue with publics through Web 2.0. Organisations can use these interactive technologies to build relationships with publics on a large scale through dialogue and engagement. This opportunity did not exist previously through traditional media, with the exception of face-to-face events like town hall meetings. Crowdsourcing and collective intelligence are not the foci of this study, but the concepts required for mass collaboration – dialogue, interactivity and engagement – are, with regards to organisation- public communication.

This study interrogates the use of several Web 2.0 applications by professional communicators on behalf of organisations to engage with publics. Whilst the theory demonstrates opportunities for dialogue and interaction, the research inquires as to transference into practice, both by design and desire.

Figure 2.2 Web 2.0 applications investigated in this study (bolded)

Web 2.0

Social media Social networks •Blogs •Facebook (social •Microblogs (eg network & microblog) Twitter, Facebook) •LinkedIn •Video, photo sharing •Snapchat

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2.4 Social media The term social media is a construct evolving from communication and sociology, where on the one hand it is a term for storing or delivering data and on the other, it includes a set of social actors (ie. individuals, groups) “with a complex set of dyadic ties” (Peters, Chen, Kaplan, Ognibeni & Pauwels 2013, p. 282). Egalitarian in nature, social media have different degrees of interactivity and through the Internet, users can create and exchange content (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010).

Social media are often referred to as “new media” (e.g. Flew 2008; Gitelman & Pingree 2003; Jenkins 2006; Lievrouw & Livingstone 2002; Siapera & Veglis 2012). Gitelman notes that all media were once new (2008, p. 1). Macnamara (2014) argues that calling current forms of social media “new” may not useful, as many, like blogs, can no longer be described as new (blogs have existed for more than 20 years), newness is not their defining characteristic, and such a description can become quickly outdated. In his research he considers use of the term “emergent media”, but ultimately agrees that “social media” is probably best, drawing attention to the differentiating characteristics and uniqueness of these channels. Siapera (2012) also argues that describing them as “new media” draws attention to what is different about them, compared with previous forms of media.

These media are different from traditional media due to their ability for two- way communication. Social media offer the ability to interact and collaborate, which moves them away from traditional or mass media. Toffler (2013) sees the old and the new media as out of sync with each other, with the old, “lumbering” system and the new flexible, collaborative one built on knowledge clashing at different speeds. Logan (2010) concurs, describing mass media as a “one-way thoroughfare of information” (p. 52) that makes the recipient passive, whereas social media allow the user to participate, thus making dialogue possible. Dialogue and interactivity are the most

30 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 important dimensions and theoretical frameworks for relationship building in social media (Duhé 2012; Kaplan & Haenlein 2010) and thus the focus of this study.

“Social media” is a collective term for Internet-based applications that allow the exchange of dialogue or conversation and content. Constantinides (in Constantinides & Fountain 2008, and Constantinides, Romero & Gomez- Boria 2008) determined the terms “Web 2.0” and “social media” can and are used interchangeably; Macnamara (2012) agrees the terms are largely synonymous. The term social media comes from communication and sociology, where one definition is “various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures” building shared meaning (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013, p. 240). Peters et al. (2013) define social media as a system that links a method of storing information with social structures. The definition of social media most used in the public relations and communication literature is from Kaplan and Haenlein (2010): “A group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content” (p. 61).

The swift growth of social media can be attributed to its ease of use, allowing people to collaborate instantly with anyone anywhere (Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser & Howes 2009), creating content for no personal gain. This content can be shared, built upon, and shared again, using text, images and video. The media became social when authors (blog, microblog or other) began to expect that individuals (known or unknown to them) would comment or respond to their post, leading to social interaction by turning “communication into interactive dialogue” (Wright 2011, p. 3) and co- creating value. The interaction that resulted, especially in terms of organisation-public communication, was first acknowledged by Scoble and Israel (2006) as a “conversation” and it, along with dialogue, are the foci of this study.

31 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Social media grew in importance and significance by 2008 (Rettberg 2014). Social media use became a social trend because people began to source information from each other using technology in a new interactive way. Social media enable users to “produce and distribute content almost as easily as they receive it” (Barton 2005, p. 178), allowing people to “exchange information, create relationships and communicate” (Zerfass, Fink & Linke 2011, p. 4) in a computer-mediated environment. Social media have been compared to talk-back radio, where there is full participation by some and simple listening by others (Crawford 2009). Those who just “listen” without contributing are referred to as “lurkers” and are often considered non- participants, although this view is challenged. They may be listening or learning and they use social media as a source of information by forming opinions through reading (Macnamara 2014). Lurking is a pejorative term, although Jenkins et al. (2013) describe lurking as passive participation providing value by extending the audience.

Valenti and Kruckeberg (2012) say it is an imperative for anyone who uses social media to interact and create content. Users consume user-generated content (UGC) and many produce and “further contribute to it” (Ritzer et al. 2012, p. 384). These producers/consumers are referred to as “prosumers” (Toffler 1980, cited in Ritzer, Dean & Jurgenson 2012), “produsers” (Bruns 2008), or content producers, a key feature in Jenkins’ (2006) participatory culture (see Ritzer et al. 2012 for an overview of prosumption). Carpentier (2009) argues that not all publics in social media produce, and Castells (2010) agrees, defining individuals as interacting and interacted populations. Produsage, says Bruns (2008), is the central characteristic of social media, and he describes it as “a collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement” (2008, p. 21). Ritzer et al. (2012) argue that social media companies like Twitter and Google could not function or even exist without prosumers. “Its [Google] major source of profit is prosumers” (p. 387). Leadbeater (2007, cited in Flew 2008) says

32 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 prosumers embody “a new ethic of collaborative, shared effort, not often motivated by money” (p. 114), but this collaborative innovation may conflict with entrenched corporate organisational thinking. “Why hire people to do something when you can have it crowd sourced?” (Siapera 2013, p. 10). It is an exemplar of labour so successful it forms the business model of Google (which uses the data to sell advertising), Facebook (which also sells user data to third party advertisers) and Twitter (which sells its analytics to make its database available to advertisers) (Siapera 2013). Fuchs (2011, 2014) argues from a Marxist perspective that people are working (by labouring) without payment and that this corporate profiteering may extinguish collaboration. But Ritzer et al. (2012), in contrast, say prosumers are “quite happy about prosuming” and they gain emotionally, in some cases financially, from the experience (p. 387). Collaboration is essential, adds Logan (2010), because it can lead to the creation of communities, and one can see this demonstrated in online virtual communities where fans create content about brands they admire.

Australians spend about seven hours and 17 minutes per day on social media (Macnamara 2014) and social media accounts for nearly a “quarter of user online time”, ahead of both gaming and e-mail (Gallaugher & Ransbotham 2010, p. 197). In 2012, “1.2 billion users – 82 per cent of the world’s Internet population over age fifteen – logged onto a social media site” (van Dijck 2013, p. 4). The genres of social media explored in this study are blogs and microblogs. Social network Facebook is also considered a microblog, because its wall posts have a microblogging function. Others social media genres include virtual worlds like Second Life, collaborative projects like Wikipedia, video and photo sharing communities like YouTube and Flickr, and virtual games where users play according to rules in “the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing game” [MMORPG]), like World of Warcraft (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 62, 64). Pavlik and McIntosh (2013) also include email, discussion boards, forums, and chat rooms. Most genres of social media are used in both the individual and the organisational (company, not-

33 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 for-profit, industry association, government agency and university) context. This study focuses on two specific genres, blogging and microblogging, and whether in the organisational context they are used dialogically.

2.4.1 Social media and democracy Democracy is an important aspect of social media because social media are seen as democratising discussions of both politics and social issues (e.g. Carpentier 2009; Macnamara & Zerfass 2012; Toffler 2013), allowing for a more active citizenship (Schultz 2000). This emphasises how critical dialogue is, which if encouraged in social issue discussion can be transferred to organisation-public discussion.

Participation in political discourse is necessary for an effective democracy and in social media, gatekeepers do not always filter opinions as in traditional media. There is an opportunity for increased engagement in political discussion although there is still hesitation about completely open discourse: the Pew Research Internet Survey 2014 found fewer people were willing to share their political opinions on some subjects in social media if they believe people will disagree with them, leading to the “spiral of silence” (pewinternet.org 2014). Dylko and McCluskey (2012) view membership in online political communities important to political involvement because members become more connected to other individuals and networks, which then increase political participation (p. 265).

Twitter, through its unique feature of retweeting, can reflect political trends and may even have predictive power in the political sphere. Twitter was established as an interactive and dialogic tool because its question and answer format assists to “inform the discourse” with “ambient intimacy” and connected presence” (Weller et al. 2014, p. xii). Tweets can demonstrate the sentiment of voter behaviour and can create meaningful connections (Stieglitz & Dang-Xuan 2012; Conway, Kenski & Wang 2013). However Conway et al. (2013) argue that meaningful dialogue is often by-passed in

34 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 favour of unimportant information and criticism of opposing candidates. Their study of Twitter use by 2012 US presidential candidates found Twitter to be a good dialogic tool between political candidates and voters, but most candidates use it in a top-down (one-way) manner.

Politicians and political candidates across the world use Twitter to engage their constituents (Stieglitz & Dang-Xuan 2013). Social media signal “a democratisation of the relationship between elites and citizens” (Enli & Skogerbø 2013, p. 759) because Twitter and Facebook “fit in well with the candidates’ need to communicate directly with voters” (p.758). Enli & Skogerbø’s research of political activity in Norway found that politicans’ motivation for social media use was actually to dialogue with voters. But for the most part, social media engagement proves to be one-way. Social media was used for discussion, for example, in the 2004 US presidential campaign, and candidates, including Barack Obama, used it in 2008, but not always dialogically (Sweetser et al. 2008). Adams and McCorkindale (2013) studied 2012 US presidential candidates’ use of Twitter and found none of the candidates answered questions or addressed concerns: it was one-way communication with no attempt at dialogue. They were only interested in disseminating information and not engaging with followers, except for Barack Obama, who made some attempt at engagement. Adams and McCorkindale conclude that the candidates would have seemed more authentic with the potential to increase support if they had used Twitter appropriately in two-way communication.

Macnamara (2014) studied social media use in the 2010 Australian federal election and similarly found little interaction between candidates and voters, except for now-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who “engaged in considerable discussion and debate with citizens online” (p. 208). Post election, however, what little interaction transpired during the election decreased dramatically and social media use was back to being used for one- way communication. This is somewhat of a change in traditional political

35 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 communication, although similar to town hall meetings. Kent (2013) documents how technology has transformed democracy. Because of social media and access to information from organisations, activist groups and government departments on a 24-hour basis, “every citizen is now a media gatekeeper” (p. 338). With so much access to information and politicians as well as general discussion during an election campaign, voters have an opportunity to be much more informed than previously.

Ruiz et al. (2011) argue social media bring public discussion back into prominence. The democratic relationship emerges, they say, in discourse between citizens; leaders need not be involved. But participants must be engaged and make an effort to understand each other. By embedding participatory citizenship into everyday social media practices like blogging, for example, there is an opportunity to debate important issues. Bruns (2008), referring to Lévy, says democracy can be improved by better exploiting these available communication tools, and believes his concept of produsage assists in the dispersion of a diversity of opinions. Maireder and Ausserhofer (in Weller et al. (Eds.) 2014) claim public participation in political discourse, as part of “digital democracy” (as described by Dahlberg 2011, cited in Macnamara 2014, p. 195), is amplified through Twitter. Lovink disagrees: “Twitter alone will not bring about democracy” (2011, p. 162). And Kent (2013) suggests democracy is “hobbled” because individuals access “idiosyncratic” voices that mirror their own beliefs.

Twitter users will more likely interact with those with whom they agree, agree Yardi and Boyd (2010), although Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan (2013) contend they can also engage with those with whom they disagree. Boler (2008) does not see social media as supporting democracy, but rather they “traffic in truths and power” (p. 4). All truths are constructed, she says, and the problem is converging media ownership and the blurred lines between content producers and the audience/consumer. Dean (in Boler (Ed.) 2008) sees the proliferation and intensification of communication opportunities on

36 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 social media as not enhancing democratic governance. She says that many consider enhanced communication access as facilitating democracy, but, in fact, she questions whether one would find an actual political discussion on social media. She believes what is seen is the circulation of messages without consideration of the content, or communicative capitalism, with little value in the message itself, only in its distribution. With regards to political action, she argues any communication with online communities supports a fantasy of participation that does not translate into action in the real world. Boler agrees: technology “enhances [social] movements” but does not generate any (2008, p. 124). The Web is a “barrier against action on the ground” (Dean 2008, p. 114), although it does “provide an important medium for connecting and communicating” (p. 114).

Curran (2011) concurs that social media do not provide empowerment to the citizen as promised. He says the introduction of previous technologies like radio, cable TV, interactive digital TV and the Internet, claimed to enhance democracy but did not. The hype surrounding these technologies’ ability to provide everyone with an opportunity to discuss issues was encouraged by business interests and politicians for the sole purpose of sales. New media, he argues, is no different. Ruiz et al. (2011) underscored Curran’s argument when studying newspaper websites to determine if editors moderated discussion, thus limiting debate. They found the editors moderated to a great extent, which editors argued was appropriate participation.

Couldry, Livingstone and Markham (2010) more positively see emerging media as providing new initiatives to engage publics. The Web, they say citing Bentivegna (2002), features interactivity, increased speed, reduced cost of entry, and flexibility of transmission, which provide access for democratic communication. Cowan and Arsenault (2008) add that dialogue and collaboration are attributes of social media, as they are of public diplomacy. Dialogue is the “universal human desire to be heard” (p.18). Transferred into the organisation-public relationships, an organisation can

37 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 gain respect and legitimacy, and enhance its reputation, if it listens to and engages in dialogue with its publics.

Auger (2013) considers the link between democracy, social media and public relations with respect to not-for-profit organisations, whose existence is “paramount to the continuation of a democratic society” (p. 370). Public relations, she says, has a special role in “building, sustaining, and advancing democratic interests in society”. Her study supports this proposition, particularly when PR practitioners advocate on behalf of not-for-profits. Sommerfeldt (2013) also sees public relations as necessary for democracy, because it “ensure[s] the existence of competing interests” through debate. Robust public dialogue contributes to a democratic society. The raison d’être of public relations is the fostering of social capital for collaborative relationships, a measure of trust.

2.4.2 The social organisation In 2008, organisations observed the extensive growth of social media activity, and the term social business emerged, with organisations seeking to use social media for business (Blanchard 2011). Li and Bernoff (2008) outlined three online trends as reasons for organisations to use social media – “people’s desire to connect, new interactive technologies, and online economics” (p.11). Organisations began to understand that two-way conversations might prove more effective than one-way (Qualman 2009) and for those firms that began to engage, changes appeared in the method, speed and nature of their interactions with publics (Gallaugher & Ransbotham 2010). There was greater discussion and interaction about products. Macnamara (2014) cites surveys and studies in the US and Australia reporting 90 per cent of US small businesses and one third of Australian not-for-profits use social networks.

The concept of the social organisation emerged, defining an organisation using social media for dialogue, interaction and growth. It engages its publics,

38 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 is nimble and applies “mass collaboration” for business opportunities (Bradley & McDonald 2011, p. 5; IBM and Gartner cited in Macnamara 2014, p. 163). Dialogue is encouraged and enhances relationships between the organisation and publics if participants chose to engage. Individuals began to follow organisations alongside family and friends on social media: more than 50 per cent of social media users follow brands on social media (deVries, Gensler & Leeflang 2012). This study examines whether they and the organisations they follow engage in dialogue and interaction.

2.4.3 Social media and public relations People are interacting with organisations in a way similar to how they interact with family and friends. They receive information in their social media news stream, or news feed, and can respond or comment to an organisation in the same way as they would to a close friend. In that way, social media democratises the conversation. “The power has been taken…by the individuals and communities that create, share and consume blogs, tweets, Facebook entries, movies [and] pictures” (Kietzmann 2011, p. 242). This means an organisation’s message can no longer be controlled in terms of what people do with it, although organisations can control whether or not they take part in any conversation about themselves (Joel 2009). Even if they choose not to take part, organisations spend time monitoring what is being said about them – both positive and negative – collecting intelligence, measuring “the amount and nature” of discussion about the brand or the organisation (Moe & Schweidel 2014, p. 181). Some organisations spend more time monitoring than interacting, and Macnamara (2014) questions whether they are actually listening and acting upon what they’ve learned.

There has been discussion in the public relations literature about control of the message and whether there is any in social media. Booth and Matic (2011) say that companies feel pressure to control their messages. Grunig (2009) discusses control of the message as being part of an old public relations paradigm that is an element of the marketing communication

39 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 function. Practitioners have the illusion of control but this, he says, is indicative of asymmetrical communication. Scholars recognise that conversation and messages cannot be controlled in social media (e.g. DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011; Kaplan & Haenlein 2010; Parsons 2013; Peters et al. 2013). This concept is difficult for the controllers to accept (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013) and attempting to control the message can lead to public relations crises (Nitins & Burgess in Weller et al. (Eds.) 2014). Academic research investigating the relationship between social media and public relations “is still in its infancy” (Robson & James 2013, p. 1), but initial studies have found that organisations do not always take advantage of the dialogic capabilities of social media (see ‘dialogue’), or they try to control all messages, including dissent, rather than engage in listening.

Organisations using social media connect with users, but that initiative does not always lead to engagement or dialogue (see ‘interactivity and engagement’) – “Just because you are connected in the digital channels does not mean that anyone really cares” (Joel 2009, p. 209). Engagement between organisations and publics is important to organisations, but it is difficult to encourage if the organisations are not communicating dialogically. Interactivity is a crucial aspect of social media that includes a level of dialogue and feedback, with publics having a measure of control over the content it sees (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013). Kelleher (2009) describes interactivity as “the actual back-and-forth communication” between an organisation and those that constitute its online publics (p. 108). Social media revolutionise how publics interact with organisations, with the opportunity to build relationships on a more personal level (Men & Tsai 2013), an important aspect of public relations (c.f. Bruning, Dials & Shirka 2008; Bruning & Ledingham 1999; Ledingham & Bruning 1998, 1999, 2000), particularly if they engage in dialogue (Bruning, Dials & Shirka 2008; Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002). Social media’s many attributes include the opportunity for dialogue, and one question in this research is whether it exists between organisations and publics and to what end.

40 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

There have been cases where public relations practitioners have implemented social media campaigns under pretense. It is known as flogging (fake blogs pretending to be affiliated with an organisation) and astroturfing, creating a movement to appear as though it was started by concerned citizens and posting messages on blogs or other social media without disclosing one’s affiliation with an organisation. One case is the Edelman- Wal-Mart debacle, in which employees of Edelman Public Relations blogged for, or paid people to pretend to be independent bloggers on behalf of, US retail giant Wal-Mart in ‘Wal-Marting Across America’ (Sweetser 2010). This failure of transparency led to charges of unethical behaviour by the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) (Coombs & Holladay 2010) and criticism by public relations practitioners around the US. Owner Richard Edelman apologised. Similarly, agency Zipatoni pretended Sony’s 2006 Playstation gaming blog was written by gamers (Beard 2007; Jenkins et al. 2013; Lariscy et al. 2009); it was uncovered to be fake, leaving enthusiasts duped and angry with Sony. The site was labeled worst practice in marketing and public relations. In another instance, a fake blog aimed at young Mazda drivers supposedly written by a twenty-two year old driver, but created and written by Mazda, was taken down a week after launch when it was discovered to be inauthentic. Mazda endured heavy criticism (Ashcroft 2010).

Until the mid 2000s, as social media was beginning to be used, organisations had primarily communicated with publics in an asymmetrical way using traditional media because the focus of mass media was monologic. But organisation-public communication should be more of a conversation. Now, with easy access to information, all publics can communicate with each other, and stakeholders can communicate with other stakeholders and band together, talking to and about companies publicly. That ability limits the control companies have over the “content and dissemination of information” (Mangold & Faulds 2009, p. 359). With social media, dialogue happens, with the agenda set either by the company or the publics (Holtz 2002).

41 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Burson Martsellar’s Global Media Survey (2010) claimed social media tools are being used extensively in business, but this has not been reflected in the literature. In fact, Taylor and Kent (2010) report there is no evidence to support claims of social media’s impact on business (p. 209). Macnamara and Zerfass (2012) reiterate that there are gaps in the knowledge about organisations using social media and how they should be used. McCorkindale, DiStaso and Sisco (2013) suggest that organisations incorporate social media into their existing strategies by listening and engaging in dialogue. This study scrutinises the extent of dialogue in blogging and microblogging between organisations and publics, and seeks to fill the gap in the research about organisation-public engagement through dialogue and interaction in social media.

Business consulting organisation McKinsey’s 2012 Enterprise Networking Report found 90 per cent of American CEOs whose organisations use social media see measurable benefit in both internal and external communication and 30 per cent understand the importance of social media skills within their organisations. Executives agree that social media require commitment but that using dialogue assists in relationship building with publics (Colliander & Dahlen 2012), even with its challenges (DiStaso & Bortree 2012). Used ethically, real dialogue accepts differing views without judgement (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013). Crawford (2009) warns that now, organisations are expected to function in social media, but they should be highly responsive and attentive, listening and responding quickly.

One public which most uses social media, the Millennial generation or Gen Y – born between 1980 and 2000 and numbering 76 million (Barnes & Lescault 2014) – enjoys interacting with brands online and expects them to communicate and engage in an open and transparent way (Barnes & Lescault 2014). Organisations that use Facebook endeavour to build relationships with Millennials (McCorkindale et al. 2013). Barnes and Lescault’s (2014)

42 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 study of Millennials’ social media use found 62 per cent ‘like’ or follow a brand on Facebook because they like to receive updates about brands they support or admire, and also like to receive coupons or discounts. Table 2.3 outlines how many Australian users there are on different social media, compared with those globally, outlined in Table 2.4.

Table 2.3 Social media user statistics in Australia (as of March 2014) Social media outlet Australian users Facebook 13 million YouTube 12.6 million Wordpress.com 6.3 million Tumblr 4.7 million LinkedIn 3.6 million Blogspot 2.9 million Twitter 2.8 million Instagram 1.6 million Trip Advisor 1.4 million Snapchat 1 million Flickr 790,000 Pinterest 410,000 Yelp 190,000 MySpace 180,000 Reddit 170,000 Google Plus 65,000 Stumbledupon 58,000 FourSquare 34,000 Digg 25,000 Delicious 20,000

Social media use in Australia – www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-march-2014 and Prof. Axel Bruns, QUT – http://socialmedia.qut.edu.au/2014/08/04/first-steps-in-exploring-the-australian- twittersphere

Table 2.4 Social media use globally (as of January 2014) Social media outlet Global users Facebook 1,400 million QZone 632 million Google Plus 300 million LinkedIn 277 million Twitter 500 million Tumblr 230 million Tencent Weibo 220 million Flickr 51 million Pinterest 10.4 million FourSquare 7.5 million Global social media statistics – http://wearesocial.net/blog/2014/01/social-digitial-mobile-worldwide-2014, www.statisticsbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/2014

43 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

According to deVries, Gensler & Leeflang (2012), individuals who become fans of brands on social media tend to be more loyal and committed than those who do not. For example, Facebook fans generate more positive word of mouth than non-fans (Dholakia & Durham 2010). By 2011, 74 per cent of US companies were using Facebook to microblog, and one third of those found it the most effective social platform (Barnes & Lescault 2011). Two years later in 2013, 77 per cent of Fortune 500 companies were microblogging via Twitter and 70 per cent via Facebook (Barnes, Lescault & Wright 2013). Barnes and Lescault (2011) found that social media increased brand awareness and improved company reputation (in 90 per cent of organisations studied). Gallaugher and Ransbotham (2010) found that firms with the highest level of social media activity on Facebook and Twitter increased revenues on average by 18 per cent over the previous year (2009, compared with 2008); those that were not using social media saw revenues drop six per cent (2008 to 2009) (Gallaugher & Ransbotham 2010, p. 209). It is one of very few studies linking social media use to increased business revenue. From a public relations perspective, Saffer, Sommerfeldt and Taylor (2013) argue that social media, particularly Twitter, can lead to improved organisation-public relationships. The level of interactivity from the message, they contend, affects the perceived organisation-public relationship. “An organisation can use Twitter strategically to build relationships with publics” (p. 24).

A majority of organisations (e.g. Barnes & Lescault 2011; Carim & Warwick 2013; Thackeray, Neiger, Smith & Van Wagenen 2012), including not-for- profits, universities, for-profit corporations and government departments, use social media in some way, some more effectively than others. Some attempt to engage and interact with publics and some continue to communicate in a traditional one-way fashion. A challenge for organisations, and thus a limiting factor in the adoption of dialogue in social media, is losing control of the message and not knowing what people might do or say (DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011). Other challenges include intellectual

44 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 property leaks, criticism and crises. Organisations say they wish to engage with publics, but are often focused on message control or transactions rather than relationship building. McAllister (2012) found 62 per cent of universities used Facebook to microblog, but Kelleher and Sweetser’s (2012) study showed 51 per cent of not-for-profits were active on social media (c.f. Briones, Kuch, Liu & Jin 2011; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012; Waters, Burnett, Lamm & Lucas 2009; Waters & Jamal 2011). Even in Fortune 500 companies, uptake of social media had not reached “critical mass” (Kelleher & Sweetser 2012, p. 108). Twenty two per cent of Fortune 500 and 45 per cent of Inc. 500 companies had a public facing blog in 2010, up from 16 per cent the previous year (Barnes & Mattson 2010), with 69 per cent of Fortune 2000 companies using social sites (McCorkindale 2010).

When comparing Australian and European organisations’ implementation of social media to those in America, European and Australasian organisations do not use social media to a greater extent than those in the US. Verhoeven, Tench, Zerfass, Moreno & Verčič (2012) found in Europe social media are not yet the most important elements in the media mix. On average 56 per cent of European organisations use social networks like Facebook, 50 per cent use microblogs like Twitter, and 29 per cent use blogs (Macnamara & Zerfass 2012). In Australasia, 73 per cent of organisations use Facebook, 55 per cent use Twitter, and 48 per cent had blogs (Macnamara & Zerfass 2012). In internal communication 65 per cent of companies use wikis, video sharing and blogs internally to engage with employees (Treem & Leonardi 2012) as well as externally to engage with publics.

In public relations, the paradigm has shifted to dialogue and relationship building in social media (e.g. Lahav 2014; Lee & Desai 2014; Smith 2012; Waters & Williams 2011). Grunig (2009) believes the opportunities for interactive, dialogic communication are available through social media, especially blogs and microblogs. He says social media will “inexorably make public relations practice more global, more strategic…and socially

45 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 responsible” (p. 1). Unfortunately, he says, “history shows that when new media are introduced, communicators tend to use them in the same way they used the old media” (Grunig 2009, p.6). Gitelman (2008) argues old media remain meaningful, but once new media are introduced, old media are perceived as not doing the job. Old media practices are still being used in “new” or social media. Public relations practitioners use traditional one-way media practices in social media. They have not adapted as quickly as expected. Phillips and Young (2009) claim, “PR has been surprisingly slow to adapt to [social media] as a core component of practice” (p. 97). Other scholars agree, claiming practitioners have been ‘laggards’ in adopting social media (Fitch 2009; Kelleher 2008; Kent 2008; Porter, Sweetser, Chung & Kim 2007; Porter, Sweetser & Chung 2009; Wright & Hinson 2008, 2009).

However, more recently there does seem to be an increased uptake in the use of social media by PR practitioners who recognise its value (Alikilic & Atabek 2011; Eyrich, Padman & Sweetser 2008; Kelleher & Sweetser 2012). Practitioners are still reluctant to engage in social media dialogically (DiStaso & Bortree 2012), even though Sommerfeldt, Kent and Taylor (2012) argue forcefully that relationships perish without true dialogue, and PR practitioners must recognise that.

Scholars have been keen to explore the opportunities for dialogue offered by social media. Social media are “arguably…the greatest tools to come to public relations practitioners in the last fifty years”, say Kent and Taylor (2003, p. 17), and the potential “impact of blogs on PR is phenomenal”, write Wright and Hinson (2008). Social media are regarded as more interactive, dialogic, authentic and credible than websites. They are “virtual platforms for interactivity and information exchange where issues are debated and defined” (Smith 2010, p. 330) with “the most opportunities for dialogue” (Macnamara 2012, p. 221). New technologies allow public relations practitioners to establish dialogue with stakeholders (Duhé 2007) and work for all sides when information shared is accurate and relevant (Worley 2007).

46 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Porter, Sweetser and Chung (2009) concluded practitioners were not using social media strategically, but they were no longer ‘laggards’. Blogs as a public relations tool has “not yet become a staple”, they say (p. 262). Wright and Hinson (2014) in their longitudinal study found that the “potential impact of blogs on public relations and corporate communication is phenomenal” (2006, p. 639) for relationships but there was no evidence social media was being used dialogically. Three recent studies demonstrated this lack of dialogue – one investigated South African not-for-profit organisations, which were making minimal use of dialogic features on their websites, resulting in a failure to raise donations (Madichie & Hinson 2014). Another explored Swiss not-for-profits and found that NFPs “seldom took advantage of the possibility of engaging publics in dialogue” (Ingenhoff & Koelling 2010, p. 181). The third study explored Ghanian banks’ use of social media and found they were not taking advantage of dialogic and interaction tools to engage with publics (Hinson, Madichie & Ibrahim 2012). The most recent study by Wright and Hinson (2014) shows that more than 60 per cent of PR practitioners surveyed spend less than a quarter of their time on social media although they agree social media is changing the way PR is practiced. Waters and Williams (2011) found PR practitioners did not display a strong commitment to relationship building or dialogue on blogs and microblogs and no commitment to interactivity.

American PR practitioners have adapted to social media more than their European counterparts: Swerling et al. (2014) found American practitioners’ use of Facebook and Twitter exceeded use by European practitioners by a wide margin. Several other studies concluded US PR practitioners use social media in a similar way to traditional media use – that is, one-way (Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012; Supa 2014; Virk 2011). Verhoeven et al. (2012) studied social media use amongst European PR practitioners and found it was not yet an important element. Zerfass et al.’s (2011) European Communication Monitor 2011 discovered that 32 per cent of European PR

47 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 practitioners found Twitter useful, up from 26 per cent in 2010, and found that not-for-profit organisations used social media more than government departments and some private companies. The reluctance by some organisations to engage in two-way interaction, to listen and respond, is within the objectives of this research.

Wright and Hinson (2014) undertook a nine-year longitudinal study of US public relations practitioners’ use of blogging and microblogging. Over the years, Wright and Hinson reported that “new media enhanced public relations practice” (2013, p. 1), but practitioners were not using it dialogically. Information was disseminated in the same way as in traditional media. Practitioners did find social media most useful for crisis communication (Wright & Hinson 2013), effective for investor relations, and excellent as a source for news. Several studies found PR practitioners used Twitter the most because it offers the ability and opportunity for interactivity with publics (Lovejoy, Waters, & Saxton, 2012; Macnamara & Zerfass 2012; Saffer, Sommerfeldt, & Taylor 2013; Waters & Williams 2011; Wright & Hinson 2014; Zerfass et al. 2011). Some of that interactivity is with journalists as well as publics (Supa 2014).

O’Neil and Schieffer (2014) found corporations, and to a greater extent not- for-profit organisations, are not fully cultivating the opportunities for interactive and dialogic relationships, reinforcing previous studies’ findings (e.g. Bortree & Seltzer 2009; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012; Rybalko & Seltzer 2010). DiStaso, McCorkindale and Wright (2011) contend that social media have changed the practice of public relations, particularly in organisation-public relationship building. Their study concludes that the organisations they investigated had mixed beliefs about the importance of social media’s impact on organisation-public communication. Most participants were unconvinced about social media’s delivery of potential business results (c.f. Macnamara & Zerfass 2012; Taylor & Kent 2010), and

48 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 they remained tentative about engaging, although they recognise social media’s popularity among publics.

Some organisations have embraced social media and have started using it to their, and their publics’, advantage. Ricardo Guerrero, an online marketer for computer company Dell, opened Dell outlet (@DellOutlet), the first Twitter retail shop, in 2007 (Israel 2009). Used primarily for marketing promotional purposes, Dell offered discount coupons using custom codes for exclusive deals. Within two years, @DellOutlet sold three million dollars worth of computers (Israel 2009) and by 2009, had global Twitter revenues of $6.5 million. Dell realised that direct communication with its publics through social media changed not only its business, but the company’s relationship with publics, and began to monitor and listen as well as talk to publics. Dell’s online communication team monitors Twitter, blogs, video posts and other social media for any mention of Dell, including suggestions and customer issues (McCorkindale 2010), to which they respond. Dell has the largest social media team of any US corporation (more than 3,000 at the Social Media Listening Command Centre), ‘listening’ to 25,000 conversations about Dell daily (www.Dell.com).

New technologies allow public relations practitioners to establish dialogue with stakeholders (Duhé 2007) and work for all sides when information shared is accurate and relevant (Worley 2007). However, O’Neil and Schieffer (2014) found corporations, and to a greater extent not-for-profit organisations, are not fully cultivating the opportunities for interactive and dialogic relationships, reinforcing previous studies’ findings (e.g. Bortree & Seltzer 2009; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012; Rybalko & Seltzer 2010). Lovejoy et al. (2012) question why PR practitioners are not using Twitter interactively. Perhaps, Breakenridge (2012) suggests, it is due to the fact that many practitioners possess an unsophisticated knowledge of social media tools and they are slow to adopt new technologies that support collaboration.

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An understanding of the genuine-ness and authenticity that is required for dialogue in social media is an imperative.

Until the mid 2000s, as social media developed as organisation-public communication channels, organisations communicated with stakeholders in an asymmetrical way. With social media, there are ideal conditions for dialogic communication (Romenti, Murtarelli & Valentini 2014), with the agenda set either by the company or the stakeholders (Holtz 2002), making social media interactive where traditional or mass media are not.

Dialogue has to be truthful and fair, engaged in within a relatively short time period (propinquity), demonstrate an understanding of the other’s point of view with mutual respect (Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002), and allow for an element of risk in the relationship (where both parties are vulnerable to manipulation (Kent & Taylor 2002)), demonstrating trust, intrinsic to a mutually beneficial organisation-public relationship. (Cohen (2006) says addressing a public is always a risk in social media: “the risk that everyone will see what I do” (p. 164)). Dialogue and transparency are linked in social media interaction, and without transparency there can be no dialogue (Adams & McCorkindale 2013). Transparency in US corporations has become expected over the past decade, secured in 2002 legislation with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires full disclosure as the expected norm for all corporations (Argenti 2009), but transparency in social media, including between political candidates and their followers, would be more authentic through dialogue (Adams & McCorkindale 2013).

In continuing contemporary research in this new field, this study will explore dialogic use of social media by organisations’ social media managers who may not be situated within public relations and corporate communication departments. Both public relations and marketing, often at odds within organisations for budget and in terms of approach, consider social media important but approach these channels differently.

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2.5 Social networks A social network allows people to exchange content in discussions with a network of friends who have personal profiles. It is an informal structure “through which individuals and/or organisations maintain relationships” (Guth & Marsh 2009, p. 338), a shared space that brings people together through the connections between them (Christakis & Fowler 2011). The main difference between social networks and social media (although Valentini & Kruckeberg in Duhé (Ed.) 2012 argue they are synonymous) is that social networks are shared spaces for people with similar interests to virtually gather and create content, while social media allow for synchronous and asynchronous discussion between people who may or may not know each other and are not geographically bound. Both social media and social networks allow dialogue and interaction to take place between people with similar interests who have never met and widen a person’s circle of connections. There is an opportunity for discussion between individuals without a more powerful elite dictating what to think, or gatekeepers (i.e. journalists) filtering information. Social networks are unique in that they allow people to interact with friends as well as strangers and make visible their social network through a “public display of connections”, a crucial part of social networks (boyd & Ellison 2008, p. 213). boyd and Ellison (2008) define social networks as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a profile within a bounded system, articulate those with whom they wish a connection and view other people’s connections. In 2013, they refined their definition to be a networked communication platform [rather than simply a web-based service] and they added that people create and interact with user-generated content. It allows others to see a user’s list of friends and permits people to direct message friends without public display of the message. This study looks at how people converse and interact with major organisations on Facebook (a social network and microblogging site), and whether that interaction results in

51 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 dialogue that benefits the relationship between organisations and their publics.

SixDegrees.com was the first established social network site, created in 1997 (boyd & Ellison 2008; Dominick 2011; Donath & boyd 2004; Pavlik & McIntosh 2013), followed by Friendster (2002), My Space (2003), Facebook (2004), Orkut (2004), and YouTube (2005) (Pavlik & McIntosh 2013). Many others have emerged since 1999: LiveJournal, BlackPlanet, AsianAvenue, MiGente, Cyworld, Ryze, Fotolog and Skyblog, and many, including SixDegrees, have shut down (boyd & Ellison 2008). Orkut remains popular in South America.

Social networking sites include: x Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Buzznet, classmates.com, Faceparty, Faces.com, Orkut (used mostly in South America), Pinterest, Google+, QZone (China), Ello, Nextdoor (for neighbourhoods) x Creativity sharing sites (video [YouTube, Vine], photos [Flickr, Snapchat], music [jamendo.com, MOG, last.fm, Share the Music], content sharing [piczo.com]) x Company sponsored websites or cause/help sites x Invitation-only social networks (ASmallWorld.net) x Business networking sites (LinkedIn) x Commerce communities (eBay, Amazon.com, Craig’s List, iStockphoto) x Social bookmarking sites allowing users to recommend online news stories, music and videos (Digg, del.icio.us, Newsvine, Mixx it, Reddit) (Mangold & Faulds 2009, p. 358).

China’s social media landscape differs from the rest of the world, as outlined in Table 2.5 below.

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Table 2.5 Chinese social networking sites

Name of site Blog/microblog/social network Number of users Renren (formerly Social network: Facebook of China 219 million Xiaonei) Kaixin001 Social network similar to Facebook 113 million Douban Blogs, networking around topics, 172 million mostly culture QZone Social networking that allows blogs 712 million and multimedia Pengyou “Friend” real name online 259 million community Jiepang Location-based network designed 5 million for mobiles Sina Weibo Microblogging (hybrid of Twitter & 500 million Facebook) YY Social network including videos, 100 million blogs, chatrooms and gaming YouKu Video sharing 200 million Tencent Weibo Microblogging, similar to Sina 507 million Weibo Diandian Tumblr of China 5 million

2.5.1 Facebook, the most popular social network Facebook is considered both a social network and a microblogging platform (through its ‘wall’ postings) and is studied in this research both because of its microblogging ability and because “relationships are what Facebook was built for, with the goal of helping ‘people communciate more efficiently with their friends, family and co-workers’ ” (McCorkindale, DiStaso & Sisco 2013, p. 71). Facebook allows individuals to interact, participate and share opinions with friends and directly with organisations (Parsons 2013). Individuals and organisations can microblog and post to someone’s Facebook wall, resulting in the potential for dialogue. A fan of an organisation on Facebook fan can post to the organisation’s Facebook ‘wall’ (or bulletin board). The more a person interacts with an organisation’s Facebook page, the more news he or she will receive from that organisation (van Dijck 2013).

Facebook Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 as a closed online collaborative community for Harvard University students, then extended to other universities. It became available to the public in 2006 and what began

53 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 as a social network solely for individuals has evolved into a series of social communities where both individuals and organisations seek to create relationships. Those who use Facebook are referred to as friends or fans. Facebook allows fans to connect with other fans “increasing mutual satisfaction and advocacy” (Sashi 2012, p. 268).

The growth of Facebook has been rapid – it reached the 300 million user mark by 2009 with ten million people joining monthly. Today, in 2014, there are more than 1.32 billion Facebook users globally (newsroom.fb.com/company-info), 829 million of whom use it daily, with 12 to 13 million active users in Australia (mappingonlinepublics.net; www.budde.com.au). Zuckerberg also claims Facebook is the main source of news for people under 30 including 36 per cent of Americans under 30 (Pariser 2011). The Pew Internet Center (2014) found that almost three quarters (71 per cent) of Internet users are on Facebook, including those 65 and older, although its growth seems to be slowing due to the introduction of other social networking sites and perhaps because Facebook, in December 2014, said it had evolved from being a social media platform to a mass media platform, from acquiring fans to loyalty and sales (Facebook Performance Report Australia 2014).

Facebook opened its registration to organisations in 2006 and more than 4,000 joined within two weeks (Waters, Burnett, Lamm & Lucas 2009). Interactivity is important for developing relationships online and Zaglia argues that an organisation should establish a Facebook page as it offers the opportunity to broadcast information publicly “to people who choose to connect with them” (2013, p.218), although this encourages one-way transmission of information, not dialogue. Not-for-profit organisations, say Waters et al. (2009), do not distribute news through Facebook nor do they use its interactive applications. One of the topics explored in this research is whether organisations using Facebook communicate dialogically with their publics. All participant organisations studied had a Facebook page, with

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some using it more often than others, especially those whose primary publics were “consumers” (that is, business-to-consumer (B2C) organisations used Facebook for information transmission to a greater extent than business-to- business (B2B) organisations).

In McCorkindale’s (2010) study of organisational use of Facebook, she found that when an organisation posts on its wall – a form of microblogging discussed later in this chapter – it is demonstrating a responsive or engaging attitude with followers. In this study, Facebook posts as a form of microblogging are studied to determine whether there is dialogue between organisations and publics. Lahav’s (2014) study of organisational Facebook use found Israeli organisations not using Facebook to communicate with publics were giving up “the opportunity of visibility” (p. 27) as well as interaction. About 15 million organisations globally use Facebook (http://venturebeat.com) as a microblogging platform to communicate with publics.

Organisations create Facebook pages to demonstrate new products and to engage on some level with publics. Some organisations’ Facebook pages are more popular than others. This may be due to their interesting visuals (images, photos and videos), competitions (offering publics the opportunity to win prizes), engaging conversation, or customers’ desire to have access to the brand itself, which may or may not result in dialogue. Table 2.6 shows the most “liked” global Facebook pages of organisations (the ones with the highest number of fans as well as ‘likes’), and Table 2.7 indicates the most liked Facebook pages of Australian organisations.

Table 2.6 Top 20 most ‘liked’ global corporate Facebook pages Sector Name Rank Number of likes Food Coca Cola 1 47.6 million Media Disney 2 37.8 million Apparel Converse 3 32.7 million Food Starbucks 4 31.3 million Food Red Bull 5 29.6 million Food Oreo 6 27.6 million

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Food Skittles 7 22.7 million Food McDonald’s 8 21.7 million Food Pringles 9 20.1 million Apparel Victoria’s Secret 10 19.3 million Apparel/retail Walmart 11 19 million Extreme spts Monster energy 12 18 million Apparel/retail Target 13 17.5 million Food Ferrero Rocher 14 16.2 million Food Nutella 15 16 million Apparel Adidas 16 15.4 million Tourist attrct Disneyland 17 14.9 million Apparel Zara 18 14.2 million Apparel Levi’s 19 13.4 million Apparel Burberry 20 13.2 million www.businesinsider.com.au 2012.

Table 2.7 Top 20 most ‘liked’ Australian Facebook pages (2014) Sector Name Rank Number of likes Tourism Australia.com 1 5,788,838 TV Bananas in Pajamas 2 2,953,334 Radio/TV Hamish & Andy 3 2,144,978 TV MasterChef Aus 4 1,365,300 TV Home & Away 5 1,362,659 Food & Beverage Bubble O’Bill 6 1,264,183 Tourism Sydney.com 7 1,252,363 Food & Beverage Yellow Tail 8 1,120,959 Food & Beverage Pringles 9 1,058,223 Tourism Visit Queensland 10 1,055,924 Food & Beverage McDonald’s Aus 11 1,023,267 Food & Beverage Coca Cola Aus 12 1,013,672 Food & Beverage Domino’s Pizza Aus 13 975,844 Apparel Lorna Jane 14 968,793 TV Channel V Aus 15 951,311 Apparel Bonds 16 901,452 TV The Voice Aust 17 799,278 TV Foxtel 18 789,006 Health M Bridges WBT 19 783,607 Radio Triple J 20 762,558 www.socialpulse.co

Australia’s favourite Facebook pages are radio and television programs, media outlets including radio stations, newspapers and magazines, and travel sites.

Facebook engagement Facebook, through its own Analytics function, determines engagement as measured on the basis of likes. Many social media and social network metrics (see ‘social media metrics’) include dwell time (how long someone

56 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 remains on the site), number of visits, number of comments, and number of times visited. Facebook’s own engagement metric (see ‘engagement') (supplied only to Facebook’s paying client organisations) is the number of likes, comments and shares on a given day, divided by the number of fans on a given day multiplied by 100 (Facebook Analytics cited by simplymeasured.com 2014; socialbakers.com 2014). It is considered the number of people that interact with an organisation’s Facebook content or post and quantifies a brand’s success (socialbakers.com 2014). This engagement rate does not represent relational exchanges or bonds and there is no demonstration that relationships have been enhanced or even forged. It does not represent or measure any deep emotion connection between an organisation and its publics, nor does it represent number or frequency of visits to the organisation’s Facebook page, but it is the engagement metric used by Facebook. The most popular Australian Facebook pages by engagement based on Facebook Analytics are outlined in Table 2.8. Facebook distinguishes favourite from engagement based on interaction, not just ‘likes’ (Facebook Performance Report Australia 2014).

Table 2.8 Top 20 Australia Facebook pages by engagement (2014) Sector Name Rank Number of likes Radio Fifi & Dave 1 383,386 Tourism Australia.com 2 331,242 Radio Fox FM 3 314,156 Radio 2DayFM 4 292,533 Radio SAFM 5 259,196 Children Babyology 6 228,180 Radio Triple M Brisbane 7 191,627 TV Channel 9 News 8 164,059 Radio 92.9 9 155,463 Automobiles Aus 4WD Action 10 135,225 Radio B105 11 127,674 Newspaper Courier Mail 12 102,799 TV Sunrise (Ch 7) 13 101,416 Radio The Grill Team 14 87,205 Musician/Band 360 15 85,205 Radio Nova 106.9 16 80,942 Family Mamamia 17 80,532 TV Today (Ch 9) 18 72,145 TV/Radio ABC News 19 69,882 TV Comedy Channel 20 69,826 www.socialpulse.co

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Engagement rates in the above table were measured by percentages and share of engagement: how many people are engaging or interacting with the page through posting, commenting, liking or sharing content. Their engagement demonstrates how many people discuss the organisation or brand and the engagement rate is Facebook’s bespoke formula. For example, Australia.com, the second most liked Facebook page, is highest on the engagement list. Average engagement of its almost six million fans is 331,242, an engagement rate of 6.4 per cent (as a percentage of total fans), and an engagement share of 61 per cent (the brand’s share of engagement) (www.socialpulse.co). This translates to five per cent of all fans on Australia.com interacting in some way on the site: posting, commenting, sharing or liking. Lorna Jane, a participant in this study, ranked highest amongst fashion brands on Facebook with a share of engagement of 14 per cent (www.socialpulse.co).

If an individual wants to post on an organisational or corporate Facebook page, he or she ‘likes’ the page, allowing the Facebook page owner (the organisation) to send information to his or her newsfeed. This is then displayed and shared with that person’s Facebook network. He or she is now a Facebook fan and can post on the organisation’s Facebook ‘wall’ (or bulletin board).

Some people may become fans of an organisation on Facebook in order to post unfavourable or negative critical comments. It is then up to the organisation to delete or leave those negative comments. It does not demonstrate good public relations to delete negative comments; fans want to be assured their voices are heard and taken seriously and their problems are being addressed (Dekay 2012). Dekay (2012) suggests organisations not delete negative comments, but rather respond to those remarks positively. Even if a positive conversation turns negative, organisations have begun to learn that critical feedback identifies areas that require improvement, and it can increase efficiency because those companies interested in feedback will

58 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 make speedy changes to those areas that need it (Qualman 2009). Lovink (2011) calls some comments a desperate attempt to be heard, not an effort to engage in dialogue. But truly obscene comments are unacceptable in any public discussion: many organisations post disclaimers and guidelines on their Facebook page about respecting other members of the community and the organisation’s right to remove abusive or unlawful comments (McCorkindale 2010).

Dekay (2012) argues that often, negative comments on organisations’ Facebook pages are not responded to, even if they are appropriate. Negative comments which are destructive, nasty or distasteful for the sake of it are posted by people referred to as ‘haters’ or ‘trolls’. Trolls, says Bishop, “post anonymously…in order to get enjoyment out of provoking and harming others” (2014, p. 10). They behave, say Buckels, Trapnell and Paulhus, in a “deceptive, destructive or disruptive manner…with no apparent instrumental purpose” (2014, p. 97). They post controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages on Facebook to provoke others, acting like the unpleasant Scandinavian characters lurking under bridges after whom they are named (Bishop 2014; Bonsall & Schoenly 2012). They do not engage in nor invite genuine discussion. Anti-social individuals enjoy using Facebook (Buckels et al. 2014), which has been described by Phillips as “an all-you-can-eat trolling buffet” (2011, p. 3).

Facebook posts and blog comments can be an important element of dialogue between organisations and publics, but Dekay (2012) found 48 per cent of corporations in his study deleted negative Facebook comments, despite public relations specialists’ advice to the contrary. This research investigates organisations’ Facebook posts as part of the study on dialogue in social media, looking at both positive and negative comments to determine if dialogue exists even in a negative situation. It is difficult in this study to determine if comments had been deleted without constant observation and regular visits to the Facebook posts on the same date over time.

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2.5.2 Other social networks (not included in the study) There are a number of other social networks that were not included as part of this study. They are briefly discussed here to showcase the popularity of social media and social networking sites worldwide and their increase in use by both individuals and organisations. New social networking sites include Pinterest, Google Plus and Instagram. Pinterest, where people create and share ‘boards’ (scrapbooks) or collections of visual bookmarks of interest to the user, launched in 2010, and by 2013 had 70 million users, 93 per cent of whom are women (Unmetric Pindustry Report 2013). Women dominate Pinterest (42 per cent of online women vs 13 per cent of online men) (Pew Research Center 2014). There are half a million Pinterest business accounts (http://expandedramblings.com 2014 [Pinterest does not release information publicly]).

Google Plus, launched as a competitor to Facebook in 2011, has 540 million monthly active users, primarily in the US (two thirds) and China, with limited use in Europe (http://expandedramblings.com 2014; Google Plus 2013).

Instagram, a social and community photo and video-sharing site, started in 2010 and had grown to 80 million users by 2012 (http://instagram.com/press), the year it was purchased by Facebook (http://techcrunch.com/2012). As of July 2014, it has 150 million users (http://instagram.com/press).

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals to link together in groups with similar interests (there are now 2.1 million groups). It launched in 2003 with 4,500 users after its first month. It now has 277 million members and includes 28 per cent of all Internet users (Pew Research Center 2014), growing by a million members every ten days or a new person every second (Keen 2012; http://expandedramblings.com 2014. LinkedIn claims it has 300 million members globally (http://press.linkedin.com)).

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Social networks are communities where people interact with other individuals with a shared interest or purpose. It often includes with organisations they admire or like, where conversations take place and content may be shared. Social communities, which include brand communities, dwell primarily on personal social networks (like Facebook) or professional networks (like LinkedIn).

2.5.2 Social communities Social communities, or communities within social networks that have often been referred to as virtual communities, are investigated as part of the study to determine if individuals band together through their particular interest in order to interact with each other as well as with the organisation they admire. While communities are not a main focus of the study, they did emerge as an important component of the online spaces organisations create to attract fans or friends. Consumer communities, “when appropriately formed and nurtured” can impact publics as well as society at large and they are “best considered from a public relations, rather than a marketing”, perspective (Kruckeberg, Starck & Vujnovic in Botan & Hazelton (Eds.) 2009, p. 486). Online brand communities are platforms created by organisations to enhance customer loyalty, build commitment, and demonstrate appreciation (Sung, Kim, Kwon & Moon 2010). Brand communities interact with organisations and this study will explore the type of interaction.

Hallahan (2004b) describes communities as “any group that shares common interests developed through common experiences” (p. 21) and this aptly applies to online, or virtual, communities that revolve around a shared interest – for example, a hobby, sport, rock band, celebrity or brand. Moe and Schweidel (2014) claim that online communities can “supplant local communities” (p. 95) and Breakenridge (2008) excitedly claims that online social networks have led to the creation of thousands of communities which have made geography obsolete, with communities moving from the

61 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 neighbourhood to the network. This perspective is unlikely because people continue to live and work in local communities. Castells (2010) questions whether virtual communities are real because they are based on weak ties. They are not “unreal”, he concludes – “they work on a different plane of reality” with their own dynamics (Castells 2010, p. 389) that do not follow the same patterns of interaction as physical communities. Jankowski (in Leivrouw & Lingstone (Eds.) 2002) considers the fluidity of virtual communities – they can be active, then disappear – in a space where people ‘meet’ (they provide a new meaning for the word ‘meet’ because people are physically separated).

Claiming that online virtual communities completely replace local communities may not be accurate, but virtual communities still require sociability with their own rituals. Macnamara (2014) discusses the positive and negative aspects of online communities, and suggests Benedict Anderson’s (1991) “imagined” communities, grounded in mental abstraction rather than physicality, may better describe them. Hallahan (2000b) says “communities”, in public relations, is a term used to refer to a group of people who relate in some way to an organisation or even a country, “drawn together by shared experiences, values or symbols” (p. 501). Publics, Hallahan adds, can have a minimum level relationship with an organisation (an inactive public can be considered a “symbolic community”) or can have an intense, meaningful one. Brand communities are virtual communities that exist online that are non-geographically bound “collectives of people with a shared interest in a specific brand” (Gummerus, Liljander, Weman & Pihlström 2012, p. 859; Laroche, Habibi, Richard & Sankaranarayanan 2012; Muniz & O’Guinn 2001). They have a sense of ‘we-ness’ and duty to the community (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001). Brand communities can be found on Facebook, on websites and in chat rooms or forums and are a relatively new phenomenon that Cova and Cova (2002) describe as “postmodern tribes” (cited in Fröhlich & Schöller in Duhé (Ed.) 2012, p. 89). The brand community consists of fans, customers, employees and anyone with a sense of belonging

62 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 to or an opinion about the brand. Sicilia and Palazon (2008) contend they create a “parallel social universe” rife with its own “myths, values, vocabulary and hierarchy” (p. 256) and individual members of the brand community get added value from the relationship with the organisation (Muniz & O’Guinn 2001; Wirtz et al 2013; Wise, Hamman & Thorson 2006).

Members feel the same intrinsic connection and loyalty to the brand and each other (Gummerus et al. 2012), often helping each other with problems, writing reviews and sharing content. They comment on organisation- provided content and praise or complain about new product developments or changes. Social interactions between community members have been found to influence individuals’ relationships with the organisation (Zaglia 2013). This study, while seeking to determine dialogue and interaction, looks at whether online brand communities exist on participants’ Facebook pages.

2.6 Blogs Blogs (also known as weblogs, web logs and online diaries) can be defined as text-based, frequently modified online journals, in which information is posted about a person, organisation, or topics of interest. They are time stamped in reverse chronological order, with the most recent entries, hyperlinks or commentary listed first. Comments may result in conversation between the author and the reader, or the reader and other readers. A blog often hosts a sidebar, or blogroll, with a list of links to blogs the blogger admires. Blogs are updated regularly and are asynchronous – the author and reader are not required to be online simultaneously to interact (Lomborg 2009).

Blogging was initially greeted with great acclaim, evident in such statements as:

x “the most significant media revolution since the arrival of television” (Papacharissi 2006, p. 21)

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x “an increasingly important role as a forum of public debate…which have affected real world events” (Drezner & Farrell 2004, p. 4-6) x “blogs are boons to democracy…renew[ing] the classical public sphere” (Cohen 2006, p. 163) x “a significant new development in the information world” (Dearstyne 2005, p. 43),” x a phenomenon occurring in all fields” (Jenkins 2006) x “the next evolution of web-based experience” (Kahn & Kellner 2004 cited in Hookway 2008, p. 93) x “the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself” (Baker & Green 2008), x and, a phenomenon (Wright & Hinson 2009c).

Baker and Moore (2008) also describe blogging as an excellent medium for organising ideas.

Blogs were considered groundbreaking with powerful impact and were enthusiastically accepted as new and different because of their potential for interactivity. Fortune identified blogs as one of the Top 10 trends to watch (Du & Wagner 2006,) and Business Week said blogs were “nothing short of a revolution” (Sprague 2007, p. 130). Agerdal-Hjermind describes blogs as having embedded themselves into our cultural “DNA…because we’re living in a unique moment in time when the human urges to converse, communicate, argue publicly, learn collaboratively, share experiences, and archive collective knowledge have suddenly been married with incredibly powerful, fast, ubiquitous technologies” (2014, p. 35).

Harvard Law School’s definition of blogs is a “hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed as an HTML browser” (Dearstyne 2005a, p. 39). Branching out from communications to politics and sociology demonstrate the wider cultural implications of public discussion. Blogs have also been described as “listening posts of modern democracy” (Coleman 2005, p. 274) and a communication

64 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 medium “revitalising deliberative democracy” (Keren 2010, p. 110), allowing for authentic expression “free from the repressive controls of traditional media” (p. 276). Hookway says they encourage civic engagement and community with “a socially transformative capacity” (2008, p.94). More recently, Pavlik and McIntosh (2013) contended that blogs have evolved into a form of mass communication due to their influence and the numbers of people reading them, as well as the lack of interaction between the blogger and reader.

Blogs allow individuals a chance to communicate with people around the world (Johnson 2007). They are now considered an “intrinsic part of the Internet” (Johnson & Kaye 2008, p. 101), and can be a subset of websites or produced and published on specialist applications like Wordpress. Rettberg describes social media as dwelling on a “centralised…single server…where all users have profiles on the same domain” (2014, p. 64). Those profiles link to those of designated friends. Although a genre of social media, blogs do not live on a single server and the blog owner retains control over content. Blogs offer connections or links to specific articles or documents stored on a website, to other blogs, or to specific entries in other blogs (Sprague 2007).

This network of connections through linking is referred to as the blogosphere (or blog space, as Kumar (2003) says), a group of communities with an overlapping collection of conversations (Baolli 2004) covering everything from personal opinion to gossip to conspiracy theories to citizen journalism. The blogosphere exists, says Cammaerts (2008), as “a social platform” to air viewpoints. But he argues that seeing the blogosphere as a deliberative space where everyone can freely air his/her views in rational dialogue is ‘problematic’ because it is too fragmented. And, he says, corporations have colonised it, using it as a “propaganda instrument, a marketing tool and a distribution channel” (p. 358), something for which he finds cause for concern.

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Linking is an important part of blogging because the interconnectedness of blogs allows direct conversation between people who may or may not know each other and who may or may not be within geographical proximity to one another, but are joined by common interests. Blogs rely on hyperlinks (Drezner & Farrell 2008) and often hold permalinks, unique blog entries with their own website address (URL), making them easy to find in search engines (Gillin 2007), and providing an anchor for reference. This helps blogs interact with each other (Mortensen & Walker 2002) with many of the same features as dialogue (Logan 2010; Wallsten 2007).

Blogs are conducive for two-way communication and Yang & Lim (2009) say they cannot exist without dialogue, although having interactive features does not ensure interactivity. Additionally, not all blogs feature dialogue – many readers simply read without comment, so blogs can indeed exist without dialogue. What helps to distinguish blogging from other web activity is that it is social – bloggers see themselves as being part of a community (Marlow 2006) of information and opinion (Kaye 2005). A downside to personal blogs is they offer unverified opinion, the author might be falsified, and bloggers may pretend to be someone that they are not.

Blogs enhance two-way communication better if they are conversational in tone, in nature and in practice. Writing through a “human voice” plays an important part in blogs, especially when looking to create relationships (Jenkins 2006; Kelleher & Miller 2006; Sweetzer et al. 2008; Xifra & Hertas 2008). For a reader, interacting with the blog, and with the organisation hosting the blog, can include activities like liking or commenting. Commenting is seen as a high level of engagement. A blog is an attainable way for an organisation to have a conversation with numerous publics and get feedback (Marken 2005; Schuff et al. 2009). Corporate blogs that require customers to register with a username and password before commenting, or asking customers to submit comments through email, create a hurdle for trust and relationship building.

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2.6.1 Blog history Blogs first emerged from online diaries in the mid 1990s and are historically traced to paper journals, diaries and chronicles (Nardi et al 2004). One of the first personal bloggers was Justin Hall in 1994 and still blogs today (www.links.net) (Rettberg 2014). Software developer David Winer started blogging in 1997 with Frontier News and Updates and continues to blog (now known as Scripting News on http://scripting.com). In 1997, Jørn Barger coined the term weblog (Berry 2004; Cox, Martinez & Quinlan 2008; Gillin 2007; IP & Wagner 2008; Nardi, Schiano & Gumbrecht 2004 (a); Ostrander 2007; Singh & Shahid 2006; Stocker & Tochtermann 2008), which he defined as an updated site “that points to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and… to on-site articles” (Berry 2004, p. 1).

Peter Merholtz is credited with shortening weblog to we blog to blog in 1999 (Berry 2004; Cox, Martinez & Quinlan 2008; Gillin 2007; Rettberg 2008), the same year that saw the first coverage of blogs in mainstream media (Rosenberg 2009). The first war in Iraq and 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York sparked the initial rapid growth of American bloggers (Rosenberg 2009). The US presidential race in 2004 pushed blogs into the mainstream as a political information source (Ojala 2005) and by 2005, seven per cent of the 120 million online Americans said they had created a blog, while 27 per cent said they read one (2005 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, cited in Dearstyne 2005b).

Blog tracking organisation Technorati launched in 2002 and by 2004 was tracking three million blogs (Rettberg 2014). By 2012, Technorati tracked more than 180 million blogs, but Technorati now follows only 1.3 million English blogs (Rettberg 2014; Technorati.com 2014). Tumblr hosts 175.6 million blogs with 79 billion posts (tumblr.com 2014). It launched in 2007 with 170,000 users, increased to seven million by 2010, 100 million blogs by 2013 and now close to double that. WordPress has 76.8 million blogs in 120 languages (wordpress.com) producing 38.7 million posts per month. The

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China Internet Network Information Centre reported 300 million blogs in China in 2011 (Rettberg 2014). The numbers and popularity of blogs continue to increase – there are more than 2 million blog posts every 24 hours (www.internetlivestats.com). Most bloggers are based in the US (29 per cent – www.sysomos.com 2010) and over 61 per cent of online Chinese have created blogs (Dean 2010). Table 2.9 indicates countries worldwide with the largest share of bloggers.

Table 2.9 Share percentage of bloggers worldwide Country Share percentage of bloggers USA 29.2 per cent UK 6.75 per cent Japan 4.88 per cent Brazil 4.19 per cent Canada 3.93 per cent Germany 3.34 per cent Italy 3.21 per cent Spain 3.14 per cent France 2.87 per cent Russia 2.31 per cent Australia 2.22 per cent India 2.14 per cent Sweden 2.05 per cent Malaysia 1.70 per cent Netherlands 1.69 per cent

From www.sysomos.com

The influence of blogs may exceed their readership according to some studies (e.g. Johnson & Kaye 2008; Kent 2008). For instance, Johnson and Kaye determined that blog readers find blogs more credible than traditional media (2004). Kent (2008) highlights blogs’ use for persuasive communication by organisations as well as research and environmental scanning. However, he notes, that many organisational bloggers are not “adequately trained in public communication and dialogue” (p. 36) and organisations’ controlled messages risk being perceived as propagandistic.

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2.6.2 Critics of blogging Although blogs offer the opportunity for interconnectedness, dialogue, and free expression, not all communication scholars have been positive about blogging. Herring, in a number of early studies, found blogging to be uninteresting and neither new nor unique. Herring, Scheidt, Bonus and Wright (2003) argued that while blogging “occupies a new position in the Internet genre ecology” (p. 2), it had little dialogic value. In 2005 Herring found blog conversations the exception rather than the rule, but by 2008, she discovered blogs to be highly interactive and useful for real conversations.

Lovink (2008) is equally unimpressed with blogging, describing bloggers as “creative nihilists who are ‘good for nothing’ ” (p.22), although he does acknowledge that blogging is a “digital extension of oral tradition”(p. 10). By 2011, he remained unconvinced as to whether blogging enhances or encourages dialogue. Michael Gorman, who in 2005 was president of the American Library Association, said blogs were “the unpublishable, untrammelled by editors or rules of grammar” (Weinberger 2007, p.131). Weinberger (2007), however, appreciates blog conversation between people with shared interests. Serfaty (2004) too sees people reaching out to others in online dialogue through blogs and Kent (2010) says “substantive blog conversations make sense; blogs bring to readers and subscribers new information and topics of discussion” (p. 646). He sees blogs as ideal public relations tools because they are interactive, dialogic and excellent for monitoring and environmental scanning (Kent 2010; Rettberg 2008).

2.6.3 Blogging in the corporate context Personal blogs paved the way for corporate or organisational blogs, and are considered ideal for engaging publics (Fieseler, Fleck & Meckel 2009) because they allow for both dialogue and dissemination of information. Blogs offer an organisation the opportunity to communicate with publics in a conversational, intimate way (Kelleher & Miller 2006), and can potentially

69 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 transform one-way, top-down communication into dynamic, interactive collaboration (Holtz & Demopoulos 2006). Whether organisations engage dialogically with publics through their blogs is investigated in this study.

Corporate blogs are broken down into several types for internal and external use. Dearstyne’s (2005a) blog taxonomy for corporate blogs includes professional commentary blogs, insight, advertising/promotion, and knowledge management (for internal use). Lee, Hwang and Lee (2006) build on Dearstyne’s taxonomy to include employee blogs, group blogs, executive (C level blogs), promotional and newsletter blogs. Lee, Park and Hwang (2008) used Lee, Hwang and Lee’s (2006) taxonomy for their study on the content of corporate blogs. Simons’ (2008) taxonomy focuses more on personal and individual blogs than corporate blogs but her categorisation offers a different perspective. Table 2.10 lists various categorisations of blogs.

Table 2.10 Corporate blog types Author Corporate blog categories Dearstyne (2005) x Professional commentary x Insight x Advertising/promotion x Knowledge management (internal) Lee, Hwang & Lee (2006) x Employee x Group x Executive x Promotional x Newsletter Puschmann (2010) x Product blogs x Image blogs x Executive blogs x Employee blogs Ma & Zhang (2007) x Intranet blogs x Event blogs x Product blogs x Knowledge blogs Simons (2008) x Pamphleteering blogs (cause) x Digest blog (summary) x Advocacy blog (advocacy group) x Popular mechanics blog (how to) x Exhibition blogs x Gatewatcher x Diary x Advertisement x News

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Executive blogs are written by C-level executives (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, etc.) and are considered thought leadership channels, clarifying the vision and direction of the organisation. Kaye and Johnson (2011) found corporate blogs to be judged low in credibility because they only reflect the commercial interests of the organisations.

Employee blogs, also known as blog hubs, were not originally considered part of an organisation’s communication strategy, but that has changed recently. Employee blogs now often situate within internal communication, excepting developer blogs in technology companies who seek testing and opinion of technology by other developers or people with a keen interest.

Launching a corporate blog indicates a desire for the organisation to share information and engage in conversation with various publics. Some organisations blog to engage directly with publics in order to showcase their achievements, new products or charitable affiliations (Ahuja & Medury 2011). An effective organisational blog fosters interaction and dialogue and can aid in creating connections through two-way commentary. But some organisations are uncomfortable allowing and encouraging comments, considering this risky and making them feel vulnerable (Yang & Kang 2009). Creating and maintaining a blog is an attainable way for an organisation to have a conversation with numerous publics and get feedback (Marken 2005; Schuff et al. 2009); some scholars claim they foster conversation. Corporate blogs that require customers to register with a username and password before commenting, or asking customers to submit comments through email, create a hurdle for trust and relationship building. If it becomes too difficult to interact, publics may choose not to engage. Table 2.11 shows the most popular corporate global blogs by visitation.

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Table 2.11 Top 10 global corporate blogs Name Organisation Person blogging Marriot on the Move Marriot Hotels Bill Marriot Fast Lane General Motors Bob Lutz (and others) BMW Blog BMW Various Nuts about S’West Southwest Air Various My Starbucks Idea Starbucks Various Whole Story Whole Foods Various The Cleanest Line Patagonia Various Flickr blog Flicker Various Google blog Google Various Evernote Evernote Various From Postano.com; www.businessesgrow.com; sociamediatoday.com

PR consultancy Edelman undertook a study, along with blog tracker Technorati, of corporate blogs in 2005 and found that 85 per cent of corporate blogs were deemed credible or trustworthy by the public, although such a study could be seen as serving the interests of the PR firm sponsoring it. However, Banning and Sweetser (2007) found blogs to be more credible than other online as well as most traditional news sources and Kang (2010) argued that blogs are often considered more credible than other media. Yang and Lim (2009) also noted publics trust organisations with a perceived interactivity on social media, so one can conclude that organisations using blogs deliver trustworthy, credible messages to publics and interact with those publics, therefore assisting in building relationships.

To follow on from this, several scholars have found organisational blogs help build community, develop relationships (Ostrander 2007) and achieve organisational goals (Brecht, Cudreasova & Zhou 2010; Cox, Martinez & Quinlan 2008) by conveying information to publics. Yang, Kang and Johnson (2010) claim blogs “document the interconnectedness” between an organisation and its publics (p. 600) and Wood, Behling and Haugen argue that blogs allow “individuals and businesses to communicate directly… while fostering an open exchange of ideas” (2006, p. 312). The different purposes and functions of corporate blogs are summarised in Table 2.12.

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Table 2.12 Corporate blog purpose taxonomy Purpose Operation Audience Function Content Focus Management structure x Customers x Information x Individual x Hierarchy x Investors x Promotion x Event x Community x Employees x Continuity x Product x Trade associations x Entertainm’t x Organisation Accessibility x Suppliers x Mobile x Public x Community x Private x Governments x Membership x Political groups

Lockwood & Dennis (2008), p. 3

Blogging is not as widespread within the organisational context as it is with individuals. For organisations to add to the ‘conversation’, as Searls, Weinberger, Levine and Locke (2000); Levine, Locke, Searls, and Weinberger (2009) and Scoble and Israel (2006) describe it, they should participate openly and ethically to showcase their point of view, engage in dialogue and try to understand what publics think about them. Organisations should ‘listen’ to and monitor what people in the blogosphere say about their brand or industry. This research investigates whether organisations are dialogic in their interaction on blogs and whether they interact at all.

Corporate blogs can be used to communicate the company narrative, to discuss issues, either those in the news or of import to the organisation or its publics (Fieseler et al 2009). This is often done through CEO or commentary blogs, but sometimes employees tell the company story. Joshua Allen was the first employee at Microsoft to start blogging in 2002 because he wanted people to know he worked for a good company. A year later, there were 100 Microsoft employees blogging, and by 2005, 1,500 Microsoft employees were blogging (Rosenberg 2009). The most famous Microsoft blogger was technology evangelist Robert Scoble, who published commentary in a very open and frank way about Microsoft products on his blog Scobleizer from 2003 to 2006.

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Corporate blogs written by the CEO, Vice President or other top level executive (with the exception of Robert Scoble who was not a senior executive) are often considered more influential than other corporate blogs. It affords the CEO an opportunity to speak in his/her own voice about subjects of concern (Holtz & Havens 2009) and they can counter media stories they consider inaccurate, air opinions, or discuss issues that affect the company’s growth. They may use the blog to praise employees or communicate company initiatives. Barnes and Lescault (2012) reported 63 per cent of CEOs surveyed created content for social media. But CEO blogs may be considered a less-than-valuable use of the CEO’s time if interaction and community building do not result.

Ninety per cent of Fortune 500 companies have websites (Waters, Tindall & Morton 2010, p. 246), but public-facing blog activity is relatively low – 23 per cent of the Fortune 500 in 2010 (Barnes 2010; Bullas 2011). Of those organisations with blogs, 90 per cent have options for comments, feeds and subscriptions (Barnes 2010) where readers can post comments and engage in dialogue with the author or other readers. This occurs in the comments section at the bottom of the blog with the most recent post listed first. Comments on microblogs often happen synchronously and are between a reader and the writer or between readers. There are no academic studies scrutinising whether organisations read posted comments or respond to them. The focus of this research is to determine whether organisations and publics dialogue and interact with publics through those comments.

Four of the top five US corporations have blogs including Wal-Mart, Exxon and Chevron. Starbucks is considered one of the top brands at the forefront of social engagement (Gallaugher & Ransbotham 2010). Other early adopters of organisational blogs include General Motors, Dell, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Sun’s CEO Jonathan Schwartz started his blog in 2004 and was one of the highest profile CEO bloggers (Argenti & Barnes 2009). Schwartz ended his blog when Sun was purchased by Oracle in 2010. Oracle deleted all

74 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 of Schwartz’s old blog posts in 2011.

Blogs are inexpensive tools for organisations to implement. Li and Bernoff (2008) say the start-up costs for an organisational blog, including development, training a blogging executive, IT support and content production, are low when one considers the benefits of improved reputation, positive word-of-mouth, and available research based on customer insights. Having a blog implies the organisation listens to readers’ comments; readers want the option to post comments, even if they choose not to. Organisations can gauge public sentiment (Holtz & Havens 2009) through feedback, comments and interaction. Cheng (2008) describes four types of blog interactions on organisational blogs: socialisation, information sharing, help seeking, and teaching and learning. Those interactions help drive transparency because “trust is the only capital you have in the blogosphere and to build trust, companies need to become transparent in their practices” (Scoble & Israel 2006, p. 112). Gillin (2007) says some companies have a bias against the transparency and openness blogs require because of the risk of negative comments and feedback. A lack of transparency and a lack of comments would make the blog ineffective and inefficient (DeFlice 2006; Nardi 2004c). Even though more people read blogs than post to them (Kent 2010), blogs can foster an open exchange of ideas (Bross et al 2010; Wood, Behling & Haugen 2006).

Scoble and Israel (2006) suggest six key characteristics of organisational blogging: 1. Publishable – every post is available for the world to see instantly 2. Findable – the more one posts, the more ‘findable’ one becomes 3. Social – if the blogosphere is one big conversation, people will join the conversation on a blog that offers them shared interests 4. Viral – no word spreads faster than through a blog 5. Syndicatable – feed through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to which one subscribes and receives by email

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6. Linkable – blogs often link to other blogs, so there is access by millions

2.6.4 Blogging as internal communication Employee blogs can function as an internal communication resource or as an external tool for employees to tell others about their company, their products, or their work. Blogging for internal communications encourages knowledge sharing and social connections and it allows employees at all levels to engage in conversation that helps generate new ideas. Bross, Quasthoff, MacNiven, Zimmerman and Meinel (2010) say blogs are a far more effective tool in the internal corporate environment than was originally suspected, and makes organisations that use them more innovative. Internal blogs also foster collaboration (Baehr & Alex-Brown 2010; Holtz 2005). Employees can review and discuss issues, circulate vital information, share expertise and voice their opinions. Internal blogs strengthen social ties that can lead to greater team cohesiveness and a sense of group belonging (Baehr & Alex-Brown 2010).

Types of internal blogs include: x Knowledge blog: hosted by experts who share an interest in a specific professional topic and wish to document the knowledge x Collaboration/project blog: a place for group project work. It is particularly helpful for mobile employees x Employee blog: used for social interaction or seeking the answer to questions x CEO (executive or thought leadership) blog: highlights current strategic business issues, explains company goals, and involves employees in decision-making. It is easy for communicating with many employees at once.

Knowledge blogs offer a virtual shared space where employees articulate what they know and share publicly with others, with information and data

76 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 updated easily by everyone, facilitating teamwork and creating a knowledge base (c.f. Bross, Quasthoff, MacNiven, Zimmermann & Meinel 2010; Kolari, Finn, Lyons, Yesha, Yesha, Perelgut & Hawkins 2007; Kosonen, Henttonen & Ellonen 2007). As more information is added to the internal knowledge base, it becomes more likely that the answer to any given question will exist (Yardi, Golder & Brzozowski 2009). Fuchs (2009) contends that knowledge is produced cooperatively in a joint effort and is a strategic resource.

Based on that thinking, knowledge is an important resource for organisations to retain and knowledge blogs assist in that retention. They have proven to increase effectiveness, allow easy location of knowledge, make working more participative, encourage democratic decision-making, and retain organisational knowledge even after an employee leaves. Knowledge can be difficult to capture and knowledge blogs allow identifying, capturing, selecting, storing (old and new knowledge), organising, disseminating and transferring important information and expertise that are part of organisational memory. McDonald's maintains that their internal blog, serving employees and franchisees, is vital to the management of the organisation which is spread around the world (Wyld 2008).

In employee blogs, employees can enhance their reputation by demonstrating their depth of knowledge (Trimi & Galanxhi 2008), which builds social capital for the individual (Baehr & Alex-Brown 2010). They can discuss experiences within the organisation. They can communicate their own image of the company, share their passion for work, provide information, share tips, and interact with other employees. As a result, internal communication becomes more cohesive and vibrant (Bross et al. 2010), lowers the burden of incoming email, and encourages dialogue. Several studies of IBM internal blogs found they improved collaboration, enabled internal business intelligence, and were an efficient method for brainstorming ideas, in addition to knowledge sharing and reciprocal feedback (Kolari et al. 2007). The risks of employee blogs are that some

77 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 employees may find sharing expertise and opinions risky; any message from management to employees can be spread to those not supposed to receive it; and employees may express frustration publicly about a variety of internal issues (Yardi et al. 2009). They feel empowered to share views, publish grievances and demand action (Argenti 2006).

Large and small organisations have embraced both blogging and microblogging, although whether they have embraced dialogic communication is still being explored and the focus of this study. Barnes and Lescault (2011, 2012) studied Fortune 500 companies and Inc. 500 companies and discovered that the number of companies blogging (37 per cent) peaked in 2010-2011. Although blogging has been overtaken by microblogging in some instances, “blogging is still rated as successful by 92 per cent of those who utilise [it]” (Barnes & Lescault 2011a, p. 2) which includes unversities and colleges in the US.

2.7 Microblogs Microblogging is short form blogging, originally created to combine the flexibility of a mobile phone with the social potential of the Web (Geser 2009). Like blogging, microblog posts are displayed in reverse chronological order and are often accompanied by links to stories or articles on websites or blogs. Israel says microblogging conversation “moves from person to person with ease and speed” (2009, p. 22) because microblogging is easily accessible and free to use. It is an opportunity distribute information to a network of friends and followers in a “light-weight, easy form” (Java, Song, Finin & Tseng 2009, p. 119) that is faster and more immediate than blogging. Posts on microblogs vary from a limit of 140 characters (e.g. Twitter) to over 400 (e.g. Facebook) to unlimited (e.g. Yammer). Twitter is the most popular microblogging platform overall.

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According to Joly, Maret and Daigremont (2010), microblogging facilitates making new contacts. It is very easy to follow, or even unfollow, someone on Twitter. Java et al. (2009) identify three categories of users: information source, friend, and information seeker, and four categories of microblog posts: “daily chatter, conversations, sharing information and reporting news” (p. 121). There are several other Twitter taxonomies in the literature, including one by Dann (2010) who categorises Twitter posts as conversational (a query, referral, action or response), pass along (a re-tweet or endorsement which suggests a level of trust and credibility), news, status (personal, temporal, location, mechanical, physical, work, automated or activity), phatic (greeting, broadcast) and spam. Another taxonomy by Pear Analytics (2009) adds self-promotion and babble (says very little about anything). Pear Analytics found that 40.5 per cent of microblog posts are babble and 37.5 per cent are conversational. Spam comprised 3.7 per cent, “news” 3.6 per cent, “pass along value” 8.7 per cent, and “self promotion” 5.8 per cent.

There are a number of specialised public microblogging applications available including Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk and Tumblr. Also, some social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn include a microblogging facility (e.g. wall posts in the case of Facebook). Specialised microblogging platforms for internal organisational use include Yammer, Workvoices, Chatter, Communote and Co-op. Most offer unlimited length of posts and the ability to include attachments. Some organisations use Twitter as an internal microblogging application, although this can pose security issues.

Twitter launched in 2006 and has seen rapid growth, with a 752 per cent increase in use in 2008 over 2007 (Guistini & Wright 2009, p. 11) and a 1,841 per cent increase in accounts between February 2008 and February 2009 (Case & King 2010; Vascellaro 2010). Twitter reached 100 million users by 2011 (Efron 2010; Twitter 2011) and more than 550 million registered users

79 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 by 2014 (Twitter.com 2014). There are 271 million active users who post more than 500 million tweets daily (internetlivestats.com; Twitter.com 2014).

Tweets are sent to a web interface where they are displayed publicly. Only by “following” other users and subscribing to their messages does a “user create a personalised information stream” (Reimer 2010, p. 391) – i.e. they receive that person’s tweeted posts in their newsfeed. Twitter enables five main types of communication: public broadcast tweets; messages to other Twitter users by prefixing their user name (‘handle’) with the @ user name at the beginning of tweet which indicates it is specifically for that person although the message is public; direct messages using the specific ‘DM’ button on Twitter and the @user name so the message is private and not publicly displayed; retweeting the tweets of others; and tagging posts with a hashtag (# in front of a key word) which allows groups to follow a particular topic or event. Hashtags are used for major events (e.g. #ukriots, #HongKong2014), corporate events like conferences (e.g. #icabrisbane2014, #Sapphire2014) or Twitter ‘conference calls’ (e.g. #docsusingsocial). However, as Marwick and Boyd identify, “the dominant communication practices are public” (2010, p. 117).

Twitter can be unilateral – users may follow someone who does not follow them. (Facebook initially had reciprocation (one could not ‘friend’ someone without them friending the user back), but now, for example, one can follow organisations on Facebook which do not follow the user back). Twitter has a low level of reciprocity; for example, singer Katy Perry has 52 million followers but only follows 134 others. Sixty seven per cent of Tweeters are not followed by those they follow on Twitter (Kwak, Lee, Park & Moon 2010). But an individual has the ability to tweet someone they do not follow or who does not follow them by tweeting using the @user name. Followers may reply directly to a tweet or retweet someone else’s post to their own followers. The retweet mechanism allows the spread of information beyond

80 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 the original tweeter’s followers (Kwak et al. 2010) with an acknowledgement of the source.

Twitter users can receive information from many distinct sources, most of which are not traditional media organisations (Wu, Hofman, Mason & Watts 2011). In order to better understand all aspects of Twitter, Weller, Bruns, Burgess, Mahrt and Puschmann (2014) propose a three layer level of Twitter communication to use in further study: meso (communication about the user’s personal/public life as tweets are public), macro (where hashtags extend the conversation to more people, which signals a desire to engage with a wider audience), and micro (where users use the @ symbol to directly ‘talk’ to someone, although the semi-private message is public).

Letierce, Passant, Decker and Breslin (2010) contend that Twitter was originally designed to re-direct an audience to a website or blog through links where one could then read longer posts. Many bloggers initially used Twitter to promote their blog. Now, however, it is being used for one-to-one and one-to-many communication through the transmission of news and information, and the expression of thoughts and ideas. The explosion of interest in microblogging has been attributed to its brevity and ease of use because blogging is time consuming and difficult, whereas microblogging involves writing ideas and quick notifications (Ebner & Schiefner 2008). Newsrooms use Twitter to both source and disseminate stories, and some journalists view Twitter as a way to collect insights on trends, people and news (Hermida 2010).

Both true information and rumour move swiftly on Twitter, but from a social perspective, Twitter acts as a vehicle for opportunistic conversations with people tweeters may or may not know (Chen 2011; Efron 2010). Microblogs allow for quick thoughts and instant reflection, significantly allowing for faster communication, with millions interacting instantly in real time (Geser 2009; Hermida 2010). In America, 74 per cent of online users are on

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Facebook, 34 per cent use Twitter (20 per cent globally (pewinternet.org)), 31 per cent use forums or blogs, and 13 per cent using photo sharing/microblogging site Instagram (Technoratimedia.com 2013). Users trust Facebook the most, followed by YouTube, blogs, and Twitter (Technoratimedia.com 2013).

2.7.1 From individual to organisational microblogging Even though Web 2.0 applications are changing the way organisations communicate with publics, organisational microblogging is not yet fully mature. Case and King (2010) report that many Fortune 500 firms are skeptical about microblogging and have not found a reason to implement it. Geser (2009) says microblogging has the potential to expand the range of communication between an organisation and its publics. Barnes and Lescault (2012) report that more organisations are turning to microblogging formats like Twitter (64 per cent) and Facebook (74 per cent). 100 per cent of universities use some form of social media, Barnes and Lescault found – 98 per cent had Facebook pages and 84 per cent were on Twitter. “Schools are mastering [social media] and embracing its true spirit of two-way conversation” (Barnes & Lescault 2011 (b). p. 4).

For example, an organisation may receive critical comments via a microblog from dissatisfied customers who might never otherwise articulate their issues through fax, telephone, email or letter. But those organisations communicating with publics on Twitter are not using it dialogically. Some of the reasons for this are revealed in this study. Case and King (2011) found that 54 per cent of Fortune 50 firms use Twitter, but 85 per cent of those pushed information outwards, referencing websites or blog posts rather than interacting with users. There are few studies in the literature on organisation-public interaction on microblogging; this study investigates dialogic organisation-public interaction on blogs and microblogs.

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Microblogging is often used to communicate company announcements and news because it is a concise method to transmit information (Case & King 2010; Case & King 2011; Conway, Kenski & Wang 2013; Giustini & Wright 2009; Xifra & Grau 2010), although, as the literature indicates, it is meant to be interactive (Priem & Costello 2010; Reimer et al. 2010; Reimer & Richter 2010; Zhang et al. 2010; Zhao & Rosson 2009). Xifra and Grau (2010) conclude that Twitter works seamlessly with other public relations tools because its purpose is to maintain an organisation’s positive image.

Not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) use Twitter in a broadcast paradigm for one-way communication (Greenberg & MacAulay 2009; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012; Uzunoğlu & Kip 2014), providing the same information found in newsletters, media kits, and annual reports. Curtis et al (2010) discovered adoption of social media was increasing amongst NFPs, but did not determine if that communication was two-way or dialogic. One explanation, say Greenberg and MacAulay (2009), may be that NFPs do not have enough money or administrative capacity to commit to two-way interaction, dialogue may be just too difficult for some NFPs, and not every organisation wants two-way communication with their publics. Most organisations – both for-profit and not-for-profit – are not successfully utilising social media dialogically (Linvill et al. 2012; Muralidharan, Rasmussen, Patterson & Shin 2011), and neither are higher-level education institutions (despite Barnes & Lescault’s 2011 claim, mentioned above). McAllister-Spooner conducted several studies on universities’ use of dialogue on their websites (2009, 2012) and concluded that use of dialogic features was not taken up, as did Linvill et al (2012) who said US colleges and universities used Twitter as a newsfeed.

It is difficult to discern whether organisations’ decision not to respond to posts limits individuals further commenting or posting and thus encourages one-way communication by organisations. Oulasvirta, Lehtonen, Kurvinen and Raento (2010) report that their Finnish-based quantitative study on Jaiku shows a “surprisingly low posting-to-comment ratios” (p. 239), and even with

83 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 explicit call-outs for particular kinds of replies, comments were rare. They explored whether publics were not interested, not present, or not responsive. They concluded users did not really want direct communication with others.

From this discussion, it can be seen that the literature shows a trend – while scholars and theorists support and encourage dialogic communication to build relationships between organisations and publics, and while the technological advances of Web 2.0 have created platforms designed for dialogue and collaboration, organisations seem to prefer to engage in one- way transmission of information, using social media as they do traditional media to broadcast news, announcements and product information.

However, as has been shown, social media are relatively new and developing rapidly. Therefore, ongoing research is necessary to identify the objectives, uses and effects of social media practices such as corporate blogging and microblogging. Also, as noted, most research has been quantitative. This study addresses this gap in the literature with qualitative research as well as the need for ongoing contemporary research.

2.7.2 Microblogging as internal communication Zhao and Rosson (2009) were the first to study microblogging as an element of internal communication and concluded it was helpful for employee socialisation and learning about others’ interests, generating common ground useful for future face-to-face conversations, gaining greater knowledge of work responsibilities, and finding collaborative opportunities. While microblogging as internal communication has not been investigated widely except for a handful of studies (e.g. Riemer, Diederich, Richter & Scifleet 2011; Riemer & Richter 2010; Riemer, Richter & Bohringer 2010; Zhao, Rosson, Matthew & Moran 2011), those studies echoed the positive attributes of internal microblogging as those found by Zhao and Rosson (2009).

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Other studies discovered additional benefits like knowledge sharing, keeping up to date on current events, seeking expertise, facilitating a perception of connectedness and enhancing one’s own reputation (Chesny & Lawson 2012; Ehrlich & Shami 2010; Grace, Zhao & boyd 2010; Java et al. 2007; Thomas 2010). Thomas (2010) claims Twitter has its value as an internal microblogging tool for dynamic engagement and says it can “expedite communication, build community…and expand the reach of the institutional intranet” (p. 80-81).

Some studies support Thomas’ conclusions, adding internal microblogging is a way to source information from crowds by broadcasting a question, or crowdsourcing (Ehrlich & Shami 2010; Letierce et al 2010). Aspects of internal microblogging found in other studies include fostering innovation and shaping the culture of the firm (Cherbakov & Ives 2009); using it as a tool for conferences, workshops and seminars (Zhao & Rosson 2009); making face-to-face meetings more efficient (Giustini & Wright 2009); and coordinating teamwork on joint tasks and driving discussions (Riemer & Richter 2010).

There are several microblogging applications designed specifically for organisational internal communication as previously mentioned, and some organisations have created their own bespoke systems. IBM’s internal microblogging platforms include bespoke platforms Beehive and BlueTwit. German software provider Communardo originally used its own product Communote (Riemer & Richter 2010). German IT company Megware created custom-built service Arinia, based on the Twitter model (Barnes, Bohringer, Kurze & Stietzel 2010). German engineering and electronics firm Siemens’ originally implemented Yammer, but changed to bespoke system References+. Their rationale for an internal microblogging system was a need to enable openness and transparency with “the benefit of faster knowledge sharing” and to improve communication through its global network (Stocker,

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Richter & Reimer 2012, p. 207). The study concluded the system met Siemens’ objectives.

Yammer launched in 2008 and is used for internal communication in large organisations and government departments. Referred to as a “Twitter clone for corporations” (Zhang, Qu, Cody & Wu 2010, p. 125), Yammer allows attachments and does not have a character limit on posts. Zhang, Qu, Cody and Wu (2010) found 46 per cent of Yammer messages were only slightly longer than normal Twitter posts, very few had attachments, and 16.5 per cent had an embedded URL or web link. Case and King (2010) studied Alcatel-Lucent’s use of Yammer (1,000 employees globally) and discovered 13 per cent of those using Yammer were seeking the answer to a question, and more than half targeted more than one person in a post. Alcatel-Lucent introduced Yammer in 2008, then added an additional internal microblogging system called Engage in 2010. The introduction of Engage appeared to better meet Alcatel-Lucent’s requirements and as a result, use of Yammer decreased. A 2014 study reported that 16,000 of 74,000 Alcatel employees in 90 countries use Engage (particularly in the US, France and China) for collaboration on projects, sharing of documents, and general discussion (Friedman, Burns & Cao 2014).

Reimer and Richter (2010) studied Communote for German company Communardo and determined it was used primarily for task coordination, problem solving, event reporting and decision-making. Communote does not feature Twitter’s (or Yammer’s) follower principle. Riemer, Altenhofen and Richter (2011) studied the use of Communote again at German inter-faculty university research team IREKO, where it was used for the coordination of meetings and tasks, idea generation and discussion. Zhang et al. (2010) found that Yammer aids employees in ascertaining the work of other employees, but is rarely used it to showcase their own work. Riemer, Diederich, Richter & Scifleet (2011) again investigated Yammer, this time within global business consultancy firm Capgemini, with 17,000 of 106,000

86 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 employees adopting it. They found it was used for opinion and clarification (44.3 per cent), problem solving and support (18.8 per cent), updates and notifications (16.7 per cent) and information sharing (12.0 per cent) (p. 7). Riemer and Scifleet (2012) studied Yammer at Deloitte Australia and discovered, in addition to the benefits found in the Capgemini study, that it was used for idea generation and relationship building, similar to what Richter, Richter, Hamann, Riemer and Vehring (2013) found in a Yammer study at a large insurance company.

As discussed earlier, some executive teams are skeptical about internal microblogging because they suspect it will eventuate into too much socialising and time wastage. However, Israel (2009) found that employees primarily have microblog conversations relevant to their jobs, as did Zhao et al (2011), who determined that 91 per cent of Yammer posts at IBM were work-related (project tasks 44 per cent, information and idea sharing 19 per cent, and questions 6 per cent). Currently five million employees in 100,000 companies around the world use Yammer (Richter et al. 2013), one million more users than when Microsoft purchased Yammer in 2012 for $1.2 billion (techcrunch.com 2012). This union now likely provides greater integration with Microsoft products within organisations.

Since it was launched, Yammer has evolved to where its features resemble now those of both Twitter and Facebook, making it a complete enterprise (or corporate) microblogging system and social network. It differs from Twitter in that users can post to the whole network or to a group (Riemer, Diederich, Richter & Scifleet 2011). Chatter, an internal microblogging tool owned by US technology company Salesforce, is similar to Yammer but it integrates with an organisation’s other software (e.g. notes, slide presentations, spreadsheets, etc.), allowing greater shared work collaboration. There are 225,000 social networks worldwide on Chatter (including Virgin America, Burberry and Commonwealth Bank of Australia) (www.salesforce.com/chatter).

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Organisations can observe what conversations are taking place about them on their internal microblogging systems, but it is essential for them to monitor conversations about the organisations externally as well. Referred to as social media monitoring or listening, it allows the organisation to not only monitor conversations about themselves, but decide when and if to engage in those conversations. An investigation of social media monitoring was not included as a research question for this study, but it emerged as a significant topic of interest amongst participants.

2.8 Social media monitoring and listening Many organisations have begun to monitor social media as they do traditional media, but in social, listening is imperative (Jenkins et al. 2013; Peters et al. 2013; Smith 2009). Social media listening provides “a window on societal debate and sheds light on stakeholder perceptions” (Ruggiero & Vos 2014, p.111). It involves analysing conversations in peer-to-peer interaction in communities or scrutinising comments by bloggers about the brand or organisation. Jenkins et al. (2013) warns that listening is not simply quantitative monitoring (who is there and how many are there?), but rather determining sentiment, which “promises a more consistent measure” (p. 178). This then allows the organisation to evaluate emerging data and make decisions about embarking on engagement, intervention or product development. There are over 200 social media monitoring tools (Stavrakantonakis, Gagiu, Kasper, Toma & Thalhammer 2012) available and Table 2.13 categorises many of them, including those which are free and easily available.

Table 2.13 Social media monitoring tools Monitoring tools Reference Free tools Radian6 (Salesforce.com) Laine & Fruhwirth (2010) BuzzMetrics (Nielsen) Maestro (TNS Cymph’y) Technorati Google Analytics ---- Google Alerts Omniture (website data) Google Blogreader Twitter Analyzer Google Insights

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Google Trends Bruns & Stieglitz 2013 yourTwapperkeeper Klout ----- Twitalyzer ----- Facebook Insights ----- Traaker ----- Breakenridge (2012) Addictomatic Bit.ly Hootsuite Monitor-This Social Mention Brand Monitor TweetDeck Wildfire Wordle Topsy Backtype Boardreader Phillips & Young (2009) Search engines Alterian SM2 Breakenridge (2012) Engage 121(BurrelleLuce Cision CollectiveIntellect Converseon Lithium Meltwater Prosnaya Sentiment Metrics Sysomos Vocus Brandwatch Stavrakantonakis, Gagiu, Evolve24-Mirror Kasper, Toma & Visible Intelligence Thalhammer (2012)

According to Michaelidou, Siamagka & Christodoulides (2011), “traditional marketing metrics based on a linear form of communication” (p.1155) are not suitable for the interactivity of social media, but many are still used because marketing communication professionals, and those to whom they report, understand numerical metrics. There is little consensus in the public relations industry on measurement criteria, so communication professionals tend to fall back on “simple metrics like search engine rankings and website traffic” (Capozzi & Zipfel 2012, p.338). There is also no agreement in the literature about the most appropriate or consistent social media metrics.

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A metric is “any single variable that gets measured” (e.g. number of posts or tweets) (Neiger, Thackeray, Van Wagenen, Hanson, West, Barnes & Fagen 2012, p. 159). These metrics provide numerical, tangible and concrete measures framed in traditional media, but they provide no indication of interaction, dialogue or the strength of relationships. Some tools claim to measure sentiment, but their results are ambiguous and problematic (see Chapter 7 ‘Findings’). Other metrics include the number of retweets of an organisation’s Twitter or blog post by influential users, the types of hashtags that trend (how many people use that particular hashtag) (Bruns & Stieglitz in Weller et al 2014), and tracking hashtagged tweets (Bruns & Stieglitz 2013). Table 2.14 summarises some of the social media monitoring metrics.

Table 2.14 Social media monitoring metrics Monitoring metrics Meaning Reference Number of fans or followers Fisher (2009); Number of comments posted Hoffman & Number of unique visits Fodor (2010); Number of responses to polls Murdough Rank of topics discussed (2009) Search ranking Number of downloads Number of page views Referring keywords Breakenridge Inbound link monitoring Visitor’s surfing habits (2012) Bounce rate Rate at which people come to site, then immediately leave Recent visitor locations Where were they prior to organisation’s website Click throughs Argenti & Impressions Barnes (2009) Number of reviews Reviews on ratings site Neiger (2012) Views on video Unsubscribed fans Number of comments in thread Number of shares Number of retweets

Nair (2011) offers the only case in academic literature for organisations to consider a type of measurement for social media different than traditional media measurement, although he does not present a solution. His article, published in an accounting journal, says “we should not start our social media strategy by starting to measure its value up front” (p. 45). He suggests

90 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 not equating social media to traditional media, and recommends understanding the trust and value for an organisation that can emerge from social media conversation and dialogue. He recognises the lack of discrete measurement data for dialogue, and concludes it can be difficult to determine a return on investment for social media unless one numerically quantifies the metric.

The state of social media measurement is currently in flux and an agreed determination on return on investment (ROI) or other indicators of effects have not as yet been established in public relations. Meske and Stieglitz (2013) argue that ROI is difficult to discern because while costs can be easily apportioned, benefits cannot be easily judged. This inability to measure ROI is one way to explain the slow adoption of social media in some organisations (Fisher 2009). Public relations and corporate communication practitioners are increasingly expected to evaluate their work (Watson & Noble 2014; Watson & Zerfass 2011) to prove success has been achieved, so a consensus on social media measurement is imperative. As a result, there is still significant emphasis on traditional media output metrics such as number of views, likes, followers and so on (Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011). Watson and Noble (2014) discuss adherence to the Barcelona Principles of Measurement for evaluation in social media, encouraging public relations practitioners to measure influence, opportunity to reach, engagement and sentiment, as well as impact and relevance. However, there is no agreed method to determine these metrics.

Facebook provides its own set of analytics tools for commercial customers. Facebook’s engagement score is based on a number of factors that Facebook determines. These include the number of people who like an organisation’s page, the number of people ‘talking about the organisation ‘’right now” ’ and the number who engaged with the organisation in some kind of action. Fan reach is the number of fans on an organisation’s page who have seen any given post. Not all fans see all posts from an organisation they like.

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Facebook’s algorithm selects a limited number of fans – from 15 to 30 per cent – to receive an organisation’s content into their newsfeed. The more a fan engages or interacts with an organisation’s Facebook content, the more information they receive from that organisation. Facebook says engagement is “the number of people who have clicked anywhere in your post” (cited on socialexaminer.com 2013) and includes liking, sharing, and people who have viewed a video, clicked on links or photos or a commentator’s name, or even provided negative feedback. The Facebook engagement score is determined by this formula [Facebook does not permit access to any formulae unless one is a paying commercial customer]:

Facebook post engagement rate = Number of likes + comments + shares on a given day¾ x 100 Total number of fans on a given day (cited on socialbakers.com) The Twitter engagement rate can be determined by a similar formula:

Engagement rate = Number of replies + retweets ¾ x 100 Number of followers (cited on socialbakers.com)

An alternative formula developed by Wisemetrics.com is: Engaged users ¾ x 100 Reached users

They also recommend Engaged users # of posts ¾ x 100 Reached users

In this formula, it is determined that a ‘like’ is a public sign of affinity, comments are a public sign of conversation, and shares are a public sign of endorsement (wisemetrics.com 2013).

Facebook’s formulae do not situate within the psychological and sociological frameworks of engagement. These formulae do not demonstrate “the full

92 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 use of cognitive capability”, as outlined by Gutherie (2004 cited in Mollen & Wilson 2010, p. 922) nor do they indicate how one experiences an online property (Calder, Malthouse & Schaedel 2009). Facebook engagement as presented by Facebook’s formulae is more useful to marketers (c.f. Cvijikj & Michahelles 2013) who see Facebook as a marketing channel, but it means little to public relations practitioners whose goal for organisation-public engagement is relationship building.

The benefits of social media in terms of monitoring and evaluation include real-time data collection and tracking of fast-changing perspectives, especially during periods of crisis (Ruggiero & Vos 2014), as crisis communication is one of the fastest growing areas of public relations and social media play an increasingly important role (Bruns, Burgess, Crawford & Shaw 2012; Schultz, Utz & Gortiz 2011). Social media are seen as more dialogic and faster instruments for building relationships than traditional media and they “make the community part of the actual crisis communication response” (Veil, Buhner & Palenchar 2011, p.110). Grunig (2011) says that an organisation “must consider the public interest to be as important as its own” in a crisis and has no other choice “than to engage in true dialogue with publics” when a crisis occurs (p. 23). On social media, a problem can escalate quickly and become a crisis, so the speed of response and the opportunity to share an organisation’s views or information on Facebook, Twitter or a blog offer both risks and opportunities. These platforms also allow individuals to share opinion and experiences about the situation or related situations. This study reports on managing crises in social media and investigates whether social media causes of the crisis, is the channel that intensifies it, or can be used to manage a crisis alongside traditional media.

2.9 Social media use in crises A significant and rapidly expanding field within public relations practice is

93 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 crisis communication (Coombs in Heath (Ed.) 2010). A crisis is a state of uncertainty triggered by an event that disrupts an organisation’s routine (Cloudman & Hallahan 2006) or a major catastrophe that occurs naturally or as a result of human intervention affecting a company’s assets, credibility or reputation, with possible financial impact (Argenti 2013; Harrison 2011). Organisations have routinely relied on mass media in crisis situations. Traditionally, journalists decided whether the information provided by organisations was newsworthy or credible and whether or not to present the organisation’s perspective and individuals “had little opportunity to respond” (Gonzalez-Herrero & Smith 2008, p. 144). It was classic one-way, top-down communication. If an organisation, through its public relations practitioner, had not built an ongoing relationship or engaged in two-way communication with its publics prior to the crisis, the chance of resolving the conflict was slim (Grunig 2009).

Social media have become a cultural phenomenon that has changed how organisations manage crises (Liu, Jin, Briones & Kuch 2012), particularly since publics read more social media, particularly blogs, during crises and consider them more credible than traditional media coverage (Liu et al. 2012; Sweetser & Metzgar 2007). Now organisations, and publics, can take an active role in information dissemination and information seeking through the use of social media. The speed with which a crisis must now be managed because of social media has intensified. News cycles are shorter. Information is shared more quickly. There is little doubt that news of a crisis will move from traditional to social media. Social media may not be the cause of a crisis, but they can exacerbate an already challenging situation if not attended to quickly and efficiently. And there are cases where an issue becomes a crisis as a result of social media.

Social media have changed relationships between organisations and publics. For organisations accustomed to one-way communication, “dialogue may seem like a huge step…but building relationships…establishes a company’s

94 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 credibility” (Gonzálaz-Herrero & Smith 2008, p. 147). Publics now expect authenticity and transparency from organisations, and trust is the new currency. Through social media and websites, an organisation can communicate directly to all stakeholders (including publics, employees, suppliers, government agencies, shareholders, donors and media) and they can respond in turn directly to the organisation. They can also forward information, discuss content or “spread their own versions of the crisis” (Utz, Schultz & Glocka 2013, p. 41). Journalistic gatekeepers no longer decide on the value or validity of news; social media users make that decision themselves. News is shared and re-shared “without the intervening presence of journalists” (Veil, Buehner & Palenchar 2011, p. 111).

In any crisis, preparedness is key (Cloudman & Hallahan 2006). An organisation’s crisis plan should include both traditional and social media for crisis and post-crisis communication (Austin, Liu & Jin 2012; Guth & Marsh 2009; Utz et al. 2013; Veil et al. 2011). The only question is how to incorporate both (Jin, Liu & Austin 2014). Schultz, Utz and Goritz’s (2011) study revealed the medium is as important as the message in crisis communication: those who read the tweets of an organisation are less likely to think negatively about the organisation than people who read information on the organisation’s blog or in the newspaper. “Tweets had the most positive effect on secondary crisis communication and reactions” (p. 26). Twitter and blogs can be used by organisations to share news updates during a crisis, but although they offer the opportunity for dialogue, they are the least used by publics in a crisis, say Austin Liu and Jin (2012), who also state that Twitter is not appropriate for communicating to everyone (thus reinforcing that Twitter is not a mass broadcast medium) and Twitter feeds are not popular sources of crisis information. Citing Maul (2010), they claim only 20 per cent of organisations have incorporated social media into crisis communication planning. In contrast, Bruns et al. (2012), in a study of the 2011 Queensland, Australia floods, say that a Twitter hashtag is a “central

95 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 coordinating mechanism in a crisis” and “Twitter is used in important ways to find and disseminate information” (p. 7) in a crisis.

It is recommended that organisations partner with publics during crises and listen to their concerns, because two-way communication helps to extinguish rumours and encourages openness and candor (Veil et al. 2011). Wigley and Zhang (2014) found those PR practitioners with appropriate crisis plans that include social media made better use of two-way communication. One part of this study looks at whether organisations engaging dialogically in blogging and microblogging dampen the impact of a crisis (See Chapter 8).

Taylor and Perry (2005) found that the adoption rate of Web/social media use by PR practitioners during a crisis was less than expected, but ten years later, this has changed. Social media play an important role in crisis response (Veil, Buehner & Palenchar 2011) because organisations can communicate directly to and with their publics. Publics can engage in dialogue with the organisation and turn to other individuals online “for informational, technical and emotional support” (Stephens & Malone 2009, p. 231). Blogs are perceived as more trustworthy than mainstream media in a crisis situation, and even alter the sense of crisis severity or reduce the perception that the company is in crisis (Sweetser & Metzgar 2007). Coombs and Holladay (2014) contend that publics who regularly read an organisation’s blog or microblog are more likely to be favourably disposed to that organisation, and thus more likely to be exposed to its messages during a crisis.

Whether used in crisis or communicating on a daily basis, social media require an element of interaction or engagement to be effective. While this study investigates the use of dialogue in organisation-public communication in social media, it also explores how organisations and publics interact with each other as well as the different types of interaction. Engagement, an element of interaction, is also investigated.

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2.10 Interactivity and engagement Interactivity and engagement may be interpreted in a number of ways. Interaction is “often framed within the theoretical context of sociocultural and collaborative learning theories” (Zhu 2006, p.452), and features in the fields of communication, psychology, sociology and computer science. With reference to online public relations, interactivity has proven a difficult concept to define (Flew 2008; Kim, Spielmann & McMillan 2012), although it is considered an integral part of dialogue. “Engagement is both an orientation that influences interactions and the approach that guides the process of interactions among groups” (Kent & Taylor 2014, p. 384).

Bimber, Stohl and Flanagin (2009) say “personal interaction involves repeated, organised interaction with known others over time” (p. 39) but online interaction does not require “known others”. Online interactivity can be divided into user-machine or system (or human-computer), user-user (human-to-human), or user-message or document (human-content) interaction (McMillan & Hwang 2002), similar to Carpentier’s (2007 cited in Macnamara 2014) person-to-machine and person-to-person interaction. Kiousis (2002) provides a comprehensive review of definitions of online and offline interactivity, a task he found “cumbersome”. Table 2.15 summarises leading scholars’ definitions of interactivity and how they differ.

Table 2.15 Definitions of mediated interactivity Scholar Definition of Interactivity Rafaeli (1988) In any given series of exchanges, “any third (or later) transmission (or message) is related to the degree to which previous exchanges referred to even earlier transmissions” Williams et al (1988) The “degree to which participants in a communication process have control over, and can exchange roles in, their mutual discourse” Heeter (1989) The complexity of choice, the effort users exert, responsiveness to the user, ease of adding information and facilitation of interpersonal communication are considered Rafaeli & Sudweeks (1997) The “extent to which messages in a sequence relate to each other” Jensen (1998) “A measure of a media’s potential ability to let

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the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication” Ha & James (1998) The “extent to which the communicator and the audience respond to, or are willing to facilitate, each other’s communication needs” Downes & McMillan (2000) Five-dimensional definition of online interactivity includes direction and perceived purpose of communication, timing flexibility, sense of place, level of control, and responsiveness Kiousis (2002) The “degree to which a communication technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate (one-to- one, one-to-many and many-to-many), both synchronously and asynchronously, and participate in reciprocal message exchanges” Based on Kiousis (2002)

Kiousis disagrees with Downes and McMillan’s (2000) contention that real time is central to interactivity, because social media (blogs and microblogs in particular) allow interaction to be either synchronous or asynchronous. It is clear in the research undertaken for this study that there is interaction without a real-time framework.

Sundar, Kalyanaraman and Brown (2003) classify two types of online interactivity: functional and contingency (Larsson 2012 suggests three: functional, perceived and process). The functional view is one in which “increased interactivity…translates to an interface’s capacity for conducting a dialogue or information exchange” (p. 33), while the contingency view is one in which “communication roles need to be interchangeable for full interactivity to occur” (Sundar et al. 2003, pp. 34-35). Both functional and contingency components of interactivity are necessary for interaction on social media – there must be access through the application or platform and roles must be interchangeable, along with a commitment of involvement. It should be noted that Sundar’s extensive research into online interactivity was undertaken prior to the availability of social media applications like Facebook and Twitter and focuses only on websites and blogs.

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In online situations, functional interactive tools permitting two-way reciprocal communication between an organisation and users include comments areas, forums, menu bars, hyperlinks to email addresses, ‘contact us’ pages, and download features (Kim, Spielmann & McMillan 2012; van Noort, Voorveld & Reijmersal 2012). This study investigates computer- mediated interactivity between organisations and publics in social media as an indication of dialogue, and Kiousis’ definition is more accurate and allows more latitude. His definition, and Rafaeli and Sudweeks’ (1997) as well as Rafaeli’s (1988), are most appropriate for this study.

McMillan (2000a) argues interactivity must lead to dialogue or an expectation of an information exchange, and Larsson (2012) concurs: more interactive features on an online application do not increase levels of interactivity. Interaction is at least two-way or multidirectional and can occur on many levels. One must be interactive, not just sit in front of something interactive, says Flew (2008). Interactivity is not synonymous with participation, although “engagement requires participation from those whom we seek to engage” (Macnamara 2014, p. 382). Interactivity is an action on a deeper level: participation refers to a person’s opportunity to use social media, and different forms of media invite different levels of participation, but one must be interactive in order to engage. Interactivity is one of the key differences between traditional (or mass) and social media and so has emerged as a central theme in marketing communications literature (van Noort, Voorveld & Reijmersdal 2012).

Participation as an aspect of interaction is a key concept in the study of social media. For example, social media are considered participatory media and Jenkins’ (2006) participatory culture has individuals participating in the creation of new content. There is Russo, Watkins, Kelly and Chan’s (2008) participatory communication, and Loader and Mercea’s (2011) participatory politics which allow stronger Habermasian participatory democracy through social media: people participate in activities like politics through the Web

99 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 who might otherwise not engage and they can participate while doing other things, like watching television (citing Papacharissi 2010). Fuchs’ (2014) participatory democracy includes participatory decision-making, greater participatory economy with a change to equal access regarding labour, and extension of democracy across all strata of society.

Dholakia, Zhao, Dholakia and Fortin (2000) study interactivity in the computer-mediated environment of websites and conclude key factors for interactivity should include: x user control (selection of timing, content and sequence of the communication) x responsiveness (based on Rafaeli’s definition of messages’ interrelation) x speed of real time communication (the faster the response, the greater the perception of interactivity) x connectedness x personalisation (whether information is tailored to meet the needs of an individual); and x playfulness (the entertainment value of a site) (pp.7-8).

With the exception of the last factor (playfulness), one can see similarities to Kent and Taylor’s (1998) definition of dialogue in webbed communication. In this study, an exchange is considered interactive when there are at least three messages in the thread (user 1Îuser 2Îuser 1), although in order to refer to previous messages (as per Rafaeli and Sudweeks 1997) there should be more (user 1Îuser 2Îuser 1 Îuser 2Îuser 1). Messages should include a reference to previous messages, a demonstration of connectedness and an indication of responsiveness. It is for this reason that interactivity and dialogue in this study are analysed by a minimum of three interactions on a discussion thread. Playfulness is not considered in this investigation. Interactivity can lead to engagement or be seen as part of it (Kim, Spielmann & Mcmillan 2012; Rafaeli 1988).

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2.10.1 Engagement

Engagement, like interactivity, originates in several disciplines including psychology, sociology and organisational behavior. It specifically incorporates “interacting with others”, “participating in social activities”, and “adequate response to social stimuli”, according to Hollebeeck (2011).

There are three dimensions to engagement: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural leading to passion (positive affect) and activation (level of energy or time spent in interaction). Engagement represents “a psychological state that goes beyond mere task fulfillment, and is characterised by involvement, being energised, being active, expending effort, and the full use of cognitive capability” (Gutherie 2004, cited in Mollen & Wilson 2010, p. 922).

Macey and Schneider (2008), in their study of employee engagement, grapple with whether engagement is a concept on its own or a “repackaging of other constructs” (p. 4), but conclude that engagement is both an attitude and a behaviour in which there is a highly motivational state, categorised by commitment and enthusiasm. Considering the continuous stream of stimuli in social media of text, video, images and sound, commitment and enthusiasm, along with sensory arousal, are required for engagement.

From a public relations perspective, Sashi (2012) argues that engagement “refers to the creation of experiences that allow companies to build deeper, more meaningful and sustainable interactions…with…external stakeholders” and is a “process that expands and evolves over time” (p. 256). He adds that the connections created by this engagement can drive interaction and participation (p. 256). Mollen and Wilson’s (2010) definition of online engagement is:

A “discrete experiential property, independent of interactivity, flow and telepresence” (p. 920) where “telepresence is the psychological state of being in a computer environment, characterised by cognitive and sensory arousal” with ongoing stimuli (p. 921).

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Mollen and Wilson (2010) argue that some scholars do not agree with any causal relationship between engagement and sales, but Gummerus et al. claim that the increased role of social media in public communication “has created a need for the concept of customer engagement” (2012, p. 859). Customer engagement “is a critical measurement of when consumers are strongly engaged in brands” and their messages (Wang 2006, p. 356). It is an “antecedent” to usage, affect and responses in advertising (Calder, Malthouse & Schaedel 2009, p. 321). Publics are increasingly using social media and websites to “engage the companies they buy from” (Hanna et al. 2011, p. 265) and to find insights from other individuals about those companies and their products. In marketing, consumer engagement is part of the expanding realm of relationship marketing (Brodie, Ilic, Juric & Hollebeeck 2013).

The emotional aspect of engagement, in addition to the cognitive or rational one (Heath 2009; Rappaport 2007), impacts affections because engagement is centred on trust, satisfaction, commitment, and empowerment, and, in the case of customer engagement, loyalty. Brands in social media often try to act like trusted friends (Briggs 2010), using emotive qualities and individuals expect brands to engage as intimately as friends. As a result, when publics are let down by those brands, when that trust is severed, they can become frustrated or vituperative by venting negative feelings in social media, influencing others (Brodie et al. 2013).

The theoretical frameworks informing this study are social media theory, public relations theory including Grunig’s excellence theory, corporate communications theory (which encompasses communication at all levels of the corporation), and dialogic theory including dialogue as a foundation of online public relations. They are outlined in detail in the next chapter.

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Chapter 3

Theoretical literature framing and informing this study

As well as being broadly framed by communication theory and dialogic theories in particular drawn from the phenomenological, rhetorical and sociocultural traditions of communication (Littlejohn & Foss 2008), this study is specifically framed within three inter-related bodies of disciplinary study: social media, public relations and corporate communications, and dialogue. In this chapter, summaries of those theories and how they apply to this study are interpreted and discussed, with a particular focus on dialogic theory in online public relations.

The focus is on how organisations interact with publics in social media, so the discussion in this chapter begins with theories concerning social media, followed by public relations theory and corporate communication theory, then dialogic theory. These theories will be investigated from their inception to how they apply to social media. The investigation seeks to discover how, through the use of dialogue, organisations and publics communicate in social media.

It is the job of public communications practitioners to facilitate interactions between organisations and their publics, so this study considers whether, for example, Weaver, Motion and Roper (in L’Etang & Pieczka 2006, p. 17) are correct when they argue that PR practitioners “attempt to control the agenda of public discussion and the terms in which discussion takes place.” Control of public discussion and control of the message were once central to public relations, but social media have changed that (e.g. Booth & Matic 2011; Distaso, McCorkindale & White 2011; Mangold & Faulds 2009, etc.). Dialogue is an essential element of social media theory and of public relations, but public relations scholars have not consistently acknowledged

103 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 the importance of dialogue, which is fundamental to the existence of relationships.

3.1 Social media theory Social media were discussed at length in Chapter 2, but to reiterate, the primary social media theory elements are connectedness, collaboration, communication through dialogue, and plurality of content (Macnamara 2010), along with sharing of content and intelligence. This sharing and collaboration underpins Fuchs’ critical definition of social media “as ideologies aimed at…establishing new spheres and models or capital accumulation for the corporate Internet economy” (2014, p. 33) as a collective intelligence to create a community of users to benefit large Internet companies.

O’Reilly (2005; Bruns 2008) emphasised that Web 2.0 is a new way of thinking, supported by technological developments. A central principle is collective intelligence, the aggregate power of everything a community knows (c.f. Jenkins 2006; Macnamara 2010, 2014; Rosenberg 2009; Shirky 2008, 2010; Surowiecki 2005). This collective intelligence is harnessed through collaboration or shared creativity, at the core of social media and Web 2.0 applications (Harrison & Barthel 2009). In social media communities, individuals often communicate using conversation. “Every dialogic interaction involves conversational engagement (presentness, synchronous interaction, respect)” (Kent & Taylor 2014, p. 389), although dialogue may not always ensue.

In contrast, Keen (2008, 2012) says the collective supplies little that is intelligent, and Jenkins et al. (2013) note that some users’ actual experiences are a far cry from the “happy collaboration” being touted by optimists (p. 49). Organisations often misunderstand what motivates public participation, but Bruns (2008) contends that these new technologies allow consumers, who

104 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 were previously passive recipients of information, to become “produsers”, creating and collaborating on content that is then shared with others in their networks, or collective spaces. He argues that in content creation, participants “examine, evaluate and add to the contributions of their predecessors” (p. 24) either through actual enhancement of content or through commentary on social media. Communal produsage accords participants merit for their contribution and may increase his/her social capital.

Social media increase users’ ability to share and co-operate with one another outside the framework of large organisations (Shirky 2008). This collaboration promotes connectedness, and through the interconnection of platforms has created its own culture (Van Dijck 2013). True relationships emerge through the use of social media only if all parties, particularly organisations, are open, transparent, and authentic. Without authenticity, there is no relationship and, McCorkindale (2012) says, no trust. Authenticity means being genuine; one must engage in genuine, not constructed, conversation. Some conversations – true or constructed – argues van Dijck (2013), have altered the nature of public and private communication because the boundaries of genuineness and non-genuineness have become blurred. But, at the very least, those conversations lead to greater connectedness.

There is an underlying debate as to whether one describes social media and their parent application Web 2.0 as collaborative, dialogic and participatory because of the technologies that enable those activities (e.g. Agostino 2013; Carpentier 2009; Conway et al 2013; Harrison & Barthel 2009; Kelleher & Sweetser 2012; Lovejoy, Waters & Saxton 2012), or whether those interactive activities, and the theory behind Web 2.0, are principles defining the attributes of social media applications (e.g. Jenkins 2006; O’Reilly cited in Macnamara & Zerfass 2012). Fuchs (2014) claims they are both and labels them techno-social: technological structures that interweave with human

105 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 social activity. This is an accurate analysis because social media are inherently interactive and two-way, even if they are not always utilised in that fashion. It is the technology that allows collaboration, but the principles and theory that encourage participation.

3.2 Public relations theory

Grunig and Hunt (1984) succinctly define public relations as “the management of communication between an organisation and its publics” (p. 7). Most public relations scholars concur that public relations is a management function with the goal of building mutually beneficial relationships with publics (e.g. Cutlip, Center & Broom 1994; Grunig 1992; Guth & Marsh 2009; Ledingham & Bruning 2000), with Hallahan (2000) adding that the relationship building should be done symmetrically. Watson and Noble (2014) claim that the “mutually beneficial relationship” relates to a two-way communication process where the organisation acts in its own interests as well as the interests of the publics or groups with whom they interact. They contend, however, that there is a gap between the two-way communication models advocated by academics and the one-way models implemented by practitioners (p. 7).

Ferguson (1984) was the first to contend that relationships were at PR’s core. Enhanced organisation-public relationships are the desired outcomes of PR campaigns (Center & Jackson 1995 cited in Bruning, Dials & Shirka 2008), but building and maintaining those relationships requires effort, because the two parties constantly negotiate meaning (Botan & Soto 1998). That meaning can best be fostered through mutual understanding and dialogue (Woodward 2000), because there is no relationship without dialogue (Buber 1996) or without some form of communication (Jahansoozi in L’Etang & Pieczka (Eds.) 2006).

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Public relations emerged in the United States and Europe at about the same time, although the developments were independent of one another and evolved differently. The Europeans were more interested in the “whys and wherefores” (Nessmann 1995, p. 152), while Americans pursued the effects of public relations – attitude and behaviour change while managing strategic relationships. Verčič, van Ruler, Butschi and Flodin (2001) contend that in Europe, public relations actually involves the public – in the public sphere for and with publics – and identified public relations as being managerial, operational, reflective, and educational. They note that in many European languages, communication and relationships are interchangeable because communication “as a social function is fundamental to any definition of a relationship” (p. 380) and there is no distinction between communication and relationships. As a result, European practitioners are often referred to as corporate communicators (see ‘corporate communication’) rather than public relations professionals.

In Europe public relations scholars focus on creating trust, mutual understanding and agreement; representing and integrating interests; resolving conflicts; and creating consensus (Ronneberger & Ruhl 1992 cited in Nessman 1995). The approaches of German theorists Burkart and Probst are referred to as consensus-oriented public relations, similar to that of American PR scholar James Grunig, but Grunig’s theories are focused on mutual understanding and minimising conflict, not consensus (Grunig et al 2002). Burkart (2007) believes that partners in communication must communicate with trust, intelligence, truth and legitimacy, although he acknowledges that this is ideal and practically never occurs in reality.

The father of American public relations Edward Bernays (Coombs & Holladay 2007; Guth & Marsh 2009) preferred persuasion as PR practice in the early twentieth century, although he later saw the value in two-way communication (Guth & Marsh 2009), even if it was asymmetrical. By the 1980s, Grunig, as the leading PR scholar, depicted persuasion as unethical,

107 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 valuable only in specific, limited situations. Two-way symmetrical communication has been central to all of Grunig’s theories and both he came to view dialogue as the most ethical form of public relations. His commitment to dialogue is questionable when he offers an out if two parties do not see eye-to-eye. “If, after dialogue, one side finds that it cannot accommodate the other, then the symmetrical approach suggests that advocacy of its interests or withdrawal from the dialogue is ethically responsible” (Grunig et al. 2002, p. 316). This offers an opportunity to pursue advocacy and withdraw from dialogue. While some argue Grunig’s symmetry is synonymous with dialogue (Pearson 1989b; Stoker 2014), this turn-around demonstrates the chasm between Grunig’s approach and dialogic theory. However, he and co-authors argue that “the two way symmetrical model emphasises dialogue” (Grunig & Jaatinen 1999, p. 219) because it “uses research, listening and dialogue to manage conflict” (Grunig 2009, p. 2) and “facilitates dialogue between management and publics” (p. 9). Bowen (2010) argues that collaborative decision-making is the essence of symmetry because it builds on the interests of both parties. Indeed, collaboration is also the essence of dialogue. New technologies now offer PR practitioners the opportunity to engage in dialogue to build relationships with publics, but the approach requires openness and transparency (Phillips & Young 2009).

3.2.1 Public relations excellence theory and two-way symmetrical communication Excellence theory is the leading paradigm in public relations theory (Watson & Noble 2014 call it the “main normative theory” (p. 6)). Botan and Hazelton (2006) say the study of symmetry and excellence theory has done more “to develop public relations theory and scholarship than any other single school of thought” (p. 6) and Watson and Noble (2014) argue that “there has been little competition to these models” (p. 11) even though various elements have been well-debated.

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Grunig and Hunt (1984) developed two-way symmetrical theory and classified it as the ultimate in public relations engagement, at the heart of excellent PR practice (Lane 2014). It is dialogic and ethical (Lahav 2014; L’Etang & Piezka 2006, cited in Fawkes 2007; Pearson 1989b) and, according to Grunig (2009), also incorporates research and listening “to manage conflict and cultivate relationships” (p. 2). There are flaws in the theory which have elicited many critical responses (see upcoming section on critics), but it remains the dominant paradigm in modern public relations theory. Grunig (2009, and with Grunig 2011) goes on to say that two-way symmetrical is the most desirable form of public relations because of its characteristics of being, as well as symmetrical, mediated and interpersonal.

Excellence theory has moved away from strictly symmetrical communication to mixed motive models, based on a sliding scale from public information to two-way symmetry. Persuasive tactics may be used if necessary, but organisations should be bound by a “symmetrical worldview that respects the integrity of longer-term relationships” (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier 2002, p. 358). In order to be excellent, organisations must balance their own interests with those of their publics (Grunig, Grunig, & Dozier 2002).

Public relations “increases its value when it uses symmetrical communication to develop and cultivate relationships with strategic publics” (Grunig & Grunig 2011, p. 5). Porter (2010) adds that in two-way symmetry, public relations practitioners “act as impartial mediator[s] between two parties…and relay equal communication between an organisation and its publics to the mutual benefit of both parties” (p. 129). This is akin to the boundary spanner role as discussed by Springston and Leichty (1994) based on Broom and Smith’s (1979) initial definition, what Grunig and Hunt recognized as (1984) “boundary personnel”, and is further discussed by Fawkes (2007), and Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (2002), where the public relations practitioner represents, or at least considers, the interests of both parties – the organisation and the publics – but recognises that he/she

109 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 advocates for the organisation. “As boundary spanners, public relations professionals have the capacity the help the media understand the public’s attitudes” (Wyatt, Smith & Andsager 1996, p. 125). Two-way symmetry provides insights for both the organisation and its publics, and allows an exchange of information to take place, creating an equal partnership that makes the organisation more ethical and effective (Bruning & Ledingham 1999; Bruning et al. 2008).

Murphy (1991, 2000) criticised the original symmetrical model, saying that while communication requires dialogue, she found two-way symmetry “elusive in practice” (1991, p. 120). Cancel et al. (1997, 1999) called it “unworkable”. Murphy proposed a third option, after asymmetrical and symmetrical models – a mixed model based on game theory where asymmetrical, even persuasive, PR can be practiced ethically in some instances, but the preference is for symmetry (Coombs & Holladay 2007). Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (2002) found this critique acceptable and incorporated it into Excellence theory. “Two-way interaction and symmetry…listening, adaptation and mutual achievement of objectives…is central to PR Excellence theory” (Macnamara 2014, p. 373. In 1992, Grunig said, “Symmetrical public relations provides a forum for dialogue” (cited in Lane 2014, in press) and in 2011, Grunig reiterated that two-way communication facilitates dialogue both before and after decisions are made.

In hindsight, scholar Larissa Grunig admits that what she and husband James theorised in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s “looks very different from the Excellence study as it exists today” because “the world is changing” (Grunig & Grunig 2011, p. 42). Two-way symmetry has not been the norm in PR practice (Waters & Williams 2011). Grunig (1989) himself discovered few organisations that practice it because they do not consider it easy to implement nor do they fully understand it. But social media offer excellent opportunities for two-way symmetry because the attributes of symmetry are synergistic with social media theory and dialogic theory. This research

110 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 investigates whether PR practitioners and corporate communicators take advantage of the opportunity for dialogue with publics in social media.

3.2.2 Critics of excellence theory as the main public relations paradigm While scholars have suggested an evolution from excellence theory to other paradigms is required, it and aspects of symmetry are still discussed and taught as integral to public relations. There are critics who find excellence theory too corporatist and too systems-focussed, and those who argue that it is imperfect, a myth, insensitive to power differentials, and too management focused (e.g. Brown 2003, 2006, 2010) as well as normative and not realisable (e.g. Cancel et al. 1997; Cancel, Mitrook & Cameron 1999; Stoker & Tusinski 2006) (See Macnamara 2010 for a complete history of symmetry).

Brown (in Heath (Ed.) 2010) analyses symmetry, from its origins with Aristotle to Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) introduction of the model of two-way symmetrical communication. He argues that Grunig incorporated systems theory and excellence in business management theory to create a communication theory, but account for argument and dialogue. He concludes that two-way symmetry is impractical and unexecutable. Heath argues (2001) symmetry includes values of advocacy, argument and dialogue but does not find those attributes in excellence theory.

Pieczka (1995, 2011) is more a critic of Grunig than of symmetry, which she argues is a utopian ideal and difficult to undertake in a less-than-perfect world (Pieczka 2006). Moloney (2006) is not so much a critic of symmetry (which he finds as persuasive as asymmetry, especially when implemented “alongside lawyers…and politicians” (p. 55)), but claims public relations is inherently persuasive, amplifying the voice of business and not fostering dialogue. He views public relations as one-way and propagandist, limiting opportunities for critical debate. Techniques like lobbying express dominant influence, he adds, and have potentially negative effects on democracy.

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Amongst those negative effects are PR’s undeclared messages and the fact that PR practitioners act as gatekeepers for their organisations and groups. Society is, he says, inundated in a Niagara Falls of PR messages that drowns us in a persuasive sphere.

Only Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (2002) contend that excellence is a positive as well as normative theory, but others like Dover (1995), L’Etang (1995), and Cancel, Sallot, Cameron and Mitrook (1997) argue symmetry is solely normative. Cancel et al. (1997) say it “fails to capture the complexity and multiplicity of the public relations environment” (p. 33) and thus is “seldom found in the real world” (p. 34). Similarly, Porter (2010) questions whether symmetry is possible or even desirable in public relations, and Holtzhausen (2000) concurs that symmetry in public relations is impossible because it sacrifices recognition of differences. Hallahan (2000) believes that while two- way symmetrical communication may work between two organisations or an organisation and a large activist group, it is problematic between an organisation and an individual, so it does not adequately describe what occurs in organisation-public relationships.

Laskin (2009) reviews symmetrical communication and excellence theory and finds many critical scholars do not equate symmetry with equal participation. For example, Roper (2005) views symmetry as maintaining hegemony, even though it is perceived as a dialogic tool. Stokes and Rubin (2010) challenge whether the concept of symmetry or excellence theory is applicable to activist groups – Grunig et al. (2002) claim excellence theory explains activism; Stokes and Rubin (2010) say it is “an anomaly in activist disputes” (p. 30). Citing several other scholars, they argue, “Activists will not realistically enact symmetrical strategies, especially if they stand to lose influence” (p. 31). This study uses dialogic theory as a framework and symmetry is an integral aspect of dialogic communication.

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3.2.3 Symmetry and excellence theory in social media In current public relations scholarship, the focus of the excellence paradigm has shifted to dialogue and relationship building in social media (e.g. Lahav 2014; Lee & Desai 2014; Smith 2012; Waters & Williams 2011). Grunig (2009) lauds blogs and microblogs, which offer opportunities for interactive, dialogic communication. Social media will “inexorably make public relations practice more global, more strategic…and socially responsible” (Grunig 2009, p. 1), but fears “communicators tend to use [new media] in the same way they used the old media” (p.6).

Old media do remain meaningful, says Gitelman (2008), but once new media are introduced, old media are perceived as not as effective. Old media remain influential but new users, and producers, emerge with new media. Old media practices are still being used in “new” or social media. Public relations practitioners have not adapted as quickly as expected to social media. “PR has been surprisingly slow to adapt to [social media] as a core component of practice” (Phillips & Young 2009, p. 97). Other scholars claim practitioners have been ‘laggards’ in adopting social media (Fitch 2009; Kelleher 2008; Kent 2008; Porter, Sweetser, Chung & Kim 2007; Porter, Sweetser & Chung 2009; Wright & Hinson 2008, 2009). However, more recently there seems to be an increased uptake in the use of social media by PR practitioners who recognise its value (Eyrich, Padman & Sweetser 2008; Kelleher & Sweetser 2012), although they are reluctant to engage dialogically (DiStaso & Bortree 2012). Sommerfeldt, Kent and Taylor (2012) argue forcefully that relationships perish without true dialogue and PR practitioners must recognise that.

Porter, Sweetser and Chung (2009) concluded practitioners were no longer ‘laggards’ but were not using social media strategically. Blogs as public relations tools have “not yet become a staple”, they contend (p. 262). Wright and Hinson (2014) in their longitudinal study referred back to their initial 2006 study where they argued that the “potential impact of blogs on public

113 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 relations and corporate communication is phenomenal” (2006, p. 639) for relationships, but there was no evidence social media were being used dialogically. Three recent studies further demonstrated this: one investigated South African not-for-profit organisations, which were making minimal use of dialogic features on their websites, resulting in a failure to raise donations (Madichie & Hinson 2014). Another explored Swiss not-for-profits and found that NFPs “seldom took advantage of the possibility of engaging publics in dialogue” (Ingenhoff & Koelling 2010, p. 181). The third study explored Ghanaian banks’ use of social media and found they were not taking advantage of dialogic and interaction tools to engage with publics (Hinson, Madichie & Ibrahim 2012). Wright and Hinson’s (2014) study reinforced these findings, as it demonstrates that more than 60 per cent of PR practitioners surveyed spend less than a quarter of their time on social media, although they agree social media is changing the way PR is practiced.

In continuing contemporary research in this new field, this study explores dialogic use of social media by organisations through their social media managers. Both public relations and marketing, often at odds within organisations for budget and in terms of approach, consider social media important but use them differently.

3.2.4 The relationship between public relations and marketing Public relations departments have less influence in an organisation than marketing (Newland Hill & White 2000). Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (2002) maintain that an excellent organisation’s public relations and communication department should encompass all internal and external communication, and be distinct from marketing. Any adoption of marketing theory by PR practitioners, they say, will lead to asymmetrical communication, so PR must be distinct from marketing in order to be strategic (Grunig & Grunig 2011b). However, scholars in the corporate communication and marketing literature predict that public relations and marketing will become more closely aligned

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(Capozzi & Zipfel 2012). This becomes important when analysing how social media managers use social media (see Findings Chapter 5).

Grunig (1991) says marketing is concerned with selling products whilst public relations is concerned with an organisation’s relationship with publics. Marketing concentrates on products, price, promotion and place (Bartels 1974) and whether the organisation can provide products the customer wants. In this one-way relationship, the only feedback taken seriously relate to complaints, and only then will an organisation consider changes to products. One focus of public relations is building relationships with publics. The relationship-building element of marketing is important only as it fits into the sales cycle (e.g. CRM – customer relationship management). However, now marketers are concerned about the effects of social media on the brand and the management of communication about the brand (in the same way that public relations practitioners worry about control of the message) because they are no longer the sole source of information about the brand. Social media have become more trustworthy sources of information over traditional tools used by marketers (i.e. advertising on mass media) (Bruhn, Schoenmueller & Schäfer 2012).

Some marketing scholars dispute that marketing continues to be one-way. Andersen (2001) and Duncan and Moriarty (1998) argue the traditional one- way marketing model (i.e. advertising and direct marketing) is obsolete and the move is towards listening, informing and answering – a model that is interactive and two-way. Gensler, Völckner, Liu-Thompkins and Wiertz (2013) claim social media are responsible for this change because brands now have a direct relationship with publics. Mohr and Nevin (1990) discuss symmetrical and asymmetrical power balances in marketing and warn that power balances should be symmetrical or there will be an imbalance. This is synergistic with Kent and Taylor’s (2002) mutual equality, a tenet of dialogue, and Grunig’s (2008) argument that the power balance should be even between an organisation and publics in order to be ethical.

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3.3 Corporate communication theory Corporate communication theory links to public relations theory because corporate communications is “a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external communication” (Cornelissen 2011, p. 5 – italics added). Many scholars see public relations and corporate communication as senior management functions (e.g. Argenti 1998; Cornelissen 2011; Ihlen, van Ruler & Fredriksson 2009; Grunig 1968, 1976, 1998, 2002, 2006) to manage the positioning of the organisation, although, in contrast, Dozier and Lauzen (2000, cited in Ihlen, van Ruler & Fredriksson 2009) believe public relations practitioners “should take a more distant stance” (p. 5).

Christensen and Cornelissen (2011) advocate that corporate communication is more than a sophisticated version of public relations as it is the discipline of managing all communication for an organisation. Cornelissen (2011) sees corporate communication’s function as creating a “favourable basis for relationships with groups upon which the company is dependent” (p. 5), both internal and external. He believes it should encompass absolutely every aspect of communication in an organisation – advertising, corporate design, sales promotion, issues and crisis management, change communication, direct marketing, media relations, employee communication, government relations and any other stakeholder communication. Goodman (2000) proposes that list should add labour relations, training and employee development, philanthropic activity and emergency communication. Argenti (2009) further proposes the addition of corporate social responsibility, analyst relations, corporate advocacy, creating an ethics policy and handbook of business practice, as well as investor relations, annual reports, social media, and reputation management (Argenti 2013). That would create an enormous communication department with immense responsibility, but Cornelissen (2011) posits it is the most effective way to organise communication so that all messages are consistent.

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Stakeholder management is an essential part of corporate communication and demonstrates the mutual dependencies of the organisation and stakeholder groups. A dialogic strategy is then essential; social media offer that opportunity. This would allow for more democratised communication (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre 2011), with a greater power balance between those in public relations, marketing and corporate communication, with publics and individuals and communities that create blogs, tweets, comments, movies, photos and videos. Figure 3.1 demonstrates Argenti’s synopsis of the old, limited communication channels, as compared to the new ones incorporating digital.

Figure 3.1 Communication channels Old Channels New Channels Spoken word (face-to-face, public speaking) Email Radio Voice mail Writing Texts/SMS Print media Digital newsrooms Television Electronic/Web, video conferencing External websites/Web portals Internet/Intranets Blogs, microblogs Podcasts Social network sites Instant messaging RSS feeds Video/photo sharing Based on Argenti (2013), p. 41

Cornelissen’s (2000) model of corporate communication also considers interactive and dialogic media in relationships between publics and the organisation, which show greater influences on and by publics, and emphasises their individuality.

Symmetry in an organisation’s communication would create an equal power balance and enhance relationships with publics by offering more interactivity,

117 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 greater initiative to enter into dialogue, and less control of the message by the organisation (Argenti 2009; Cornelissen 2011). But many executives are reluctant to develop strategies to engage publics, stakeholders or communities online; they want to minimise risk to the organisation. And even if organisations do not engage in dialogue on social media, the ‘conversation’ about them continues, and has implications for how the organisation is perceived. Conversation velocity has a life of its own.

3.4 Dialogic theory Dialogue is the “coming together of diverse voices in conversation” (Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 210), where conversation is more casual than dialogue. It requires, according to Jahansoozi, “the parties involved to be willing to negotiate in order to reach a position that is mutually acceptable” (L’Etang & Pieczka (Eds.) 2006, p. 79).

The two main theorists in dialogue are Martin Buber and Mikhail Bakhtin, and other key theorists include Leslie Baxter. For ideas and information to be exchanged, communication must be reciprocal. Dialogue between cultures begins with dialogue between individuals.

3.4.1 Buber Dialogue is “at the heart of [Buber’s] view of human communication and existence” (Johannesen 1971, p. 374). I and Thou, Buber’s seminal work on dialogue published originally in German in 1923 (translated into English 1970), exposed two basic human communication relationships – I-Thou/You, where in a dialogic situation, one responds with one’s whole being with the other person as equal and respected; and I-It, characterised by self- centredness, pretense, domination and manipulation, with the other person as little more than an object. I-It communication is often monologue or propaganda. The I-Thou relationship is open and mutual: “I open myself to the otherness of the person I meet” (Friedman 2005, p. 30). If one presents

118 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 one’s self with truth and openness to the other in dialogue, there will be mutual confirmation and less potential for conflict and struggle (Czubaroff 2000).

Buber believed that in genuine dialogue, people are able to bridge distance, age, cultural backgrounds, and language through listening and communicating. One does not impose one’s own truth or views on others or forego one’s convictions, but strives to understand the other, he proposed. Dialogue’s attributes include mutuality, honesty and frankness, making it ethical communication. Buber segments communication into three types: monologue (which can exploit, manipulate and appropriate), monologue disguised as dialogue (two people pretend to talk to each other but each one is talking to himself), and dialogue (we listen and respond to each other authentically with mutual trust and acceptance and thus forge a bond). Dialogue is at the heart of human communication and existence, and for Buber, dialogue “is a synonym for ethical communication” (Griffin 2009, p. 81). Buber believed experiencing the other helps reinforce one’s own side of a relationship because there is misunderstanding when people refuse to see the position of others (Buber 2003). In dialogue, one does not impose one’s own truth on another and each person is accepted for what he is. One reveals one’s self to others in dialogue and willingly receives another’s revelation (Johannesen 1971). All parties in dialogue are partners (Czubaroff 2000).

Cowan and Arsenault (2008) discuss two types of Buber’s dialogue – technical dialogue in which ideas are exchanged, and true dialogue in which there is an open and willing relationship-building exchange – and agree that true dialogue is critical for finding ways to allow people to disagree. Stewart and Zediker (2000) write extensively on dialogue and Buber, and contend, “when one chooses to engage dialogically, he or she becomes an active agent shaping the quality of the relationship” (p. 240). Cissna and Anderson (1994) interpret Buber’s dialogue as something “in which we do something

119 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 together which neither of us can do separately” (p. 29). Heath (2011) suggests one of Buber’s most salient points is between, “where relationship starts and encounters the incentives on which that relationship builds” (p. 422). De Bussy (in Heath (Ed.) 2010) believes that in dialogue, participants seek to reach an understanding where “each participant really [has] the other in mind” (p. 132). Buber, says Winetrout (1963), is rarely damned and universally praised.

3.4.2 Bakhtin Bakhtin was deeply influenced by Buber, using his emphasis and terminology (Friedman 2005), but Bakhtin was much more open to the many rather than the exclusive other, and placed a greater emphasis on speech and narrative (Gurevitch 2000). Life is “by its very nature dialogical”, argues Bakhtin, (Gurevitch 2001, p. 88) because there is no ‘I’ without ‘we’. For Bakhtin, each person is open to and enriched by the dialogic exchange with another, an exchange that can be a struggle with competing voices. That struggle is what made his dialogism different from Buber’s dialogue.

Bakhtin’s dialogism is an open dialogue characterised by the “simultaneous fusion and differentiation of voices” (Baxter 2004b, p.181), a process of contradictory discourse where different points of view, even from unique, totally differing vantage points, come together, or “fuse”. Dialogism never merges into a “single impersonal truth, as occurs in the monologic world” (Gurevitch 2000 cited in Gardiner 2004, p. 40). That is an essential point to Bakhtin’s perspective – those many different voices in complex tension.

Dialogue is central to Bakhtin’s work and his definition of dialogue, which includes everyday dialogue, actual dialogue or real-life dialogue. It is characterised not just by alternating speaking, but “by the way the other is incorporated within one’s utterance” (Cissna & Anderson 1994, p. 13). An utterance, as defined by Bakhtin, is “the unit of exchange, spoken or written, between two people” (Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 208), because he believed

120 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 that two voices was the minimum for life. Every utterance is a “two sided act” with a “relationship between the addresser and addressee” (Morson 1983, p. 228). It is here that dialogue can be confused with conversation, but Bakhtin clarifies that for dialogue to occur there must be many voices in complex tension where parties are open and vulnerable.

“To Bakhtin, the essence of ‘dialogue’ was its simultaneous differentiation from, yet fusion with, the Other” (Baxter 1992, p. 331). Differences are as important as similarities – this is essential to relationships and life. “To be alive means to communicate dialogically…To live means to engage in dialogue, to question, to listen, to answer, to agree” (Bakhtin cited in Friedman 2005, p. 31).

3.4.3 Baxter Baxter is primarily respected as a Bakhtin scholar, but she developed a theory of dialogue in her own right. This theory focuses on dialogue within relationships, particularly the family. She frames her theory in Bakhtin’s dialogism and sees “dialogues as conversations that define and redefine relationships as they emerge in actual situations over time” (Littlejohn & Foss 2008, p. 210). It is in dialogue that one defines one’s relationships with others, where independence and interdependence promote bonding and relational well-being. Her theory, relational dialectics, involves “meaning- making in familial and non-familial relationships” (Baxter 2006, p. 141) and its “purpose is to render intelligible the communication processes of relating” (Baxter 2006, p. 130). She highlights the tensions and struggles of those ties. Where there is diversity and contradiction, dialogue assists in achieving unity. “Unity is represented when one speaker’s thoughts and feelings can be replicated in a listener’s mind” (Baxter 2007, p. 129). Relationships are the product of discourse, an ongoing, unending conversation over time where differences are as important as similarities (it is here one sees the Bakhtin influence). “The ‘communication ritual’ is not a monologue in which an intact self is simply disclosed to a target other; rather it is a dialogue in which

121 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 identity is worked on jointly in the interaction between parties” (Baxter 1992, p. 334). As with Bakhtin’s dialogism, Baxter’s relational dialectics always has two voices, often conflicting or even paradoxical.

3.4.4 Dialogue and conversation Dialogue and conversation are two acts that seem the same, but are different because conversation can be casual, whereas dialogue cannot. An indirect speech act can be part of conversation, but not dialogue. As defined by Goodwin and Heritage (1990), conversation is “casual talk in everyday settings” (p. 284) or evidence of a spoken encounter, as compared to dialogue, where there is a true understanding of the other. Searle (1997) argues that while conversations involve shared intentionality and shared topical understanding, they are but a sequence of utterances. The utterances are not as meaningful as Bakhtin’s description of utterances in dialogism, where the two voices connect on a more profound level.

April (1999) also contends that dialogue takes place on a much deeper level than conversation. Dialogue seeks the emergence of a collective wisdom and insight, whereas conversation seeks no accommodation at all. In conversation, there is “no way to find deeper meaning that transcends individual views and self-interest” (p. 42). This is not the case with dialogue, where participants suspend judgment and assumptions, and see others’ points of view in an open atmosphere. In dialogue, participants inquire, reflect and listen in order to build deeper relationships.

When analysing dialogue through the lense of excellence theory, similarities to two-way symmetrical interaction become clear, but dialogue is more rooted in equality and respect. “Dialogue is the product of a particular type of relational interaction” (Taylor & Kent 2014, p. 390).

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3.4.5 Dialogue in public relations In public relations, dialogue is designed to enhance different perspectives, culminating in an understanding. A dialogic view of public relations is “more humanistic, communication-centered, relationship-focused, and ethical” (Botan 1997, p. 196). It is a collaborative process for building meaning that requires people to be engaged and involved in interaction and discussion that leads to a fruitful concordance (Stewart & Zediker 2000).

Dialogic theory was discussed in relation to ethics in public relations by Johannesen (1971), developed by Pearson (1989b), reviewed by Botan (1997), advanced and investigated through the relationship-building potential of the Web by Kent and Taylor (1998), then evolved further by Taylor, Kent and White (2001) and Kent and Taylor (2002).

Johannesen (1971) identifies dialogue as an emerging concept in public relations and he relies heavily on Buber’s terminology. He contends the characteristics of dialogue are authenticity, inclusion, mutual trust, presentness, a spirit of mutual equality and a supportive climate (these characteristics also appear as critical aspects of dialogue in Pearson (1989b) and Kent and Taylor (1998, 2002)). These characteristics are key within Buber’s person-to-person context of dialogue.

Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic theory was the first published theoretical framework for building dialogic relationships using the Web (Duhé 2012), although they credit Pearson (1989b) for its initial development. Very little had been written about dialogue in public relations, save for Johannesen’s (1971) treatise, until Pearson’s (1989b) thesis.

3.4.6 Dialogue and ethics in public relations Johannesen (1996) wrote at length on ethics in public relations and believed communicators should engage in dialogue in a non-manipulative manner. He lists conditions for dialogue in any communication: an atmosphere of

123 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 openness and freedom, an appreciation of differences and uniqueness, effective feedback, sincerity and honesty, a positive attitude, a willingness to admit error, and an allowance for persuasion. He explained the four perfect requirements for dialogue: x Participants must have equal opportunity to initiate and continue communicative acts x Participants must have equal opportunity to present arguments, explanations, interpretations and justifications x Participants must have equal opportunity to honestly express personal intentions, feelings and attitudes x Participants must have equal opportunity to present directive statements that forbid, permit, command, etc. (p. 53)

Pearson (1989b) developed the theory of dialogue as an essential and ethical form of public relations. He analysed Thayer’s (1968) synchronic and diachronic models of public relations, as well as Grunig and Hunt’s (1984) asymmetrical and symmetrical models, concluding that “dialectic interaction among [and by] organisations is ethical to the degree it is dialogical” (1989b, p. 177). The dialogic approach implies an emphasis on two-way, intersubjective communication. Even though there was the possibility that “dialogue [could] lapse into monologue” (Pearson 1989b, p. 203), dialogue is fundamental to ethical public relations, marked by “mutuality, honesty and open-heartedness” (p. 213), as well as “concern for the other person, genuine-ness, open-mindedness, mutual respect, empathy, lack of pretense, non-manipulative intent [and] encouragement of free expression” (p. 216). Monologue, he dismissed, is characterised by deception, superiority, insincerity and coercion.

Only through dialogue, Pearson argued, could there be an assertion that the ‘public’ in public relations actually applies to the general public’s interests as well as to the organisation’s interests. Public relations literature often

124 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 equates public interest with organisational interest, but the mutual interests of all is required for public relations to be ethical, so an ethical approach must emphasise dialogue, he concluded. Dialogue is fragile – there is a risk of slipping into “the monological stance” of “organisation-knows-best” (1989b, p. 205). Practitioners usually select a monologic and persuasive approach, a mass media solution to issues, like dispatching a media release as the clarification of a problem. But he recommended a dialogic alternative because a commitment to dialogue is obligatory in honest and ethical practice.

Pearson maintained that certain conditions had to be met before dialogue could be embarked upon – there had to be a genuine clash of attitudes, an equality in the communication process, and participants must risk their own point of view and be prepared to modify it (1989b, p. 125). Pearson proposed two rules of ethical public relations: one must establish and maintain relationships with all publics affected by an organisation’s actions, and one must make those relationships increasingly dialogic. Pearson’s conviction was that the standards deduced from dialogue are part of the “core ethical responsibility of public relations from which all other obligations follow” (Pearson 1989b, p. 331).

Pearson (1989b) claimed organisations have a moral duty to engage in dialogue using public relations practitioners as facilitators who engage publics on an equal basis. This is possible on blogs or microblogs where “members of the community can communicate their concerns about organisational practice directly to organisational leaders” (Fitzpatrick & Bronson 2006, p. 86). Schuff, DeLuca and Hamilton (2009) suggest organisations should use blogs: x for community building, public relations and to convey corporate messages x to create communities

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x as an engine of public relations enhancing the organisation’s positive image.

Dialogue is the best foundation for ethical business communication (Botan 1997), because both parties are genuinely concerned about the other and it is essential for relationship building (Wood 2011). Despite recommending it, Wood (2011) admits that dialogic communication in PR is rare but it should still be pursued (Pearson 1989b; Taylor & Kent 2004).

3.4.7 Kent and Taylor’s dialogic theory of public relations Kent and Taylor’s dialogic theory may be the next public relations paradigm after two-way symmetrical communication. It focuses on online public relations because online channels have symmetrical and relational implications, offering the best opportunity for dialogue, and online communication unites publics who share interests. Kent and Taylor (2002) use several of Buber and Johannesen’s elements as the basic principles of their theory.

Kent and Taylor (1998) built on Pearson’s concept of dialogic as ethical and moral practice of public relations but focussed on online public relations. Initially, they analysed only websites and proposed that dialogue might work on websites as long as there was a dialogic loop, which, McAllister-Spooner (2008) argues, is the most important principle in Kent and Taylor’s (1998) theory because it indicates an exchange of information. The dialogic loop allows publics to query organisations, organisations to respond, and publics to feed back. Response and interaction are essential aspects of dialogue. They occur between two people or in small groups who observe rules of fairness and trust, so the dialogic loop is an integral part of the communication. “Dialogue involves a cooperative, communicative relationship” (Kent & Taylor 1998, p. 324).

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A year before Kent and Taylor (1998) proposed their dialogic theory, Botan (1997) suggested dialogic communication “may well be the foundation of” ethical communication (p. 91). Public relations should be dialogic, respecting and facilitating the rights of publics to engage, he said, but found that a “dialogic approach to public relations is very difficult to operationalise in the world of business” (p. 197). Kent and Taylor (1998) argued that without dialogue, online public relations becomes public relations as has been done traditionally: monologue in a new medium.

Kent and Taylor’s (1998) proposed theory outlined the principles to apply for two-way symmetrical, dialogic webbed public relations: x The dialogic loop is feedback, allowing participants to build mutually beneficial relationships, usually via a public relations practitioner. x Usefulness of information is the basis of a dialogic relationship on a website with useful and valuable content. x Generation of return visits seeks to create a foundation of ongoing relationships through interaction as well as return visits to the website. x Ease of interface means the website is easy to use and encourages a lasting and valuable relationship. x Conservation of visitors requires only essential links to other websites with paths marked clearly for uses to return to the organisation’s site.

Kent and Taylor’s (1998) theory, while providing a solid foundation for dialogue in public relations, is no longer applicable with regards to websites because, despite some interactive features, they have proven not to be dialogic. Piezka (2011) argues that very little attention has been paid to dialogue from public relations practitioners because PR practitioners do not really understand it. Examples of dialogue in PR are hard to find, she says, and it certainly has not been realised on websites, despite the availability of dialogic tools. Most organisations may be aware of the interactive

127 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 capabilities of websites, but are “unclear about how to employ the dialogic features [for] relationship building” (Park & Reber 2008, p. 411).

Social media were created for collaboration and dialogue, so there is an opportunity to apply dialogic theory to determine the types of interactivity on those media as this study does. Just because “an organisation and its publics create a dialogic communication structure does not mean they are behaving dialogically” (Kent & Taylor 2002, p. 24). Kent and Taylor (2002) define five features that dialogue in public relations should include: x Mutuality – Acknowledgement that organisations and publics are tied together and seek to understand the positions of the other. “Ethical dialogue necessitates acknowledgement of the other” (Kent & Taylor 2002, p. 25). [Hon & Grunig’s (1999) control mutuality is “the degree to which parties agree on who has the power to influence the actions of the other” (cited in Guth & Marsh 2009, p. 204)]. x Propinquity – “Dialogic propinquity means that publics are consulted in matters that influence them” (p. 27) x Empathy – A confirmation of the value of the others with support of their public goals and interests. x Risk – A willingness to interact on their own terms through sharing of information and beliefs; self-disclosure and spontaneity with the reward of stronger organisation-public relationships. x Commitment – Commitment to the conversation by being forthright and willing to work at dialogue.

It is important to acknowledge that Kent and Taylor contend that dialogue is not a panacea, nor even always appropriate (2002). But dialogue should be part of an organisation’s strategic communication, say Kent, Taylor and White (2003), if interacting with its publics is important to them. And the only way to build relationships is through honest interaction. Kent (2011) says dialogic public relations can “create long-lasting and stable relationships

128 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 with other people”. It includes the ability to “listen with an open mind, empathise with others, admit when you are wrong, and be changed or altered by the experience of communicating” (p. 243). There are dialogic principles in many web-based tools: “threaded dialogue present in blogging, instant messaging, [and] chatting” (p. 244). Dialogue has to be truthful and fair, engaged in within a relatively short time period (propinquity) and demonstrate an understanding of the other’s point of view with mutual respect (Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002).

3.4.8 Pearce’s dialogic Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory Pearce is a lesser theorist in dialogue, but his work focuses on the use of dialogue in organisational communication. He describes himself as a scholar- practitioner working as a practical theorist and admits to being most influenced by Buber. Founder of the Public Dialogue Consortium, Pearce created CMM – Coordinated Management of Meaning – where “persons-in- conversation co-construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create” (Pearce cited in Griffin 2009, p. 69). With his wife and colleague Kimberly Pearce, Pearce’s CMM is informed by dialogue in organisational communication. CMM is a set of concepts and principles to help people communicate effectively, with tension as an important aspect. A dialogic discussion allows people to hold their point of view (standing one’s ground) while allowing the other to hold his/hers, and both sides are open to the other. “Genuine dialogue requires that there be two separate presences, each coming from its own standpoint” (Gurevitch 2001, p. 97). It includes the need to both listen and speak to the other, being open and allowing others the same courtesy. It is teachable and learnable, but not a panacea for all problems. There can be successful, ethical dialogue without major results, but it is difficult to come to any resolution without dialogue (Heath, Pearce, Shotter, Taylor, Kersten, Zorn, Roper, Motion & Deetz 2006).

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3.4.9 Rhetoric as dialogue in public relations Dialogue is the paradigm upon which rhetoric in public relations is based, and Heath is the main proponent of rhetoric as dialogue. He argues that rhetoric is fundamental to creating relationships between an organisation and its publics, as two sides dialogically seek truth (Heath 1992 cited in L’Etang 2006). The discourse in dialogue provides equal advantage to both organisations and publics (Bowen & Heath 2005), but it cannot be genuine if an organisation engages in only self-interested rhetoric, which has, say Boyd and Waymer (2011), dominated public relations for years. Heath calls for openness, spontaneity and reflection to be a part of the dialogic approach to organisational rhetoric, but organisations need to loosen the reins on their interests. Heath even argues that the rhetoric of issues management is “best conceived of as dialogue” (Heath in Botan & Hazelton (Eds.) 2006, p. 67).

In ancient Greece, rhetoric was associated positively with persuasion and was implemented in a debate scenario in order to exchange ideas. It was encouraged so participants could reach an understanding as each side presented an argument. Guth and Marsh suggest modern public relations is a direct derivative of Athenian democracy, where people studied public opinion and the methods for influencing it (2009, 2012). “Rhetoric forms the basis of the public relations profession” as it is aligned with persuasion, ethics and skillful language use (Kent 2011, p. 1). In this sense, it is ethical “because it empowers participants to engage in dialogue” (Smudde & Courtright in Heath (Ed.) 2010, p. 179). The rhetorical tradition featured public discourse discussing all sides of public issues, an integral part of the democratic process. The public arena was the place where “differing ideas could be proposed, supported and debated by citizens in order to determine which arguments would prevail” (Coombs & Holladay 2007, p. 29). Today, rhetoric is sometimes perceived as distorting and manipulating the truth, but the rhetorical heritage considers both speaking and listening as part of persuasion, not manipulation. Thoughtful rhetoric is the essence of

130 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 symmetry (Heath 2001, p. 32) with many voices engaging in dialogue in private and public.

3.4.10 Dialogue in social media in the context of public relations Dialogue encompasses two-way communication with an essence of genuine- ness where the “exercise of power or superiority is avoided” (Johannesen 1971, p. 376). Evered and Tannenbaum (1992, cited in de Bussy, in Heath (Ed.) 2010) reinforce the relevance of listening in dialogue. Buber (2003) believed listening was a crucial part of the “betweeness” of dialogue and espoused the values of reciprocity, openness and experiencing the other (see more on ‘dialogue’ in Chapter 3). Not engaging in dialogue on social media platforms involves the risk of organisations losing engagement with individuals who admire them, discouraging publics from demonstrating admiration for the organisation or brand, reducing positive reputation and the potential for losing customers (for sales-focussed organisations). Monologue equates to persuasion and propaganda with a purpose to manipulate and dominate. In public relations, persuasion and propaganda are considered far less ethical or moral than two-way symmetrical communication or dialogue (Grunig 1992; Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002; Pearson 1989b).

Organisations can engage in dialogue with publics from anywhere to anyone anywhere on social media (Carim & Warwick 2013, p.521). An organisation that uses social media to quickly respond to publics, especially in a crisis situation, may be perceived as more committed and honest (Schultz, Utz & Goritz 2011). Seltzer and Mitrook (2007) note that blogs have greater potential than websites for two-way communication, making them more dialogic in nature and with greater relationship building potential. Seltzer and Bortree (2009) found just the creation of an interactive space can facilitate dialogue (something with which Kent & Taylor (2002) and Joel (2009) disagree). Seltzer and Rybalko (2010) found greater dialogue on microblogs than blogs. They recommended improved training for public

131 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 relations practitioners in dialogue on social media because “corporations seem to use their Twitter feeds more effectively than their websites in facilitating a dialogic loop” (p. 340). Whether organisations use dialogue in their blogs and microblogs is the essence of this research, and Seltzer’s suggestion of training emerges in the findings of this study.

Through social media, organisations can build relationships on blogs, Facebook and Twitter using dialogue, with people asking questions, expressing concerns, passing along opinions, and commenting on products (Ryan 2003). Dialogue is about interaction, either mediated or in person (Taylor & Kent 2004). But while social media have a dialogic nature, just having a website, blog or other social media site does not mean an organisation is engaging in dialogue. Studies have noted that dialogue in public relations is still more a potential than reality, with organisations missing opportunities for dialogue (Bortree & Seltzer 2009; Coombs & Holladay 2010; Ingenhoff & Koelling 2009, 2010; McAllister-Spooner 2009; McAllister 2012; Meisenbach & Feldner 2009; Pieczka 2011; Seltzer & Rybalko 2010; Sommerfeldt, Kent & Taylor 2012). And examples of dialogue in practice are difficult to find (Meisenbach & Feldner 2009; Pieczka 2011; Sommerfeldt, Kent & Taylor 2012; Theunissen & Noordin 2012). Lovejoy, Waters and Saxton (2012) point to a number of studies where social media is used in a traditional one-way manner to impart information (e.g. Bortree & Seltzer 2009; Greenberg & MacAulay 2009; Waters, Burnett, Lamm & Lucas 2009). The idea of dialogue in social media between organisations and publics is of significance for those studying public relations, and whether and why organisations have implemented dialogue in social media, or why not, is investigated in this research.

Sweetser and Lariscy (2008) investigated political candidates’ use of Facebook and found that while Facebook had enormous potential for dialogue, candidates did not use it dialogically. Bortree and Seltzer (2009) undertook content analysis of dialogue amongst advocacy groups on

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Facebook and concluded advocacy groups were not taking advantage of dialogic strategies on social media, and the organisations studied missed “a significant opportunity…by failing to effectively utilise…dialogic strategies” (p. 318). The findings indicate there was no dialogue but rather a possibility for dialogue if the groups had been more actively engaged.

Waters, Burnett, Lamm and Lucas (2009) and Waters and Jamal (2011) studied not-for-profit organisations’ use of social media and concluded dialogic tools were not being used. Hether (2014) concludes that not-for- profit organisations are more comfortable with one-way communication. McAllister and Taylor (2007) studied community college websites seeking dialogue and concluded there was none, as did McAllister-Spooner (2008) and Canfield, Foster and Hardy (2011) studying universities. Rybalko and Seltzer (2010) investigated dialogue on Twitter and claimed 61 per cent of organisations studied were identified as dialogic, but concluded that Twitter, along with blogs and Facebook, were “being under utilised by organisations to facilitate dialogic communication” (p. 340). Briones, Kuch, Liu and Jin (2011) researched the American Red Cross in a qualitative study that was one of the few to find social media used dialogically. The authors concluded that the American Red Cross reported better feedback had improved the organisation.

Kent and Taylor (1998) investigated the dialogic value of websites, but they admitted in recent research (Sommerfeldt, Kent & Taylor 2012) that websites were not very dialogic and had “poorly used dialogic tools” (p. 303), so the dialogic promise had not been fulfilled. Worse still, they found, PR practitioners were not making an effort to use tools dialogically. And the use of dialogic tools does not equate to dialogue itself. Honeycutt and Herring (2009) explored whether there was dialogue on Twitter and discovered conversationality, a finding they found surprising because they thought Twitter to be a “noisy” environment, but the “short, dyadic exchanges” were “surprisingly coherent” (p. 1). They found the intent of Twitter collaboration

133 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 was conversation, although often no conversations took place – the number and speed of tweets and the sheer size of the Twitterverse prohibited regular interaction. They perceived Twitter as a novelty, but concluded there are high expectations of increased conversationality for the future. They did not find dialogue. Meisenbach and Feldner (2009) studied Disney in the US and found Disney did not engage in dialogic communication with stakeholders.

McAllister (2012) investigated why many organisations were not taking advantage of dialogic tools on websites. She reviewed several of Wright and Hinson’s studies of public relations practitioners’ adoption of social media, which determined that practitioners understood how dialogic tools should be used, but were not implementing them. McAllister concluded that organisations use websites and social media as one-way communication channels because there was too much risk in dialogic interaction. In spite of the literature recommending public relations practitioners on behalf of organisations communicate dialogically with publics, McAllister-Spooner’s (2009) ten-year reflective study found, “the dialogic promise of the web has not been realised” (p. 321). In her 2008 study, she concluded that organisations were not employing dialogue; this finding was reinforced again in her 2012 study of US universities. Admitting that dialogue can be difficult and time consuming, McAllister-Spooner still recommends that PR practitioners use dialogic interactive tools, but found an inconsistency between what practitioners think is possible and that they actually do. Wright and Hinson (2008, 2009) had similar findings. This is a new and emerging area of communication and public relations. Despite these findings that dialogic interaction does not often occur in social media, this study explores whether organisations have evolved to better understand dialogue in order to engage in it on blogs and microblogs.

Blogs enhance two-way communication better if they are conversational in tone, in nature and in practice. Writing through a “human voice” plays an important part in blogs, especially when looking to create relationships

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(Jenkins 2006; Kelleher & Miller 2006; Sweetzer et al. 2008; Xifra & Hertas 2008). For a reader, interacting with the blog, and with the organisation hosting the blog, can include activities like liking or commenting. Commenting may be seen as a medium to high level of engagement. This study investigates whether interactivity and engagement, as key components in CMC (computer-mediated communication), play an important role in organisation-public communication on social media.

3.4.11 Critics of dialogic theory of public relations Public relations practitioners struggle with dialogue because they have traditionally been trained to control the message and they may not fully understand it. Some critics believe PR practitioners are not ready for dialogue, and some argue the concept of dialogue in public relations is inapplicable. Theunissen and Noordin (2012) call it a deeply philosophical, abstract theory, and fear the PR industry’s “infatuation with social media as a way of engaging in dialogue…may be misplaced” (p. 9). They argue against dialogue in public relations because they believe it is not realistically achievable, and conclude that it is an unpredictable, complex, multifaceted process. Botan (1997) admits while he supports the theory, “publics may not always want dialogic communication” (p. 199) because they may not have the time or the inclination to engage.

Coombs and Holladay (2010) note that dialogic communication remains more of a potential than a reality and Meisenbach and Feldner (2009) question what a dialogic model might look like. Lee and Desai (2014) flatly state there is no place for dialogic theory in media relations. Stoke and Tusinski-Berg (2006) attempt to demonstrate that dialogue is unethical and superficial, claiming, “dialogue threatens to become a paternalistic approach to communication” (p. 10). Their argument, based solely on one critique of dialogue in public relations (by Peters 1999), disputes the ethics of dialogue, calling it tyrannical with a “disgust for the distinct” (p. 7). Lane’s (2014) study of dialogue in public relations focuses on what she deems “hypothetical”

135 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 characteristics and principles of dialogue in practice and concludes that “public relations practitioners do not – and indeed cannot – undertake dialogue” (in press) because public relations practitioners believe “there is no reason for organisations to choose to undertake dialogue” (in press). Henderson and Bowley’s (2010) study of New Zealand social media found dialogic campaigns by some organisations “did not appear to develop genuine relationships with the target audience” (p. 251), perhaps due to a lack of both genuine-ness and dialogue. The focus of this research is dialogic communication on social media between organisations and publics, and does not investigate whether genuine relationships were created.

Botan’s (1997) argument that publics may not want dialogue has validity, and in fact was supported in findings of this study, but an organisation would have to attempt dialogue in order to discern if this is indeed the case with their publics. Coombs and Holladay’s (2010) claim that dialogue is more potential than reality in today’s public relations practice must also be considered as many studies have not found dialogue in public relations on social media (c.f. Bortree & Seltzer 2009; Ingenhoff & Koelling 2009, 2010; McAllister-Spooner 2009; McAllister 2012; Meisenbach & Feldner 2009; Pieczka 2011; Seltzer & Rybalko 2010; Sommerfeldt, Kent & Taylor 2012), perhaps due to Lane (2014)’s contention that organisations have no reason to choose dialogue. This study investigates why organisations may choose not to interact with publics dialogicially, and whether social media managers believe they are engaging in dialogue when they are not. Organisations “cannot and will not commit to dialogic communication because of the inherent risk involved with creating and maintaining organisation-public relationships that are based on mutuality, propinquity and empathy” (McAllister 2012, p. 326).

Some organisations may see value in Pearson’s (1989b) assertion of dialogue as the most ethical form of communication, and Kent and Taylor’s (2002) reasoning that organisations and publics are tied together, so dialogue is the

136 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 moral form of communication. It is important and ethical for publics to be consulted in matters that concern them and this can be accomplished through dialogue, which leads to building better relationships.

Understanding how these inter-related theories are implemented in practice is the purpose of the methodology chapter, discussed next. The methodology chapter encompasses how participating organisations were selected, who participated, how information was gleaned, and how it was analysed. It also comprises the methods used in the research, the coding categories, how analysis was applied, and how findings were determined. How the fundamentals of dialogue and interaction in social media are effectuated are analysed in the Findings chapters based on the research, which follow Methodology.

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Chapter 4

Methodology

This chapter discusses the methodology used in this research study. It includes the rationale for the application of qualitative methods, how the methods were triangulated, and how the information was evaluated. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which dialogue and engagement occur in an interactive conversation on corporate blogs and microblogs including Facebook and Twitter. Whilst past studies have ascertained that dialogue is difficult, if not impossible, to detect on corporate blogs and microblogs, this study seeks to determine whether organisations have altered or evolved their approach and embraced dialogue, and if not, the reason for the lack of it. The study also seeks to identifiy the type of engagement or interaction organisations and publics adopt and to what end.

4.1 Conceptual framework The conceptual framework for this study is corporate blogging and microblogging examined in the context of interaction, engagement and dialogue, which are key affordances of social media participation.

Many scholars discuss conceptual frameworks but fail to provide a model to reference (Baxter & Jack 2008). Only Miles and Huberman (1994; Miles, Huberman & Saldaña 2014) provide graphic examples of a conceptual framework. Figure 4.1 below demonstrates graphically the conceptual model for this study.

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Figure 4.1. Conceptual framework for this study

How organisations Major organisations engage with publics

How publics interact Publics with organisations

Interaction between

microblogs microblogs Community peers in brand communities

Impact & success of communication Dialogue in organisational blogs & Dialogue in organisational

Based on Miles, Huberman & Saldaña (2014)

4.2 Research approach This study used qualitative methodology designed within an interpretivist approach, also referred to as a constructionist approach (Frey, Botan & Kreps 2000), in contrast with the positivist or scientific approach. While ‘scientific’ quantitative studies such as surveys provide useful information (e.g. the volume of social media use), the objectives of this research and the research questions derived from them relate to understanding how and why organisations use blogging and microblogging and, specifically, whether they engage dialogically in and through these media. These are qualitative factors that need to be interpretatively assessed by the researcher based on data derived from interviews and content analysis of documents such as plans and strategies, and the content of corporate blogs and microblogs. Self-reporting in surveys and quantitative metrics such as the volume of blogs and microblog posts, visitors and so on do not provide insights into the purposes for which corporate blogging and microblogging are deployed and the type of usage involved. Indeed, self-reporting can be misleading.

In an interpretivist approach, researchers’ interpretations of participants’ behaviour and interpretations made by participants are woven together to

139 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 produce explanations to provide an “in-depth understanding of how certain people or organisations think and operate…and …provide a richer context in which the findings of formal research can be better explained” (Stacks 2002, p. 51). Qualitative inquiry seeks “in-depth descriptions that offer increased understanding” (Lietz & Zayas 2010, p.189).

The interpretivist/constructivist approach used in this study explores the situated practices and socially constructed phenomena of organisations using social media to build relationships with publics. The study generates an understanding of different communication issues with multiple participants by using qualitative methods to validate findings, with a generalisation of results across major Australian and American organisations. Quantitative data can identify the frequency and volume of corporate blog and microblog posts, the number of organisations engaging in these practices, and other empirical information and there is a considerable amount of quantitative data available, for example: Barnes (2010); Barnes and Lescault (2011a, 2012); Barnes and Mattson (2009a, 2009b); Chen, Hu and Liu (2007); Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser and Howes (2009); Macnamara and Zerfass (2012); Porter, Sweetser and Chung (2009); Porter, Sweetser, Chung and Kim (2007); Sweetser and Kelleher (2011); Verhoeven, Tench, Zerfass, Moreno and Verčič (2012); Wright and Hinson (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011); and Zerfass (2010, 2011). But there have been few qualitative studies (e.g. Cho & Huh 2010, Kelleher & Sweetser 2012) using in-depth interviews and content analysis that investigate the why and how of dialogic engagement in corporate blogging and microblogging, and if dialogue is not used, why not – thus, the gap in the literature this research addresses.

Generalised qualitative methods using several data collection strategies have been used to understand the phenomenon of blogging and microblogging in greater depth. It is important to explore the perspectives of the participants and to represent those findings accurately and authentically. Interpretation is a key element in understanding the application and depth of thinking

140 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 regarding dialogue in organisation-public communication and the data from multiple sources offers a completeness regarding the research questions.

4.3 Research questions The research questions seek to gain a deep understanding of participant organisations’ aims, objectives, expectations and practices in social media. This study explores three overall research questions:

RQ 1. What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? This research question explores whether they are used by the organisation for information transmission, engaging with stakeholders, brand building and other purposes or a combination of uses.

RQ 2. Do organisations engage in dialogue in their blog/microblog interactions, and if so, how? This research question explores the use of interactive features on blogs and microblogs, such as ‘comments’ and posts, to identify if there is dialogue or lesser interaction, and whether organisations have degrees of engagement expectations on these platforms. It also explores whether their approaches are largely or substantially one- way information transmission (i.e. monologue).

RQ 3. How do organisations measure and evaluate the outcomes of their blogging and microblogging activities and how do they identify success? This question explores how success is measured and whether positive outcomes are aligned to publics as well as the corporation, or only the corporation.

Exploring these research questions requires an interpretevist approach and qualitative methodology.

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4.4 Research methodology The conceptual framework of this study focuses on the overall implementation of dialogic interaction between organisations and their publics, and between users, on two genres of social media – blogs and microblogs (where in this case, Facebook is considered a microblog as well as a social media network).

Qualitative research is useful in the interpretations of texts (Krippendorff 2004). This study investigates texts – posts on blogs and microblogs – and whether they indicate the application of dialogue. Guba and Lincoln’s (1994) criteria for a qualitative study are credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Credibility “refers to the degree to which a study’s findings represent the meanings of the research participants” (Lietz & Zayas 2010, p. 191) and transferability refers to the application or usefulness of the findings to theory or practice. In this study, the research represents the meanings of texts of participants and their publics, and the researcher identifies key aspects of context to demonstrate the applicability of findings. In this study, it is imperative to determine if the participants understand the concept of dialogue, the benefits social media offer for dialogue, and the rationale of its implementation.

As data is collected, new information emerges allowing movement within interpretation rather being static, thus providing contextual understanding. It allows for evolving concepts as the data leads to new findings. The significance of studying the content of the blog and microblog posts as texts is to understand the meaning and to interpret the rationale for the post rather than the number of times a post or message occurs.

The significance of this research is to understand the opportunity that dialogue in social media offers for improved discourse and enhanced relationship building between organisations and publics and how to apply

142 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 the attributes of dialogic organisation-public communication to societal discourse. There is also the implication for the teaching of public communication, which includes public relations, to better understand the importance and benefits of dialogue in a social media environment.

This research explores whether major organisations in Australia and the US are using blogging and microblogging to engage with their publics in a dialogic way, or whether they are using these interactive media in a traditional, one-way transmissional way. It is important to discover whether organisations understand the benefits of a dialogic relationship with their publics. The intent of this research is also to discern what organisations want to achieve through the use of social media, which again requires an interpretivist qualitative approach. The inquiry focuses on major organisations and the research is from their perspective, because organisations create the ‘spaces’ in social media for people to interact and for online communities to prosper. They create the Facebook pages where fans and users engage with them and each other [NB. Users can also create spaces and pages about areas of interests including organisations, but organisations create ‘legitimate’ shared spaces to reach as many users as possible]. Users can choose to join the community or the conversation if they wish, or choose not to join.

The inquiry x Identifies whether organisations want to engage in dialogue x Investigates whether there is dialogue in organisation-public communication on corporate blogs and microblogs x Identifies the type of interaction or engagement if it is not dialogue x Identifies themes and patterns around corporate blogging and microblogging x Documents how blogs and microblogs are used, how they are evaluated, and how success is defined

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x Learns what attitudes and experiences shape this phenomenon and whether they are grounded in public relations theory

The content analysis focuses on the content and tone of the blog and microblog posts, as well as addressing the intended strategies and applications of blogging and microblogging from the perspective of those being interviewed (participants), rather than from the perspective of the researcher. The content analysis may highlight different interactions and types of engagement than those alluded to in the interviews, and different perspectives on actual dialogic behaviour as opposed to implied behaviour. Reflexivity plays an important role in credibility, as defined by Guba and Lincoln. The researcher acknowledges that her actions may have impacted the interview experience, although she took great measures to limit researcher bias, and acknowledges the impact of her actions or decisions on the experience.

Bryman (2008) says qualitative research is a micro view seeking meaning, and researchers develop concepts from rich, deep data. In this study, a great deal of rich data emerged that led to important findings and conclusions. Kelleher and Sweetser (2012) argue that the qualitative approach in their study allowed “more in-depth discussion of the factors influencing…[the] active use of social media, which requires human participation” (p. 109). In this study, the investigation is on human-to-human interaction in a mediated environment using collaborative technology in a dialogic way.

4.5 Research methods Appropriate qualitative research methods include interviews, interview data analysis (observation, document and audiovisual), and text and image analysis (Creswell 2003, 2013). Stacks (2002) recommends using several methods together in any qualitative study to triangulate the data, particularly the methods of in-depth interviews and content analysis

144 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 combined. The two methods of interviews and content analysis were chosen for this study as multiple methods triangulate data to produce greater confidence in the findings. Interviews aid in understanding the rationale of any activity and content analysis helps understand the how.

4.5.1 Structured design This study’s structured design is, in order: x Determination of framework for selection of organisations x Selection of organisations x Request for interviews (public relations practitioners or social media managers, organisational bloggers) including information sheets and consent forms x Granting of interviews x Data collection x Initial analysis of blogs and/or microblogs x Carry out interviews x Ongoing analysis of blogs and/or microblogs x Follow-up questions with participants by email if required x Overall data analysis x Ongoing data condensation or reduction x Conclusion drawing

Qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews allows participants to speak in their own words and the researcher to elicit information and learn about participants’ views of a particular phenomenon (Cresswell & Plano Clarke 2007). Only in-depth interviews grant the opportunity to interpret meaning directly from participants and content analysis facilitates clarification of implementation. Semi structured interviews are widely used to illuminate the participant’s viewpoint. The aim of the interview was to prepare a basis for interpreting findings or patterns found in a group of different participants. In this study, analysing blog and microblog content

145 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 before the interview, then again after the interview, provided a more efficient clarification of facts and points of view, and their comparison.

4.5.2 In-depth Interviews A primary research method used in this study was semi-structured in-depth interviews to gain an understanding of the phenomenon of organisation- public communication through blogs and microblogs. Interviews overcome space and time, and during the interviews, questions were elaborated upon with subsequent follow-up questions specific to that participant, and resulted in rich, detailed answers. Pavlik argues interviews have been underused in existing public relations research, and questionnaires or surveys “cannot elicit the same kind of information as the personally administered” questions (1987, p. 125). The interviews were semi-structured because they are the most direct way to understand reality (Fontana & Frey 2003) and are “an appropriate substitute for the observations of actual behaviour” (Heritage 1984 cited in Silverman 2010, p. 130). The semi- structure allowed for a consistent foundation of questions, which enhanced comparability of data (See ‘ethics’ for how interviews were approached).

Interviews afford a number of benefits for researchers including the ability to: x Study viewpoints from different perspectives x Generate a deeper understanding of a situation x Identify more profound interpretations of the situation x Create a relationship between interviewer and participant

There are several drawbacks to the interview experience that are acknowledged by the researcher and they include: x The interview is an artificial situation. Some participants may object to potentially sensitive questions, despite agreeing to be interviewed

146 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 x Interviews can show a bias towards senior members of an organisation. In this study, the participants are social media managers, some of whom are members of the executive or management team (40 per cent) x Language of the questions or answers can be ambiguous x Interviewer may be subjective x The interpretation of what was said may not reflect what is heard x Interviews can sometimes just go wrong (Myers & Neuman 2007) x Too much superfluous information might be collected, making the results invalid because analysis becomes difficult (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña 2014) x Interviews are often limited to those who are accessible and will cooperate (Myers & Neuman 2007 citing Webb, Campbell, Schwartz & Sechrest 1966) x Interviews are intimate situations and reduce the distance between a researcher and subject (Kleinsasser 2010)

In-depth interviews afford the researcher an opportunity to gather rich data and have participants present a diversity of ideas. The in-depth interviews for this study were designed to clarify the objectives and functions of organisational blogs and microblogs, the extent of dialogic interaction, and the outcomes and measures of that interaction. These interviews yielded extensive data, some of which did not relate specifically to the research questions and yielded additional findings not within the original purview, but provided a broader understanding of the participants’ communication strategies (see Findings, Chapter 9). The participants were open and often shared confidential information to enlighten the researcher as to internal issues and their impact on dialogic interaction on social media.

The explanation of dialogue was provided in an overall preview to each participant at the beginning of the interview, whether face-to-face or prior to a telephone interview. It was clarified as being more than a conversation, but

147 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 an interaction that included a back-and-forth reciprocal action that recognises publics as equals. The researcher described it as a conceptual approach that included respect for publics, transparency and authenticity in interaction, and did not equate to “light” conversation. All participants acknowledged understanding.

Alluding to the drawbacks, social media managers, most of whom report to marketing directors, were generally not members of the senior executive team (Murrell of BOQ, Bradley of Alinta, and Mantero of Ansell excepted) but were members of the management team. Most had started in more junior digital, communication or marketing positions and were not too removed from the lower echelons. The researcher strived to ensure the language of the questions was not ambiguous and attempted to clarify any that might be dubitable.

It is important to acknowledge the potential of the interviewer effect. Spending time with participants creates a personal relationship and trust ensues. There is a need to acknowledge whether participants modify their answers to please the interviewer or if they do so to appear in a positive light. The researcher recognises this, as well as the difference in priorities between participant and researcher.

4.5.2.1 Ethics Permission from individuals to be interviewed was gained through participation letters and consent forms sent by email prior to the interview and approved by UTS Ethics Committee (UTS HREC 2012-037A). The researcher received UTS Ethics Approval in July 2012 and in accordance with ethics approval, steps were taken to ensure ethical conduct of the research, which included: x Identification of the researcher and her sponsoring institution x Provision of an Information Sheet to each participant before the

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interview explaining the purpose of the research, benefits for participating, potential risks to the participants, guarantee of confidentiality, and assurance that the participant could withdraw at any time x All participants signed a consent form or emailed their consent before participating in interviews

Additionally, foundation questions were approved by the UTS Ethics Committee, as per UTS Ethics requirements. Questions were open-ended and allowed for exploration of points raised by both participants and the researcher, and supplementary questions were asked to explore ancillary lines of discussion. Participants introduced auxiliary subjects to discuss during the interviews. For those participants requesting it, foundation questions were dispatched prior to the interview (this occurred on only two occasions). Participants were offered the option of being de-identified. Three participants chose to be de-identified.

4.5.2.2 Interview protocol Once participation was established, a convenient time for a face-to-face or telephone interview was confirmed. The researcher interviewed without injecting her points of view onto participants and conducted the interviews without interrupting, allowing the participants to answer in their own words. She applied reflexivity and was aware of the researcher’s place.

Silverman (2010) recommends interviews last at least 60 to 90 minutes. In this study, interviews lasted between 50 and 85 minutes, with follow-up questions submitted by email if and when required. Interviews took place in the participants’ natural setting where possible – i.e. their offices – or by telephone. Fifty per cent were conducted face-to-face and 50 per cent by telephone. Of those face-to-face interviews, two (10 per cent) were conducted in a café of the participant’s choosing; the others were conducted in participants’ offices. Interviews were only conducted by telephone when

149 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 geographical issues presented (i.e. the participant was in another city or country). All interviews were recorded digitally. The researcher reviewed all recordings post interview, transcribed all interviews herself, reviewed the transcripts and interview notes, and analysed the interviews, first manually, then using MAXQDA software. Both the recordings of the interviews and the transcriptions are stored in several data storage facilities for safety purposes.

With interviews, “conversational interactions take place and create interpersonal relations and define their own conditions for continuing the process” (Krippendorff 2004, p. 67). As the method of dialogic interaction in this research study is computer mediated, there was no ability to observe behaviour. In order to validate the in-depth interview data, Morse (1991, cited in Cresswell & Plano Clarke 2007) recommends obtaining “different but complimentary data on the same topic” (p. 62), so content analysis of participants’ blog and microblog posts was implemented. Having several sources of data allows the researcher to compare and contrast different types of data and analyse them. Data from the content analysis in this study proffered different perspectives from the interviews that helped to validate findings.

4.5.3 Content Analysis – Qualitative Content analysis is traditionally seen as a quantitative analysis tool, but Krippendorff (2013) disputes any difference between qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Content analysis can “objectify…and…purify common sense impressions” and can “bring to our attention…fresh revelations” (Krippendorff & Bock 2009, p.37). Qualitative content analysis focuses on the way language is used, on who writes and uses the texts, who reads them, and what the likely responses are (Frey et al. 2000). This research explored users’ meaning within the texts (blog and microblog posts) by the words and tone of their posts and the intent of organisations in initial post or response.

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McMillan (2000) suggests there are three steps to content analysis on the Web: formulate research questions, select a sample, and define categories, including the time period of the study. The last step, McMillan suggests, is analysis and interpretation of data. In this study, a series of ten consecutive blog and microblog posts of each participant (ie. Ten blog posts, ten mciroblog posts per participant, etc.) was analysed over time selected within a time frame of seven months. The analysis evaluated the Twitter, Facebook and blog posts of each organisation (n=20), capturing dialogue and interaction where, and if, it existed. In order to determine dialogue, Kent and Taylor’s (2002) tenets of dialogue were used in the coding. It was also appropriate to study the overall blog, Twitter and Facebook posts of the organisations to generate an overview of how users responded to organisations’ comments, and whether the organisations then engaged in further conversation.

Categories for coding, says Silverman (2011), should be established for content analysis so that research findings can be replicated and validated. In this study, categories included engagement, interaction and dialogue, with additional codes including blogs, responsiveness, public relations, brand and community. The content of the posts was studied twice: before and after the interview. Posts initiated by the organisations were considered, comparing them with the response posts by the users. Additionally, posts initiated by individuals were examined to determine if organisations responded to them and interacted. If a further response emerged from the organisation, it was analysed and the thread of conversation reviewed. However, there were several situations where a previously analysed text was deleted from the organisation’s Facebook or Twitter feed, thus denying further scrutiny. Meanings in the content were evaluated to determine whether dialogue was inferred or attempted, if it took place and to what effect.

Many content analyses employ quantitative procedures and count the characteristics of messages embedded in texts. This allows researchers to

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“look at qualitative data in a quantitative manner” (Stacks 2002, p. 107), because simple word counts may not be useful (Krippendorff & Bock 2009). This is an important point, for while posts in this study were analysed qualitatively to interpret meaning, counting played a role in determining several other factors – for example, how many responses were there to a particular blog post, how many negative responses versus positive ones, how often did the organisation reply and where they appropriate. The researcher also considered counts in terms of ‘likes’ – was a post liked or shared rather than commented on, were there more likes than negative comments, did a post elicit a large number of responses due to a reward (i.e. a competition), and so on.

Krippendorff (2013) sees one of the purposes of content analysis as “with what effects something is said” (citing Holsti 1969, p. 51). This is a relevant to this research, which explores dialogue between organisations and publics, and replies to a comment or post, or the tone of the reply, may be considered an effect. Krippendorff (2004) notes that qualitative researchers in their interpretations look for trustworthiness, credibility, accountability and reflexivity in content. It was difficult to evaluate reflexivity or trustworthiness in the content analysis of this study. Accountability was acknowledged if an organisation responded to complaints and how that response was received. Newbold, Boyd-Barett and Van den Bulck (2002) contend quantitative content analysis “has not been able to capture the context within which a…text becomes more meaningful” (p. 84), and the reason behind this research exploring meaning. Qualities of blogs and microblogs are transparency and authenticity (i.e. Johannesen’s (1996) characteristics of dialogue; Barnes & Lescault’s (2014) study of Millennials on social media), which are difficult to measure quantitatively. Inaccuracy or obfuscation in an organisation’s response was interpreted as a lack of authenticity.

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Content analysis is well suited when research questions refer to content that is difficult to see at casual observation (Neuman 2011). For example, dialogue may be represented causally by counting the number of back and forth posts or comments on blogs, but one cannot interpret dialogue from a single or even two posts. Interaction requires at least three reciprocal and related posts, with a thread in the messages between the organisation and the individual. Additionally, an investigation of what was actually said, in what way and how participants interacted is an important part of this research.

The initial steps for content analysis in this study included: x selecting appropriate posts to study (10 consecutive posts of each participant’s blog, 10 consecutive posts from each participant’s Facebook page, and 10 consecutive posts from each participant’s Twitter account, all within a six month period) x interpreting the meaning of messages – noting the type of comment, its tone and words used; whether it is positive or negative; and whether it is relevant to the organisation’s post x implementing coding x analysing the data (manually first, then with MaxQDA software)

Expressions of interaction and dialogue are the essence of this research, and patterns have been developed from the data. Elaboration on meanings within the content emerged from data collection, but investigation also included contextual understanding of dialogic interaction: Was there dialogue? How was dialogue determined? Was there a ‘back-and-forth’ indicating interaction, then dialogue? Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997) argue that for interactivity to occur, later messages in any sequence must take into account not just the messages that preceded them, but the manner in which the messages were communicated (p. 3). “Interactivity is an expression of the extent that in a given series of communication exchanges, any third (or later) transmission (or message) is related to the degree to which previous

153 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 exchanges referred to even earlier transmissions” (Rafaeli 1988, p. 111). So, at a minimum, three messages in a sequence were studied. Additional posts were examined if there were more messages in any one sequence. Did posts meet Kent and Taylor ‘s (2002) categories of dialogue in webbed communication? Within each blog or microblog exchange, the study explored the direction of messages along the content continuum – whether there was true dialogic interaction in an exchange.

Dialogue was analysed based on codes developed by Kent and Taylor (2002) and are: x substantive conversation (three or more interactions in any one sequence) x propinquity (engagement, empathy, vulnerability, understanding of the other’s position) x mutuality (an acknowledgement that the organisation and the public are bonded); mutual equality (participants are equal in power balance) x temporal (responsiveness in a meaningful, temporal way)

An additional code was conversation index (size, density and freshness of the conversation), which were not included in Kent and Taylor’s (2002) tenets of dialogue.

The interviews were conducted between February and September 2013 and analysed using MaxQDA software between February and April 2014. Content analysis of blogs and microblogs covered a seven-month period between September 2013 and March 2014. Analysis included ten consecutive posts per platform per participant, totalling 520 posts between September 2013 and March 2014. Table 4.1 outlines the number of blogs and microblogs studied and the number of posts each, including 10 posts (sequential) each per organisation.

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Table 4.1 Posts studied Unit Value Blogs 22 Microblogs 30 Posts – blogs 10 per blog x 22 blogs = 220 Posts – microblogs 10 per microblog x 30 = 300 First post to last post 1 Sept 2013 – 31 March 2014 Total posts 520 Average words per participant 16

The content analysis of these posts provided an insight into how organisations were communicating with publics and the interviews provided the why. The significance of the findings were quite different and varied due to the backgrounds of participants, their objectives in communication, and their desire to interact with publics. Using the two methods together helped to clarify meaning.

During the interviews, details of several exemplifying case studies involving participant organisations and crises involving social media emerged which the researcher deemed pertinent to the study. Case study research involves the study of a case in real life, the intent of which is to illustrate a unique case (Creswell 2013). These case studies are considered exemplifying case studies, chosen to demonstrate they are not extreme and “epitomise a broader category of cases” (Bryman 2008, p. 56) or instrumental case studies, defined by Silverman (2010) as “a case examined mainly to provide insight into an issue or to revise a generalisation” (p. 139). Multiple data sources are the hallmark of the case study (Baxter & Jack 2008), and in case studies presented in the findings, data included interviews, literature and mass media articles. One case was explored in greater depth to determine whether dialogue was implemented and there were multiple forms of data from several sources, explained chronologically. The two other case studies were explored to a lesser extent due to lack of available information. They were investigated and presented to determine if there was dialogic interaction between organisations and publics (see Findings, Chapter 8).

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4.6 Sampling Participants were selected by studying the ASX 200 and Fortune 500 listings, then followed through with Internet searches. Social media managers were approached through LinkedIn connections and personal contacts. Seventy- seven organisations were initially contacted. Those that fit the criteria and were first to agree to participate were selected for the study (see Appendix for those that declined). During the selection process, it was necessary to search for other major organisations that were industry leaders outside the ASX 200 and Fortune 500 to ensure a valid sample.

Sampling for qualitative research is informed by the research questions. In this study, organisations selected were major corporations that used blogs and microblogs as communication channels. The investigation was designed to gain a deep understanding of their motives, objectives, practices and results. Therefore, a purposive sampling method was appropriate and most relevant. However, while probability sampling and statistical reliability to make generalisations across the whole population are not always required, the sample does need to be carefully constructed to ensure validity. In terms of sample size, qualitative methodology requires no specific number with the “tradition of interviewing a relatively small number of experts…fully recognised in the literature” (Downes & McMillan 2000, p. 161). Selecting too few “may produce unreliable data and invalid results; selecting too many may be a wasteful misuse of coding resources” (Riffe, Aust & Lacy in Krippendorff & Bock (Eds.) 2009, p. 54). The total sample of organisations was 20, with total interview sample of 21. Jensen (2012) suggests a small field “can be explored in depth for relevant phenomena” (p. 273). Participants were selected based on availability, willingness to participate, and whether they fit the criteria. An adequate sample is determined by redundancy criterion or diversity exhaustion. Both of these were established following the 20 sample organisation interviews.

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The sampling frame provided a structure from which to select a purposive sample based on four criteria, which goes to validity: x Major corporations, preferably listed on the Fortune 500 (USA) or ASX 200 (Australia) x Corporations or organisations fit within sectors/industries as identified by the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) x Organisations fit within Lockwood & Dennis’ (2008) taxonomy of industries, demonstrating financial stability and a need to communicate with their publics x Organisations use blogs and microblogs as part of their communication

ASX GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard) Sector list is aimed at standardising industry definitions. All ASX-listed entities have been reclassified by Standard and Poor’s according to GICS so that industry classifications are standardised globally. All participants are situated within one those categories. Industry sectors on the ASX, outlined in Table 4.2, include the following classifications:

Table 4.2 ASX Industry classifications

x Auto & components x Banks x Capital goods x Commercial x Consumer x Consumer services & supplies durables & services apparel x Diversified financial x Energy x Food x Food, bev. & x Healthcare x Insurance tobacco equip. & services x Materials x Media x Pharma, biotech x Real estate x Retailing x Semiconductors x Software & services x Tech x Telecomms hardware x Transportation x Utilities www.ASX.com.au

Cho and Huh (2010) categorise their corporate blog study with industries based on the Fortune 500 (many other studies on social media use sample selected from the Fortune 500 including Barnes 2009, 2010; Culnan et al

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2010; Lee, Hwang & Lee 2006; Lee, Park & Hwang 2008; and so on), which include manufacturers, services and retailers, telecommunications, media and transport. Lockwood and Dennis’ (2008) determination of corporations by sectors based on large capitalisation to small capitalisation indices is a more abbreviated version of the ASX sectors list, and is as follows: x Consumer discretionary x Consumer staples x Financials x Healthcare x Industrials x Information technology

Every effort was made to include organisations listed on the ASX 200 and the Fortune 500, but many organisations declined participation (see Appendices). As a result, some participant organisations did not strictly fit into key criteria. They are large organisations and the leaders in their field either in Australia or globally and fit within the industry sectors. These samples were representative of major global corporations and deemed appropriate. The strategic selection of the sample organisations was based on each organisation’s position within the Fortune 500 or ASX 200 or within their category, their industry sector (one of the five major industrial sectors), and whether or not they had a blog and/or microblog. Convenience sampling was not intended. In Figure 4.2, the sample selection process and what aspects were mandatory for an organisation to participate in the study is outlined.

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Figure 4.2 Process of sample selection

Companies selected from Fortune 500 (US) and ASX 200 (Australia) or global leaders and largest

Specific industry sectors (Retail, financial, industrial, energy, healthcare, information technology, utilities, tourism, telecommunications)

Organisations with blog and/or microblog Organisation is largest or challenger within sector

Organisations agreed to partici- pate

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Tables 4.3 and 4.4 outline the sampling frame and the list of participating organisations.

Table 4.3 Sampling Frame Sampling parameter dimensions Setting x Australia: ASX 200 organisations or leader in field x USA: Fortune 500 organisations or global leader in field x Communicates with publics via microblogs and/or blogs Events, activities x Communication between organisation and publics via social media, specifically blogging and/or microblogging Issue x Investigating dialogue between an organisation and its publics x Trends in interaction between organisation and publics Time x Twelve months between February 2013 and February 2014 People x Social media managers Materials & artefacts x Corporate blogs and microblogs Concepts x Dialogue, interaction, engagement Based on Daymon & Holloway (2011)’s sampling parameters, p. 211

Table 4.4 List of participating organisations Company Country Industry sector Ranking (based on ASX GICS) Flight Centre Aus Transportation ASX 200 Jetstar Aus Transportation Wholly owned by Qantas, on the ASX 200 Comm Bank Aus Bank/financial ASX 200 *Major bank Aus/NZ Bank/financial ASX 200 Bank of Qld (BOQ) Aus/reg Bank/financial ASX 200

Telstra Aus Telecomms ASX 200 *Major telco Aus/oth Telecomms ASX 200 Ten Hldgs (Ch 10) Aus Media ASX 200

Coles Australia Aus Food retailing ASX 200 HTC Taiwan Tech hardware Taiwanese. Global leader in telecomms SAP Germ Tech software World’s largest business software company. Supplier to Fortune 500 companies Salesforce US US Tech software In Fortune 1000. Sells to Salesforce Aus US/Aus Software Fortune 500 companies; ranked on Fortune’s best companies to work for & Fortune’s 100 fastest growing companies eBay US/Aus Retail/online Fortune 500

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Ford US Automotive Fortune 500 *Major tour org Aus Tourism Largest tourism body in Australia NRMA Motoring Aus Automotive Largest automotive member organisation in Australia Westfield Aus/in’tl Retailing ASX 200 Lorna Jane Aus Consumer Largest sports clothing retailer in Australia. Privately owned

Ansell Aus/US Health ASX 200 Alinta Aus Energy ASX 200

*Requested de-identification

There was one phase of purposive sampling with a population of 21 social media managers (n=21) within 20 participant organisations based on the criteria. All participants were offered the opportunity to be de-identified. Eighteen agreed to be identified, three requested de-identification. Those participants who requested de-identification are known only to the author. All participants were asked to participate voluntarily and were provided with information and written consent forms including purpose of the study, procedures, risks and benefits. Participants were offered the opportunity to withdraw at any time from the study and none did. They were asked to identify bloggers within the corporation who might be willing to be interviewed for subsequent snowball sampling, but all did the actual blogging or microblogging themselves or had just been elevated from that position.

4.7 Coding MAXQDA software was used to manage data and identify patterns. Qualitative software analysis helps the researcher to query data, visualise it, and report from it, as well as ensure rigor in the analysis process. Using MAXQDA facilitated coding. Table 4.5 outlines the codes used in the analysis.

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Table 4.5 Codes used in MaxQDA analysis Responsiveness Training Advocacy Crisis Brand Community Success Monitoring Customer service Blog One way (and one way/push) Marketing (and marketing/PR as subsection Dialogue Strategy (and strategy/objectives or goals) Internal (and internal/chatter) Content (and content sharing Engagement (and relationship, Measure (and sentiment, metric, ROI) interaction)

The coding system is a set of “instructions or rules describing how to observe and record content from the text” (Neuman 2011, p. 363) to convert content into data. In this study, the researcher sought the implicit meaning in the content of texts. Rybalko and Seltzer (2010) studied 93 of 170 Fortune 500 Twitter profiles with ten tweets per profile, using Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic principles to determine dialogue and a willingness to interact, but the determination of dialogue was not based on more than three ‘interactions’ (Rafaeli 1988; Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997) as it is in this study.

For coding content analysis (Twitter, Facebook and blog posts of the organisations studied), Kent and Taylor’s (2002) principles of dialogic public relations theory were used to determine dialogue and interaction. Table 4.6 outlines them:

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Table 4.6 Coding categories Coding Demonstration of dialogue Substantive blog conversation CON Behaviour is dialogic – DIAL between active participants exchange of comments, (organisation and public); at interaction between least three interactions organisation and (Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997) stakeholder

Propinquity includes an PROP Temporal flow – exchange TEM element of consultation, is meaningful in a engagement with an temporal way and understanding of the other’s responsiveness is quick position, empathy and vulnerability Interaction is transparent INT and demonstrates an Mutuality – an MUT understanding of risk on acknowledgement that an part of organisation organisation and publics are tied together Conversation index (size, CI density and freshness) Mutual equality; participants MUT EQ in dialogue are considered equals in a power balance Based on Kent & Taylor (2002)’s tenets of dialogue

An added code is Paine’s (2007) Conversation Index, a metric referring to the ratio of posts an author creates on blogs to the number of comments or trackbacks.

4.8 Analysis Analysis of the data was ongoing. Analysis began by reviewing field notes of the interviews. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were created from the digital recordings, then reviewed again. Transcribed by the researcher for complete immersion in the data, they were examined for themes, key words and topic relevance. Qualitative data analysis included searches for patterns and relationships and was done first manually, then with MAXQDA. Patterns were connected to concepts (Neuman 2011) and organised into categories, creating themes to explain the data (Guba & Lincoln 1982). Categories included dialogue, engagement, interaction, measurement, content and relationship. Silverman (2011) says there is no agreed way to analyse qualitative data and some methods may conflict with one another. It was

163 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 important in this analysis to interpret the meanings of words and to discover if the phenomenon of dialogue exists on social media with a technological platform created for it.

The data derive from an understanding of intent based on asking questions in interviews, then the analysis of those interviews and content analysis of texts (blogs and microblogs). Data reduction is the selecting, focusing and abstracting of raw data, making decisions about which data chunks should receive focus (Silverman 2013). After working with MAXQDA to code categories, raw data was reduced to narrow the focus for complete examination. Conclusion drawing then began, referring regularly to theoretical constructs in the literature for comparison. Activities are outlined in Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3 Data collection and analysis Data collection Procedures: Semi-structured one-on-one interviews Field notes Analysis of interviews Coding Analysis of blog/microblog posts Thematic analysis Overall results and interpretation

Data analysis Products: Categories Field notes Tables

______

Based on Cresswell & Plano Clarke 2007, p. 46

Data collection overlaps with data analysis because data is often analysed whilst being collected to take advantage of flexible data collection (Eisenhardt 1989). In this study, as texts were first analysed prior to interviews, it allowed the researcher to ask more direct questions to

164 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 participants about their interaction and/or engagement. It offered an opportunity to seek explicit determinations of strategies and objectives of microblogs and blogs. Texts were analysed again after the interviews.

Data condensation or reduction occurs throughout the research. Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest data reduction initially occurs when researchers analyse research questions, cases, data collection and approaches to use because selection is an analytical choice. Data reduction began at the research question phase, then at the sampling stage (reduction of sampling frame or participants) with the selection of organisations to be approached for participation. Subsequent data reduction occurred during the collection stage and during content analysis, eliminating data that was not applicable.

The opportunity to have professional communicators discuss why they do or do not engage in dialogue with their publics is one that provided a profound insight into the difference between practice and theory. The qualitative methodology allowed for in-depth discussion with participants to examine and understand what benefits they sought in communicating through social media, whether dialogue was significant in their interactions with publics, and how relevant they determined their interaction with publics to be. The content analysis of blogs and microblogs allowed an opportunity to analyse whether what participants said was implemented and whether dialogue, or interaction, actually took place.

A great deal of rich data was aggregated and the next few chapters interrogate the findings, which are separated into several categories: dialogue, interaction, engagement, social media metrics, crisis management in social media, responsiveness, training and organisational voice. The first findings chapter examines overall findings and themes, then specifically analyses dialogue and interaction. Subsequent chapters review blog and microblog use, social media metrics, crisis management, and how social media affect the way an organisation communicates.

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Chapter 5

Overall findings, and findings and discussion on dialogue and interaction

The next few chapters analyse the study’s findings, which are divided into several categories. The findings are segmented, as outlined in the conceptual framework, by dialogue, interaction and engagement between organisations and publics, interaction between publics (or peers), and the results of the communication in general. This chapter reports the overall findings of the study. It should be read in conjunction with Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 which present further detailed findings on blog and microblog use, metrics and measurement, the management of crises in social media, and other findings impacting organisational communication. This chapter also presents specific findings about dialogue and interaction. Table 5.1 outlines all participants and whether each use a blog, Facebook and/or Twitter.

Table 5.1 Use of blogs and microblogs by participants

Participant Blog Facebook Twitter Coles Yes Yes Yes HTC Yes Yes Yes Westfield Yes Yes No (in beta test) NRMA Yes Yes Yes Major telco No Yes Yes Major bank Yes Yes Yes Major tourism body No Yes Yes (B2B only) Jetstar No Yes Yes Flight Centre Yes Yes Yes Commonwealth Bank Yes Yes Yes Telstra Yes Yes Yes Salesforce Yes Yes Yes SAP Yes Yes (limited) Yes Lorna Jane Yes Yes Yes eBay No Yes Yes Bank of Queensland No Yes Yes Channel 10 Yes Yes Yes Ansell Yes No Yes Ford Yes Yes Yes Alinta No No Yes

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5.1 Overall findings There were four key findings in the study: x Dialogue was not found. Dialogue is not used in practice and it is not clearly understood by social media managers, although several believe they engage in dialogue x Conversation, as defined in Chapter 1, was found, but more between publics or peers than between organisations and publics x Public relations does not manage social media. Sixty seven per cent of social media managers report to marketing x Organisations use social media for one-way transmissible marketing communication, not two-way symmetrical communication. For them, building relationships is directly related to transactions or sales. Organisation-public communication in social media creates a one-sided “persuasive sphere” (Moloney 2000 cited in Fawkes & Moloney 2008). This is a new finding. x Engagement, to social media managers, is exemplified, and measured, by movement of publics to purchase.

Similar to findings of previous studies investigating dialogue, dialogue was not found in this study. In most of those previous studies, participants were public relations practitioners who self-reported (e.g. Wright & Hinson 2006- 2014) and most did not implement in-depth interviews. However, the discovery that social media managers report to marketing and thus engage in marketing activities focussing on sales and promotion in social media is a new finding.

Twenty five per cent of social media managers expressed a desire for dialogue, but were uncertain how it would work, particularly with the considerable volume of interactants on social media. Several social media managers expressed the belief that they were engaging in dialogue, with the

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understanding that dialogue is an equal and respectful back-and-forth interaction.

Overall themes across the data were: 1. Engagement is a key metric, but there was no consensus on its definition (see ‘engagement’ in Chapter 2) 2. Content is an important component of social media; sharing content by publics with third parties is the most sought-after form of engagement 3. Brand advocacy is sought in social media (see ‘brand advocacy’ later in this chapter), more so than dialogue 4. Fans follow brands they love or admire on social media.

Table 5.2 Overall themes Themes Meaning Example Engagement Interaction between two parties. Response to post or May or may nor lead to comment, as well as collaboration or conversation posting of content Content Words and images posted Blog post, video, photos Measurement Engagement a key metric More ‘likes’, more Growth of community = success followers, sharing content One-way comm Pushing information out News, announcements, posts w/o expectation of comment Marketing Social media as marketing Aim is to push product channel or information resulting in sales Monitoring Listening to what others are Use of tools to ‘hear’ saying conversation, sentiment Brand advocacy Ultimate support for brand Defends and loves brand online, recommends to friends & family

5.2 Findings on dialogue and interaction Dialogue as a theoretical construct does not translate into practice. As outlined by Kent and Taylor (1998, 2002), it is a much-admired theory and integrates into the key elements of social media and Web 2.0. It remains

168 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 unclear whether participants grasped the depth of activity, mutuality and equality required for dialogue, because they did not choose to implement it, although they claimed to agree with the concept. Participants believed that dialogue equated to answering a question (the researcher had explained the intricacies of dialogue) and admitted to not engaging in dialogue because it is difficult, labour intensive and involved risk. They also claimed their fans or followers did not want it. There was no evidence to support this argument, although Botan (1997) had introduced this possibility.

Initial research and literature reviews recognised dialogue as the most ethical form of public relations between an organisation and its publics. But just because an organisation and its publics engage in conversation (as defined in Chapter 1) does not mean they are behaving dialogically (Kent & Taylor 2002), and there is a wide gulf between what Web 2.0 technology allows and how communication professionals are using it. While dialogue is recommended by many public relations scholars, these findings indicate that this has not as yet been achieved in organisation-public interaction in social media, at least with those organisations in this study. Findings in this study determined that participants prefer brand advocacy to dialogue (in fact, brand advocacy is the most sought-after result in social media. See ‘brand advocacy’ later in this chapter). This could be attributed to marketing’s responsibility for social media, and marketing is a discipline focused on transactions, promotion and one-way communication.

When comparing matrices of ‘dialogue’ with other codes during MAXQDA analysis of interviews, dialogue overlapped most in discussions with ‘blog’ and ‘community’, indicating that participants perceived dialogue to be important to build brand community and blogs were a good tool to achieve that. They understood that blogs could be used as a dialogic channel with their communities, but were hesitant to create content that inspired two- way communication, due to fear of vulnerability to risk, lack of desire, the desire to engage in dialogue too limited and the time and effort too great

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(lack of time and effort was also a conclusion reached by McAllister 2012). The consensus amongst all participants was that dialogue was a ‘nice to have’. Dialogue, even the more casual conversation, was missing between organisations and publics, but found occasionally between peers on social media sites like Ford Social or Lorna Jane. It was also more apparent on Twitter than Facebook.

Organisations use blogs and microblogs for transmission of information and news, rather than as a dialogic channel (also found in Carim & Warwick 2013). This study found that participants preferred one-way information transmission because it is easier and less time consuming (all participants complained about the lack of resources to manage social media. Social media channels are utilised most for marketing communication consistent with Moloney’s (2000 cited in Fawkes & Moloney 2008) persuasive sphere (see ‘introduction’). Enli and and Skogerbø (2013) in their investigation of Norwegian political candidates’ use of social media found the central motive for use was marketing – the candidate marketing himself/herself publicly – but it was followed by a desire for dialogue with voters. In this study, the organisations were marketing themselves and their products, under the guise of two-way interaction.

Dialogic public relations is considered the most ethical, effective communication approach (Kent & Taylor 1998, 2002; McAllister 2012; Pearson 1989b), but it is vastly underutilised (McAllister 2012), and the findings of this study reinforced that. Although it is claimed blogs stimulate dialogue (Baxter & Connolly 2013), this was not validated in this study. Dialogue was not stimulated on participants’ blogs. These findings determined that conversation, mostly between peers (individuals), occurred occasionally. Real interaction, as defined by Rafaeli (1988) and Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997) (see Chapter 2), was found only by a limited number of participants. While the study defined an interactive occurance as having at least three interactions (cf. Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997) per post, no thread

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(series of related posts) had more than three interactions between an organisation and an individual, so dialogue was difficult to discern.

Dialogue was explained to the participants as interaction in a blog or microblog which resulted in several exchanges that demonstrated a respect for and a vulnerability to the other, where both interactants were considered equals. It was explained verbally prior to the interviews and all participants acknowledged understanding of the concept. However, while discussing dialogue further, 75 per cent of participants responded that they considered dialogue as answering a question. Dialogue was not a major discussion point in interviews (see MAXQDA matrix of discussion points in Appendices) except by two participants: Ridge of Westfield and Bradley of Alinta, neither of whose social media sites featured dialogue. They discussed their eagerness for two-way communication, having “that dialogue” with individuals “because we want that back-and-forth” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013), but this was not validated through content analysis. They preferred individuals to interact with each other. “If we can really generate those conversations between our shoppers, we could almost just step back. That for me is the ultimate success, where we are just providing a place where our shoppers can communicate with each other about what they love about Westfield and what a great experience they had there” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013).

Dialogue requires interaction on a deep level, and an awareness of and respect for the other, which can be difficult in microblogging’s limited number of characters per post. Participants argued that the sheer volume of interactants stifled dialogue. Kent (2013) says the difficulty with Twitter or Facebook is that there are too many other distractions for dialogue to take place. Four participants – Zivot of Lorna Jane, Young of eBay, Medcalf of Coles and Clarke of Telstra – agreed: Facebook does not easily lend itself to dialogue or long form interaction because it is too public and can elicit negative comments from the community, perhaps making it undesirable to engage publicly for some. Said Medcalf of Coles: “I would say dialogue is a loose term…We try and have a dialogue, but

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generally, there is more a general theme that we employ to support our marketing campaigns or other corporate affairs issues…We do not have a policy of one-to-one interaction… So, I think we try to have a dialogue as much as possible, but as you can imagine, the volume does prevent a granularity to that” (Medcalf, Coles, pers. comms., 28 September 2013).

Clarke of Telstra said she seeks peer-to-peer interaction, but expressed a desire for deep, meaningful dialogue between the organisation and members of its community. “We make sure that the content we’re producing for all of our channels – for the blog, for Facebook and Twitter – is aimed at starting a conversation online…at eliciting some kind of response…I think it is an opportunity we’ve never had before, to have a conversation and a relationship with our customers every single day” (Clarke, Telstra, pers. comms., 18 March 2013).

Kent and Taylor (1998, 2002) determined that relationships that emerge from dialogic interaction are based on trust. “Social is great for building more relationships with your brand because they are actually engaged with the brand”, said Graham of NRMA (pers. comms., 10 September 2013). Zivot of Lorna Jane and Medcalf of Coles concur: “Social is a great way for us to craft relationships with our customers”, said Medcalf of Coles (pers. comms., 28 September 2013). Concurred Traazil of HTC:

“They have an available channel for their voice to be heard and that impacts the brand hugely…Customers are more involved…so engagement happens at multiple levels, either delivering content that they like, content that they actually find useful, content that inspires them to have a conversation with us...That is really what we mean by engagement. We hope that we engage them enough that they become influencers or advocates for our brand and eventually we have a one-to-one relationship with” (Traazil, HTC, pers. comms., 27 September 2013).

This reinforces that as a result of the finding that social media managers report to marketing, social media interaction is less about public relations and more (mostly) about marketing and promotion. Finding mutually beneficial relationships is less important to participants than having publics become influencers and advocates for the brand.

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5.2.1 Conversation Conversation is casual whereas dialogue is not, although conversations can lead to dialogue. Being involved in a conversation is an essential element of two-way communication. People will participate in online conversations on blogs and microblogs if they find the theme interesting, see comments by other known influencers of the community, or observe an engaging interaction between people (Choudhury, Sundaram, John & Seligmann 2009). Conversations about organisations generally occur around admiration for it or interest in the topic/theme, usually a trending topic (something about which there is a lot of ‘conversation’ at one particular moment), and the conversation will occur with or without the organisation’s input.

Seventy five per cent of participants agreed that conversations were important; ten per cent said they believed in the deeper level of dialogue, but only two participants actually attempted to engage in dialogue. Telstra and major telco made a valiant effort, and they believe dialogue does take place. “The real purpose of the Telstra ‘Exchange’ blog is fundamentally about having conversations with our online community…If it was not two-way, our channels would not continue to grow like they are” (Clarke, Telstra, pers. comms., 18 March 2013).

Beany of Channel 10 discussed the importance of conversations and Channel 10 would be “missing out on opportunities to own those conversations” (pers. comms., 21 February 2013) if they did not interact in social media, but content analysis indicates no conversation at all between Channel 10 and its publics. In fact, Channel 10 rarely even responded to queries. Mantero of Ansell argues that organisations must get involved because “there are customers and analysts having discussions about us whether we like it or not. Why not embed ourselves in those conversations?” (pers. comms., 15 February 2013). Other participants echoed this sentiment, but content analysis proved that conversations rarely eventuated. Table 5.3 outlines whether participants believe they have or want dialogue or conversation.

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Table 5.3 Degree of dialogue or conversation Participant Wants Wants Has Dialogue Content analysis Dialogue Conversation or demonstration Conversation of dialogue Westfield Yes Yes No None eBay Yes Yes No None Major telco Yes Yes Wants more Some Jetstar Yes Yes Somewhat Yes, sometimes Bank of Qld Yes Yes No Some Llewellyn Yes Yes ------Comm Bank Yes Yes Thinks so None Ford Yes Yes Somewhat Somewhat Ansell Yes Yes No None Telstra Yes Yes Somewhat Somewhat Coles No Yes No None HTC No Yes Yes Somewhat NRMA No Yes No None Lorna Jane No Somewhat Some Some Alinta Yes Yes No None Flight Centre No No No None Major Bank No No No None Salesforce Yes Yes No None Ch 10 No Yes No None Major Tour body Some Yes Yes Minimal

Major telco believes conversations and dialogue are not the same: “There should be conversations, but I am not sure about dialogue” (pers. comms., 12 August 2013). Ridge of Westfield admitted there are not many conversations on Westfield’s Facebook page or blog (content analysis confirms this) but shared her desired for more, although there were risks involved. She said a conversation on its Facebook page with a small group of customers might alienate other customers not interested in the topic. Other participants (e.g. CommonwealthBank, Alinta, Salesforce) discussed a variety of risks inherent in completely transparent conversation that could affect the organisation’s financial goals. Epstein of Commonwealth Bank agrees that these engendered levels of fear in the organisation when considering conversation.

Monty of Ford says it is essential to listen to what fans have to say. Content analysis indicated Ford did not partake often in conversation on its social media sites, although brand advocates (peers) interact regularly and share stories. The concept of listening emerged in discussion as very meaningful

174 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 and significant. Participants agreed that listening (that is, reading comments and responding to suggested or requested change) is critical. Fifty per cent of participants agreed that listening was imperative for change (for example, policy direction, guidelines, requirements) and if an organisation did not demonstrate change a result of listening, distrust ensued which could then led to less interaction.

Research has found that peer-to-peer conversations dominate social media (Mangold & Faulds 2009; Milewicz & Saxby 2013) and findings in this study also discovered that peer-to-peer interaction occurred more often than organisation-public interaction. There are more interactions (at least three back-and-forth comments with reciprocal discussion referring to a previous comment) on Twitter, again primarily peer-to-peer. Shamma, Kennedy and Churchill (2009) had similar findings, adding more Twitter interaction occurs following major news events, political debates or elections. Those interactions did not occur between organisations and publics in this study. Occasionally, a question posted on Facebook or Twitter was answered by another user, but it did not eventuate into ‘substantive conversation’, with three or more interactions (as per Rafaeli & Sudweeeks 1997). (See complete analysis of dialogue and interaction on Twitter, Facebook and blogs in Appendices). Table 5.4 outlines the content analysis of Twitter, Facebook and blog posts based on coding categories.

175 Table 5.4 Content & text analysis

176

The level of propinquity and mutual equality differed from one organisation to another, with Telstra demonstrating the most, and Salesforce and Channel 10 the least. Lorna Jane demonstrated mutual equality on its blog, but was not very interactive in other social media.

Fifty per cent of participants said Facebook was paramount to their social media strategy despite it not being condusive to dialogue. Four participants (Khan of Jetstar, Murrell of BoQ, Ridge of Westfield and Young of eBay) said they would have liked more dialogue, but were not sure how to attain it. They appreciated comments from users – 100 per cent of participants agreed that positive comments were read and responded to wherever possible, but many participants did not respond at all. Frustration was clearly demonstrated on Channel Ten’s Facebook page during the February 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics: there were multiple negative comments about Channel Ten’s promotion and coverage of the Games with little or no response from Channel Ten, leading to angrier and more disgruntled commentary.

On one post on February 12, 2014 regarding Day 5 of the Winter Olympics, there were 112 comments, two of which were positive and the rest negative. They were viewers unhappy with the Olympic coverage, complaining about the content, the ad breaks and the Channel Ten promos. On February 13, 2014, a post with 33 comments about Torah Bright’s silver medal garnered 32 negative comments and one positive comment about the coverage. There was no response from Channel Ten in either post. This failure to acknowledge complaints or comments led to user hostility and encouraged more negative comments.

There are a number reasons for negative comments: an unpleasant customer experience offline, an unpleasant interaction online, unhappiness with a product, or an organisation’s failure to acknowledge comments. Nine of 21 participants in this study (43 per cent) featured extremely negative,

177 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 disruptive or irrelevant comments regularly on Facebook. Not all negative comments were related to the post; some users used abusive language towards the brand or the product and some cursed for the sake of it. Comments that were reasonably negative to the brand or the post were considered relevant in the content analysis.

Social media users who post abusive or extremely negative comments are known as trolls or cyber trolls (see Chapter 2 for ‘trolls’). Coles and Channel 10 had more trolling comments than other participant organisations, although abusive comments for the sake of it also featured on Telstra and major telco’s Facebook pages. As major telco pointed out, “We’re a telco and the national sport of Australia is telco bashing” (pers. comms., 12 August 2013), meaning abusive comments on social media are not unexpected. Some irrelevant and abusive comments on participant sites were indecipherable, incomprehensible or in a foreign language and disregarded in the content analysis. Neither Coles nor Channel 10 deleted or eliminated negative comments, but Ford, Jetstar, NRMA and major tourism body did.

Medcalf of Coles claimed, “There are real conversations going on our pages” (pers. comms., 28 September 2013) between peers and admitted that Coles did not respond to every comment. Content analysis showed Coles rarely responded to comments with little conversation between Coles and its publics. There was peer interaction and many of the conversations were hijacked (Kietzmann et al. 2011 calls this manipulation) by people with an agenda, for example, those berating Coles for selling halal meat (meat slaughtered in the method prescribed by Islamic law) or those promoting veganism. Whenever a recipe featuring meat was posted on Coles’ Facebook page, it sparked negative comments from vegans or vegetarians, or those opposed to Coles selling halal meat. A December 2, 2013 post featuring a Greek meat dish had three anti halal comments and nine anti-Coles posts – for example, “Coles is a corporate bully who screws growers and farmers and customers”, “Coles are vermin”, “Coles f’n suck”. There are greater issues

178 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 here than dialogue or dissatisfaction with lack of interaction by organisations. What motivates publics to such vitrol? Is it frustration or anger? There may be other behavioural issues at play; social media provide a person with anonymity in outlets for grievances and irritation. Phillips (2011) argues Facebook’s architecture encourages self-involvement and aggressive behaviour, and Hardaker (2010 in Binns 2012) suggests anonymity permits a sense of impunity and a loss of self-awareness. This study interrogated the methods of organisations’ approach to dialogue in social media, but future research might determine the rationale for publics’ use of these types of comments.

Forty per cent of participants (eight of 21) agreed that comments concerning the organisation’s policies, direction and decisions were seriously considered and always fed back to management. This dovetails with Kent and Taylor (1998)’s recommendation of a feedback loop to ensure dialogue online between an organisation and its publics, demonstrating that it is important for the organisation to acknowledge users’ criticisms or observations and it is important to demonstrate action as a result of commentary. However, some organisations like NRMA (see Chapter 8 case study) deleted comments referring to a specific situation. It is unethical public relations practice to delete comments when dialogue is the desirable outcome of social media interaction (Dekay 2012). Dekay (2012) recommends responding to all comments in as positive a manner as possible, which would then foster good relations with publics. While scholars recommend not ignoring unfavourable comments, many participants in this study did.

On one Coles post on December 6, 2013 on the subject of prawns, there were 230 comments of which 65 were negative, 57 were positive, 82 were neutral or irrelevant, and three were abusive. The rest did not fit into any category. In a post on December 11, 2013 about lamb pie, of 71 comments, two were trolls and two were vegans arguing against the sale of meat, which sparked two different conversations with six comments each about veganism

179 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 versus eating meat. There were thirteen positive comments, eleven neutral, five irrelevant and two negative. The interactions were between users with no involvement from Coles, reinforcing Coles’ comments about not responding to individual posts.

Positive comments can lead to greater conversation and dialogue, especially on Twitter. Even if issues and problems may not be completely resolved, fans feel as though they are being listened to when their comments are responded to. All participants agreed that it is imperative to respond to all comments in some way, either directly, to users as a group, or to demonstrate a change in the business that was inspired by a comment. Content analysis did not support this. Many Facebook or Twitter posts remained unanswered by the organisation. Comments by fans proved rare on the blogs analysed. Interaction on blogs was more in the form of likes or shares, not comments. Fans also like to see resolution of other fans’ problems.

Comments on Facebook are different to Twitter: Facebook allows for longer posts, so there are longer comments and often more negative ones. Organisations’ Facebook pages may generate unnecessary and inappropriate negative or irrelevant comments (trolls), even other providers or competitors advertising their wares. “There are too many trolls on Facebook who just are not productive” (Young, eBay, pers comms., 14 August 2013).

Some organisations chose to delete comments that showed the organisation in a negative light after a certain length of time. For example, in returning to Facebook to analyse content for Ford and NRMA regarding crises (see Chapter 8 for crises case studies), comments about issues or crises had been deleted. This can be explained as reputation management by the organisation or as an effort to control the message

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The desire for dialogue was impacted by whether the organisation was marketing-led (i.e. seeking a direct link to sales) or communications-led (i.e. seeking to build deeper relationships with publics). This was reinforced by Young of eBay who said he wanted dialogue, but felt forced to act transactionally (that is, to ensure comments led to transactions on the organisation’s website) because of the push from marketing. Dialogue was deemed most important for building community, and the greater the size of the community, the greater the impact of dialogue. Several participants (Graham of NRMA, Locke of Flight Centre and Zivot of Lorna Jane) claimed fans on their blogs or Twitter and Facebook sites did not want dialogue or conversation (see Botan (1997) in the Literature Review) – they just wanted an answer to their query, so there was no reason to implement dialogue from the organisation’s perspective. “We’re not going back and forth and having ten chats in a thread. We’re maybe responding once or twice…but it is not like a long conversation that we’re having... Generally, it is just people wanting a quick answer – they do not actually want to talk to us. They just want to have their opinion, and then we respond and then they say ‘thanks’ ” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

5.2.3 Interaction Interaction, as defined in Chapters 1 and 2, between organisations and publics was low – comments on blog were rare and microblog posts were often left unanswered with queries neglected. Almost half of participants conceded that most of the communication they implemented, and with which they were involved on social media, was one-way; they pushed information out to help build awareness of their organisation. Awareness, most participants said, was a key objective of social media, as was brand advocacy, more than interaction, even though all participants (100 per cent) believed any form of interaction was desirable. Interaction, as interpreted by participants, included a like, follow, retweet, comment or sharing of content on their blog or microblog posts. Some interactions were more appreciated than others. Sharing of content was most desirable, better than a ‘like’ (which Monty of Ford referred to as a “digital grunt”) but they acknowledged

181 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 that the content they created had to be interesting and of value in order to be shared by followers. Comments were considered meaningful or important by 100 per cent of participants. They recognised the effort and commitment for someone to write a thoughtful comment, and admitted comments often influenced others in the organisation. Negative comments were usually ignored and often did not engender a response. Often, comments depicting the organisation in a negative light were deleted after time. What participants really sought was brand advocacy by followers, those fans who admire and support the brand, recommend it to family and friends and defend it against criticism.

The degree of interaction differed between platforms. There was less interaction on blogs than Facebook and Twitter. Organisations provided informative content on blogs and many blog posts were read, measured by page views, but comments were limited. Individuals preferred to interact with organisations on Twitter and Facebook, and there was more ‘back-and- forth’ on Twitter. Comments on Facebook varied from compliments to complaints, whilst on Twitter, gripes and grievances overtook reciprocal discussion. This latter point proved to be true on Australian sites all of the time and on the US sites some of the time. Four participants – Medcalf of Coles, major tourism body, Ridge of Westfield and Murrell of Bank of Queensland (BOQ) – agreed that encouraging interaction between peers was a more important outcome than between individuals and the organisation, because it potentially resulted in brand advocacy. Creating and hosting a platform for online communities for that purpose was of primary importance in their communication. Ridge of Westfield and major tourism body agreed that peer-to-peer interaction served both the community and the organisations best because, in their cases, there is a layer of organisations between them and the public at large (e.g. retailers, hotels, rental car agencies, etc.). But they agreed that encouraging intercommunity dialogue could lead to brand advocacy, their ultimate goal.

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Interaction between publics and the organisation was limited even in cases where the fans had built a sizable community. In fact, Zivot of Lorna Jane said too much conversation – other than the occasional back and forth – indicated a problem, and Locke of Flight Centre said, “Dialogue is not a focus of our media strategy” (pers. comms., 22 May 2013). In three of the organisations studied (Ford, Lorna Jane, and major tourism body), there was a sense of real community, with the platform created by the organisation in order to build a community and encourage peer-to-peer interaction. Most organisations rarely commented or replied to queries; responsiveness was limited most of the time – exceptions were major telco and Telstra. While the study found the existence of dialogue was not greater in business-to- business communities (B2B e.g. SAP and Salesforce) than on business-to- consumer (B2C sites), exchanges that did take place were deeper, more involved and on topic, with few complaints and no trolls. Salesforce had fewer than five comments in more than 50 blog posts on both the Australia/New Zealand blog and the US blog, but all were appropriate.

Social media allow interaction between an organisation and its publics, which helps build relationships and enhance reputation (Ostrander 2007). Participants understood interaction was positive in social media and discussed one-way transmission of content as expected within their organisation. Content analysis reflected that 90 per cent of participants pushed content out. Participants asserted that one-way communication fit their social media strategy of awareness. Zivot of Lorna Jane argued that some fans are passive so one-way communication was helpful. Twenty seven per cent of participants admitted they communicated in a one-way method throughout social media (Salesforce, Ch 10, Coles, Westfield and Flight Centre) with no attempt at dialogic interaction. One-way communication included news, announcements and media releases. Six participants (30 per cent) – Traazil of HTC, Medcalf of Coles, Ridge of Westfield, Zivot of Lorna Jane, Beany of Channel Ten and Freitas of Salesforce – said one-way communication was more important than two-way. Bradley of Alinta and

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Monty of Ford said pushing information out for awareness is acceptable, but pushing it out to sell product does not work. Said Bradley:

“I’ve never seen that work in the six years this has been part of my function…Pushing commercial messages out for the brands doesn’t work for service-oriented businesses. It just doesn’t work that way” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013).

Table 5.5 shows which organisations used one-way or two-way interaction on their Twitter and Facebook sites or blogs.

Table 5.5. One-way vs two-way communication Organisation Twitter Facebook Blog HTC Two-way Two-way One-way Coles One-way One way One-way Salesforce One way One-way One-way (AU & US) SAP Two-way One-way One-way (blogs) Client claim of two- way on Forbes blog (no researcher access) Ansell ------One-way Ford Two-way One-way One-way Lorna Jane Two-way One way Two way eBay One-way (global) One-way No blog Telstra Two-way (cst service) Two-way Two-way Bank of Queensland One-way One-way One-way (new) NRMA Two-way (cst service) One-way One-way Comm Bank Two-way (cst service) One-way Two-way Major telco Two-way (cst service) Two-way Two-way Major tourism body One-way One-way No blog Major bank One way Two-way One-way Channel 10 One-way One-way One-way Westfield In beta test One way One-way Jetstar Two-way (cst service) Two-way No blog Flight Centre Two-way (cst service) One way One-way Alinta One-way ------No blog

The content pushed out, participants said, dictates whether or not publics engage on a post, confirmed in the content analysis of blog, Twitter and Facebook posts. Content is extremely important – if individuals like the content, they will engage in some way. If the content strikes a nerve, users will respond, and mostly positively; zero comments may mean users are digesting the information or that the information is of little interest to them. Feedback depends, says Traazil of HTC, on the type of content presented. “It still is a convenient platform for us to push our messages, but we do try to

184 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

be a little bit more engaged with our customers by providing them with content that they actually want to see” (Traazil, HTC, pers. comms., 27 September 2013)

Graham of NRMA said she felt internal pressure to push information out and promote products. Ridge of Westfield admitted, “We’re trying to have conversations. It is not enough just to push, push, push” but acknowledged that social media “does tend to be a push medium” (pers. comms., 18 September 2013). However, there was no interaction between the organisation and publics on Westfield’s Facebook page. Similarly, Beany of Channel 10 agreed the objective was to push content out and sometimes have a conversation, although no conveseration was found on Channel 10’s sites.

However, Bradley of Alinta, Locke of Flight Centre, Medcalf of Coles and Graham of NRMA argued that pushing information out assists with the company’s SEO ranking (search engine optimisation – the process of increasing visitors to a web site by listing high in a search engine’s rankings. Search engines crawl through Web pages to find those best matched to a search term).

“One of the reasons Flight Centre got into blogging and microblogging was SEO…We do push out content to help us with our SEO ranking” (Locke, Flight Centre, pers. comms., 22 May 2013).

Murrell of Bank of Queensland believes social media “are broadcast channels”, just part of the communications mix, a way to engage with customers. Produce as much content as possible and push it out, he suggested, although he would like to see more dialogue – “There’s not nearly as much dialogue and engagement as there could be” (pers. comms., 20 May 2013).

Major bank conceded they push announcements out through Twitter as part of “having a presence” and Zivot of Lorna Jane agreed:

“We want engaged users, but the reality is most users are passive. There is still value in reaching them, even if it is a one-way communication…Simple

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exposure in is still beneficial.” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013)

Gareth Llewelyn of Salesforce and Oracle was one of the few participants who disagreed, but he was from a public relations background. He thought pushing marketing information out through the blog would result in negative comments – “No one wants to see marketing puff” (pers. comm., 17 April 2013). Epstein of Commonwealth Bank, Mantero of Ansell, Traazil of HTC and Clarke of Telstra acknowledged that originally, their social media were strictly one-way, but have since evolved. Content may be pushed out periodically, but conversation and interaction are essential, they said.

This study found that both Facebook and Twitter were used to answer queries, although issues were often left unresolved, particularly on eBay, Channel Ten and Coles’ sites. Participants used Facebook as well as Twitter for customer service and complaints (Jetstar, Westfield, Coles, HTC, Telstra, Bank of Queensland, Commonwealth Bank, major telco and Lorna Jane – 43.5 per cent). “There is dialogue and customer service going on through the channels and that is growing all the time. That dialogue will continue as we look to increase our service capacity on social” (Murrell, BOQ, pers. comms., 20 May 2013) eBay’s Young felt caught in an internal battle between communications, which wants more dialogue, and marketing, which wants more transactions: “Do we have an ongoing dialogue? No… I would say it is sort of sporadic and intermittent. [In order to increase dialogue], I think that comes back to introducing more of those values and softer content themes into the social channels – which is more of that comms-led approach, more about dialogue and conversation…At the moment, we’ve got more of a transactional ‘we’re doing this because we want you to do X’, which is ultimately to connect you to the website” (Young, eBay, pers. comms., 14 August 2013).

As discussed in Chapter 2, there are several definitions of interactivity. This research focuses more on those by Rafaeli (1988), Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997), and Kiousis (2002), where interacting is the degree to which an individual is able to react in such a way that he/she is taking into account other messages that came before it, creating a threaded interaction (Rafaeli 1988). This occurs in a mediated environment where “participants can

186 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 communicate (one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many), both synchronously and asynchronously, and participate in a reciprocal message exchange (third order dependency)” (Kiousis 2002, p. 372). It was the reciprocal message exchange that proved complex for many participants.

Medcalf of Coles believes interaction means users are consuming his organisation’s messages and information. In return, “we often hear what they want” (pers. comms., 28 September 2013), but this doesn’t mean Coles acts on it or interacts with publics. Zivot of Lorna Jane believes interaction happens less on the human-to-human level and more on the human-to- content level (as described by McMillan 2002) – he prefers that individuals interact with the content and not ‘chat’ with the organisation.

Galer of SAP and Epstein of Commonwealth Bank agree that good content inspires more interaction. “I would love social to be an engaging, dynamic community of thought leadership with interaction and we’re working on that” (Epstein, pers. comms., 11 April 2013), but in reality, if people like an organisation’s content, they interact by sharing it with their friends or commenting on it. Online interaction not only allows organisations to share with their publics, but also allows people to “share and exchange information with one another” (Sashi 2012, p. 255).

Khan of Jetstar believes that interaction between publics benefits the organisation. For example, on Twitter or Facebook, customers can explain things in less careful terms to other customers than Jetstar employees, who are bound by certain behaviour parametres, can. This proves helpful in some situations. Locke of Flight Centre agrees, although “we have to go back and confirm whether that person’s information is correct” (pers. comms., 22 May 2013). Khan of Jetstar, Locke of Flight Centre, Zivot of Lorna Jane and Young of eBay want interaction to lead to transaction: in the demand for sales, interaction on social media often leads to transactions on websites. Zivot of Lorna Jane delineates active interaction [sharing or purchasing product] from passive interaction [reading the post or others’ posts] on social media. If one

187 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 views ‘liking’ as the lowest form of interaction, Monty of Ford says, “they give us permission to be able to talk with them, share what we’re doing. It is the least commitment we could ask for” (pers. comms., 8 March2013).

Interactivity as defined by Rafaeli (1988), with messages relating to one another, was found in this study: messages related to one another, but not always on an ongoing basis, as discussed by Rafaeli & Sudweeks (1997) (interactive communication requires later messages to be taken into account, based on previous ones and the manner in which they were reactive). If one defines interaction as any form of action, there is a great deal of interaction on social media and it is immediate. But engagement was more difficult to exemplify.

5.2.4 Engagement Engagement has no definition on which participants and scholars agree (see ‘engagement’ in Chapter 2), but participants emphatically see is as a measure of success. Monty of Ford says, “Better engagement is one of the great mysteries of social” (pers. comms., 8 March 2013). It emerged from this study that understanding how people engage with or about content, with organisations and each other, and to what level, is difficult to determine. Zivot of Lorna Jane believes engagement to be any kind of interaction with online content. “If there is no action, you are not an engaged user”, he says and adds: “Engagement is the total volume of active users - the volume of people liking and commenting, posting, like the people that are actually engaged and not just passive users” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013)

Locke of Flight Centre, Graham of NRMA and Young of eBay agree that engagement in social media leads to transaction on the website. Young says eBay often creates content in order to generate engagement. “A photo…might deliver 10,000…likes, shares and comments…As a brand, we’ve created the connection and I think that has some value. Even if the topic has nothing to do with eBay…you are associating eBay with [something] interesting and amusing…Greater engagement ultimately translates into site traffic and visitation” (Young, eBay, pers. comms., 14 August 2013)

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Medcalf of Coles’ definition of engagement in social media is a combination of dwell time (how long a user remains on an organisation’s social site) and content sharing, which leads to more positive sentiment about the brand. Traazil of HTC agrees social media are engagement channels and engagement happens at multiple levels. Engagement is anything from content inspiring users to comment, to users becoming influencers or brand advocates, “but we go for long term engagement on every platform” (pers. comm., 27 September 2013).

All participants declared a desire for engagement, preferably deep engagement, but Khan of Jetstar says not every customer wants deep engagement. Answering a question is not engagement and “you do not necessarily have a deep level of engagement with all your customers” (pers. comms., 24 May 2013). Engagement, says Mantero of Ansell, requires dialogue. “We must initiate that dialogue…just posting media releases is not engagement” (pers. comm., 15 February 2013).

On a platform like Facebook, the more a user interacts with an organisation, the more content the user receives from that organisation in his/her news stream, leading to greater engagement. “Facebook very much wants you to communicate with your engaged users and that is why it is in a brand’s interest to create content that is as engaging as possible, because the higher your engagement, the more people are going to see that content…Your intent is to get your engagement as high as possible because that dictates your audience size” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013).

Ridge of Westfield and Murrell of Bank of Queensland agree that engagement is engaging with content – liking it or commenting – which leads to electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM). Engagement can drive brand advocacy, says Young of eBay, although not with Twitter. “I think that Twitter as a platform is much more of a broadcast channel…and it is pretty hard to actually have any kind of real interaction. And if there is interaction, it is conflict-driven. It is not actual discussion. It is usually

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juxtaposed points of view that stimulate engagement on Twitter” (pers. comms., 14 August 2013).

Although Millen and Wilson (2009) found that online engagement involves emotional bonding, this study concluded that engagement is an active relationship with the organisation that is determined in a number of different ways, depending on the organisation, but is rarely demonstrated by emotional bonding. One exception is Ford Social, where people are emotionally invested in the brand as well as the product (cars or trucks). Engagement may not necessarily lead to advocacy, but if it expands over time, as Sashi (2012) says, it may well become what social media managers seek.

5.2.5 The impact of content on dialogue and interaction

Very little academic research has been undertaken on social media content and its effects on the way users behave, respond or react to it, except for Peters, Chen, Kaplan, Ognibeni and Pauwels (2013). They suggest that content in social media has three aspects: content quality, including interactivity, domain and style; content valence (emotions) and tonality; and content volume. When content is not of interest to individuals following the organisation, it will not be read or shared. But, even if it is marketing content, if it addresses the motives of the public, they will engage (Peters et al 2013). In this study, it was found that if content was of no interest, it was not shared or commented upon.

All participants in this study acknowledged how important content was to engagement, but there was no clear agreement on what kind of content would generate what kind of engagement. Content must be developed to meet criteria and social media managers must decide if it is content to view, content with which to participate, or content to share. Murrell of Bank of Queensland said content could be anything from a game, a competition, a reward, a blog article with text alone or with infographics, to a video. Some participant organisations attempted to make their posts entertaining with

190 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 content unrelated to the brand, some of which included video, music, images or jokes. “People want information, but also want to be entertained”, said Murrell of Bank of Queensland (pers. comms., 20 May 2013). However, it is important that the content is relevant. Warned Clarke of SAP, there is a lot of content available, so “yours needs to be significant” (pers. comms., 9 August 2013) if interaction is desired.

Participants discussed the merits of creating specific content for specific social media sites. Bradley of Alinta said creating content for Twitter “gets no traction” and Medcalf of Coles and Graham of NRMA agreed that Twitter content does not generate results. However, Traazil of HTC says content for Twitter should be created differently from content for Facebook. For Twitter, he said, content needs to be short, sharp and text focused, while Facebook content should include illustrations, photos, or videos. Medcalf of Coles and Ridge of Westfield acknowledged that images are very important for their Facebook content. Coles uses images in every recipe post on Facebook and the blog, helpful to showcase ingredients. Using images on Facebook often impacts responses to the post and thus the impact of the post. Images are more important than video as more people access Facebook through mobile, making the content quicker and easier to download.

Participant travel organisations used images regularly as part of their content: Jetstar, Flight Centre and major tourism body often use images without accompanying text. This elicits comments about the photo, questions as to its location, and inspires users to question how and how much to arrive at the location. Other participants used images to reveal products: in fashion (Westfield, Lorna Jane), images are used with text to exhibit a new trend or a promotion. “Photos work for shopping”, says Ridge of Westfield (pers. comms., 18 September 2013). In technology, Traazil of HTC says, images of new hardware (phones) are crucial, and tips and tricks make great content, often with illustrations. “We need to deliver content they find useful, that inspires them to have a conversation” (Traazil, HTC,

191 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 pers. comms., 27 September 2013). Channel 10 used photos or stills from their television shows to promote the shows.

In some cases, content managers are hired to ascertain the best way to use content on different platforms or how to cross-pollinate platforms with similar content. For example, says Graham of NRMA, if enough questions come in by email or Facebook about a particular subject, NRMA might write a blog post on it, or write a story in their hard copy magazine Open Road. Or, a story in Open Road might inspire questions or comments on Twitter that lead to a new blog post, which in turn may lead to traditional media coverage. But, she emphasises, the content must vary for different platforms. Young of eBay, Epstein of Commonwealth Bank, Khan of Jetstar, Locke of Flight Centre, Murrell of Bank of Queensland and Zivot of Lorna Jane agree, because different content has specific objectives, should provide value, and be relevant. “Each channel has its own benefits and its own audience” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013). One can create content, use it in different ways across channels, and amplify it through other channels. For example, Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle says, one can conceive and design content, blog some highlights, tweet about the blog, make the content available for download and even collect contact details for lead generation.

Major bank and Freitas of Salesforce admitted that the same content often appears on different channels, but it is slightly tweaked. Content analysis showed that for most participants (SAP excepted), a post appeared on the blog in almost exactly the same way as on Facebook or Twitter. Blog content was amplified through Twitter on the same day it appeared on the blog or a few days, or even a week, later, because blog content was not time specific.

Clarke of Telstra was the only participant demonstrating greater thought and strategy about content, saying Telstra had undertaken research about what fans wanted on social. “We have content themes and we need to generate

192 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 positive conversation around those themes because content is all about starting a conversation in our channels” (pers. comms., 18 March 2013). All participants agreed that content should be created to be sharable, allowing people to endorse that organisation’s content, and, perhaps, turn casual fans into advocates. “We need to provide an interesting or inspiring content experience for them that will create advocacy,” says Young of eBay (pers. comms., 14 August 2013).

After content analysis on Facebook and Twitter for all participants’ posts, it is clear why social media managers embrace sharing and ‘likes’. It is a validation for the post, the content and, more importantly, the organisation. “A like gives us permission to talk to them” (Monty of Ford, pers. comms., 8 March 2013) and a like implies they want to do business with the organisation. Likes and shares signify an admiration for the brand, or at the very least, for the content.

Sharing content often centres on a joke or a story, or something that reinforces an attitude or a familiar experience. Plomp, Heinilä, Ikonen, Kaasinen and Välkkynen (2010) say sharing content is the user experience in social interaction where “participants contribute together to the shared experience” (p. 515). Sharing content is a clearer demonstration of engagement with content more than the organisation, but for 40 per cent of participants, sharing was very important, and all agreed it was desirable. Medcalf of Coles, Traazil of HTC and Zivot of Lorna Jane sought to create sharable content as much as possible. “When I design content, we try as much as possible to approach everything we produce with the care/share factor – if you saw this piece of content, (A) would you care and (B) would you share? If we can answer yes, we know we have a piece of content where the likelihood of something being shared is high…It is up to us to create content that is valuable and sharable” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013).

Epstein of Commonwealth Bank said sharing content is what they sought in terms of engagement, but Bradley of Alinta, Young of eBay and major telco

193 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 disagreed. Content might be shared, but it had little impact on the organisation’s reputation, said Bradley of Alinta. Positive content is more likely to be shared (Berger & Milkman 2012). Users often share exciting, funny content, but that might did not add value to the organisation-public relationship or the organisation’s reputation. For Locke of Flight Centre, sharing was nice, but not essential.

Khan of Jetstar sees sharing as a key metric: in his weekly measurement reports, a share is worth more on a scale of ten than a like or a comment. Epstein of Commonwealth Bank says sharing content is a validation that “the message was right” (pers. comms., 11 April 2013) and Medcalf of Coles and Murrell of Bank of Queensland agree. Traazil of HTC believes sharing is important, but only insofar as it impacts Facebook’s algorithm – the more sharing, the more engagement, the more people heard or saw the organisation’s message. Young of eBay, Beany of Channel Ten and major tourism body believe sharing demonstrates some level of engagement with the organisation.

Retweeting is an aspect of sharing, although little research has been done into the effects of retweeting. Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan (2012) say retweeting is not just diffusion of information, but designed to entertain specific audiences. boyd, Golan and Lotan (2010) see retweeting as copying and rebroadcasting, and argue retweeting is actually shared conversation, bringing new people into the thread. Galer of SAP agrees; the only participant to discuss retweeting, Galer said impressions and reputations can be developed through retweets through amplification through other people’s networks.

5.3 Social media as responsibility of marketing This study found more one-way than two-way communication in social media between organisations and publics, and this is attributed to social

194 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 media managers reporting to marketing rather than public relations. In this study, twice as many social media managers report to marketing as those reporting to other functional areas (c.f. Barnes & Lescault 2013; Ter Chian Tan & Vasa 2011) – 67 per cent of social media managers report to marketing. Two non-academic studies – Hootsuite.com (2014) and Altimeter (2013) – similarly found social media managers are more likely to report to marketing than other departments. The Hootsuite study found this to be true in 73 per cent of organisations, and the Altimeter study found it to be so in 40 per cent of organisations studied.

Wright and Hinson’s (2014) qualitative study of self-reported public relations practitioners discovered 77 per cent of respondents believe social media should be the responsibility of public relations. However, these findings indicate that all participants believe social media are additional channels in the marketing mix, but special because they allow two-way interaction, even if participants do not take advantage of that opportunity. In several studies on public relations practitioners’ responsibility for social media, participants self-described as reporting to public relations (e.g. DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011; Swerling, Thorson & Zerfass 2014; Verhoeven et al 2012; Wright & Hinson 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014),

Marketing has traditionally meant that the customer is the “passive recipient of the firm’s active value creation efforts” (Schau, Muniz & Arnould 2009, p.30), and participants in this study agreed, based on their comments. Ninety five per cent of the social media managers who report to marketing (14 of 21 interviewed) see social media as part of their marketing strategy and believe social media should be used to attain marketing objectives. Table 5.6 shows participants’ relationship to marketing within their organisations.

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Table 5.6 Participants’ relationship to marketing Participant Report to Works Report to other marketing w/marketing on social NRMA Yes Yes No Coles Yes Yes No HTC Yes Yes No Lorna Jane No Yes Yes (Digital) Ansell Yes Yes Yes (Comms) Ford No Yes Yes (CEO) Salesforce Yes Yes No SAP Yes Yes Yes (Comms) Westfield Yes Yes No eBay Yes Yes Yes (Comms) Alinta No Yes Yes (Digital) Telstra No No No Major telco Yes Yes Yes (Brand) Commonwealth Bank Yes Yes No BOQ No Yes Yes (Digital) Major bank No Some Yes (Comms) Major tourism body Yes/No Yes Yes Jetstar No No Yes (Comms) Flight Centre Yes Yes No Channel 10 Yes Yes Yes (Digital) Salesforce Au & Oracle Yes Yes No Salesforce US Yes Yes No

Medcalf of Coles said, “social is about marketing”, social driven by marketing and the marketing department writes all of Coles’ social media content. Clarke of Telstra, Beany of Channel 10, Mantero of Ansell and Khan of Jetstar say that in their organisations social media were initially launched as part of marketing, but evolved to focus on more interactive communication with publics. They do push announcements and information out, but Telstra in particular encourages conversation. Young of eBay suggests it would be more appropriate part for social media to report to public relations than marketing, because marketing’s objectives are sales rather than reputation management and engagement. “There is a degree of conflict between marketing and comms about the role of social. One of the things that we’re not doing very well in social at the moment is telling stories about the brand and bringing the brand to life in a way that is interesting and engaging, but which does not necessarily have a hard and fast outcome attached to it. Driving advocacy and building engagement with the brand from a communication point of view would contribute towards greater engagement” (pers. comms., 14 August 2013)

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There was no difference found between American and Australian companies with regards to whether social media reported to marketing.

Web 2.0 and social media theory and technologies support dialogue and interaction and foster two-way communication. In this study, this was not found to be the case. Participants did not encourage two-way communication. Monty of Ford said everything they do is tied to marketing, but marketing people think one-way. When members of the marketing team work in social media, they are unresponsive, but not out of malice: it is the way they have been trained.

Most of the participants were social media managers who evolved into the role from marketing or digital department, but they do understand that content in social media cannot simply be marketing text. Galer of SAP says even though SAP’s blog is a marketing tool, “we cannot whack them over the head with marketing messages” (pers. comms., 9 August 2013) or jargon. Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle agrees, even when social is funded and signed off by marketing. Bruhn, Schoenmuller and Schäfer (2012) confirm this: social media users do not welcome marketing content and do differentiate between sources of brand information. That is why, agree Young of eBay and Khan of Jetstar, it is important to ensure content relates to the organisation and aims to build relationships, not sales. Brand narratives assist in building those relationships.

Social media as the responsibility of marketing rather than corporate communications or public relations has implications for dialogue and two- way communication. If this trend continues, it may mean that interaction that is not transactional or that leads to better relationships with publics will not be a priority, whereas if social media was the responsibility of public relations, or better still was its own department, dialogue and interaction might be a preferred method of communication. If communication to and with publics moves from traditional to social media, the field of public

197 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 relations may find itself limited to issues and crisis communication, government relations and financial relations, and perhaps even become redundant.

5.4 Brand Advocacy Participants sought brand advocacy more than any other interaction. Brand advocacy is considered the ultimate engagement with the organisation and other fans and participants think brand advocacy is the strongest possible outcome of engagement. The categorical goal of participants was brand advocacy, and dialogue would only be implemented to achieve it.

Brand advocates are unpaid loyal lovers of the brand – brand champions, or “co-creators of value” (Lawer & Knox 2006, p. 126). An organisation will increase its advocates due to trust, transparency, quality of product or service, and incentives (Urban 2004). Many organisations believe social media fosters and increases brand advocacy because it allows more immediate positive and negative comments (Baird & Parasnis 2011). It emerged from this study that participants sought to turn fans into brand advocates, hoping they would share content and carry the organisation’s message from its own Facebook page or Twitter handle through the advocate’s network.

“[Advocates] are a step above fans, willing to take action on Ford’s behalf…Getting customers who have good things to say about us, and who have feedback for us – we want to get that. Because loyalty is a step above trust and if you’ve already got people who trusted you enough to make the purchase, well, you want to hang onto them.” (Monty, Ford, pers. comms., 8 March 2013)

Major tourism body says: “[Advocates] jump into a discussion and defend the organisation even if there is a problem. Advocacy is the Holy Grail…but we have to ensure we do not break their trust” (major tourism body, pers. comms., 7 August 2013). Brand advocates influence other fans of the brand and are thus desirable to have on social media sites.

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At the start of this study, an organisation-interaction ladder was conceptualised to demonstrate how publics view/are aware of/liaise with organisational social media sites. Initially the interaction ladder was conceptualised as per Figure 5.1.

199 Figure 5.1 Original conception of interaction ladder

•Aware that organisation exists on social media •Peer discussion about organisation social media site Awareness

•Acknowledgement: public acknowledges organisation. May choose to 'follow' an organisation to 'see what they have to say' •Decision to participate: 'Like' the organisation, link to organisation for more information, become a fan Participation •Consume an organisation's news without interaction

•Public engages in comments, tweets, retweets, asks questions, enters competitions. Organisation responds to tweets, answers questions •More interaction with organisations's site: posts photos, regular, ongoing comments demonstrating understanding of organisation's message, customer service & support demonstrating 'listening' by organisation Interaction •Organisation acknowledges by replying to comments, appreciating photos and videos, engaging in online disucssion of customer issues or complaints

•Engagement: organisation and publics demonstrate positive regard for each other. There is give-and-take between the two and a back-and-forth •Individual actively shares produced content, creates & posts content, shares stories, conversation with and about the organisation, comments on blog post (requires active reading) Engagement •There is ongoing positive conversation between the two parties

•Public and organisation participate in ongoing in-depth dialogue where all opinions are influential to both parties leading to recommendations for product change, improvement, CSR, etc. Defence of brand by publicin other social media properties may ensue. Full interaction with organisation and publics building relaitonship Dialogue •Both sides in dialogue considered equal, with mutual respect and trust

200

After analysing the findings, the ladder was revised as per Figure 5.2.

201 Figure 5.2 Revised interaction ladder

•Acknowledgement of organisation on social media: follow an organisation, become a fan or friend •Consume an organisation's messages or news without interaction (eg. receive Facebook updates in news stream) Participation

•'Like 'organisation, link to organisation, comment, retweet, ask questions, enter competition, post photos, videos, regular comments, customer service & support •Engage with the organisation: actively share content, create & post content, share stories, conversation with and about the brand, comment on blog post (requires active reading) Interaction & engagement •Engage with others in the community •Organisation actively engages with public: responds to to comments & questions •Encourages public to move from social media to website in order to transact (purchase)

•Ongoing equal and respectful exchange of ideas between individuals and organisations. •In-depth interaction with the organisation Dialogue

•Recommend organisation to friends, ambassador outside site, peer-to-peer defence of organisation, influencial member of online social community, considered influencer whose opinion is impactful. Brand •May be involved in decision-making regarding product development or user-related activities. Public considers evangelist advocacy by the organisation

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Some organisations seek to incentivise advocates in their marketing and branding efforts, said Traazil of HTC who invites advocates to events in order to converse face-to-face (HTC globally invites brand advocates to blog for them). Zivot of Lorna Jane offers advocates special incentives and invites them to blog on the company’s site and Freitas of Salesforce bestows the title of MVP [Most Valuable Player] on advocates, engages in dialogue with them and invites them to speak at events. This demonstrates that these influencers/advocates are very important to the organisation.

Salesforce brand advocates total only .08 per cent of the organisation’s social media followers, but they are considered so influential, they are offered special promotional discounts and to beta test new software.

“We engage with 100,000 people daily but only 80 are true advocates. They are influencers we call MVPs and they remain deeply committed to the brand even if they move companies. They reach out to us on a consistent basis…These people live and breathe Salesforce. They are fanatical about it” (Freitas, Salesforce, pers. comms., 15 April 2013).

Adds Clarke of Telstra: “Our goal is to create advocacy, to turn customers into advocates” (pers. comms., 18 March 2013).

“Creating online advocacy is our main goal [on] social media. How can we make customers feel proud of being a customer, and then how can we make them want to share or advocate Telstra to their family and friends…If we could turn our customers into advocates, if they could be talking to their friends and family about how we went this extra bit above and beyond, making them feel good about being a customer – that is a serious force to be reckoned with. And if anyone gets that right, you are going to leave your competitors for dead” (Clarke, Telstra, pers. comms., 18 March 2013).

Participants admitted that brand advocacy lets users defend organisations in any social media situation, referred to in public relations practice as third party endorsement.

Zivot of Lorna Jane seeks out advocates and rewards them:

“We find advocates through social media monitoring. We reach out to them to reward those people who influence others. There are already a number of

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fantastic brand advocates out there interacting with the brand…We’ll reach out to them and ask them to contribute to the blog, or invite them to a special experience or send them some Lorna Jane gear or a gift card…to acknowledge their support and hope that they’ll continue to do that organically…You want to build those strong advocates for the brand” (pers. comm., 11 September 2013).

Monty of Ford said improvements to the original Ford Social site helped turn fans into brand advocates because they were made part of the Ford process.

“We further developed the site to give people an opportunity to submit ideas to us – how to improve the experience with Ford vehicles in the future. Now, you’ve got a site that is much more comprehensive and robust than a standard corporate blog might otherwise be” (pers. comms., 8 March 2013).

5.5 Community Brand advocates often ‘gather’ in virtual brand communities, some of which are created by publics and some by organisations. Kruckeberg and Starck (2004) question the ethics of these communities and ask what role public relations should play in them, although they see PR practitioners as community builders helping organisations create a sense of community and encouraging self-fulfilling communication (Kruckeberg, Starck & Vujnovic in Botan & Hazelton (Eds.) 2006). Online or virtual communities are geographic communities (based on physical proximity) and symbolic communities (social constructs related to a person’s identity with particular rituals and symbols) (Hallahan 2003). Brand community is the latter, originally described as a relationship between the customer and the brand. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) added a second customer to the community (so, the connection is customer-brand-customer) where customers influence and are influenced by other customers about the brand or organisation.

In a brand’s virtual community, members share the same interests (i.e. the brand, the organisation, or its products) and are eager to hear the organisation’s messages, while they engage in conversation with each other. Members of the community may then carry positive messages to the rest of their network, employing brand advocacy or eWOM, even if the message is

204 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 negative. That sense of community, linked by admiration and devotion to the organisation, is very clear in some participant organisations studied, like Ford and Lorna Jane – that ‘we-ness’, a sharing of narratives that is part of the community’s mutual and collective history. All participants emphasised how important community was. “The beauty of social media is it is a community”, says Medcalf of Coles (pers. comms., 28 September 2013) and within a community, communication is required (Kruckeberg & Starck 2004).

Clarke of Telstra was most concerned about community, and considered it the most important aspect of social media. Telstra has invested a lot of energy and resources into research about its community and what it wants to hear from interactants. This informs Telstra’s actions on social media, from blog posts to Twitter comments, and helps Telstra improve its service. “I think we have this fantastic opportunity to foster these thriving online communities that can provide us with instantaneous feedback…and insight into how we can do things better, that can ensure that we’re shaping our brand and our business around our customers so that we’re truly a customer centric organisation” (Clarke, pers. comms., 18 March 2013).

Peer-to-peer interaction is encouraged in the Telstra community. Clarke believes Telstra should start a conversation, but allow the community to “make it grow”, listening to what the community is saying. A healthy, loyal community is imperative to the organisation, because often community members answer questions put to the organisation on behalf of the organisation. Khan of Jetstar, Locke of Flight Centre, Clarke of Telstra and Medcalf of Coles agreed with this point.

Positive outcomes of brand community include greater commitment, loyalty, increased sales and improved relationship with customers (Wirtz, den Ambtman, Bloemar, Horvath, Ramaseshan, van de Klundert, Canli & Kandampully 2013). Table 5.7 outlines what participants think about the concept of community and whether it is important to them.

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Table 5.7 Community on Facebook, Twitter and blogs Participant Community is important Has community in Special Community Growth of social media offers/promos members community to community help/assist as metric each other NRMA Somewhat Yes (wants to build Yes No Yes own community) Coles Yes Yes No No Yes HTC Somewhat Yes No Yes -- Lorna Jane Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Ansell ------Ford Yes Yes No Yes -- Salesforce Yes Somewhat (MVPs) Yes No Yes SAP Yes Yes Yes No Yes Westfield Somewhat Building one Yes No Yes eBay Yes Yes Yes No Yes Alinta Somewhat No (wants to build No No Yes own community) Telstra Yes Yes No No Yes Major telco -- Somewhat No No Yes Comm Bank To a degree. Wants No No No Yes community of thought leadership BOQ Yes Building one (wants No No Yes to build own community) Major bank Somewhat No No No Yes Major tour Yes Yes (wants to build No Yes Yes own community) Jetstar -- Somewhat Yes Yes Yes Flight Centre Somewhat Yes No Yes Yes

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Channel 10 Yes Trying to create one No No Yes

NB: Community members helping each other may also exist on Google Plus, community forums (e.g. Telstra’s crowd support forum) and other social media sites not examined in this study.

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There are two participant organisations which have what the researcher terms “real community” on their social media sites, a platform where members demonstrate they share all the attributes of community, are genuinely interested in the brand and any messages it transmits, and help other members of the community: Ford and Lorna Jane. While the Ford sites are American, they also incorporate a global community. Its members support and admire the organisation and the brand, have a history and a genuine connection to it, and a deep knowledge of the products. Lorna Jane is an Australian workout wear company and has just entered the US market. Because the site and Facebook page are about exercise and health, community members are committed and accommodating to one other. In both cases, members of the community authentically admire the brand, are considerate of other members, and are interested in the organisation’s messages. Comments are appropriate to the posts and trolls are rare. It is difficult to ascertain if it is the brand alone that generates such admiration, or the way in which the site/online community is moderated that sparks such positive feedback, but content analysis indicates a genuine affection for the brand by publics in both cases.

For example, in response to a Ford Facebook post (31 March, 2014) about a new model Raptor truck, Benny replies, “They are all amazing. Go Ford!”; Victoria posts, “You have the best looking trucks on the market. Keep them coming’”; Don says, “I’ll buy a Raptor as soon as my 2007 truck is worn out, but me thinks it will be a long, long time.” Of eighty posts, only three were negative: William posts a photo of a lemon, Francois says, “Why do you always make junk?” and Mitch, in a play on Ford’s long time US advertising slogan (Quality is job one), says “Quality is job none”.

For Lorna Jane, many user posts refer the page to other friends. In one blog post on 28 March, 2014, where Lorna Jane discussed fat-burning factors with a post by recurring guest blogger Dr Libby, 38 people commented, including

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Ashley, who said “Yes I love Dr Libby”; Geneva says, “Well written, explains complex ideas really simply!” and Lucy, referring the article to her friend Kellie, says “Really informative”. Lorna Jane rarely responds except to say thank you. In a Facebook post to sell workout product (21 March, 2014), user Sonia complains about the use of skinny models in Lorna Jane ads and another user, Trisha, says, “Was thinking the same thing, Sonia”. Lorna Jane’s response was that Lorna Jane uses fit models, but “we will of course pass your thoughts back to our marketing team”.

Lorna Jane’s Facebook page has over one million likes or fans and provides nutritional and exercise information, but it is clearly a sales tool as well. Ford, comparatively, does not sell product on its Ford Social site. “Facebook has a mass audience and it is more robust than [Twitter]…It has become quite a powerful sales channel and driver of traffic to our website. People feel part of this community…and...support the values of the company…We do not just sell active wear…We’re a partner in helping them live a healthier life” (Zivot, Lorna Jane, pers. comms., 11 September 2013).

Four participants expressed a desire to move their community to a platform they own – their website because they do not “own” the community and are subject to a platform’s changes (i.e. Facebook). Major tourism body, NRMA, Bank of Queensland and Alinta want keep people focused on proprietary content and within the confines of their website which would also be home to chat rooms, discussion forums, and blogs. This would make it easier for transactions to take place, and allow the organisation greater control of the content. Flight Centre, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank and major tourism body each claim to have the highest engaged online community, meaning those on their social media sites interact more with the organisation as compared to other organisations’ sites. There is no evidence to back up those claims and content analysis did not bear this out.

Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle, Ridge of Westfield and Young of eBay say building and maintaining a community is not just a key objective of an organisation’s social media strategy, but it is also a measure of its success

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(see ‘measurement’). Zivot of Lorna Jane says he was hired to create and build the Lorna Jane community and links ‘liking’ on Facebook to being a part of the community. “ ‘Liking’, is more than just being another person who likes a brand; rather, it implies “I want to be part of the community and I want to hear what [the organisation] has to say” (pers. comms., 11 September 2013)

One issue, says Monty of Ford, is that there are different communities on different social media sites. “The unfortunate thing is [the community] does not live in any one particular place. There is a series of online communities and they are all different. The Facebook community is different from what we’ve done on Ford Social that is different from Twitter. And this is the new reality. We need to tack and port between each one of these communities, understand the unwritten guidelines and rules of the road that are expected out of members there” (pers. comms., 8 March 2013)

There is no real way to rectify that issue, he says, except by being responsive to what customers are looking for in each community. The best way to do that is to monitor the conversation and understand what the community members want (Evans 2010).

Locke admits Flight Centre does little to encourage the community, notwithstanding having a large following. “You can have a large community, but it is only worth something if people are looking at your content…We do like when people share our content because we can gauge what our community is responding to and what they are interested in…We measure the growth of our community and…activities we do on certain days that demonstrate growth…We’ve got quite a loyal following that do chat to each other, but I would not be able to say we actively encourage it.” (Locke, Flight Centre, pers. comms., 27 May 2013)

This study found that B2B (business-to-business) communities, which have a greater equality of power balance, are concerned more with ongoing and future partnerships and with the brand advocate potentially taking the business product with him/her wherever he/she may go. For example, Salesforce’s limited MVPs have such a powerful influence within the social media community that sales and leads follow, and when they switch

210 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 companies, they introduce Salesforce products to their new organisation. Similarly, SAP has noted that maintaining a direct relationship with clients inspired them to create the SAP Community Network. “The SAP Community Network is home to three million registered members, and that is an external site where our customers and our partners and employees all kind of convene and blog and ask questions. It really is a thriving community space to host and address myriad problems, promotions, events, etc. [Clients] can go [there], read blogs and learn from experts and mentors and get answers to their questions” (Clarke, SAP, pers. comm. 2013).

Discussion The purpose of this study was to determine whether dialogue exists on social media between organisations and publics. Based on the findings, there is no dialogue as defined by Kent and Taylor (2002) – there is no perceived vulnerability, no mutual respect or respect for the other as equals, no back- and-forth, and no propinquity. There is, however, occasional conversation, which takes place mostly as part of customer service (c.f. Theunissen & Wan Nordin 2012). Conversation is more superficial than dialogue and in this case, it focuses primarily on the attributes of the organisation. Based on the findings, organisations prefer not to enter into conversation or dialogue (c.f. Lane 2014) and would rather it take place between peers. Participants discussed that they prefer to create content, have the community discuss and share the content, then converse amongst themselves (Ridge of Westfield, Medcalf of Coles, major tourism body). The rationale is that publics’ sharing content with third parties is high engagement, and participants prefer publics talking to each other rather than the organisation interacting with publics. It is a one-way, reactive approach to communication that lessens risk and permits the organisation to take a step back, without contributing to relationship building. Participants do not see relationship building as a goal, but seek out brand advocacy. They also prefer to seek growth in numbers of community members (see Chapter 7 for Monitoring).

Additionally, participants claim a lack of staffing resources and time to engage in dialogue prohibits them from authentic interaction. Despite

211 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 participant organisations being amongst the largest in the US and Australia, participants complained that there were limited resources apportioned to communication in social media. This may be attributed to measurement and evaluation being immature, so communication in social media may be perceived by upper management as lacking value. Limited resources to implement social media effectively hampered response time and performance (Graham of NRMA, Traazil of HTC, major tourism body and major telco reinforced this point). Beany of Channel Ten, Khan of Jetstar and Graham of NRMA said, “We could do more but have few resources” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms. 10 September 2013), and major telco and Ridge of Westfield agreed: “To do social media well, you have to have the capacity. It is time consuming and we’re always understaffed” (major telco, pers. comms., 12 August 2013). Freitas of Salesforce, however, was able to do a lot with little. “We have only two people managing thousands of comments” daily using Salesforce’s own Radian6 monitoring software (pers. comms., 15 April 2013), although he admits Salesforce pushes information out and does not attempt to engage in dialogue.

With no dialogue, little conversation and limited attempt at interaction, social media are used by organisations primarily for awareness and as steps towards transactions. Bradley of Alinta says, “Some organisations are more risk averse to having a dialogue with end users of all types” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013) (c.f. Coombs & Holladay 2010) and says there is often no point in having a dialogue. “I only want to if I can deliver the change that is required” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013). This reinforces that dialogue is not utilised for authentic interaction, but for problem solving.

Boyd and Waymer (2011) claim that organisational dialogue is fiction because organisations have hidden agendas and values that go uncommunicated, and organisational rhetoric has traditionally been duplicitous. This is a bleak and cynical attitude, because while it is true that organisations’ communication with publics usually focuses on the

212 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 organisations’ self interest, an effort at creating dialogue in an open, authentic way provides opportunities to enhance relationships. This study found that social media managers understood the benefits of dialogue, but there was an underlying motive of organisational self-interest and self- limitation due to potential risk and limited resources. But changing the long- held, one-way method of communicating by marketers will take time to modify.

An additional justification by social media managers for the lack of dialogue is the belief that publics do not really want dialogue; they just want answers to their questions (c.f. Botan 1997). Twenty five per cent – Graham of NRMA, Zivot of Lorna Jane, Khan of Jetstar, Locke of Flight Centre, and Medcalf of Coles – claimed publics wanted simple, immediate responses. “We probably do not really engage with our community unless they are coming to us with a question” (Khan, Jetstar, pers. comms., 24 May 2013).

“It’s just people wanting a quick answer, so they don’t actually want to talk to us” (Graham, NRMA, 10 September 2013).

However, an effort by social media managers at dialogue, or even conversation, would result in a deeper engagement and probably enhanced relationships with publics.

And lastly, if the point of social media – as directed by marketing – is to drive sales or transactions on a website, dialogue cannot be accommodated. Freitas of Salesforce, Medcalf of Coles, Locke of Flight Centre, Zivot of Lorna Jane and Young of eBay (30 per cent) said their organisations sought sales as the goal of social involvement. “At the end of the day, there is a massive push to sales” (Freitas, Salesforce, pers. comms., 15 April 2013). Adds Medcalf of Coles: “There is more a general theme that we employ [social media] to support our marketing campaigns…It is driven by marketing. That is the strategy” (pers. comms., 28 September 2013).

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This finding leads to the conclusion that often, organisational objectives and goals imposed by marketing or sales do not allow for dialogue. A focus on sales, a lack of resources, and a lack of desire by both parties – publics and organisations – means the opportunity for dialogue is rarely taken advantage of (also found by Bortree & Seltzer (2009), McAllister (2012), and Waters, Burnett, Lamm and Lucas (2009)). Dialogue is seen as too difficult, too intense, and too laborious to deliver the transactional results required.

In answer to RQ 1: What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? The aim is to push out information and news and to engage in dialogue if fans look to become brand advocates. Communication is primarily one-way and social media is considered an additional way to build awareness. Building relationships was important only insofar as sales resulted.

In answer to RQ 2: Do corporations engage substantially in dialogue using the interactive features of blogs and microblogs such as ‘comments’ and posts by others or are their approaches largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue)? No, they do not engage substantially in dialogue. Comments and posts are permitted and encouraged, but without dialogue. There is conversation but more between peers. There is more conversation on microblogs than blogs, mostly as regards customer service, but dialogue is elusive.

The next findings chapter analyses specifically how organisations use blogs and microblogs to communicate with publics, whether social media managers understand the benefits of two-way interaction on blogs and microblogs, and how publics respond to blog and microblog content.

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Chapter 6

Findings and discussion: How organisations use blogs and microblogs

A ‘standard corporate blog’, as Monty of Ford describes, is not where advocates are made. He says that on blogs, the organisation presents information and allows comments, but does not often permit the fan to tell his or her positive brand stories and that needs to change. This chapter examines how organisations use blogs and microblogs, whether there is interaction on blogs and microblogs and if so, what kind, how and whether organisations and publics exchange stories and to what end, and how organisations communicate on blogs and microblogs. The findings identify that organisations use blogs and microblogs quite differently, and Twitter has emerged as a customer service medium in Australia more than an interactive one for dialogue.

6.1 Overall findings about blogs and microblogs Most blogs are used by organisations to communicate their achievements, their products or their sponsorships. There is often well-written, informative content on blogs but comments are rare. There is little interaction on blogs, contrary to studies arguing blogs foster conversation. There is more interaction on microblogs, even though it was found that Twitter is being used primarily as a customer service tool in Australia (due to its low volume, say participants). Blogs are used for one-way marketing communication more than microblogs. Promotions, sales messages, and links to sponsorships figure prominently on blogs studied, whose links are then amplified through Twitter and Facebook (this coincides with the earlier finding and discussion about marketing communication contributing to the “persuasive sphere” that exists in organisation-public communication on social media). Graham of NRMA, Medcalf of Coles and Bradley of Alinta agree that Twitter is “terrible

215 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 for marketing” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013). “We’d be silly to enact a marketing strategy through Twitter” (Medcalf, Coles, pers. comms., 28 September 2013). Participants claimed dialogue and interaction was evident in internal microblogging (although the researcher had no access and could not substantiate claims).

6.2 Blogs A blog is often considered the focal point of an organisation’s social media channels or the centre of its content strategy, even though half the participants (50 per cent) acknowledged that Facebook was the centerpiece of their overall social strategy. The corporate blog is designed to support an organisation’s goals and to provide content that is interesting, written in an entertaining or engaging style, and designed to stimulate discussion. Blogs reinforce and expand the organisation’s narrative. Kelleher and Miller (2006) and Marken (2006, cited in Smith 2010) identified that a corporate blog humanises the organisation through the use of conversational voice in the writing and provides an opportunity for two-way discussion. In this study, blogs analysed provided genuine information that sat squarely with the values of the organisation and within the scope of what the blog was designed to communicate (e.g. Lorna Jane – health and well-being, Westfield – fashion, NRMA – road and traffic information, and Coles – food and cooking). The blogs also showcased participants’ charitable involvement and corporate social responsibility, stories about customers and employees, general stories of interest relating to the organisation in some way, and sponsorships.

Blogs require long-term commitment and resources in order to be successful, and if there is no continuity or relevant content, the blog will not work. “Many executives are reluctant or unable to develop strategies and allocate resources to engage effectively” on blogs (Kietzmann et al. 2011, p.242). The content on blogs is often amplified (content is supplemented through exposure in other media) through microblogs: 38 per cent of participants

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(Coles, Llewellyn, NRMA, eBay, SAP, Bank of Queensland and Commonwealth Bank) said they used Twitter to amplify blog links in order to attract publics to their blogs.

Lee et al.’s (2006) categorisation of blogs – employee, group, executive/CEO, promotion and newsletter (see Chapter 2) – was not exhibited in the organisations participating in this research. The participant blogs were promotional (business-to-consumer) or thought leadership (business-to- business). Vidgen et al. (2013) studied CEO (Chief Executive Officer) bloggers, investigating whether blogging was a good use of CEO time and whether those types of blogs engendered community (it can be a good use of CEO time if the blog is read by industry influencers and it does not always engender community). None of the participant organisations in this study had a CEO blog, although Lorna Jane’s founder, Lorna Jane Clarkson, responds to questions occasionally on Twitter and uses Instagram regularly. SAP’s CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Jonathan Belcher has his own blog and Twitter handle but does not blog for SAP per se. Salesforce’s CEO Mark Benioff tweets from his own handle and will occasionally contribute to the Salesforce blog (over more than twelve months, only two Benioff posts – March 8 and July 17 2013 – were found).

Thirty per cent of organisations studied (six organisations) did not have a blog at the time the research took place. Of those, three (Bank of Queensland, Jetstar and Alinta) indicated a blog was planned for the near future (Bank of Queensland, Jetstar and Alinta launched their blogs in April 2014, after content analysis was complete). Blogs allow organisations to showcase their accomplishments and share in-depth organisational narratives without being filtered by a journalist. Young would have preferred eBay had a blog to tell the company’s story directly to users: “If people hear about eBay in online media, they are hearing about it through somebody else’s filter and [with a blog] is this opportunity to tell our own story. We’ve got huge traffic – if we converted 30 per cent of our traffic to a blog per month – even if we did 20 per cent - we’d be bigger than the Sydney Morning Herald in terms of circulation. So, we’ve got a huge opportunity to command a

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big audience to our own channel…You’ve got fairly free reign to express yourself and talk about what you want to talk about” (Young, eBay, pers. comms., 14 August 2013).

Young also recommended that people from across the organisation should blog – “genuine bloggers” – and they would have free reign to express themselves. Clarke of SAP claims to have an “army of employee journalists” who blog for the company, particularly during events, which in turn helps to humanise the brand. Locke of Flight Centre has a number of employees who blog, but “we don’t really get many comments on the blog. We get a lot of views…but commenting is rare” (pers. comms., 22 May 2013). Freitas of Salesforce and Clarke of SAP do not expect comments on their blogs; if it is good information, people may digest the content without commenting, which is why page views is an important metric. But Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle strives for comments, because they demonstrate engagement and start the conversation. If the blog is not authentic, if it is just a rehash of promotional material, if it does not have an opinion, it will not work. The content must be comprehensive, robust and of value to the reader.

Forty per cent of participant organisations (based on content analysis) provide very in-depth information on their blogs (HTC, SAP, Ansell, Ford, Lorna Jane, NRMA, major bank, and Salesforce), but receive few or no comments. Negative comments may attract other readers to the post who will also see positive comments. Despite the paucity of comments found in this study, Clarke of SAP suggests one should embrace all comments, negative or positive: “The blessing and the curse of social media is if there is somebody in our audience…who disagrees with you, you have to be prepared to take that feedback and do something with it. Do not try to control it. Do not try to run away from it. And do not try to sweep it under the carpet. If you are going to go out there, you’d better be prepared for some honest feedback from people. And when that does happen, we can use that to say ‘Wait a minute. Maybe we’re wrong here…Maybe we might find out something that we just hadn’t realised before and it is only going to make the company better, it is going to make our products better’ ” (Clarke, SAP, pers. comms., 9 August 2013).

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Blogs can be compared to news magazines – long, in-depth pieces – with comments as letters to the editor, while Facebook and Twitter are more akin to talk-back radio, with a flurry of comments without deep thinking and elaboration. Although Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle believes decisive success of a corporate blog is good, insightful comments, content analysis of 180 blog posts studied showed 230 comments were made by individuals (an average of less than two comments per post), and 22 comments were replies from the organisations.

Llewellyn believes there are several levels of comments on a blog: Level 1 is ‘I agree’, or ‘Good job’, Level 2 is ‘I disagree and here’s why’, and Level 3 is an actual ongoing interaction with either the blogger or others on the blog site. Using this ranking, comments from individuals across all blogs were either none (no comments), or Level 1. Less than 30 per cent were in level 2, and only HTC, Telstra and Coles had several level 3 comments (five posts out of 180 studied).

Argenti and Barnes (2009) had similar findings, discovering 66 per cent of blogs rarely get comments. This is contrary to Ahuja and Medury’s (2010) claim that “an effective blog fosters community and conversation” (p. 93). In the blogs studied for this research, the content was well written and informative, but there was little interaction between the organisation and publics (there was more interaction on B2B [business-to-business] blogs than business-to-consumer). Medcalf of Coles said their blogs were really repositories of information, echoing Ahuja and Medury’s (2010) findings.

In the content analysis of blog comments for this research, 56 per cent of blog posts had zero comments and 14 per cent had fewer than three comments. Table 6.1 outlines the number and types of comments on participants’ blogs.

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Table 6.1 Blog comments

Participant Posts Comments Telstra 10 posts: 28 comments: due to 6 – 0 comments competition. Included 5 2 has 3 or less from editor regarding 1 had 7 entering competition 1 had 28 7 comments: 3 from user, 3 from author, 1 from Telstra 3 comments – 2 user, 1 from Telstra Commonwealth Bank 10 posts: 0 comments Salesforce Aus/NZ 10 posts: Positive comment about 9 – 0 comments content 1 comment Salesforce US 11 posts: 0 comments Westfield 10 posts: 4 comments: Positive 6 – 0 comments comments about content 1 – 4 comments with no reply from 2 – ‘comments closed’ and Westfield inaccessible 1 – 3 comments but inaccessible 1 – 8 comments but inaccessible Coles 10 posts: Interaction was in equal 6 – 0 comments parts question and Coles 2 – 1 comment responses 1 – 2 comments 4 comments about giveaway 1 – 4 comments Flight Centre 10 posts: 0 comments Ford – Ford’s articles 10 posts: Comments positive or 5 – 0 comments neutral concerning subject 2 – 5 comments 1 comment from Ford in 1 – 2 comments response to query 1 – 7 comments 1 – 4 comments Ford – users articles 10 posts: 0 comments Lorna Jane 10 posts: All comments positive and 4 – 0 comments related to post. 2 responses 1 – 32 comments from LJ 4 – 1 comment 1 – 5 comments SAP – Community Net blog 10 posts: Most comments were 8 posts – 0 comments positive or neutral, all in 1 post – 2 comments response to blog post. SAP 1 posts – 3 comments commented once. SAP – Forbes.com SAP says receive many Must register to comment comments or read comments Comments inaccessible

Major bank 10 posts:

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0 comments NRMA 10 posts: Posts that elicited the most 4 – 0 comments comments were about 1 – 2 comments common road issues (i.e. 1 – 17 comments Indicating). 2 replies from 1 – 40 comments NRMA (‘thanks’) 1 – 1 comments 2 – 2 comments Ansell – medical 10 posts Must register to comment Comments inaccessible SMM acknowledged that registering ‘does not engender trust’ Posts are sales/marketing oriented Ansell – work safety wear 10 posts Must register to comment Comments inaccessible

HTC 10 posts: All comments in relation to 1 – 0 comment product. More positive than 3 – 1 comment negative. 8 comments from 2 – 6 comments HTC, replying to questions. 1 – 3 comments Only positive comments 1 – 8 comments replied to. 1 – 31 comments 1 – 4 comments Channel 10 Blog does not permit comments Bank of Queensland No blog Jetstar No blog Alinta No blog Major tourism body No blog Major telco No blog eBay No blog

14 organisations had blogs. 4 organisations had 2 blogs = 22 blogs. Studied 220 posts. 4 blogs – comments not accessible (40 posts) Of 180 posts, 100 posts (56%) had 0 comments, 24 (14%) had fewer than 3 comments

Five organisations (25 per cent) encouraged brand advocates to write for their blog (Salesforce, NRMA, Telstra, HTC and Lorna Jane. Ford has a section where fans upload their own stories). Westfield’s blog is written by a woman who won a competition to write the blog. Launched in 2010, the same woman continues to write the blog about shopping at Westfield shopping centres. It resonates better with consumers because it is not the corporation speaking, said Ridge of Westfield.

Five participants (NRMA, Alinta, Coles, Bank of Queensland and Flight Centre) – 25 per cent – believe blogs help with SEO (search engine

221 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 optimisation) to aid with search engine ranking and making it easier to find the organisation’s website. “I want the search engines to recognise that we exist. With blogging, [there is] the ability for search engines to discover you, recognise that you are about this particular subject matter and that you are hitting particular long tail conversations” (Bradley, Alinta, pers. comms., 13 August 2013).

“If we’re pushing [the blog] out in an EDM [electronic direct marketing newsletter], we’ll get 300 comments. If we do not push it out in an EDM, [response] is quite small. So it is all based more around SEO” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms., 10 September 2013)

Others participants use the blog to highlight or sell products (eBay, Ansell, Lorna Jane and Ford). This research demonstrated the dichotomy amongst participant organisations between engagement and sales, with a push-pull on social managers to create content, build a community, and generate leads or sales (see Appendices for table on rationale and benefits of blogs).

In answer to RQ 1: What are the purposes and objectives of corporate blogs? This research determined that blogs are used for information transmission, brand building, and product promotion, with little interaction or engagement.

6.3 Microblogs Half the participants made Facebook the centerpiece of their social media strategy, with Facebook posts serving as a microblogging platform. Some, like eBay, replicate the content created for Facebook on Twitter because an investment in Twitter content makes little sense, said Coles, eBay, Alinta and NRMA. Telstra claimed to have real conversation on Twitter, and Epstein of Commonwealth Bank claimed the bank leads the way in engagement on Twitter. Neither had data to reinforce this assertion and this study could not substantiate this claim.

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6.3.1 Twitter Twitter’s virtue as a fast, real-time information news feed that is geographically unbound is attractive to organisations that wish to connect with those who want to reciprocate. “Twitter followers may be more interested in what a brand wants to communicate rather than what fellow admirers of the brand have to say”, say Kwon and Sung (2011, p. 5).

Some participants had specific uses for Twitter: Westfield and SAP found Twitter extremely useful to promote and communicate about and during events. Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle said Twitter was convenient for local stakeholder engagement when one is part of a multinational organisation. Clarke of SAP found Twitter an excellent interactive tool between customers and their specific client liaison officer (“We’re not after millions of followers, but specific followers” (pers. comms., 9 August 2013)). Bradley of Alinta fed back Twitter comments into the business as an aspect of changing company policy. Zivot of Lorna Jane considered Twitter a personal connection medium – followers can link to and communicate with founder Lorna Jane Clarkson directly. Graham of NRMA uses Twitter for community advocacy, to create petitions and lobby for specific government legislative change regarding road and motoring issues. One of Twitter’s great virtues is its usefulness in managing a crisis, agreed Young of eBay, Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle, Clarke of Telstra and Monty of Ford, because of its instantaneous nature to manage an organisation’s reputation efficiently (see Chapter 8 on crises).

6.3.2 Twitter as a customer service channel

It emerged as a recurring point in participant interviews that most interaction on Twitter was based on complaints and customer service. BRR’s 2013 report on the use of social media by ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) 200 companies found that while 47 per cent have an active Twitter account (p. 8), Twitter is being used in Australia for marketing and advertising (although there is no definition of what that entails). While it is true that

223 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 social media managers report to marketing and much social media content is marketing communication, it also emerged from this study that Twitter in Australia is being used mostly for customer service (the use of Twitter for customer service was found in only one other study by Barnes & Jacobsen 2013). Twenty per cent of participants (Alinta, NRMA, Coles and Westfield) indicated that Twitter is used less frequently than Facebook in Australia and it is not as widely accepted as in the USA, “despite what the Americans say” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013).

Although scholars argue that Twitter facilitates an increase in interaction and dialogue (e.g. Fischer & Reuber 2011; Kwon & Sung 2011; Lovejoy & Saxton 2012; Saffer et al. 2013), many participants in this study admit to using Twitter for customer service and one-way communication only. “It works for customer service” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms., 10 September 2013). Young of eBay adds that Twitter “is not working for us except as a customer service channel, probably because we’re just replicating what we do on Facebook, which doesn’t translate” (pers. comms., 14 August 2013), but he believes it is shortsighted to make Twitter a primary customer service channel. Bradley of Alinta disagrees: “The path for brands in Australia when it comes to customer service is Twitter. It is not a conversation at the moment. Creating content for Twitter pretty much will not get any traction at all [unless you are a celebrity], so I end up using it as a customer service portal” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013).

“As soon as you enter those social channels, people start to ask you questions about your business and your service. The next thing you know, you have got a very live customer service channel that you need to service. It was not as though one day we went, ‘Right, we are going to do customer service on social media’. If your consumers are there and you are there, it is going to happen. Consumers realise that you can get a quicker and more positive response from an organisation via social media than you can from a call centre” (major telco, pers. comms., 12 August 2013).

Twitter is “where people expect us to be…We can respond to people quickly and people realise they can get a quick response,” says Traazil of HTC (pers. comms., 27 September 2013). Of the twenty-one participants, 15 (75 per cent) believe Twitter is being used as a customer service channel in Australia

224 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 due to the smaller Twitter population (2.8 million in Australia vs the US’s 17 million and 500+ million worldwide (abouttwitter.com 2014)) and half of participants use it for customer service. Telstra, Ford, Commonwealth Bank, Jetstar, eBay and major bank (30 per cent of participants) have separate, specific Twitter handles for customer service, with others for news announcements or stakeholder conversation. There are no conversations on Twitter between organisations and publics, except with regards to complaints or customer service.

Medcalf of Coles, Traazil of HTC, Ridge of Westfield and Monty of Ford add that Facebook also serves as a customer service channel. Content analysis demonstrates that customer service (complaint handling and resolution) takes place on both Facebook and Twitter due to their accessibility, availability and expectation of instantaneous results. Locke of Flight Centre and Khan of Jetstar believe Twitter is a perfect communication channel for people travelling. People find it convenient and time sensitive, but “we would rather have better content on Twitter than just customer service”, says Khan (pers. comms., 24 May 2013). Table 6.2 outlines which participants use Twitter for customer service.

Table 6.2 Twitter as customer service medium

Participant Use Twitter for Rationale, comments Content analysis customer service demonstrates Coles Yes & Facebook Twitter also an Most received announcement negative platform, good for comments on news Facebook than any other company studied. Many vegan and anti- meat comments. More issues addressed on Twitter. Not actual customer service HTC Yes; social is a 30% of engagement Customer service customer service on social is customer queries answered channel by choice service; people on Twitter of customers complain online (Twitter & about something that

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Facebook) happened offline Westfield Not really using Social media works as No customer Twitter currently a customer service comments but “social is great management and or replies found for customer service tool but hard service” - to maintain dialogue Facebook NRMA Yes & Facebook Offer 24/7 customer Queries responded service, which is to, more on biggest focus for Twitter than social media. 20% of Facebook comments complaints, 20% compliments Lorna Jane No – Facebook Twitter can be used Facebook has as customer service more complaints channel if required than Twitter but most left unresponded to eBay Yes Important to manage Yes, limited issue quickly because responses on it can escalate and general bay. become a brand Specific twitter reputation problem. ebay support “It is shortsighted to channel make Twitter your (@ebaysupportau) primary customer – most told to DM service channel” details so resolution rarely published PayPal Yes Global Twitter handle --- for customer service Alinta Yes Yes but responses quite slow Major telco Yes & Facebook “Twitter is where Responded to people expect us to customer issues on be”. “Twitter is a both Facebook and really big customer Twitter although service channel for us. some queries We can respond to remained people quickly. unanswered. Facebook can also be Responses were a customer service quick. channel” Major trsm No Facebook is very social medium. Queries answered. Jetstar Yes “When people Customer service interact with us on issues addressed social, we like to solve on Twitter. problems quickly” Facebook posts rarely responded to Flight Cnt Yes: all social “Social gives us the Not many channels are ability to respond responses at all on customer service more quickly” Facebook or channels Twitter (in posts

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studied) Bank Qld All channels are Yes; Twitter not customer service, more so than whether social or Facebook. not Major bnk Yes & Facebook Privacy issues for us Customer issues to move customer addressed on issues offline Facebook as well as Twitter CommBank Yes & Facebook Moving to become a Facebook as well customer-centric and even more so organisation. “A lot of what we do on social is customer service” Ford Yes A lot of activity on No customer social is customer issues addressed service. People will on Twitter in posts use whatever studied. Less than platform is a dozen addressed convenient for them on Facebook. Telstra Yes – specific Also have news and Facebook used as Twitter customer announcement well. Responses to service handle channel on Twitter posts often customer service issues Ansell No Twitter is a push-out --- channel at the moment Ch 10 Yes, in a way People use all forms Many negative of social to interact comments and with us complaints on Facebook & Twitter but no reply from Ch 10 Salesforce Yes Have a number of Not found on Twitter handles Twitter or serving different Facebook purposes and for different products SAP Yes & no SAP has specific Twitter handles for customers within the SAP Community Network.

6.3.3 Internal microblogging

Eighteen of the 21 participants (88 per cent) responded to questions about internal microblogging, and acknowledged its effectiveness for internal collaboration, relationship building and efficiency at work. Participants

227 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 discussed dialogue on internal microblogs, but the researcher was not permitted access so could not independently verify comments. Table 6.3 outlines the internal microblogging tools participants use.

Table 6.3 Internal microblogging tools used Participant Internal microblogging Virtues of internal software microblogging Coles Yammer, intranet Popular HTC No specific tool mentioned Discuss issues, feedback Westfield Yammer Used for store managers and national staff/retailers. Open communications tool. Creates dialogue. Improves relationships NRMA Yammer Mixed responses to Yammer – some used it and found it “handy”, some did not but not widely utilised across the group of companies. Lorna Jane None -- SAP No specific tool mentioned Very convenient with an uptake in people using the tool, making them more productive. “That is when collaboration starts” Major tourism body Basecamp, intranet Basecamp is hard to use Jetstar None -- Telstra Yammer 30,000 staff use it – largest user base in the world Flight Centre Chatter, Yammer Some use it, some do not Bank of Queensland Yammer, Sharepoint In its infancy, too early to tell Gareth (Salesforce, Oracle) Chatter Very powerful, good way to share and “merchandise yourself” Major bank None Looking forward to having it so employees can link across the country and internationally Salesforce Chatter Own the company. Developed to meet the need of mobile and iPad which was “a change in the way people communicate”. Increases efficiency and breaks down hierarchies Commonwealth Bank Chatter Gives people opportunity to talk across management lines and breaks down silos. Offers “real social interaction and collaboration” with increased productivity Channel 10 None -- Ford Yammer 15,000 employees use it Alinta --- Ansell --- eBay ---

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Internal microblogging establishes “a common ground for communication and facilitates a perception of connectedness” (Ehrlich & Shami 2010, p. 43). It provides a sense of community and can be used for crowd sourcing answers to questions or knowledge sharing within the organisation. Potential risks identified in the literature include time wasting, security concerns and distraction (Shabgahi, Shah & Cox 2013). No participant mentioned employees using internal microblogging for social conversation or time wasting. Some said it provided an opportunity for employees to “rant” (Traazil of HTC) about issues of import to them, as well as to interact across silos and hierarchies (Epstein of Commonwealth Bank). For large, spread-out companies like Telstra, Ford, Salesforce and Commonwealth Bank, internal microblogging was seen as a positive way to provide employees with the ability to discuss important concerns with managers, executives and even the CEO – an opportunity previously unavailable to most employees except in the very occasional face-to-face meeting. While not all employees in participant organisations welcomed internal microblogging (NRMA, SAP and Flight Centre said employees did not enjoy using it) or it received mixed reactions, participants like Freitas of Salesforce and Epstein of Commonwealth Bank were extremely positive about the platform Chatter (not available for study by the researcher), saying it improved efficiency and collaboration, and changed the way people communicated. “Chatter is great at enabling collaboration...Chatter breaks down silos. [Groups] can collaborate and connect over like-minded information or articles that are pertinent to their job…We’re seeing vast improvements across silos that is [sic] driving a real social interaction and collaboration amongst our people...Chatter is being rolled into the branch network which will be an amazing tool. There are some branches where there are two people and they have to close the branch to go have lunch…so Chatter is going to break down that isolation” (Epstein, Commonwealth Bank, pers. comms., 11 April 2013).

Ridge of Westfield was emphatic in her support of Westfield’s internal microblogging system Yammer (not available for study by the researcher), saying it encouraged dialogue and interaction between Westfield’s national

229 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 head office, managers and retailers, and that the dialogue was on an equal, shared power basis, something that did not exist on consumer platforms (akin to Kent and Taylor’s (2002) desire for mutual equality and mutuality amongst dialogic participants). She said it was one thing that works really well in social media. “It really has opened up a lot of dialogue internally. We have a lot of senior management who are really engaged with [it], which helps drive it throughout the business…It has completely changed the way we communicate with each other. And the way that we can share what’s going on…Updates about something on this general platform…is for us one of the great successes of social media…And it keeps everyone a lot more connected and is improving the relationships internally” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013).

This was echoed by Galer of SAP and Freitas of Salesforce, who said when parties are equally empowered, it leads to dialogue. “The biggest thing with Chatter is it definitely increases efficiency – you can create groups to find information much faster… It sits on top of everything that we as a company have been building…like sales opportunities or service cases or marketing campaigns or individual records with all the functionality that we built into that” (Freitas, pers. comms., 15 April 2013)

Discussion Barnes and Lescault’s (2011, 2012, 2013) studies demonstrate that blogging has increased amongst Inc. 500 companies, and Twitter and Facebook uptake is in the 80 and 90 percentile for schools and universities, and in the 60 and 70 percentile for large corporations. This study found that blogging is more a showcase for thought leadership, corporate social responsibility projects, and product promotion, while Twitter and Facebook are used for news and announcements. What was not expected was the finding that Twitter has become the leading customer service medium in Australia because it is fast, available and all pervasive.

Blogs in this study did not, as some scholars have argued, elicit comments and encourage conversation. Whilst the blog posts were informative and well written, they did not elicit comments nor resonate with readers in terms of interaction (except in terms of reading). No clear reason was evident for

230 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 this finding. Microblogs had more interaction than blogs, although most focused on complaints and customer service. This may be attributed to microblogs being faster and more synchronous, and there is a greater expectation of reply than on blogs. Participants admitted they responded more quickly to comments on microblogs than on blogs (See ‘responsiveness’ in Chapter 9).

In terms of content, commentary by organisations on blogs and microblogs was one-way and, while not being dialogic or two-way, was not particularly persuasive. An exception was Channel 10 who did not interact with publics at all, but showcased its programming content and attempted to persuade interested publics to watch (“Most important is pushing content out” (Beany, Channel 10, pers. comms., 21 Feb. 2013). Coles presented recipes and promotional food items and rarely conversed with publics. Salesforce, Westfield and Ansell presented product information, which could be considered persuasive.

Real dialogue and interaction were said to take place was on internal microblogging systems, according to participants. Although those systems were not available to the researcher to study, participants referred regularly to information sharing, collaboration and the breaking down of hierarchies as merits of internal microblogging.

In answer to RQ 1: What are the purposes and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? This research found they are used for information transmission, customer service, brand building, brand awareness and reputation management, and promotion of products or services. Blogs had little two-way interaction. Microblogs are now used primarily in Australia for managing complaints and liaising with clients.

In answer to RQ 2: Do corporations engage substantially in dialogue using the interactive features of blogs and microblogs such as ‘comments’ and posts by

231 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 others or are their approaches largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue)? No, corporations do not engage substantially in dialogue in blogs, although there appears to be a greater effort on microblogs. Organisations appear reluctant to commit to dialogic communication because of risk, vulnerability, or lack of desire, with no mutual equality and propinquity. These findings were similar to those of McAllister (2012) in her study of American universities. There is conversation in relation to complaints and customer service on microblogs.

The findings regarding blogs were contrary to the findings of several scholars who claimed that blogs spark conversation (e.g. Hiebert 2004; Kelleher 2009; Xifra & Huertas 2008). No blog conversations were found in this study. Conversations were found on microblogs Facebook and Twitter, which provide faster interaction than blogs. In the next chapter, findings about regarding social media listening, monitoring, metrics and measurement are discussed.

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Chapter 7

Findings and discussion: How social media are measured and evaluated

Positive or negative conversation about organisations and brands occur on social media whether or not the organisation is involved. The conversation often takes place within brand communities, and growth of community was determined by participants to be an important metric. This led to findings about metrics and measurement in social media in general – how is social media measured and based on which metrics? This chapter looks at how organisations monitor, measure and evaluate social media and the metrics used to determine success. Social media measurement is based on the same numerics as traditional media, primarily because there is little agreement on which metrics to use.

7.1 Overall findings on social media metrics and measurement x Monitoring social media by ‘listening’ to conversations about the organisation was deemed essential by all participants who monitor in some way, although sophistication of tools varies. x There is a wide variety of metrics used and they differ between organisations. Many have been imported from traditional media, and as a result have not delivered on expectations, but help to determine success. x Growth of community is an important metric, and is considered a demonstration of success x It is unclear how to measure engagement

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7.2 Social media monitoring and metrics

What individuals are saying about an organisation in social media is considered significant. The feelings expressed, or sentiment, is more difficult to determine but often dictates when and if an organisation becomes involved in a conversation, especially during a crisis. Participants use social media monitoring tools to analyse sentiment, to ensure the organisation’s information is well received by publics, and to identify to advocates or critics. “It is now possible to build a brand through listening…in a social media environment” (Smith 2009, p. 560). Watson and Noble (2014) contend monitoring is the most important element in evaluating social media; it assists in gathering information about trends, identifying influencers, defining detractors and supporters, and involves listening to (and interpreting) what people are discussing.

Macnamara (2014) says many organisations do not listen because they do not have a culture of listening (paying attention to publics), do not use systems interactively, or have staff assigned to listening. Importantly, organisations should indicate that they have listened to publics in some demonstrable way to complete the feedback loop. Active listening to conversations in social media, or social media monitoring, is a way to determine whether and what conversations are taking place about the organisation. All participants executed social media monitoring and listening in some way, either manually or using monitoring tools.

Manual social media monitoring is anecdotal referencing – reading a collection of comments and scrutinising only a few. Sometimes manual social media monitoring is counting the times specific words appear, or looking for patterns of words that appear together – co-occurrence (Moe & Schweidel 2014). Traazil of HTC, Graham of NRMA, Locke of Flight Centre, major bank, Beany of Channel 10 and Zivot of Lorna Jane use staff members to manually monitor social media sites for complaints and to interpret sentiment. Zivot monitors conversation about Lorna Jane to find brand advocates and

234 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 influencers. Major tourism body monitors by looking at click-throughs from its social media sites to partner sites as well as sharing of content. Traazil of HTC does not believe that software monitoring tools adequately evaluate sentiment or engagement because they were not intelligent enough, something with which Bradley of Alinta and Locke of Flight Centre agree. Table 7.1 outlines participants’ social media monitoring tools and measurement metrics.

Table 7.1 Monitoring tools & metrics used by participants Participant Monitoring tools used Metrics Salesforce Radian6 Volume of conversations, demographics of those engaged, analysis of data based on keywords, where conversations are happening, how successful a post is through responses, clicks and shares, what’s being said about the industry Gareth (Salesforce, Oracle) Radian6 Measures growth, unique visitors, how long they stay, sharing of content, website traffic, comments Flight Centre Facebook tools & metrics, Measures engagement, growth Hootsuite of community, phone calls based on social content Jetstar Tracx, Hootsuite Likes comments & shares divided by reach to get relevance number. Does weekly report to determine relevance of post to customers Westfield Facebook Analytics Size of fan base, depth of engagement, growth of community HTC Unnamed tools Sharing, share of voice, sales uplift, new customer acquisition Telstra NPS Site traffic, traffic to blog, feedback, conversations, number of blogs per month around themes Channel 10 No tools Site traffic, number of shares and how often Ford Many tools, plus BEAT (Brand Sentiment, media scores, Equity and Awareness volume of comments Tracking) data Commonwealth Bank Radian 6, NPS Sharability, growth, sentiment Alinta Unnamed tools Comments, search ranking NRMA Facebook analytics and Total fans, reach, engagement, engagement score number of fans who engage with you on the page

235 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 eBay NPS Size of community, engagement, customer service, likes Coles Facebook analytics, NPS Engagement, dwell time, sharing, sentiment KPIs of specific campaigns, likes Lorna Jane Klout Volume of brand mentions, per centage of engaged fans, growth of community, volume of followers Major telco NPS, Radian6 Brand sentiment, growth of community SAP Netbase, other analytic tools Page views, social shares including tweets & retweets, traffic from blog to website, sentiment, impressions Major tourism body Some Facebook tools Sentiment, shares Bank of Queensland Unnamed tools Measurement, number of followers and engagement Major bank Unnamed tools N/A Ansell No measurement yet N/A

Several participants (20 per cent – four of 21) discussed listening and monitoring conversations and Freitas of Salesforce said analysing conversations allows an organisation to respond to and engage with users, allowing the company to adapt and perhaps change policies and products. Bradley of Alinta “uses listening devices to scrape the Web to see what conversations are occurring” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013) to understand them. Clarke of Telstra said, “If you are listening, collaborating and connecting, you will create a pretty powerful community” (pers. comms., 18 March 2013). Monty of Ford, responsible for Ford’s global social media sites, has teams monitoring both manually and using software tools, but says it is a “challenge to come up with a…set of metrics” for use around the world (pers. comms., 8 March 2013). Another issue, Monty says, is that what customer service wants monitored is different from what marketing wants monitored and what communications wants monitored, leading to internal confusion and overuse of tools.

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7.2.1 Social media measurement and metrics All participants agreed that determining metrics for measurement of social media is difficult, both to measure success and social media’s impact on their organisation. There are a number of measurement tools, in addition to software or manual measurement, used at least occasionally by most participants: Facebook Analytics (provided to organisations with Facebook pages by Facebook; see more on Facebook engagement in Chapter 2) and Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Salesforce owns listening tool Radian6 (also called the Marketing Cloud), using it in the US and Australia. Its engagement metrics include volume metrics (number of comments and length of threads); reach metrics (number of unique commenters, subscribers, people who share content); sentiment metrics, and behavioural metrics (dwell time, downloads and spinoff content). Volume metrics is a sign of popularity, often used in addition to follower and fan counts, which cannot provide insight into positive or negative engagement with the brand (Moe & Schweidel 2014). They do not provide sentiment analysis or discern what is being discussed.

Measurement and Return on Investment (ROI) are intricately intertwined in public relations, and are usually based on monetary and numerical values (Watson and Noble (2014) suggest not utilising ROI in public relations measurement except in financial performance). The discussion of measurement and metrics with participants was a wide-ranging one due to the lack of standardised metrics. Thirty per cent of participants (Coles, Westfield, Commonwealth Bank, Salesforce, major telco and major tourism body) measured engagement and sentiment, while Zivot of Lorna Jane looked more at the volume of brand mentions, what words people used, how communities are growing and which users are most active, determined by sharing content. SAP measured page views, retweets and shares as well as traffic from their blog on Forbes.com to the SAP website.

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Locke of Flight Centre says she measures “engagement and activities that demonstrate growth of our community” (pers. comms., 22 May 2013) and demonstrates ROI through the growth of community, traffic to the website and how communities are engaged with their brand (although she did not identify any specific metric to measure engagement). Graham of NRMA says ROI is demonstrated through reach and engagement scores as well as sentiment, but Murrell of Bank of Queensland is not convinced ROI is easy to measure. “ROI has a long way to go in social. It is tough to crack” (pers. comms., 20 May 2013). Ridge of Westfield agrees:

“We struggle to put numbers to ROI…and there is no one way to measure...There are no consistent analytics and it is different for every social channel. One cannot measure across social channels” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013).

Peters et al. (2013) concur that no metric alone “sufficiently captures the important and diverse phenomena in social media” (p. 283), and recommend several key performance metrics be applied. Sentiment was the most sought- after metric by participants, although Bradley of Alinta does not believe it can be measured at all and thinks measurement with software tools provides little functionality and evaluation. However, he believes ROI is simply a monetary “return on your labour” (pers. comms., 13 August 2013).

Participants discussed the various metrics they used – content sharing, feedback, customer acquisitions and levels of engagement (HTC); growth, engagement, traffic to the site and time on the site (Telstra); the number of shares and how often (Channel 10); depth of engagement and number of organic conversations customers are having with the organisation (Westfield); reduction in complaints, complaint resolution and positive sentiment (Jetstar); growth of community and transactions (Flight Centre); and page views (SAP). Khan of Jetstar assigns a point weighting to different engagement activities for his weekly social media reports: a ‘like’ is one point, a comment is five points and a share is ten points. “The objective is to increase relevance and maximise it” (pers. comms., 24 May 2013). Salesforce

238 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 measures the volume of conversations and where they are happening (on which channel or application), analyses sentiment and measures how successful a post is through responses, number of clicks, number of shares and what is being said about the industry in general. [It was difficult to interpret if Radian6 works well for Salesforce because it is a good tool or if the complimentary nature of Freitas’ comments is due to Salesforce’s ownership of the application].

Without social media monitoring and listening, crises would be impossible to catch early. Monitoring conversations are crucial in those situations and enable the organisation to respond quickly, measure how users perceive the crisis and to manage it effectively (see next chapter on ‘crises’). Metrics also determine the success of social media to each organisation – either measurement of a specific campaign or as a successful channel to communicate with publics.

7.3 Success

Success in social media is viewed differently by various levels of management within an organisation and by each organisation. Sales-focused organisations, like Salesforce, HTC and Flight Centre, focus on lead generation and transactions, while online businesses like eBay have both business metrics and social media metrics, so success in one area may not be success in another. But success links back to the objectives of the strategy or the rationale for involvement.

Medcalf of Coles says there are a number of factors determining success, but “reach and engagement are key” (pers. comms., 28 September 2013). Murrell of Bank of Queensland and Traazil of HTC agree that higher engagement levels and growth determine success, but ultimately for Traazil, success is linked to sales. Ridge of Westfield says “every person’s vision of success is different” (pers. comms., 18 September 2013). She adds:

239 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

“A measure of success is that we’re growing, that we are playing in the right channels where our shoppers are…We do want to have that dialogue, but…if we [could] generate those conversations between our shoppers, we could almost just step back. That for me is the ultimate success” (Ridge, Westfield, pers. comms., 18 September 2013).

Epstein of Commonwealth Bank said sharing content was the ultimate form of engagement. Major telco said having customers interested in his message and loving the brand was what he sought. Major tourism body said it was brand advocacy and the great insights an organisation elicits from users. Graham of NRMA and Khan of Jetstar said it was having satisfied customers, but wanted went further to say success was having people share organisation-created content. Bradley of Alinta believed the primary sought after characteristic of social media was activism by a challenger brand against a monolithic and powerful leading organisation. Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle believed success on a blog was comments.

For most participants, success was based on hard metrics. The most common measure of success (11 out of 21 – 53 per cent) was engagement – were users engaging with the organisation on social media in a meaningful way, by liking, commenting or sharing content. The next measure was growth of community (10 of 21 participants – 50 per cent), or the number of people who followed the organisation on Twitter or Facebook or read the blog. After that, success was measured in terms of reach, followed by brand advocacy, sales, sharing, traffic to the website, brand loyalty, brand awareness, dialogue, social media being integrated into the organisation, satisfied customers, and lastly, containing a problem. “If we acquire more fans, if we also have higher metrics, like we have higher engagement levels, I think that demonstrates success for the channel. But, of course, at the end of the day, everything funnels back to sales” (Traazil, HTC, pers. comms., 27 September 2013).

“Lots of happy customers is a big metric for success, and lots of engagement. Traffic coming through to the website is a big one for the digital team…A more centralised brand… Much smoother process and more people in the business being able to actually respond to things on social media” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

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“The more page views, the better. The more social shares, the better...The more traffic that we’re driving back from Forbes to our SAP.com properties, the better…That is how I measure success and it is how we’re measured…Things continue to climb and, I would say, pretty rapidly too, which – I think that is a good sure-fire sign of success” (Clarke, SAP, pers. comms., 9 August 2013).

Table 7.2 indicates participants’ determinants of success in social media.

241 Table 7.2 Determinants of success

Success Participant Reach Engagement Growth of Dialogue Social Advocacy Satisfied Brand Brand Containing Sales Traffic Sharing community integrated customers awareness loyalty a problem to content w/ other website media Coles x x HTC x x x Westfield x x x (between peers) NRMA x x x Lorna Jane x x x x Alinta x x Major telco x x x SAP x x x x (page views) Major tourism x x x x body Jetstar x x Flight centre x x x x BOQ x x x Salesforce/Oracle x x x Major bank x Salesforce x x x x Comm. Bank x x x x x Ford x x x Channel 10 x x x x x x Ansell x x Telstra x x x x x eBay x x x x x

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Discussion Participants, who mostly reported to marketing, instituted marketing performance indicators to measure and evaluate success. Murdough (2009) finds social media measurement immature, but understands that communication professionals need to make sense of activity data. As a result he suggests three ‘pillars’ to quantify success: reach, discussion and outcomes. In this study, participants determined reach (quality and quantity of conversations) through unsophisticated measures – retweets, volume of conversations and shares, growth of community – and discussion through volume of conversations and specific words. But there was no discussion by any of the participants on outcomes, except to say they wanted, or were pressured to deliver, more transactions. Twenty four per cent of participants said social media should lead to sales (Salesforce, Flight Centre, HTC, SAP and Lorna Jane), but none demonstrated whether or not it came to fruition.

‘Growth of community’ was the easiest to measure numerically and thus the most widely used metric. ‘Engagement’ was the next most widely used measure, but its determination is more fluid. Even Watson and Noble’s (2014) recent effort in social media evaluation did not accurately or finitely define engagement in social media. It is difficult to measure how engaged publics are with a blog without any comments or a microblog where dialogue is non-existent. Most participants utilised Facebook’s engagement formula. Major bank was the only participant who expressed the sought-after outcome that social media be incorporated into all the bank’s communication and not be considered a separate channel. But, he added, “we have a ways to go on that” (pers. comms., 16 April 2013).

In response to RQ 3: Do corporations measure and evaluate the outcomes of their blogging and microblogging activities and if so, what results do they identify? – Yes, they measure and evaluate activities. This study found that monitoring and measurement was instituted by all participants, but in

243 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 different forms, and metrics differed across participant organisations. Results, or success, were determined disparately but growth of community and engagement were the most preferable. Metrics are transferred from traditional media but results were considered questionable.

These results indicate that there is an opportunity to determine applicable and pertinent monitoring and evaluating metrics for social media that can be applied and adapted across industry sectors. The public relations Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles 2010 aimed to recommend metrics for public relations generally as well as specificially for social media. They suggest social media evaluation consider quality as well as quantity, and measurement should focus on conversation and communities (instituteforpr.org). Metrics include influence, opportunity to reach, engagement and sentiment (Watson & Noble 2014). They are appropriate but not precisely defined and they are still not scrupulously implemented by public relations professionals. However, if those Principles were more accurately specified and prescribed by public relations and social media organisations, they could provide specific metrics and adequately indicate sentiment or engagement.

The next chapter explores the management of crises in social media, using exemplifying case studies. The case studies relate directly to three participants who discussed openly how these crises were handled and whether the execution delivered the results expected.

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Chapter 8

Findings: How crises are managed in social media

How publics perceive organisations changes during crises and can be altered by the organisation’s interactions on social media. Social media has become an integral part of crisis communication response (Veil et al 2011). This study found that social media do not cause crises, but are used to manage them. In this chapter is an examination of how crises are managed or perceived to be managed in social media, as well as three case studies featuring three participants. Participants discuss how the crises emerged, how social media were utilised, and whether success was achieved as anticipated.

The speed with which organisations must now act in a crisis situation has changed. Communication, and blogging specifically, can change people’s perception of a crisis (Coombs 2007 cited in Veil et al 2011). Through dialogue, rumour and innuendo can be extinguished. Although the speed of the spread of information on the Internet can accelerate crises, all participants lauded social media for its ability to assist in managing crisis situations quickly. Even in instances where participants chose to not actively engage in dialogue, they recognised the usefulness of social media in managing crises because of its facility to allow organisations to provide quick and efficient responses. The key, says Epstein of Commonwealth Bank, is to be as transparent as possible.

8.1 Overall findings regarding the management of crises in social media x Ninety-five per cent of participants agreed crises are not caused by social media but can be managed using social media x Slightly more than half of participants (52 per cent) have a social media crisis management plan.

245 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 x Social media help manage crisis situations quickly, with shorter response times than traditional media x Speed is key and publics need to be informed of the crisis and the resolution

More than half of participants (52 per cent – Coles, Jetstar, BOQ, Salesforce, Commonwealth Bank, Ford, Channel 10, Telstra, major telco, eBay and NRMA) have a social media crisis management plan, incident management plan or escalation process plan in place for issues (This is in contrast to three quarters of organisations having crisis management plans in a survey of PR practitioners by Cloudman and Hallahan (2006)). Ninety five per cent said that while they had all managed a crisis using social media, they had never had a crisis created or caused by social media. The exceptions were NRMA and the Alan Jones/Destroy the Joint case, to a lesser degree, Ford and Salesforce, all used here as exemplar case studies.

The crisis type dictates how the organisation responds, whether the crisis emerges online or offline, and whether the responses vary from defensive to accommodative (Jin, Liu & Astin 2014). “Publics seem to be more likely to accept the organisation’s accommodative responses, taking a collaborative approach to a tough situation”, argue Jin et al. (2014, p. 88), but this was not supported in the findings in this study, specifically the case studies investigated. In the three examples that follow, two organisations reacted accommodatively, one responded defensively. Perhaps this explains why two of the situations were resolved quickly and one extended for a longer period. This study did not investigate the long-term impact of the crises on the organisations’ reputations.

Participants found that dealing with issues quickly diminished the possibility of issues becoming crises. Speed is key, they noted, and keeping publics informed of the process and resolution is critical. It is essential to build trust

246 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 with publics prior to any issue, so that when a crisis occurs, people will be more tolerant of the situation (Major tourism body, Jetstar and Flight Centre). It is in crisis situations that social media managers and public relations professionals work closely together. Medcalf of Coles and Ridge of Westfield said that public relations professionals were brought in when an issue erupted because they were effective at managing crises.

One area in which crises can manifest themselves is through journalists trawling through social media sites. Westfield, major bank, NRMA and Jetstar believe journalists visit their social media sites and pursue small problems solely to create mainstream media stories. These participants claim that journalists follow banks, utilities, government agencies and large corporations in chatrooms, and on Facebook and Twitter, building stories by seeking complaints, problems and issues. They consider complainants’ accusations of being wronged or manipulated, overcharged or treated poorly. This ‘trawling’, pursuing whatever trouble exists, can create bigger issues for the organisation. Major bank says that as a result of these ‘investigations’, “sometimes an issue becomes hotter because of social’s involvement” (pers. comms., 16 April 2013). Perhaps if there was more dialogue between the organisation and its publics and complaints were investigated regularly, there might not be a story.

On the other hand, said major bank, during a serious situation like an earthquake or bushfire, which affects employees as well as individuals, social media have proved to be valuable and effective tools with which to communicate quickly, particularly in transmitting information. Stephens and Malone (2009) discuss the dialogic opportunities of social media in crisis situations, but as with previous findings in this study, organisations did not take avail themselves of those dialogic opportunities during crises.

For technology companies and banks, outages or network disruptions often erupt into crises, because almost before the situation is known internally and

247 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 can be repaired, it is ‘broadcast’ or amplified in social media, surfacing on Twitter or Facebook. Commonwealth Bank, major bank, Telstra, major telco, SAP and Salesforce (Australia and US) discussed that these kinds of offline issues must be managed quickly on social. Communicating the issues and the time period of repair and reinstatement is imperative. Organisations have learned to be more responsive and to make decisions more quickly. Similarly, participant travel organisations Jetstar, Flight Centre and major tourism body found situations like weather caused crises, issues out of their control that had to be managed through social media. Examples include the 2010 Icelandic volcanic eruption that created an ash cloud over the UK, parts of Europe and Iceland, disrupting air travel; earthquakes; bush fires like those in Victoria in 2009 and Tasmania in 2012; Qantas being grounded due to a 2011 labour dispute; and Lufthansa’s pilot strike in 2014. In those situations, social media proved invaluable at informing publics. “It’s a way that allows us to get information out, not just reactive information, but we can often advise people about things that are happening. They might not be researching information because they might not know that it’s happened. But if they liked us on our social channels, if something did happen, it’s invaluable” (Locke, Flight Centre, pers. comm., 22 May 2013)

“There have been examples where we’ve used social media in major crises to get messages out there, like for bush fires or earthquakes. We were communicating with staff on social media and we figured customers wouldn’t mind if we were also ensuring the safety of our staff through public channels. It proved a very valuable and effective tool. In other issues, it provided a channel to at least put our side of the story out” (major bank, pers. comm., 16 April 2013).

Organisations need to focus on what and how they write about a crisis on Twitter because news travels quickly and publics may turn to sources other than the organisation if the response is not fast enough.

8.2 Case studies of crises in social media It emerged from the interviews that three of the participant organisations experienced crises which they managed in social media. In discussing crises with participants, 95 per cent said that crises were not caused by social media, but were managed using social media for speed and efficacy. The

248 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 three participants’ stories were explored because the management of the crises and the results differed, because the researcher was able to investigate two of the issues in depth, and because the participants were willing to discuss them.

The first example involves member motoring organisation NRMA. (NRMA launched in 1920 and not only provides roadside assistance to motorists in NSW [the most populous Australian state], but lobbies for improved road conditions). This crisis did not concern NRMA policy or road conditions, but rather involved a social media firestorm concerning NRMA’s radio advertising policies. It focused on NRMA advertising on Sydney powerhouse radio station 2GB with top-rated breakfast host Alan Jones. Activist group Destroy the Joint challenged the NRMA, as well as other advertisers, because of host Jones’ comments, and this crisis was the only example amongst all participants in which social media apparently caused the crisis. The other two – Ford and Salesforce – are examples of crises manifested in social media after having been caused externally, then managed and resolved on social media.

A case study is one in which the author explores a real-life contemporary bounded system with data from multiple sources of information, in this case, interviews, texts from Twitter and Facebook, and newspaper articles (as per Baxter and Jack’s (2008) recommendation of multiple data sources). Case studies are used to illustrate a unique case to understand a specific issue or situation with chronological events outlined by the researcher.

There were some limitations in the collection and presentation of the three selected participant case studies. The limitations were: 1. Data was collected based on available data on social media, information gleaned from participants and any information readily available

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2. NRMA/Destroy the Joint and Ford were more in-depth than Salesforce, which might be termed more of an example than a case study 3. In all cases, due to the passage of time, social media comments and posts have been deleted, so study of the case was limited to what participants said and what information was available 4. These case studies are presented as examples of situations (exemplifying cases (Bryman 2008), also referred to as intrinsic case studies by Silverman (2010)) raised by the participants, where crises were managed – or not – in social media and the objective of their presentation “is to capture the circumstances and conditions of an everyday or commonplace” occurrence (Bryman 2008, p. 56).

8.2.1 Case study 1: NRMA and Destroy the Joint

Jenna Price teaches journalism at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). She is also one of the originators and founders of feminist activist organisation Destroy the Joint. Members are called destroyers because on August 31, 2012, long-time Sydney 2GB radio breakfast talk show host Alan Jones said women in Australian public life were “destroying the joint”. His comments referred to then (Labor) Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but extended to apply to any woman in politics [The two main Australian political parties are Labor and the Liberal party]. Jones subsequently made comments at a Liberal Party event, which were then published in the Sunday Telegraph September 30, 2012, that Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s father, who had recently passed away, had “died of shame” because of his daughter’s actions as Prime Minister. Readers of the Sunday Telegraph and listeners to Sydney’s 2GB were outraged.

Jones’ defence was there had been no permission granted to record his comments, which were reported by Jonathan Marshall of the Sunday

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Telegraph. Marshall argued he had purchased a ticket to the public event and subsequently published the story (ABC Media Watch, 8 October 2012).

Jenna Price says, “That [comment] was so shocking to me. I mean, it was so demeaning and hurtful” (pers. comms., 23 November 2013). Destroy the Joint was founded in September 2012 and its Facebook page initiated at the end of September 2012. This was the same time frame as Jones’ comments. Says Price: “Macquarie Radio Network [owners of 2GB] insisted that he [Jones] come back and apologise to Gillard. So, there is a press conference…it was a forty-five minute Alan Jones non-apology…At the end, a reporter said to him, ‘Do you think your advertisers will stand by you?’ Alan Jones replied, ‘Well, you do not see them queuing up to leave’…So, we decided - let’s see what they do” (Price, pers. comms., 23 November 2013).

Destroy the Joint launched a Facebook campaign to convince advertisers on Jones’ 2GB breakfast show to pull their advertising in order to affect the radio station, and Jones, financially. “We had a strategy of rewarding businesses that removed the advertising and campaigning against those [who did not]…and reminding people every day,” says Jenna (pers. comms., 23 November 2013). Major advertisers, including Coles, Bing Lee, Woolworths, Mercedes Benz, ING Direct, Dilmah and Freedom Furniture, pulled their advertising by October 1, 2012. The Destroy the Joint campaign involved ‘destroyers’ posting daily on both Twitter and Facebook, encouraging advertisers, whom destroyers started contacting by phone and letter, to leave Jones’ show. Study participant NRMA was an advertiser who did not leave the show. “A lot of the big companies pulled out straight away. We used Facebook as the focal point and it is still the focal point of our group” (Price, pers. comms., 23 November 2013).

Destroy the Joint asked their followers to communicate with advertisers by telephone, fax, email, letter, Twitter and Facebook. Destroy the Joint also promised to publish the responses of advertisers. By October 2, 2012, Destroy the Joint achieved 10,000 likes/followers on Facebook, and

251 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 advertisers Hyundai, Honda, Harvey Norman, Ford and others joined those who pulled their advertising from Jones’ show. In total, almost 100 advertisers left the show. “Sometimes [an advertiser] would say ‘We had no idea he said that’ when destroyers rang up. If a company would then say, ‘We’re pulling out”, we would post that on the Facebook page. Sometimes [the company] would post it themselves on the page… Around a third of the advertisers never returned to Alan Jones” (Price, pers. comms., 23 November 2013).

On October 3, 2012, journalist Manny Tsigas published on (public broadcaster) SBS’ website, “Social media has played a vital role in the backlash against presenter Alan Jones” and added that another activist organisation, Change.org, had created an online petition against Alan Jones which had already attracted 103,000 supporters. By October 4, 2012, shares in Macquarie Radio Network, 2GB’s parent company, had fallen 16 per cent (ASX 2014).

On October 9, 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard made her famous ‘misogyny’ speech in the Australian Parliament and on the same day, mainstream media started to take interest in the Alan Jones/Destroy the Joint story. This interest continued through mid November 2012, with articles in newspapers across Australia including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Advertiser, The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sunday Telegraph, The Geelong Advertiser, The Gold Coast Bulletin, The Canberra Times and on (public broadcaster) ABC. Macquarie Radio Network’s Executive Chairman Russell Tate granted a long interview to The Australian, published November 26, 2012, about the episode. At Macquarie Radio Network’s Annual General Meeting in November 2013, Tate announced that the incident had had a full year revenue impact on 2GB of three to four million dollars. In the Annual Report, Tate said: “We suffered a very significant hit to our revenues…after comments made by Alan Jones resulted in a massive social media campaign against Jones and 2GB” (MRN AGM Address 2013, p. 2).

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NRMA Motoring Services describes this event as a crisis caused by social media, not a crisis managed on social, because members were posting angry comments on NRMA’s Facebook page and elsewhere, leading to a decline in NRMA’s reputation. NRMA’s social media manager Angela Graham said, “It started on social media. [Destroy the Joint] attacked all the advertisers and then that gets picked up by the media. Social media can actually drive the [traditional] media…The media was picking up on which brands were taking down their advertising and which were continuing, based on the activation work that [Destroy the Joint] was doing. We did get media coverage about that and about us not removing our advertising, and that was a big deal…We got hit by that” (Graham, NRMA, pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

NRMA Motoring Services did not pull its advertising from 2GB. On October 2, 2012, NRMA Insurance, a separate organisation to NRMA Motoring Services, announced on their Facebook page that they had ceased advertising on the Alan Jones Breakfast Show. NRMA Motoring Services did not mention the Alan Jones/Destroy the Joint incident on their Facebook page until October 31, 2012. “Our decision to continue advertising on 2GB, including the Breakfast Show, is in no way an endorsement of or support by this organisation of the comments made by Mr. Jones...We will always seek to protect our brand reputation and take the views of our members seriously. And we will continue to listen to you on this issue” (NRMA Motoring Services Facebook, 31 October 2012)

The post garnered 2,000 comments, 85 per cent of which were negative towards NRMA (NRMA Motoring Services receives few comments and most are requests for service or a thank-you for services rendered). In the investigation of this case study, it was found that NRMA had deleted most comments relating to the issue from their Facebook page (so not available to be analysed), but those comments which remained available demonstrated opposition to NRMA’s position to continue advertising on Alan Jones’ show. The NRMA was not listening to its members.

Some comments from the NRMA Facebook page 5 November 2012: I am very disappointed that the NRMA has chosen to resume advertising on the Alan Jones program…Do not associate an organisation with a proud history of community with such a lack of civility (Commenter A)

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As a Gold member I am unhappy that you contine to advertise on Alan Jones’ show. Given that 50% of your members are likely to be female, I’d love you to show support for the campaign against sexism (Commenter B).

I am disappointed that the NRMA is advertising with Alan Jones. The man has no respect for Australia or our Prime Minister…I thought NRMA cared about societal standards (Commenter C).

Please, NRMA, stop advertising with Alan Jones (Commenter D).

[As of July 2014, only one post remained visible on NRMA’s Facebook page and no NRMA Twitter posts referring to the issue were visible. The researcher studied NRMA posts from September 1, 2012 to December 1, 2012 – not one mention of Alan Jones or the Alan Jones situation remains accessible.]

Graham says that managing the crisis was difficult due to NRMA Motoring Services’ complex approvals processes. “The Alan Jones [scandal] was probably one of our biggest [crises] and it was painful because we’ve got a big board and we’ve got people who can hold up processes here. Being able to respond is quite tricky. It actually took us much longer than we would have liked to be able to respond to that crisis” (Graham, pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

The Australian Financial Review (AFR, Australia’s daily financial newspaper, akin to the Wall Street Journal) made the following comments during the very public discussion about Alan Jones’ comments: “Outrage is the new democracy” (AFR, 13 October 2012)

“This is a watershed moment for Australian media” (AFR, 13 October 2012)

“Social media has barged its way into the corporate landscape” (AFR, 13 December 2012).

On November 1, 2012, blog Only the Depth Varies, written by Sal Piracha who grew up in a small country town with NRMA President Wendy Machin, featured a post about NRMA’s refusal to pull its advertising from Jones’ show. She said it was “the first major company to remain with Alan Jones’ show” and “as long as the NRMA still advertises on Mr Jones’ show, it has positioned itself on the Jones side of the line, and the wrong side of history” (onlythedepthvaries.blogspot.com.au).

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On November 3, 2012, the NRMA distributed a media release quoting NRMA President Machin about her own relationship with Alan Jones, defending advertising on the show and how the NRMA would not drop sponsorship of his show [A search of the NRMA website did not find this release amongst all other media releases, but as published media stories were similarly worded with the same image, it was evident a media release had been disseminated]. A news story based on that release was published November 4, 2012 in newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, the Sun Herald, the Bendigo Advertiser, Port Stephens Examiner, Margaret River Mail, Canberra Times and Avon Advocate, as well as on Whyallan News Online and Worldnews.com. It featured a quote from Ms Machin: “The 2GB morning show has a lot of listeners and for the NRMA, this is an important group for us to talk to…The NRMA should not be punished for another’s wrongdoings” (Sydney Morning Herald, November 4 2012). Fairfax columnist Peter FitzSimons wrote about the situation, also published November 4, 2014: “The only amazing thing is that, of all brands, the once-mighty NRMA – whose brand is fundamental decency, but it is wavering – has returned to the Jones show, apparently at the direction of its president, Wendy Machin. What is she thinking?” (Sydney Morning Herald, November 4, 2012).

Jenna Price says: “Wendy Machin had a very personal reason to keep sponsoring Alan Jones. I think they have a friendship...She made it very clear that that commitment was greater than the commitment she felt for opposing sexism and misogyny. And I felt that that was quite an interesting take. Because NRMA has a very corporate social responsibility ideology...but I do not think that is how they dealt with the whole Destroy the Joint-Alan Jones thing…I do not consider anything she said responsible. I thought she was putting her own personal relationship with Alan Jones ahead of the needs and desires and voices of her members” (pers. comms., 23 November 2013).

There was no dialogue between sides in this issue. Destroy the Joint did not converse directly to anyone within the NRMA or to Alan Jones in either social or traditional media, or face-to-face. Followers and proponents on both sides

255 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 made their comments clearly on the Facebook and Twitter pages of both NRMA and Destroy the Joint. Admits Jenna Price: “I do not think we would have been able to create an organisation like Destroy the Joint without Facebook…We’re able to support each other without having to be in the same room” (pers. comms., 23 November 2013).

The Destroy the Joint Facebook page began with a few hundred followers at its inception in September 2012, reached ten thousand by the end of October 2012, and by October 2014 had 47,138 followers.

NRMA would not publicly release the number of members who left the organisation as a result of the Alan Jones/Destroy the Joint situation. Alan Jones continues to be the 2GB morning host, with a full slate of advertisers. Destroy the Joint continues its campaign against sexism on its Facebook page.

Angela Graham says the crisis did not leave any lasting effects on the NRMA. “It just died down in about two weeks as they all do. It just quietly went away, until the next time he [Alan Jones] puts his foot in his mouth” (pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

In response to RQ 2: Do corporations engage substantially in dialogue using the interactive features of blogs and microblogs such as ‘comments’ and posts by others or are their approaches largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue)? – The answer in this case is no: the organisation was not interactive nor did it respond to their publics’ concerns about Alan Jones. NRMA did not engage in dialogue with their members who opposed their advertising on the Alan Jones Show. They did not engage in dialogue with Destroy the Joint. While comments on NRMA’s Facebook page were originally encouraged during the crisis, they remained visible for one year, then removed from the site. There was no response on Facebook from NRMA to those comments.

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8.2.2 Case study 2: Salesforce and social enterprise Participant Salesforce.com’s situation is a case where the organisation did listen to comments on social media. Salesforce.com has admitted in interviews with the researcher that it does not engage in dialogue with its publics on social media, and rarely responds to queries or comments on its social media pages, despite using and selling appropriate interactive technology and touting social collaboration. But not talking does not equate to listening.

Salesforce.com in 2011 announced that it was a social enterprise, an enterprise specialising in social media technology. IBM, also in 2011, described itself as a social business where one “embraces and cultivates a spirit of collaboration and community through its organisation” (Macnamara 2014, p. 163). Macnamara (2014) interrogates the social organisation where he clearly states that the social organisation should not be confused with a social enterprise. Research organisation Gartner describes a social organisation as one using mass collaboration (Bradley & McDonald 2011; Macnamara 2014), particularly where stakeholders can “participate in the creation of value” (Bradley & McDonald 2011, p. 5). Salesforce.com’s CEO Mark Benioff wanted Salesforce.com to be a social business and perhaps even a social organisation, demonstrating expertise in the technology allowing grand scale social media interaction, but he liked the impact of the term social enterprise: Salesforce.com was an enterprise specialising in social media technology and helping others to use it.

In 2011, Benioff attempted to trademark the term social enterprise for Salesforce. He believed the term was a good one to describe Salesforce.com’s business model. But social enterprise has a very specific meaning. Social enterprises are organisations which serve a community’s social, environmental and societal objectives rather than seeking maximisation of profit (Macnamara 2014). Since 2000, the term had come to describe organisations with products and services to address social problems.

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UK-based Social Enterprise, the national body for social enterprise (www.socialenterprise.org.uk), describes social enterprise as a business “that tackles social problems, improves communities, people’s life chances, or the environment” (www.socialenterprise.org.uk).

In 2012, after Benioff made the trademark attempt, Social Enterprise launched a social media campaign and an uproar ensued. The social media offensive used the hashtag #notinourname, aimed at Benioff and Salesforce.com: do not use this term because the definition Benioff preferred was not for the benefit of others. The not-for-profit sector’s campaign included loud, sustained Twitter activity well as a letter to Benioff signed by Nobel Laureates and authors, and letters to leading UK entrepreneurs like Richard Branson. Salesforce Social Media Manager (now Marketing Director) Nathan Freitas said: “Our CEO was really passionate about the social enterprise term and had tied that to us as a company, so we were a social enterprise. We were going out and helping other businesses become social enterprises. For us, being a social enterprise was connecting your partners, your customers, your employees…all together using innovative tools that were social and collaborative…tools and applications that we create...We were going to trademark that term and we were in the process of doing that. But there was a big – well, there was a consistent backlash from the non-profit sector…We started seeing consistent chatter or noise on our social channels…[In the UK] they really were upset about us trademarking that term and it just finally got to the point where Mark Benioff decided to no longer pursue that” (Freitas, Salesforce, pers. comms., 15 April 2013).

Salesforce withdrew its application to trademark ‘social enterprise’ in September 2012, asserting they had listened to the not-for-profit sector and responded. A post on the techcrunch.com website on September 4, 2012 indicated Salesforce had retreated from its original intention. Llewellyn of Salesforce.com and Oracle added: “Salesforce is actually pretty good at using social media to placate customer anger and you can see that anger turned around quickly, whereas that kind of stuff falling on a deaf ear makes a bad situation worse” (pers. comms., 17 April 2013).

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In response to RQ 2: Do corporations engage substantially in dialogue using the interactive features of blogs and microblogs such as ‘comments’ and posts by others or are their approaches largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue)? – The answer in this case is yes, in a manner of speaking, and no. Benioff did not engage in dialogue with the social enterprise groups opposed to his trademark attempt, but he did listen to opinions expressed in social media and elsewhere and reacted accordingly.

8.2.3 Case study 3: Ford Motor Company and The Ranger Station (TRS)

Ford Motor Company managed a crisis that was exacerbated by social media, but was not originally been caused by it. Scott Monty became Ford US’s Social Media Director in 2008, as social media was gaining momentum. One of his first challenges was spending time on social media to clarify Ford’s refusal to accept federal financial assistance during the US carmaker bailout (referred to by Monty as the “carpocalypse”). Whilst other car manufacturers accepted the US federal government’s bailout money, Ford planned to emerge from the US economic recession on its own, and Monty began telling people on social media about Ford’s activities.

On December 9, 2008, the Ford Motor Company sent a cease and desist letter, along with a demand for five thousand dollars, to Jim Oakes, owner of a Ford fan site called The Ranger Station (Ford manufactures a truck called Ranger) to surrender his URL (the destination and name of his site). Panicking due to the demand for money, Oakes posted his dilemma on several online Ranger forums – “The Ranger Station (TRS) is being attacked by the Ford Motor Company”. The post resulted in 916 angry responses (Ploof 2008) and 1,000 outraged emails to Ford (Monty, Ford, pers. comms., 8 March 2013). Loyal Ford customers expressed their displeasure at Ford picking on its own fans.

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On December 10, 2008, Monty saw a tweet that led him to Ford fan sites Focaljet and Mustang Evolution, where he learned of Oakes’ issue. Monty, a trained public relations practitioner versed in two-way communication, values transparency, so he began tweeting about the issue. He started tweeting at 10:54am on December 10, 2008 to his 5,600 followers, saying he would investigate the situation. He posted every five to ten minutes – “I am on it...Trying to stop a PR nightmare” (Ploof 2008) – with updates he was receiving from Ford’s legal department and trademark counsel. Bloggers and Tweeters joined the discussion, writing scathing attacks on Ford based on Oakes’ and his followers’ comments. Monty engaged in real time conversations and said he was interacting with the community. He admitted that he took no joy in pursuing fan sites, but defended Ford’s actions regarding the licensing of trademarks and pursing those who marketed counterfeit Ford merchandise, which was the actual reason for the cease and desist letter to Oakes: Oakes was selling fraudulent, non-licensed merchandise with the Ford logo, and the request for money as damages was a scare tactic.

Monty tweeted: “I am finding that there was counterfeit material being sold on it [the fan site]. Trying to get clarity on the URL issue. #ford”. As he tweeted new information regularly, he would occasionally ask followers to retweet his comments. “We got on Twitter because that is where it was spreading and we asked people to hold off on judgment, that we were looking into it. We kind of brought people along as part of the process and helped them understand what we were doing in real time. And then, when the resolution was determined, we asked people to share it and to re-tweet it” (Monty, Ford, pers. comms., 8 March 2013).

During the ongoing social media discussion, Monty telephoned Jim Oakes directly to explain Ford’s position, advising him that the lawyers would let him keep his URL and drop the demand for damages if Jim ceased selling fraudulent Ford merchandise. They came to an agreement, which Oakes

260 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 posted on his website and Monty made public on Ford’s social media pages (Ploof 2008).

The timeframe from the origin of the Ranger Station issue to its end was 23 hours, during which Monty tweeted 138 times, including a request for three retweets, reaching an additional 32,000 people outside his own network (Ploof 2008). The goal of managing this issue quickly and effectively was protecting Ford’s reputation. It demonstrated a “high degree of commitment from Scott Monty” (Otulak 2010, p. 73) and genuine-ness in trying to resolve the issue. But Monty admitted he was lucky, in a way, this occurred when it did. “Thank goodness it happened in 2008, because if it happened on Twitter today, I do not think we’d be able to contain it the way we did” (Monty, Ford, pers. comms., 8 March 2013).

In response to RQ 1: What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? In this case, the aim was to both inform and engage with stakeholders. Monty’s overall effort was monologic, although he inferred that it was dialogic. He did interact with some Ford fans and engaged in person-to-person dialogue with Jim Oakes.

In response to RQ 2: Do corporations engage substantially in dialogue using the interactive features of blogs and microblogs such as ‘comments’ and posts by others or are their approaches largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue)? – The answer in this case is yes and no. He tweeted monologically, in an effort to update Ford fans. He did not engage in dialogue with Ford fans on Twitter, but he attempted to interact with them in an authentic, spontaneous fashion, with propinquity and empathy. The Twitter campaign led him to an actual direct dialogue with Jim Oakes, thus resolving the issue. He used social media in real time to resolve an issue and keep Ford’s followers apprised, while maintaining the values of the company. He deemed the interaction successful.

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These participant case studies demonstrate the uneven use of social media (some monologic, some dialogic) and the disparate levels of trust and respect between an organisation and its publics. As a long-standing member organisation, NRMA had the opportunity to build relationships that were more than transactional by listening, interacting and conversing. NRMA disregarded its publics, despite the potential negative impact. There was no interaction with publics, NRMA’s response was slow and without respect for its members/publics.

Monty of Ford actively engaged in social media communication. The Ford example was not a dialogue, as Monty’s tweets were primarily updates, a one-way news feed concerning the situation. However, this did lead to dialogue with the other party face-to-face, resulting in a positive negotiation.

Salesforce did not engage in dialogue, but was engaged in active listening. It was impacted by the negative wave of social media discussion and publicity. While there was no interaction with publics, Saleforce demonstrated a respect and mutuality for its publics evidenced by its change in view.

Findings indicate that organisations struggle to implement dialogue and that respect and mutuality differ vastly between organisations.

In addition to the findings discussed in Chapters 6, 7 and 8, there were a number of other findings from the rich amount of data collected. While they may not answer the research questions directly, the findings help to discern how social media change the way an organisation communicates both internally and externally. They are discussed in the next chapter.

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Chapter 9

Findings and discussion: Other findings that impact an organisation’s communication in social media

There were a number of findings that did not fit within the scope of the original research questions, but the data were worth including as they relate to how an organisation communicates both internally and externally. This chapter examines those data: some findings reinforce what other studies have discovered (e.g. the number of organisations which provide training in social media usage). Other data focus on social media objectives, organisational voice and responsiveness.

9.1 Overall findings in this chapter x Most organisations do not have a social media strategy x Organisational voice on blogs can humanise the organisation x Organisations do not always speak with ‘one voice’ x Speed in responsiveness is imperative. Responsiveness demonstrates listening, caring and trust x Only half of participant organisations offer training in social media to employees

Corporate communication has been democratised by social media (Kietzmann et al. 2011), as discussed earlier in Chapters 2 and 3, so organisations might consider changing their internal and external communication by listening, responding, answering and engaging in conversation with publics. Organisations are reluctant to engage in dialogic communication, says Hether (2014), because of their expectation of control, which social media limit (participant organisations reinforce this reluctance), and, as previous chapters indicate, communication between organisations

263 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 and publics on social media is more one-way and less dialogic than opportunities allow. In accordance with Kent (2014)’s contention, findings here revealed that many communication professionals treat social media as a one-way information dissemination tool, rather than a two-way communication channel. Curtis, Edwards, Fraser, Gudelsky, Holmquist, Thornton and Sweetser (2010) found that “organisations with defined public relations departments are more likely to adopt social media technologies” (p. 92), but these findings indicate an uptake of social media adoption but not within public relations departments, but the inclination for dialogic communication is less apparent.

9.2 Strategy and objectives of social media

Strategy is an important element of public relations. In this study few participants developed a strategy, or even had key objectives, in their initial implementation of social media. As interaction with publics advanced, participants acknowledged that a social media strategy was required; some even discussed specific strategies for individual applications and platforms. Six participant organisations (30 per cent: Lorna Jane, NRMA, Westfield, major tourism body, Ansell and Flight Centre) discussed strategy in detail. It emerged that organisations change their social media strategy regularly, adapting to new technologies when current strategies are not performing or when interaction with publics seems to mature or plateau. Coles, NRMA, eBay, Ansell, major telco and major tourism body (30 per cent) are reviewing their current strategy and developing new ones. This is in contrast with an Altimeter (2013) study, which found that only 17 per cent of organisations were strategic in their social media execution.

As discussed in Chapter 5, social media strategies in this study are marketing- directed. Khan of Jetstar reiterates that the “strategy [for social] in terms of marketing is how we drive sales” (pers. comms., 24 May 2013). For Salesforce, the strategy is lead generation as well as awareness. Freitas of

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Salesforce says that driving traffic from social media to the website is a critical metric. Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle reinforces that for a sales- oriented company like Salesforce, leads are a focal point, but “it is virtually impossible to demonstrate that leads were generated from social media” (pers. comms., 17 April 2013). eBay’s social media strategy is quite developed: “We refer to our social presence as an ecosystem. And everything launched simultaneously – or in two waves. It seems to have worked out quite well. The objectives were to create a cost effective, scalable and high reach comms channel for the brand…and to drive traffic to dot com dot au” (Young, eBay, pers. comm., 14 August 2013)

Some organisations have no strategy at all, like Mantero of Ansell: “Our social media strategy is underdeveloped. Initially we had no strategy, we just built the storefront” (pers. comms., 15 February 2013). Major telco admits that their initial social media strategy was not well thought out and as a result it failed. The organisation is now changing the focus of how it relates to its publics on social media.

Major tourism body concedes that having one overall social media strategy is challenging, suggesting a strategy can be developed for each platform and in fact, each campaign. “Things change so fast, we’re re-evaluating what the strategy is all the time” (pers. comms., 7 August 2013). Zivot of Lorna Jane agrees: “We need to develop a strategy for each channel in order to get value. And each channel has a different objective of what we want to achieve” (pers. comms., 11 September 2013). For Lorna Jane, the Facebook strategy is one of building community and driving purchase, while Twitter is a personal connection medium to the CEO. The essence of Telstra’s social media strategy, says Clarke, is to grow and sustain the community on Twitter and the blog. NRMA, Alinta, Flight Centre and major tourism body want to ‘own’ their publics: the people, the content, and the data that the content delivers, so they are developing strategies for moving publics away from platform others own (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) to forums, blogs, chat rooms and communities that sit on their own websites. That way, they can ‘speak’

265 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 transparently in a voice individuals respect and understand without hidden interests.

9.3 Organisational voice Participants differed on the issue of voice in social media. Fifty per cent (10 of 21 – Coles, NRMA, Lorna Jane, eBay, major telco, Commonwealth Bank, Channel Ten, Ford, Ansell and Flight Centre) agree everyone who communicates in social media on the organisation’s behalf should ‘speak’ in the company’s voice. Training manuals and seminars were prerequisites for staff engaging in social media on behalf of the company. Several other participants had an opposing view: a number of different voices was good, one voice would be boring for the reader, the author could keep his or her own voice whilst writing on behalf of the company, but maintaining the values and beliefs of the company. Bradley of Alinta, Galer and Clarke of SAP, Murrell of Bank of Queensland and Clarke of Telstra argued that authors should speak in their own voice, especially in blogs, but within the confines of the company’s brand values. Levine, Locke, Searls and Wineberger (2009) in The Cluetrain Manifesto recommended multiple voices for organisations to more effectively communicate. Says Murrell of Bank of Queensland, “The beauty of social is bringing different people together with different personalities,” (pers. comms., 20 May 2013). Clarke of Telstra is strongly supportive of contributors writing in their own voice as it humanises the brand. Adds Bradley of Alinta: “Do you want the entire blog to be written in the same voice?...I usually go towards the contributor having his or her voice, but under the guise of the brand values. So for [Alinta], these are things like trust and transparency and affordability. They kind of dictate the types of subjects that we would talk about in those types of tones” (pers. comm., 3 August 2013).

Kelleher and Miller (2006) suggest conversational human voice be used in blogs, recommending organisations write with humour and admit mistakes to help enhance relationships. Kelleher (2009) says conversational

266 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 organisational voice generates higher levels of trust, satisfaction and mutuality.

Galer, a senior communications consultant and blogger for SAP, says: “I have my own voice. I mean, my blog is mine [on Forbes.com]. That is my genuine voice. I also write for SAP.info which is our externally facing website. We have feature articles. That is more like SAP, so there is a difference. With my blog, I am going to focus in on areas of interest to me…I will carefully weave in the reference to SAP, I would say, in 90 per cent of them, but sometimes I do not” (Galer, SAP, pers. comms., 9 August 2013).

Determining the right voice for the organisation requires research and experimentation. Says Khan of Jetstar: “We looked at how other people spoke on social and decided where in the spectrum we wanted to be. We did not want to be too corporate or too friendly, plus our customer care people add their own voice. We’re happy for people to inject their own personalities and speak like they are in the real world” (pers. comms., 24 May 2013).

All participants agree that responsiveness to publics is important and speed in interaction is essential.

9.4 Responsiveness

Kelleher and Miller (2006) define responsiveness as a willingness to respond quickly to a customer’s complaint or inquiry. Responsiveness is a key attribute of social media with an expectation by publics of immediate response. It “encourages the continuation of an interaction and reinforces commitment” (Avidar 2013, p. 442). It is about the public knowing they have been heard, and is an invitation to conversation. Organisations which take too long to answer are “anachronistic” (Kent 2013, p. 339). In this study, the context of responsiveness focused on how fast, how often and whether an organisation responds to users. All participants agreed that responding quickly on Facebook and Twitter was essential, even if an issue or problem was not immediately resolved. Major telco says: “We have a policy where we say that unless you are being overtly rude, deliberately obstructive and abusing us, where there is no point in entering into a conversation, if you have asked a legitimate question, you will get an

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answer pretty much in 100 per cent of cases…in less than 30 minutes” (pers. comms., 12 August 2013).

Avidar (2013) developed a responsiveness pyramid which refers to low, medium and high levels of responsiveness, with high responsiveness culminating in interactivity and a greater organisation-public relationship. Low responsiveness or not responding at all could lead to reputation loss and a possible crisis, agreed Young of eBay and Ridge of Westfield. Ridge of Westfield and Monty of Ford acknowledge it is best to respond even by saying “We’re looking into it” until the solution is found, which could be hours or days away. “If you do not respond, it looks like you do not care, like you have no interest”, said Ridge (pers. comms., 18 September 2013). However, content analysis showed that not all organisations responded to comments on social media. In fact, many did not respond at all (e.g. Channel 10, Coles), leaving publics frustrated. Others responded quickly and efficiently (e.g. major telco), but the link to better relationships with publics was not established.

Response time vary among participants. All agree blog posts could take longer to be responded to (24 hours) than Twitter or Facebook posts (five minutes to two hours). Table 9.3 below outlines participants’ response time to social media comments. This is due to the volume of individual users participating in that medium as well as users’ expectations. All participants agree that response – any kind of response – is essential, but many organisations’ dealings with publics involve privacy issues – banks, travel companies, telecommunications – so answering completely and transparently in public is not always possible, but acknowledgement and a move to private discussion is imperative. Ninety per cent of participants have a response protocol or a hierarchy of escalation. Table 9.1 shows response protocol vs. actual response time.

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Table 9.1 Response time (as per SLA [Service Level agreement] or guidelines) Participant Blog Twitter Facebook Actual response time Coles 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes 30 min - 1 hr NRMA 2 hours 2 hours 2 hours 30 min - 1 hr Comm Bank 2 hours 1 hour 1 hour 1 hr Major telco -- 30 minutes 30 minutes 5 -10 min BOQ -- 30 minutes 30 minutes Aiming for 5 min Flight Centre No policy No policy No policy 1 hour Telstra 24 hours 1 hour 1 hour Immediate to 1 hour Salesforce 24 hours 1 hour 1 hour Jetstar -- 15-20 min 15-20 min 1 hr – 1 day Major bank 2 hr-5 hr Major tourism body ------No policy 10-30 min Ansell No policy ------Channel 10 No policy No policy No policy 24 hours to not at all Westfield No policy --- 24 hours 2 hr -24 hr Ford Ongoing Ongoing Ongoing 1 hr -3 hr SAP No policy -- Alinta --- No policy -- 1 hr Lorna Jane No policy No policy No policy 15 min – 1 hr HTC -- No policy No policy (managed globally) eBay -- No policy No policy (managed globally)

Graham of NRMA and Epstein of Commonwealth Bank say response time is a metric for measurement; all queries must be responded to within two hours, based on an SLA (service level agreement), and resolved within 24 hours. Says major telco: “Twitter…can be very aggressive, but it is an incredibly important channel for us because it is quick, and we can respond to people really quickly…I would love it if response time was five minutes” (pers. comms., 12 August 2013).

Locke says Flight Centre has no policy for response time, but that monitoring of queries is a 24/7 situation monitored around the world, based on time zones, and every issue is responded to within one business day. Social media managers do not respond to every comment or query themselves. Some organisations have response teams who must adhere to response times, resolution times and tone of voice, all implemented in staff training.

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9.5 Training Only 53 per cent of organisations provide social media training to employees, say Baird and Parasnis (2011). This lack of training “represents one of the biggest gaps in many businesses’ current social media programs” (p. 30). Macnamara (2012) found that of 200 organisations studied in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, 73 per cent were using social networks, 55 per cent were microblogging and 47 per cent used an organisational blog, but only slightly more than half offered training to those engaged in social media activities.

This study’s findings were similar: slightly more than half of participants (52 per cent) engaged in training for social media use. Monty of Ford says, “People need to understand what works and what does not in social media and what people are expecting” (pers. comms., 8 March 2013). This finding contrasts an Altimeter (2013) study, which found only 18 per cent of employees had a good understanding of social media with little or no training. Says Graham of NRMA: “We have to do lots of training…We’ve trained 50 people within the business, teaching them how to respond in 140 characters. They are used to the phone, not written communication. We train them how to respond, tone of voice, the types of queries to respond to and how to use the technology” (pers. comms., 10 September 2013).

Ridge of Westfield trains shopping centre managers how to use social media because social media is situated within the local marketing departments of each individual centre. Telstra, Alinta and Salesforce said training was needed for both internal and external blog contributors on how to write a blog – how to use images, how long the blog should be, what customers want to read about. Telstra’s frequent internal webinars include the benefits of blogging and how to communicate with Telstra’s social community. Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle believed strongly that people throughout an organisation should be trained to write for blogs. He suggested making it part of their performance to encourage it. “Having the PR guy write the blog

270 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 lacks authenticity and value” (pers. comms., 17 April 2013). Epstein of Commonwealth Bank discussed her own legal, risk and compliance training in the context of speaking publicly for the bank and recommended training for all employees who contribute to the organisation’s social media sites.

In order for organisations to be authentic, dialogic and responsive, training in social media use is necessary for employees who will engage with publics on behalf of an organisation. The training should include clarification of the parametres around organisational voice (if any), responsiveness and response times, a commitment to dialogic interaction, and an understanding of the respect with which publics are held by the organisation.

9.6 Brand Brand was the most discussed subject amongst participants, based on MAXQDA analysis. Organisations need to consider how individuals interpret the brand’s communication. Once the organisation begins communicating in social media and individuals begin to follow it, the concept of the brand’s identity is amplified through the individual’s network of connections, so clear brand attributes are an imperative.

The most important objective of brand communication is humanising the brand, say major telco, Clarke of Telstra, Epstein of Commonwealth Bank, Murrell of Bank of Queensland and Galer of SAP (24 per cent of participants). Blogs and microblogs give the brand a ‘face’ and make it more human, they say. The more a brand can communicate with publics, the more that brand becomes humanised and the less it is a faceless corporation, say SAP, Telstra, Alinta, major telco and Bank of Queensland (c.f. Kelleher 2009; Kelleher & Miller 2006; Smith 2010).

All participants understand the benefits of social media to the brand and found their ability to engage the public through social is essential to creating greater trust and brand advocacy. Booth and Matic (2011) content corporate marketing never had control of the brand and that the reputation of the

271 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 brand always belonged in the hands of publics. But participants struggle to fully engage with their publics. Says Beany of Channel 10:

“I would like to think that our interaction changes brand perception, but to change brand perception is to reply to questions we cannot answer. So, pushing out content will spread the word about our brand” (pers. comms., 21 February 2013).

Engaging in social media requires a focus on what the brand means, says Mantero of Ansell, and it should weave through the social media strategy. Booth and Matic (2011) argue that “corporate marketing never had control of the brand” and brand ownership is “increasingly being shared” between social media users and brands (p. 185).

Barnes and Lescault (2014) studied Millennials (also known as Gen Y – people born between 1980 and 2000) who followed brands on Facebook and Twitter because they liked them, supported them and wanted promotional discounts from them. When they chose to interact with a brand online, they followed the brand on Facebook (62 per cent) or on Twitter (23 per cent). Hollebeeck (2011) agrees that people will feel positive toward a brand when they receive specific benefits from it (see ‘brand advocacy’ in Chapter 5).

Bradley of Alinta, Llewellyn of Salesforce and Oracle, and major tourism body agree that building brand awareness is the reason many organisations get involved in social media. Positive comments by individuals can enhance a brand’s image, improve its value, and increase its sentiment with others in their network. Negative sentiment can affect transactions (deVries et al. 2012), but negative comments are not always related to the brand itself; there are often outside influences that impact the brand (for example, weather. See earlier section on crises in social media).

Social media build brand awareness, interest in the brand, and connection to the brand with possibly better relationships between the brand and publics. All participants understand the benefits to the brand of engaging with publics, but all struggle to fully engage on a dialogic level, without realising

272 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 the impact on the brand. For example, Channel 10 did not interact at all and angry comments on their Facebook page indicated frustration with the brand as well as the situation. Coles has a policy of no one-to-one interaction as well as one-way transmission of content. They too have angry comments from frustrated ‘fans’ on their sites.

It was an unexpected finding to discover that social media managers report to marketing. It seemed more appropriate that public relations manage social media, because PR practitioners are skilled in writing, listening, monitoring, and management of crises. As a result, social media managers were more focused on the brand than had they been PR practitioners, whose aim is to build relationships with publics, and are theoretically more inclined to engage in symmetrical communication. This necessitates organisations to develop and initiate an in-depth social media strategy and an understanding of and commitment to open, dialogic communication.

Discussion There was no clear common direction in this series of findings. Many participants were unclear as to the objectives of their social media strategies, assuming they had a strategy. Only half did, so there was execution without enough thought going into why they were in social media and what they hoped to accomplish. Organisational voice was something on which they disagreed – some thought one voice was best, although within the organisation’s cultural parametres; others thought many voices was efficient. Ultimately, most agreed that growth in sales was good direct result, as they focused on transactional interaction. Used in this way, social media’s ability for dialogue goes unused and opportunities for engagement are missed. On an important issue like responsiveness, all participants agreed any response to a query should be quick, but quick varied – anywhere between five minutes and two hours. That time gap could tarnish a company’s reputation.

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In response to RQ 1: What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? The aims are to communicate the attributes of the brand and to build brand awareness, although many participants described the aims as leading to the website in order to create a transaction. In order for all organisational bloggers and microbloggers to meet an organisation’s strategy, training in social media and understanding key functionalities are essential.

In response to RQ 2: Do organisations engage in dialogue in their blog/microblog interactions, and if so, how? Organisations are still determining their strategies in social media and most do not fully understand the implications of dialogue or interaction. However, responding quickly and in the right voice will enhance an organisation’s reputation.

In response to RQ 3: How do organisations measure and evaluate the outcomes of their blogging and microblogging activities and how do they identify success? Success is measured in increased brand awareness (and sales), increased transactions (as a result of communication and content on social media), and improved reputation.

These findings, while varied, contributed to answering the research questions. In the next chapter, conclusions are drawn, limitations discussed and questions for future research is recommended.

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Chapter 10

Conclusion

This chapter begins by reviewing the research questions, followed by a synopsis of key findings and the significance of those findings, then an analysis of whether and how the research questions were answered. An overview of benefits and limitations of the study follow, then implications for theories, author’s reflections, and recommendations for future study including suggested research questions.

This study problematised the use of dialogue in social media between organisations and publics. It set out to determine whether organisations engage in dialogue specifically on blogs and microblogs and it was framed in dialogic theory as identified by Bakhtin (Baxter 2004; Friedman 2005; Gardiner 2004; Gurevitch 2000, 2001; and Morson 1983), Buber (1923/1970) and others, as well as excellence theory of public relations as discussed by Grunig (1992; Grunig & Grunig 1992; Grunig, Grunig & Dozier 2002), and dialogic theories in public relations as discussed by Pearson (1989b), and Kent and Taylor (1998, 2002; Kent, Taylor & White 2003; Taylor, Kent & White 2001). Focussing on dialogue within the context of public relations in social media, the study also explored the significance of interactivity and engagement (as identified by Berners-Lee 1992; Downes & McMillan 2000; Kiousis 2002; McMillan & Hwang 2002; Mollen & Wilson 2010; O’Reilly 2007; Rafaeli 1988; and Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997).

The objectives of the study were to determine whether dialogue existed in organisation-public communication in social media; whether public relations practitioners implemented dialogic strategies in social media and if not, why not, as theorists recommending them; the type of interaction implemented; and whether social media was used for one-way or two-way communication.

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The research questions studied were:

RQ 1. What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? This explored whether they were used by the organisation for information transmission, engaging with stakeholders, brand building and other purposes or a combination of uses.

RQ 2. Do organisations engage in dialogue in their blog/microblog interactions, and if so, how? This question explored the use of interactive features on blogs and microblogs, such as ‘comments’ and posts, to identify if there was dialogue or lesser interaction, and whether organisations had degrees of engagement expectations on these platforms. It also explored whether their approaches were largely or substantially one-way information transmission (i.e. monologue).

RQ 3. How do organisations measure and evaluate the outcomes of their blogging and microblogging activities and how do they identify success? This question explored how success is measured and whether positive outcomes are aligned to publics as well as the corporation, or only the corporation.

Four key findings emerged from this study:

(1) No dialogue was found on social media between organisations and publics. There was interactivity and and varying levels of engagement. Previous studies had similar findings about dialogue and this study reinforces those findings, as well as contributing new evidence about the levels of interaction. Most participants preferred public-to-public interaction rather organisation-public communication.

(2) Public relations practitioners do not manage social media in most organisations studied. This is in contrast to previous surveys where public relations practitioners self reported as managing social media (For

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example, DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011; Swerling, Thorson & Zerfass 2014; Verhoeven, Tench, Zerfass, Moreno & Verčič 2012; Wright & Hinson (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014). It is unclear from those studies whether public relations was responsible for all social media for an organisation or some social media engagement some of the time for specific projects. No differences were determined in these findings between American and Australian organisations.

(3) Marketing is responsible for the management of social media (67 per cent of participants). This results in a promotional marketing communication focus that is one-way transmissional rather than dialogic, and employed for product information, brand awareness and sales promotions, with limited interactions. Social media managers push information out and use the collaborative spaces and technology that enable interaction, participation and dialogue to disseminate information, an example of McMillan’s (2006) ‘monologue model’ of interactivity, which is one-way, sender-controlled communication.

(4) Social media managers pursue brand advocacy. They believe their ‘fans’ or followers do not want to engage in dialogue, but prefer straightforward answers to questions and resolution of complaints. Social media managers seek simple interactions (or low level engagement) in the forms of ‘likes’, follows, retweets, shares and, to a lesser extent, comments.

There were additional significant findings and they include:

(1) Blogs are considered an important way to engage with publics, but little interaction takes place on them, based on this study. Conversation was found more on microblogs than on blogs. Dann (2010) categorises Twitter posts as conversational because they are usually a query, referral, or response. Conversation has less depth than dialogue – it is open and

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active (Kaplan & Heinlein 2010) but does not require the vulnerability, respect and equality of dialogue (c.f. Kent & Taylor 2002).

(2) Organisations are reluctant to relinquish control of messaging and public discussion about their organisation, even though scholars acknowledge that conversation and messages cannot be controlled in social media (Argenti 2009; Berthon et al 2012; Booth & Matic 2011; Bruhn, Schoenmuller & Schäfer 2012; DiStaso, McCorkindale & Wright 2011; Fournier & Avery 2011; Gillin 2007; Hanna et al. 2011; Johnson & Perlmutter 2010; Kaplan & Haenlein 2010; Kietzmann et al 2011; Mangold & Faulds 2009; Macnamara 2014; Pavlik & McIntosh 2013; Peters et al. 2013). Discussion and conversation about an organisation take place, whether or not the organisation is involved, in brand communities, in social networks and on social media sites.

(3) Participants actively cultivate brand advocates whom they believe will spark positive discussion to influence others.

(4) Measurement for social media uses the metrics of traditional media and as a result does not convert into an appropriate interpretation of sentiment, perception, impression and relevance in social media. The desire by organisations to grow communities as their major goal demonstrates a commitment to legacy media’s numeric metrics, with a lack of concern about the value of content to publics. Monitoring metrics are not standard.

(5) Communities play a significant role in social media and social networks for both the organisations and the fans or followers who support them. Communities offer fans a collaborative space of shared interests and offer organisations a ‘captive audience’ for promotional and product messages. Many organisations have community managers to ‘manage’ the community or moderate conversation.

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(6) Training of staff in social media use was implemented in only half of organisations studied. Without a suitable understanding of dialogic interaction and other benefits provided by social media, engagement is limited and left to the resources of the social media managers within the purview of marketing. Training in the benefits of two-way interaction to enhance relationships with publics is essential for dialogue to take place.

The literature concerning two-way communication as part of excellent public relations as defined by Grunig, Grunig and Dozier (1992) is supported by many theorists (e.g. Bruning, Dials & Shirka 2008; Heath 2001; McAllister- Spooner 2008, 2009; Seltzer & Mitrook 1997), but criticised by others (e.g. Brown 2003, 2006, 2010; Holtzhausen 2000; L’Etang 1995; Murphy 1991). Two-way communication is particularly criticised with regards to implementation in practice (Cancel, Sallot, Cameron & Mitrook 1997; Cancel, Mitrook & Cameron 1999; Pietczka 2006; Porter 2010; Stoker & Tusinski 2006; Stokes & Rubin 2010), yet excellence theory, which encourages a mixed motive model that can include two-way communication, continues to be the leading paradigm in public relations. While even supporters think it normative, Grunig continues to claim it is also positive and in practice by excellent PR agencies. Two-way communication can incorporate and eventuate in dialogue, a fundamental element in relationship building in social media.

However, this study’s findings demonstrate that organisation-public communication in social media is not implemented by public relations practitioners and is not symmetrical, open or dialogic. Social media have allowed publics to engage directly with organisations without gatekeepers, although community managers could be considered gatekeepers. Publics do attempt to engage organisations in conversation but most of the conversation on Facebook pages or within brand communities was found to be peer-to-peer, or between individuals. Social media managers admitted

279 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 they preferred and encouraged peer-to-peer interaction over organisation- public interaction and there was no requirement for them, based on Kent and Taylor’s (2002) tenets of dialogue, to be vulnerable or open and to treat publics with equality.

The main objective of this study was to determine if social media managers engaged in dialogue when communicating with publics on behalf of their organisations, and if they were not, how they were interacting and why. Previous research about dialogic interaction in social media between an organisation and publics through the lense of public relations demonstrates that while theorists support two-way communication and dialogue, practitioners do not. The findings are mirrored in this study and indicate a chasm between theory and practice. This can be attributed to marketing- directed social media managers, who were not public relations practitioners, having a one-way focus of communication that is traditional and entrenched. Most participants acknowledged that social media were ‘push’ channels. One participant, Lorna Jane, said too much back-and-forth conversation between the organisation and an individual was an indication of a problem. As a result, it is unlikely that this lack of dialogic interaction is due to dialogic theory being normative or “unworkable” in practice.

These findings are based on a qualitative methodology, so not generalisable, but they indicate a possible challenge to public relations practitioners in future. If responsibility for social media shifts completely to the realm of marketing, communication will inevitably become one-way. PR practitioners’ skills are valuable in implementing social media communication, but will they have the opportunity to build relationships with publics if publics interact with an organisation on social media, where it is marketing’s responsibility? One possible solution is for social media to become a division within corporate communication or to move to the responsibility of public relations.

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There may be other implications for public relations. There are public relations practitioners who implement social media strategies for their clients (c.f. Kelleher & Sweetzer 2012), but their training may have prepared them only for one-way communication or two-way asymmetrical communication. Education in dialogic interaction should be introduced as an important approach in public relations, marketing and social media courses in colleges, universities, and through professional development. Perhaps practitioners, once educated, can enlighten their clients and the staff in their own organisations.

Social media managers indicated that they prefer to control the conversation about their organisation, and the findings indicate that their attempts at two-way communication are often not authentic. There is no equal power balance between organisations and the publics who support and admire them. Social media managers also endorsed the notion of dialogue in the interviews, claimed they understood the concept of dialogue as explained to them, but their use of social media for one-way communication is a clear misinterpretation of the value of dialogue and the benefits of social media technology. There have been previous studies pointing to the lack of dialogue in social media (e.g. Eyrich, Padman & Sweetser 2008; Kent 2014; Larsicy, Avery, Sweetser & Howes 2009; McAllister 2012) and this study contributes to that body of knowledge.

Another objective of the study was to determine whether interaction as defined by Kiousis (2002), Rafaeli (1988), and Rafaeli and Sudweeks (1997) prevailed if dialogue did not (messages flowing bilaterally with reciprocal influence referring to previous messages in sequence relating to one another). It did not, except in the cases of dispute resolution or complaints. Interaction as implemented by organisations is typically a response to enquiries, complaint settlement, or a response to positive comments. Interaction between publics (peer-to-peer) does exist, and attempts at interactions by publics with organisations are made, but often not

281 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 reciprocated. There was no reciprocal influence and rarely a three-message thread (as per Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997 where latter messages referred to previous ones).

This study found that social media managers utilised one-way communication to increase brand awareness, sales leads and sales transactions. Engagement was low, although participants said engagement was proof users were interested in the brand and its messages. In some cases, “engagement” was limited to individuals on an organisation’s Facebook page watching videos, downloading recipes, responding to questions or entering competitions. Participants considered this engagement with the brand, although it could be interpreted as engagement with content. This does not parallel Taylor and Kent’s (2014) fundamental aspects of engagement wherein organisations demonstrate a positive regard for publics, request advice and counsel from publics, and together all interactants contribute to a “fully functioning society” (p. 391).

It is important to establish a framework for dialogic interaction and engagement on social media. A framework considering various levels of engagement is important because existing engagement models “see the audience as a collective of active agents” (Jenkins et al. 2013, p. 115). Engagement is an affective commitment, often by two sides, in which interests are attracted and conversation or discussion ensues (Macnamara 2014). In order to evaluate engagement in social media, there should be consideration of the divergent definitions of engagement and its measurement.

Most participants said engagement was content sharing by fans to third parties because the fans understood and appreciated the organisation’s messages. There is no agreed definition of engagement, either in the literature or amongst participants, although Heath (2009) argues that engagement is a more emotional than rational construct. Participation in a

282 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 fan community can be seen as an “indicator of a high degree of engagement” (Ahuja & Medury 2010, p. 96). Both low engagement (consumption e.g. viewing videos or reading an article) and high engagement (creation and contribution e.g. creating content, taking part in conversations) (Men & Tsai 2014), as interpeted by the participants, were sought. To provide a numerical measure for engagement on Facebook, participants applied Facebook Analytics’ formulae, although their values did not yield any indication of sentiment or positive regard for the organisation.

Identification of and discussion around brand communities demonstrated that individuals join them to identify with and link to people with similar interests, and brands they admire, like or support – a “public display of connection” and a signal of the “reliability of one’s identity claims” (Donath & boyd 2004). Organisations hope this display results in admiration by association with fans’ networks and leads to brand advocacy. The identification of the lack of dialogue led to the finding that social media managers sought brand advocacy as their definitive aim and measure of success. They were clear about this aspiration: they wanted fans who would share the brand’s attributes through their network of friends, indicating their loyalty for the brand or organisation. “It is necessary for brands to build a connection with users and foster a sense of belonging through engagement” (Yan 2011, p. 690).

A brand advocate defends and protects the reputation of the brand or organisation and is unapologetic for his/her appreciation of and passion for the brand (Yan 2011). Brand advocates impart the brand’s features and are encouraged to share their points of view on future product developments (Devries et al. 2012). Participants noted brand advocates are treated uniquely by organisations both online and offline, including being invited to events. This complex interaction is meaningful for social media managers and more important for them than engaging in dialogue. It reinforces their

283 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 commitment to use social media to achieve marketing goals rather than implement dialogic interaction with publics.

The main view challenged in this research is social media in an organisation is answerable to public relations. As marketing proved responsible for social media, this changes the way organisation-public communication is understood, because marketing is about “delivering and exchanging market offerings” (Shultz 2007, p. 293), while public relations focusses on communication and relationship building between organisations and publics to benefit all interactants. There is a clear dichotomy in the meaning of engagement between marketing and public relations, yet “engagement” was deemed essential by participants. Taylor, Vasquez and Doorley (2003) argue that in public relations, relevant publics and stakeholders are considered and involved in organisational decisions. Shultz (2007) clearly designates the main motives for engagement in marketing as economic gain, although he does add that cooperative, beneficial relationships should be strived for.

When marketing supervises social media, as in this study, the emphasis is on interaction as a criterion for transaction. In terms of engagement, social media managers support the marketing definition and determine it to be any kind of interaction on a site. In public relations engagement is coupled with enhancement of relationships between organisations and publics and “requires an understanding of and commitment to dialogue…and power resource co-management” (Heath in Johnston 2014, p. 382), so social media sites are powerful relationship building and public engagement tools (Men & Tsai 2014). Social media managers, as part of marketing, seek ‘likes’, follows and retweets, which may be considered low to medium engagement, because the organisation’s messages are shared. Public relations prefers the higher engagement of return visits, sharing or creating content and comments (Henderson & Bowley 2010). Transactional fans have lower engagement in social media (Sashi 2012).

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Only one of these activities, comments, involves relevant stakeholders communicating with the organisation. Understanding the benefits of dialogic interaction on social media is most effective if shared throughout an organisation, and employees, who are ambassadors of an organisation, should be encouraged to engage in social media on behalf of it. The responsibility for social media should move from marketing to either public relations or a department unto itself with members of the team fully trained in interactive, dialogic communication and digital technologies

Professional communicators still struggle with interactivity (with similar findings by Newland Hill & White 2000), whilst publics are engaging in debate and have grasped social media. Heath argues people can engage in “public policy debates as though they were gathered in a living room” (1998, p. 277) with an “opportunity...to examine facts, values, policies, identifications and narratives” (2000, p. 71). This is due to social media managers confronted by the potential risks of two-way communication like reputation exposure (negative comments can lead to reputation reduction and organisations wish to control the message) and a negative impact on transactions and sales (resulting in the use of transmissional rather than dialogic communication). Lack of two-way communication can also be attributed to a power imbalance internally (social media managers vs. the executive suite, which relates to the uncertainty of discussion, lack of resources to implement social media and the pursuit of marketing goals) and externally (organisation vs. publics (control vs mutual equality)).

Dialogue is a central component of communication wherein interactants respect each other, and value and consider each other’s points of view and perspectives (c.f. Buber 1996). It is important, then, for communication professionals to understand the pertinence of balanced and proportionate interaction on every level – between organisations, publics, stakeholders, journalists, community groups, government bodies and others – where

285 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 reciprocal respect blends with balanced conversation, and a consideration of the other is as important as the consideration of one’s own goal.

Interaction and engagement are elements of to dialogue. To build relationships is to develop a level of symmetry, which can lead to dialogue (Kent & Taylor 1998; Romenti, Murtarelli & Valentini 2014). Social media, which offer the opportunity for synchronous and non-synchronous interaction, are ideal tools for dialogue and relationship building in a public relations context (Evans, Twoomey & Talan 2011; Romenti et al. 2014), yet as indicated by the findings here, organisations focus only on how social media can be used to achieve their (primarily financial) goals. They would benefit from two-way interaction, and marketing scholars have begun to recommend dialogue in social media to enhance relationships (e.g. Devries et al. 2012; Yan 2011).

In another finding, the perception of Twitter as a channel for dialogic interaction was also challenged. Findings indicated that Twitter functions mostly as a customer service channel in Australia with individuals using it for complaints and addressing problems. Twitter was found to provide a quick, effective and efficient method of rectifying issues, and an organisation seen to be rectifying negative situations and problems enhances its reputation. The microblogging feature of Facebook was also used for addressing and rectifying problems and complaints. This was one finding where Australian and American organisations differed, because the volume of interactions on Twitter with US organisations far exceeded that of Australian ones.

Some social media managers consider sharing content optimum engagement, although they concede that comments on blogs and microblogs represent deeper thinking. They are often reluctant to create, for example, humourous content they know is shareable unless they could predetermine an outcome; sharable content helps disseminate the organisation’s message to other networks. As predetermination is difficult, social media managers often opt

286 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 for informational or survey-style content. They do not generally respond to comments unless they are complimentary. A lack of response by the organisation is a demonstration of non-listening and does not validate trust. Responding to all comments, negative or positive, indicates an awareness of observation and acceptance of critical feedback, as well as a commitment to interaction with publics. A proactive, dialogic approach would build better relationships and lead to faster, more effective conflict resolution.

This study, using qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and content analysis, was able to validate data or prove it incorrect. Most previous studies investigating dialogic interaction on social media were quantitative; there are few qualitative studies (see Introduction). In-depth interviews with participants focussed on why social media managers engage in social media and content analysis focussed on how. Participants’ desire to act in specific ways (i.e. monologic or dialogic) was contrasted through content analsyis with how communication actually took place where it was evident that two- way communication was not implemented, with the exception of complaint resolution.

The research questions posed in this study were answered in the following way:

RQ 1. What are the aims and objectives of corporate blogs and microblogs? The aim of the blogs is to disseminate and transmit in-depth information to publics who are fans of the blog site or those interested in messages from the organisation. It is one-way communication. Dialogue and conversation were not sought or expected by most participants, as there was little interaction on blogs and very few comments. Blogs are used for knowledge sharing (organisation to public) transmission, brand building, and product promotion.

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Microblogs demonstrated engagement to a far greater extent between pubics and organisations and between publics. They were used for the purposes of brand building, reputation enhancement, and transmission of information. In Australia, Twitter was primarily used (between organisations and publics) for managing complaints or conflict. There was some casual conversation but not interaction (as defined by Kiousis 2002; Rafaeli 1988; Rafaeli & Sudweeks 1997).

RQ 2. Do organisations engage in dialogue in their blog/microblog interactions, and if so, how? Corporations do not engage in dialogue in their blog interactions, although they attempt to converse in microblog interactions. There are interactive features on blogs and microblogs, such as comment areas, where posts are permitted and encouraged, but not used in a dialogic way. Most organisations ‘listen’ to, rather than engage with, individuals – that is, they monitor conversation about the organisation, but rarely interact. Organisations are reluctant to commit to reciprocal interaction because of reputation vulnerability or lack of desire, with no mutual equality and propinquity. These findings were similar to those of McAllister (2012). Organisations have degrees of engagement expectations on these platforms, but their approaches are one-way transmissional, except for complaints, issues and conflict. In those situations, organisations were keen to demonstrate resolution as reputation enhancement.

RQ 3. How do organisations measure and evaluate the outcomes of their blogging and microblogging activities, and how do they identify success? This study found that measurement was instituted by all participants in some form, but metrics are inconsistent and varied across organisations. There are several metrics (based on traditional media metrics) used to measure social media effectiveness and determine success, the most important (and common) of which is growth of community (numeric value), transactions (sales – links from social media to purchase on the website) and brand advocacy (in the form of positive commentary). Jenkins et al. (2013) suggest

288 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 measurement strategies should “provide more nuanced accounts of audience experience” (p. 119), but more relevant would be accurate measurement of engagement, interaction, contextuality of comments, and authenticity.

Success was often defined numerically (e.g. growth of community) or transactionally (e.g. social media leading fans to a transaction on a website) and some social media managers were confused at the array of available social media and bewildered as to which to utilise.

10.1 Implications for theories Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic theory of communication on websites emerged as outdated because websites are not dialogic, and due to the collaboration and co-creativity available through Web 2.0’s social media applications. It requires better adaptation to social and other digital media. Kent and Taylor eventually determined that few website tools led dialogue, except when forums and chat rooms are built into the site. One of the findings of this study was that social media managers are considering moving their brand communities away from microblogging sites and social networks to their own websites, where they could ‘own’ the audiences, which might bring this theory back into relevance. The determination to ‘own’ audiences is to have ‘captive’ listeners for their organisations’ messages.

Kent and Taylor’s (2002) theory remains relevant and applicable and has merit in the discussion of organisation-public relationships. It was used in this study as the basis for determining dialogue. Grunig, Grunig and Dozier’s excellence theory (2002), which combines mixed motive (symmetrical and asymmetrical) aspects, is applicable as communication is often asymmetrical. Grunig has expressed his preference for symmetrical communication as the most ethical form of PR, but few in practice implement it. A discussion regarding the relationship between theory and practice is essential in public

289 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 relations. Whilst theory supports dialogue as the most ethical aspect of public relations, practice does not. Dialogue skeptics like Lane (2014), Moloney (2000, 2006), Fawkes and Moloney (2008), Cancel et al. (1997, 1999) and others conclude that dialogue is unworkable and inapplicable in practice. Dialogue is more than two-way symmetrical communication, although dialogue incorporates two-way symmetrical communication. Some say dialogue is philosophical and abstract, thus difficult to operationalise (e.g. Theunissen & Noordin 2012), while others believe dialogue is the ‘conceptual centre of gravity’ for public relations, but poorly understood (Pieczka 2011, p.108). The findings of this study indicate that improved interaction and understanding between organsiations and publics would result from dialogue.

10.2 Significance and implications of findings Communication is central to the lives of individuals, organisations and societies. Communication as a practice is more ethical when based on dialogue, rather than trying to control how others behave (Ihlen & Verhoeven in Ihlen, van Ruler & Fredriksson 2009). If organisations endeavour to engage publics in dialogic interaction, to provide collaborative spaces for communities to exist and speak freely, and interact with publics with mutual respect, better reputations for organisations will ensue, along with enhanced organisation-public relationships. If publics are treated with respect and greater equality and propinquity through dialogue, relationships will improve and encourage dialogic discourse in society at large. Mutual respect impacts broader communication. Greater respect for a diversity of opinions enhances public debate. When this broadening of ethical communication and dialogue occurs, it would resonate far beyond social media to societal relationships. Relationships not based on mercenary transactions are deeper and more impactful for all.

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Studies continue to be conducted framed in dialogic theory, particularly Kent and Taylor’s tenets of dialogue (1998, 2002), but if theory and practice do not intersect, one implication of these findings is that other theories in addition to dialogic theory might be considered as ethical public relations. A move away from Grunig’s systems-based approach to one embracing community and one more synergistic with the collaboration and co-creativity of social media theory would enhance relationships. Improved education on dialogic interaction across the communication and marketing strengths would enhance organisation-public relationships. Heath (2006) considers collaborative dialogue as an embracing form of communication. While not developed into a complete public relations theory (he elaborates on the functioning society theory), collaborative dialogue could be developed into a communication theory that considers the interests of all, encompassing competing voices within communities which would help to resolve conflict and engender trust, allowing all parties to be responsive to others’ communication and eventually incorporate the tenets of dialogic theory.

Even though this study found marketing to be responsible for social media, other studies have demonstrated that public relations practitioners do use social media tools for organisation-public communication (c.f. Kelleher & Sweetser 2012; Macnamara & Zerfass 2012; Wright & Hinson 2010a and b), and that those tools allow practitioners to “establish and cultivate relationships and engage with their publics” (Kelleher & Sweetser 2012, p. 105). Some scholars, like Lane (2014), are not convinced that PR practitioners or their client organisations are interested in dialogue. Wright and Hinson (2014) demonstrate that PR practitioners use social media widely, but they do not demonstrate whether that use is accessing, monitoring, writing or interacting. Public relations practitioners already have a number of appropriate skills necessary for social media use: writing, understanding publics, understanding two-way communication and strategic thinking. Their ability to encapsulate ideas succinctly is appropriate for social media’s short form communication but it is important for them to gain a better

291 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 understanding of dialogue and its benefits and a shift in focus from dissemination of information to communication interaction. Those in marketing have few of these skills, thus organisation-public communication in social media in this study is one-way.

The implications of these findings for education and practice include: x Improving training and education in public relations, advertising, marketing and communication to include a focus on two-way interaction with an understanding of dialogue and its benefits, and social media’s collaborative capabilities for building relationships between publics and organisations x Encouragement by public relations and marketing professional associations for the support and implementation of dialogue in social media x Highlighting the benefits of dialogic interactive communication between organisations and publics in marketing and public relations awards programs

Another implication of the findings is that publics can engage in increased activism through social media to pressure organisations to engage in dialogue with them to increase authenticity and honesty, although Coombs and Holladay (2013) argue publics are naïve to expect transparency from organisations. Activists have successfully used social media to change policy (see Chapter 8 for the Salesforce case study) in both organisations and governments (e.g. Eltantawy & Wiest 2011; Harlow 2011).

Lastly, organisations might consider Fuchs’ (2009, 2011, 2014) argument against corporations profiteering from individuals’ free labour by appropriating user-generated content. Engaging in authentic dialogue and considering individuals, and their collaborative work, with respect would not

292 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 only enhance relationships, but evolve some collaborations into partnerships with mutual benefit.

10.3 Limitations of the study The study relied on corporations’ representatives agreeing to participate in the research, and being honest in their responses. The researcher sought interviews with large organisations – Fortune 500 and ASX 200 companies – so that the discussion and comparison of blogs and microblogs would be equitable. Equally, it was considered that large organisations were more likely to engage in both blogs and microblogs. There may be practices and perceptions in other organisations in relation to corporate blogging and microblogging that are quite different to those reported here, and small-to- medium sized organisations may respond to publics differently than the large ones studied. Results may have been more diverse with a larger sample (however, more organisations declined than agreed to participate). Additionally, a wider comparison between American and Australian organisations may have yielded different data, had more American companies agreed to take part in the study.

While discussion in the interviews seemed honest and authentic, content analysis often proved that authenticity to be clouded, although some analysis afforded a degree of confirmation for interview statements. For example, participants were convinced they were engaging in dialogue, despite the content analysis proving otherwise.

Additionally, evidence of comments posted by visitors and tweets responding to others could be observed. But comments that were deleted as part of moderation could not be studied and analysed by the researcher. It is difficult to demonstrate direct evidence of censorship because constant surveillance of the comments would have had to be implemented, then the absence of posts noted. As a result, the word of interviewees had to be

293 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5 accepted at face value on matters such as moderation policies. Dekay (2012) argues that deletion of negative comments is an accepted practice on Facebook. Some organisations, as indicated earlier, allowed negative comments to remain, others removed them. And changes to the participants’ blogs or microblogs may have occurred during the research period – that is, they may have changed their blogging or microblogging policies, they may have ceased blogging to focus on microblogging, or there may have been legal ramifications to something said in a microblog by either the participant or visitor. In investigating internal microblogging, the author was not given access to internal microblogging systems like Yammer, Chatter or Baseline, so could not independently verify participants’ comments about them.

However, the combination of in-depth interviews and content analysis offered an intertextual opportunity to analyse what is stated and what is implemented. There was a degree of conviction about dialogue by social media managers, even though it was not demonstrated. Content analysis of Twitter, Facebook and blogs showed how organisations made an effort to communicate and how and whether publics responded positively or negatively.

Regarding the number of posts examined – investigating at least three messages in a sequence over 10 sequential posts in each of the participant organisations – expanding the number of posts may have brought more depth to the data, but it may not have elicited different findings regarding dialogue, particularly in Facebook interactions. There were very few interactions with more than three sequential messages. Blog posts often had no interaction at all. A multi-modal addition to the analysis – including a quantitative dissection of the posts – may have also provided more depth.

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10.4 Reflections In hindsight, the results may have proved more robust with more American organisations participating alongside Australian ones. A major challenge was attracting organisations within the parametres of the sampling framework to partake in the study. Many organisations declined to participate due to lack of interest, and some claimed social media guidelines, as part of their intellectual property, prohibited participation. The sampling framework is sound, but one perception is that large organisations did not participate because it was an investment of time with little advantage to them. American organisations may have perceived the study as Australian, so of no benefit. The framework focused on large organisations, but results may have been different with more small and medium sized organisations.

An aspect of the study that may have impinged upon interview results is that participants may not have fully understood the concept of dialogue. It was explained to them prior to the interviews (see Methodology). They claimed to understand two-way interaction, but perhaps they required a deeper interpretation, which may have necessitated the researcher to explain dialogue in far greater detail. However, the content analysis proved that participant organisations did not engage in conversation and often did not interact at all, except for customer service. It was clear, then, that even if they did not fully understand dialogue, they understood the concepts of conversation and interaction, but chose not to engage. This research studied the Facebook, Twitter sites and blogs of organisations. In future, a study exploring the same research questions but with a wider social media net, including Google+, Pinterest and community forums, may generate different results. Case studies presented were presented with as much information as was available. Availability of more information, had it been available, may have enhanced them.

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The interviews conducted went well. The participants were comfortable sharing information and felt free to be identified (except for three) and confide in the researcher. The face-to-face interview situation garnered superior results and a more in-depth connection with the participants than those interviews conducted by telephone.

10.5 Recommendations for future research The findings yielded several opportunities for further research. One aspect of social media that has not been studied is content. There is an opportunity to investigate the type of content being created by organisations as well as publics to determine if content impacts dialogue.

There is an opportunity to investigate the same research questions with more American and international organisations to compare to the Australian ones, if an equal number of American and international organisations agreed to participate.

While it is evident by this and other studies that there is no dialogic interaction on social media, there is an opportunity to determine if internal microblogging systems yield greater dialogic interaction because of an increased power balance.

And lastly, even though Barnes and Lescault (2013) analysed why Millennials follow organisations on social media, there is scope to discover if both older and younger individuals follow organisations and analyse their rationale for doing so.

Some suggested future research questions include: x If social media managers report to marketing, what do public relations practitioners do with regards to social media? Many scholars (eg. Wright & Hinson, Macnamara & Zerfass) undertook studies that indicated that

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PR practitioners use social media, but in what context? Is there a future for public relations in social media? x Do social media managers in smaller organisations (smaller than Fortune 500 or ASX 200) report to public relations as opposed to the ones found in this study who reported to marketing? x Is there dialogic interaction on internal microblogging applications Chatter and Yammer? How do they differ? There are currently no studies on Chatter, although several on Yammer. A study comparing the two would yield information on different functionalities indicating more or less successful dialogue and interaction x What kind of content interests publics from the organisations they follow on social media? This study did not investigate the type of content organisations used, and in fact, there are no studies focusing on content. Few studies (e.g. van Dijck 2014) discuss content, but there is no indication in the literature on what social media content appeals to individuals and why. Does a specific type of content change the way publics behave, respond or react to the organisation? x Why do individuals follow organisations? Barnes and Lescault (2014) investigated why Millennials follow certain organisations, but expanding the age and interests of individuals and particular groups might indicate what they hope to gain and why they choose to follow an organisation on Facebook, Twitter or other social medium x What kind of relationship are publics interested in having with organisations? Now, there is little engagement and no dialogue. If dialogue leads to mutually beneficial relationships and there is no dialogue, where does that leave organisation-public relationships? There is a lot of discussion about relationships between organisations and publics, but always from the organisational perspective. Are publics interested in developing relationships in the same way?

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Glossary of terms

@ - ‘At’. An individual’s or organisation’s name or handle on Twitter. It allows users to communicate publicly as well as mention others’ handles on Twitter

AJAX – Asynchronous JavaScript and XML ‘is a web development technique used for creating interactive web applications’ which allow actualization of web pages (Constantinides et al 2008, p. 9)

APP – Short for ‘application’. An application made specifically for a portable or mobile device

Asynchronous – ‘ongoing communication over time without individuals being present during the same time’ (Bonsall & Schoenly 2012, p. 195)

Avatar – a person’s representation in an online game

Blog – see weblog

Blogger – person who blogs

Blogosphere – Encompassing all blogs as a community; the overall network of interlinked blogs

Blogroll – Published list of recommended links to other blogs that the blogger follows which helps to increase visibility of host blog in search engines

Bookmark – a stored URL (web) address

Chat – Real time conversation among two or more people online or by text

Chat room – an online location where people talk in real time about shared interests

Click-through – a metric that defines the process of an individual clicking on something, leading the user to a web page or destination

Clog – corporate blog

Collaboration – participation, working together on content or a project. Includes unknown users.

Comment – Response or answer to blog post or status update responding to an ongoing discussion

Content Aggregators – ‘Applications allowing users to fully customise the web content they wish to access’ (Constantinides, Lorenzo and Gomez-Boria 2008, p. 8).

Conversation – Discussion about an organisation, brand or group in social media with or without members of the organisation taking part. It is the extent to which users communicate casually with other users in a social media setting

Corporate blog – A blog written by employees of an organisation to further the organisation’s goals

Delicious – A social bookmarking site that allows users to ‘record web pages of interest through online lists’ (Phillips & Young 2009, p. 13), then be sorted and indexed

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Dialogue - Dialogue refers to ‘any negotiated exchange of ideas and opinions’ (Kent & Taylor 1998, p.325). The point of dialogue is not to merge into one consensual state, but rather to understand and enhance different perspectives because ‘ a genuine dialogue requires that there be two separate presences, each coming from its own standpoint’ (Gurevich 2011, p. 97).

Dialogic communication - Dialogic communication is a collaborative process for building meaning that requires real people to be involved in conversation (Stewart & Zediker 2000) which can lead to a kind of ‘collaborative and emergent engagement that can be widely fruitful’ (p. 240).

Direct Message (DM) – A private unpublished message sent from one Twitter follower to another, only possible through those who follow each other

Engagement – Central to discussions about brand communities in social media, it is a ‘vehicle for creating, building and enhancing consumer relationships’ (Brodie et al 2013, p. 105), centering on interactive consumer experiences online

Facebook – Social media platform and social networking site created in 2005 by Mark Zuckerberg that allows for commenting, sending private messages and uploading photos and videos

Fan – Individual who ‘likes’ another person or organisation on social media

Flickr – Site for posting and sharing photographs, which can then be embedded into webpages, blogs and wikis

Flogs – Fake blogs, created by people who are working for someone else

Folksonomy – ‘Refers to user-created taxonomies of information. It is an ad hoc classification scheme that Web users create as they surf the Web to categorise the content they find online.’ (Murugesan 2007, p. 37)

Follow – In following an individual or organisation on Twitter, the user is requesting status updates. Following does not have to be mutual; one can follow someone who does not follow them.

Follower – An individual who follows another individual or organisation on Twitter. That follow allows the followed’ news to appear in the follower’s news feed

Forums (also known as bulletin boards) – Sites for exchanging ideas and information about specific and special interests

Friend – Someone who has a mutual ‘relationship’ with another person on Facebook.

Hashtag (#) – Symbol used to designate relevant topics in tweets so that other users can aggregate similar posts (for example, #PRfail)

HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – the building block language for web pages as a structure for text based information

Hyperlink – Link to another blog site or web site technologically created so one only has to click on the word to get to the site or URL.

Hypertext – User interface paradigm for displaying documents with references to other online documents through ‘hyperlinks’.

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Instant Messaging - ‘Form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text’. It can also be used as a platform to exchange files like photos, videos and documents. It is ‘the oldest social medium (dating back to the 1970s)’ (Philips & Young 2009, p.16)

Interaction – An exchange of ideas or comments between users in a social media environment

Interactivity – ‘An interface’s capacity for conducting a dialogue or information exchange between users and the interface’ (Sundar et al 2003, p. 33)

Intranet – Internet-like network for use within an organisation, protected by a firewall

K-blog – Knowledge blog. Used internally in an organisation for knowledge sharing

Keyword – Word selected to make a website findable in search

Like – Showing support for an individual or brand on Facebook. ‘Instead of commenting, a Facebook user can click ‘like’ to show agreement’ (Bonsall & Schoenly 2012, p. 195)

LinkedIn – ‘Social networking site geared specifically toward professional users who can create profiles, join groups’ (Argenti & Barnes 2009, p.250)

Lurk – To read or follow conversations or topics on social media without participating. Often used pejoratively

Mashups – Aggregating content from different online sources

Message Boards – Internet forum where people hold discussions and post user-generated content, usually around a distinct topic

Microblog - A short form of blogging, often limited to approximately 200 characters per post, but enriched with features ‘for social networking and with a strong focus on mobility (Bohringer & Richter 2009, p. 294).

Networks – Links between individuals and groups

New media – Generic term for social media or emergent media technology platforms

Nodes – Connection point in a communication network

Online conferencing – ‘A secure environment where groups of people in many locations’ can join a conversation (Philips & Young 2009, p. 19)

Permalink – URL pointing to a specific blog entry; a ‘permanent anchor to specific entry for reference’ on a blog (Aschenbrenner & Miksch 2005, p.3)

Podcasts – Audio blogs or recordings posted on a blog or website which allow users to listen at their leisure. They can also post comments or respond to content in the show

Post or posting – Dated entry onto a blog, microblog or community

Private message – Used in Facebook where the post is not public but viewed only by the page ‘owner’

Profile – Form of online identity; what one says about oneself on a social media site

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Public relations – Grunig and Hunt (1984) define public relations as ‘the management of communication between an organisation and its publics’. Breakenridge (2000) defines it as a management function which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interest of an organisation followed by execution of a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.

Public relations practitioner – A person who works in public relations as a profession; someone who practices public relations

Retweet – Sharing someone’s tweet with one’s own followers, a rebroadcasting of another’s message

RSS – Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, a way to syndicate and customise web content, is a feed to web content to which someone can subscribe in order to have content delivered to them, generally to their email

Search engine – Seeks web pages and content in web pages that are read and listed (indexed) based on a mathematical algorithm

Search engine optimisation (SEO) – The process of increasing visitors to a website or blog by weighting content so that it will be ranked more highly by search engines. Finding something easily in search enhances reputation

Share – Facebook users can click ‘share’ to share a photograph, article, link or event with friends

Social bookmarking - The ‘process by which users bookmark interesting pages and assign tags to each’ (Murugesan 2007, P. 37)

Social media – Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as “Internet-based applications built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0”

Social networks – ‘Applications allowing users to build personal websites accessible to other users for exchange on personal content and communication’ (Constantinides & Fountain 2008, p. 233). A structure whose ‘nodes represent people or other entities embedded in a social context’ (Liben-Nowell 2007, p. 1019)

SNS – Social network sites are web based services or a networked communication platform, allowing individuals with identifiable profiles to construct a public or semi public profile (boyd & Ellison 2007 cited in Beer 2008; boyd & Ellison 2013)

Social tagging – Allows visitors to a social media site to classify content in their own way

Symmetrical communication - Grunig’s 1984 model of symmetrical public relations is a ‘process of continual and reciprocal information exchange’ that builds a mutually beneficial long-term relationship between and organisation and its publics

Synchronous – ‘Real time communication such as chat or instant messaging’ (Bonsall & Schoenly 2012, p. 196)

Tagging – Annotation of posting with key words; also known as labels. ‘Tags act as metadata operating behind web pages enabling them to be organised into classified networks’ (Meer and Burrows 2007, p. 7). The process of creating tags is tagging.

Thread – Ongoing series of conversational posts on a blog or microblog

Trackback – Automatic reference from blog reader comments on back to his/her own blog

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Troll – ‘Individual who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community and whose primary intention is to provoke emotional and disruptive responses from others’ (Bonsall & Schoenly 2012, p. 196)

Twitter – A free public microblogging and social networking site founded in 2006 allowing users to share messages in 140 characters or less

Tweet – A short textual message or post on Twitter with a maximum length of 140 characters

Two-way symmetrical communication – Two-way symmetrical communication envisions public relations as a process of continual and reciprocal exchange between the organisation and its key publics.

UGC – User generated content; content created and produced by an individual for no recompense

URL – Uniform Resource Locator: a web page’s website address when used with ‘http’. Displayed in the address bar on a web page.

User – Person following or interacting with blog, microblog or social network

Video sharing – Sites that allow people to upload video, ‘edit content, add tags and create groups’ (Philips & Young 2009, p. 27)

Vlog – Video blog

Vodcasts – Filmed speech created specifically for the web; like podcast but with vision

Web 1.0 – The ‘read only web’ (Puschmann 2010, p. 80); the first evolution of the World Wide Web that was static and undynamic

Web 2.0 – A second generation of web services’ that feature openness for participation, collaboration and interactivity’ (Macnamara 2012, p. 6)

Webbed communication – Communication channels that are available via the World Wide Web, such as the Internet, web pages, blogs, microblogs, fora, chat rooms.

Weblog – Online journals regularly updated, listed in reverse chronological order, usually frequently modified, in which an individual or an organisation posts information about himself/herself/itself and topics of interest (Baker & Moore 2008).

Wiki – ‘Web-based collaborative authoring system for creating and editing content’ (Murugesan 2007, p. 35). Derived from the Hawaiin word wikiwiki meaning quick.

Word of Mouth (WOM) – Individuals or communities build excitement about a product and recommend it by passing information along to their friends

World Wide Web – publicly available application of the Internet

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Appendices

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Appendix 1 Organisations approached but declined participation Participant Country Sector Virgin Australia Aus Transport Qantas Aus Transport US Airways US Transport Southwest Airlines US Transport Intel US Technology Speedo UK Fashion/consumer Billabong Aus Fashion/consumer (bankrupt) Lisa Ho Aus Fashion/consumer (bankrupt) Calvin Klein US Fashion/consumer Gap US Fashion/consumer Village Roadshow Aus/UK Entertainment Estee Lauder US Beauty Avon US Beauty Napoleon Perdis Aus Beauty Nordstrom US Retail Saks US Retail David Jones Aus Retail Myer Aus Retail Harvey Norman Aus Retail Macy’s US Retail Neiman Marcus US Retail Kohls US Retail Barnes & Noble US Retail Lowes US Retail – home Home Depot US Retail – home Best Buy US Retail – technology Carsales.com.au Aus Online Sonic Automotive US Online Zappos.com US Online Bank of America US Finance Wells Fargo US Finance Bendigo Bank Aus Finance Verizon US Telecomm Time Warner Cable US Telecomm Google US Technology CBS US Broadcast Pfizer US Pharma Kimberly Clarke US/Aus Pharma CSL Aus Health Cochlear Aus Health Publix US Food retail Whole Foods US Food Retail Kroger US Food Retail ARU Aus Sport Freedom Aus Retail Intel Aus Technology Microsoft US Technology Nestle Aus Food, confectionary Villeroy & Boch Germany Manufacturing TopShop Aus Retail Glue Society Aus Retail GE Finance Aus Finance Red Bull Aus Beverage Nokia Finland Technology Oracle US/Aus Technology

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Appendix 2 Date of participant interviews Organisation Participant Date interviewed Ansell Frank Mantero 15 Feb 2013 VP Global Branding, Corp. Comm & Creative Services Ten Holdings/Channel 10 Rachael Beany 21 Feb 2013 Social Media & Community Manager Ford Motor Company Scott Monty 8 March 2013 VP, Global Digital and Multi Media Telstra Danielle Clarke 18 March 2013 Head of Online and Social Media Commonwealth Bank Niki Epstein 11 April 2013 Social Media & Digital Leader Salesforce.com Nathan Freitas 15 April 2013 Marketing Director Major bank (de-identified) Senior Manager, Media Relations 16 April 2013 Gareth Llewellyn Former Head of PR and Social 17 April 2013 Media, and Blogger Salesforce.com Aus/NZ Former Head of Social Media, and Blogger, Oracle Aus/NZ Bank of Queensland Andrew Murrell 20 May 2013 General Manager, Digital and Direct Flight Centre Samantha Locke 22 May 2013 Social Media Specialist Jetstar (owned by Qantas) Ameel Khan 24 May 2013 Social Media Manager, Asia- Pacific Major Tourism Body (de- Social Media Manager 7 August 2013 identified) SAP Susan Galer, Blogger 9 August 2013 Tim Clarke, Editor, Social Media USA Major telco (de-identified) Social Media Manager 12 August 2013 Alinta Gas Steven Bradley 13 August 2013 Social Media & Digital Manager eBay Aus Daniel Young 14 August 2013 Social Media Manager NRMA Motoring Services Angela Graham 10 September 2013 Group Social Media Manager Lorna Jane Sam Zivot 11 September 2013 Head of Digital & Social Media Manager Westfield Shopping Centres Dana Ridge 18 September 2013 National Social Media Manager HTC Leon Traazil 27 September 2013 Head of Digital & Social Marketing South Asia Coles Supermarkets Mat Medcalf 28 September 2013 National Digital Marketing Lead and Social Media Manager

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Appendix 3 Sampling Frame Sampling parameter dimensions Setting Australia: ASX 200 organisations USA: Fortune 500 organisations Communicate with publics via microblogs and blogs Events, activities Communication between organisation and publics via social media in webbed communication, specifically blogging and microblogging Issue Investigating dialogue between an organisation and its publics Trends in interaction and collaboration between organisation and publics Time – interviews Interviews conducted between February and October 2013 Time – content analysis Analysis covers 10 sequential posts on each platform between September 2013 and February 2014 People Public relations managers, corporate communications managers, social media managers within major organisations in Australia and the USA Materials & artefacts Corporate blogs and microblogging feeds Concepts Dialogue, two-way symmetrical communication, corporate communication

Based on Daymon & Holloway (2011)’s sampling parameters, p. 211

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Appendix 4 Coding categories for content analysis (Facebook, Twitter & blogs)

Coding Demonstration of dialogue Substantive blog conversation CON Behaviour is dialogic – DIAL between active participants exchange of comments, (organisation and public); must interaction have at least three or more interactions Temporal flow –Exchange is TEM meaningful in a temporal Propinquity includes engagement way and responsiveness is with understanding of the other’s PROP high/low/medium position, empathy and vulnerability Number of exchanges as a EXCH result of post Mutuality –acknowledgement MUT demonstrating not simply that an organisation and publics single response are bonded by an ‘inclusion or CI collaborative orientation’ Conversation index (size, density and freshness) Mutual equality - participants in MUT EQ dialogue are equals in power balance

Based on Kent & Taylor’s (2002) principles of dialogue

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Appendix 5 Visual data display (charts, matrices, graphs) of topics of importance by participants (left hand column)

Matrix of codes and subjects (horizontal) and participants (vertical). Larger red squares indicate greater intensity of discussion; smaller round dots indicate lesser discussions or mentions

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Appendix 6 Blog, Twitter & Facebook analysis (blog shares often on LinkedIn) Telstra Twitter @Telstra (customer service 56,000 Dec 4 1 post – tips on only) followe Samsung Galaxy. 1 rs retweet. 4 Replies with understanding & comments, 2 from empathy. Not real mutual equality same user (allegedly joke). 1 reply from No substantive conversation Telstra No real propinquity (engagement, Dec 3 1 post – 10% off empathy) prepaid handsets. 1 retweet. 0 Not enough conversation to comments determine mutual equality Dec 3 (2) 1 post – expansion of 4G network. 5 retweets. 5 comments including 1 from Telstra – response to positive comment. All requesting 4G where they live Dec 1 1 post – offer of free Fox sports with TBox. 2 retweets. Complaint about Foxtel. User & Telstra interact for 8 comments (not real dialogue, repetition of service #. Not resolved Nov 28 1 post – family day at Melbourne Telstra HQ. 1 retweet. 0 comments Nov 28 1 post – Q&A about (2) mobile & nokia. 0 retweets. 0 comments 10% off prepaid handsets. 1 retweet. 1 Q-response from Telstra. 2nd Q – 2 responses from Telstra Nov 27 1 post – poll ‘what q would you ask a mate about their mobile?’ 2 comments about batteries – 1 response from Telstra. 2 other comments Nov 27 1 post – win a day at (2) the movies for a year. 2 comments, 2 responses from Telstra

Blog: Feb 14 1 post – Valentine’s

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exchange.telstra.com.au Day. 211 likes, 14 ‘exchange’ retweets. 28 No substantive blog comments, 5 from conversation editor re entering Mutuality from blog author competition Feb 11 1 post – sport & technology, 0 comments, 1 like, 5 retweets Feb 11 1 post – what good (2) thing are you doing online today? 0 comments 6 likes, 12 retweets Feb 10 1 post – Victorian bushfires & helping customers. 0 comments, 4 likes, 2 retweets Feb 7 1 post – Midsumma festival & queer culture. 0 comments, 11 likes, 7 retweets Feb 6 1 post – top rented big pond movies of the year. 3 comments: 2 different users, 1 from Telstra. 34 likes, 9 retweets Feb 5 1 post – how can we use technology for a better life, including charity. 7 comments: 1 from Telstra, 3 from author (mostly thanks), 3 from users Feb 4 1 post – CFO Andy Penn on selling the Big Issue, 0 comments, 2 likes, 5 retweets Feb 4 (2) 1 post – Telstra launches Samsung Galaxy tab. 1 comment regarding a tech issue. 0 reply from Telstra 3 likes, 2 retweets Feb 3 1 post – SYN Media – national digital media service. 0 comments, 3 likes, 4 retweets Facebook/Telstra 131,857 Feb 10 1 post – Valentine’s Customer service conversation likes Day, rent Telstra – an actual conversation that movie for $10. 56 took 17 days but left likes, 2 shares. 20 unresolved interactions between Telstra & 1 Responses speedy for the user regarding user most part (10 min to 2 hours), issue (unrelated to empathetic post). Conversation over 6 hours. No substantive conversation Unresolved. Other but almost all comments interaction between replied to Telstra & 1 user re VD (related to post);

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Many comments unrelated to interaction between posts – many customer Telstra & user re service issues issue. Unresolved. Responses from Many comments Telstra were speedy complimentary to the post. & empathetic. There seems to be mutual equality & propinquity Feb 10 1Post - Photo/image (2) & ‘Monday motivation’. 64 likes, 12 shares. 2 comments, 1 reply from Telstra Feb 7 1 post – click for chance to win. 61 likes. 1 interaction (1 user, 1 Telstra) regarding bill issue; 3 comments. Feb 7 (2) 1 post - 5th anniversary of Black Saturday, with image. 194 likes. 0 comments. Feb 5 1 post – Bollywood Wednesday. Visit Telstra movie website. 61 likes. 20 shares. 1 user complaint (unrelated to post), 1 reply from Telstra. 2 other comments Feb 4 1 post – introducing Galaxy Tab. 21 likes, 1 share, 2 positive comments, 1 reply from Telstra Feb 3 1 post – Play ispy game to win.. 42 likes, 4 shares. 1 comment (complaint unrelated to post), reply from Telstra. 3 other comments on post, replies form Telstra (thanks). Feb 2 1 post -Play ispy game. 25 likes, 0 comments Jan 30 1 post – promoting ‘send&see’ website. 2065 likes, 451 shares. 193 comments – interaction (3 comments from user & Telstra) regarding complaint. All other comments/complai nts received response from Telstra – either Thank you, or ‘on the case’, or comment on lack of action by another Telstra person. Many comments

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complimentary to Telstra post, response is thanks. Commonweal Twitter @Commbank (news, 31,000 Feb 13 1 post – th Bank updates, questions) followe homebuyers at low rs levels.2 retweets, 0 More interaction on comments. Facebook Feb 13 1 post – protect (2) yourself with life No substantive conversation insurance. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 No mutuality or equality comments. Feb 13 1 post – automate (3) savings in Netbank. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments. Feb 13 1 post – voted into (4) top 10 linked pages. 1 retweet, 0 comments. Feb 12 1 post – clever storage is key for small spaces. 2 retweets, 0 comments. Feb 12 1 post – diversity in (2) workplace is important. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 12 1 post – 7 apps to (3) get you organized. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 12 1 post – help to (4) build small business. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 11 1 post – more housing needed as population grows. 5 retweets, 0 comments Feb 11 1 post – tips re (2) credit cards. 3 retweets, 0 comments Feb 11 1 post – 68% of (3) parents expect kids to earn pocket money. 21 retweets. 3 positive comments from 1 user – 2 replies from Commbank (unrelated to post) Blog: Feb 11 1 post – happy year blog.commbank.com.au for retailers. 0 ‘Commbank blog’ comments Feb 10 1 post – no pension No substantive blog til 70. 0 comments conversation Feb 6 1 post – how to tap No mutuality (hard to tell & pay with app. 0 with no conversation. Same comments with propinquity) Feb 4 1 post – confidence in transport industry. 0 comments Feb 3 1 post – kids learning through earning. 0

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comments Jan 31 1 post – behind the scenes with Myer. 0 comments Jan 29 1 post – pay with a pin. 0 comments Jan 28 1 post – budgeting with party planner. 0 comments Jan 21 1 post – Chinese new year. 0 comments Jan 17 1 post – sub Antarctic experience, 0 comments Facebook/commonwealth 530,957 Feb 19 1 post – how much bank likes to retire. 10 likes, 1 comment Most interaction here Feb 18 1 post – support for Bush appeal. 38 Not as responsive as could likes, 2 shares. 2 be but replies are as comments, 1 reply informative as possible. from Commbank Replies to positive comments Feb 18 1 post – prefer only (2) online to in-store shopping poll. 40 Replies not as quick as could likes, 1 share. 19 be – range from 3 min – 16 comments, 1 reply hours from Commbank Feb 14 1 post – teaching Many negative comments kids about value of about the bank in general. money. 37 likes, 1 Replies are polite & share, 13 empathetic comments, 1 reply from Commbank Feb 13 1 post – saving for a holiday. 62 likes, 8 comments. 2 involve complaint from 1 user with response from Commbank; other is positive comment, reply from Commbank Feb 12 1 post – Netbank tip to automate savings. 83 likes, 2 shares. 2 comments from 1 user, 1 reply from Commbank. Feb 11 1 post – poll: first place home or investment property? 61 likes, 3 shares, 18 comments. 12 comments response to post, 3 replies from Commbank. 2 comments from 1 user re complaint, 1 reply from commbank Feb 10 1 post -credit cards. 43 likes, 1 share. 7 negative comments, 3 replies from Commbank, 2 replies from those

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users saying Thank you. 2 more negative comments, 1 reply from Commbank Feb 7 1 post – learn about guarantee. 54 likes, 1 share. 2 users with 3 comments each, 2 replies from Commbank. 2 other negative comments. (Commbank posts not signed with a name, but very polite and make an effort to solve problems. Often request details privately). Bank of Twitter @BOQ 2,806 Feb 15 1 post -advising Queensland followe network outage. 0 rs comments, 0 retweets Feb 13 2 comments from 1 user re outage, 1 reply from BOQ Feb 13 1 post – Valentine’s (2) Day. Tips to spoil loved one. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 12 1 post – help to climb property ladder (competition). 4 retweets, 0 comments Feb 11 3 qs from user, 2 replies from BOQ. 2comments/compla int from 1 user, 2 replies from BOQ Feb 10 1 post – competition to win $100k towards house. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 5 2 posts – interest rates & BOQ’s rates. 3 retweets, 0 comments Feb 3 1 post – RBA rate cut. 3 retweets, 0 comments. Feb 2 1 q from user, 1 reply from BOQ Jan 29 1 post – article re woman in AFR. 0 Jan 28 retweet, 0 comments Facebook/BOQonline 8,899 Comments mix of Fewer comments and likes negative and interactions than commBank. positive Average of 9 likes Very little interaction so per comment but difficult to determine have been as many propinquity & mutual equality as 200 likes More likes for No substantive conversation competitions or charity posts

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Issue January 4 – Low temporal took 4 days and responsiveness resolution incomplete Feb 16 1 post – notification of outage due to maintenance. 9 likes, 2 negative comments, no BOQ reply Feb 14 1 post – valentine’s day. 169 likes, 3 comments – 2 negative. No BOQ reply Feb 13 1 post – competition to win $100K. 1235 likes, 216 shares. 1 complaint – response by BOQ. 2nd complaint – response by BOQ. Another 120 comments. Issue with link to competition. Peer interaction, 1 reply from BOQ Feb 4 1 post – BOQ cardholders presale tix to concert. 0 comments, 15 likes Feb 3 1 post – cut to interest rates. 81 likes, 4 shares, 2 positive comments. Jan 29 1 post (article from AFR), 8 likes, 3 shares. 2 comments. BOQ reply is ‘subscription required for AFR’ Jan 23 1 post – know pin for credit card. 12 likes, 1 share. 2 comments – 1 negative No blog

Salesforce Twitter @salesforce 160,000 Feb 2 1 post – most followe mentioned brands. No substantive rs 52 retweets. 5 conversation. No comments. 0 from responsiveness SF Feb 2 1 post – who is top Good content for business social influencer. 11 customers but no retweets, 3 interaction at all. comments (neutral/negative). 0 reply from SF. Feb 2 (2) 1 post - What’s trending re Superbowl. 27 retweets. 1 comment. Feb 2 (3) 1 post – 4 key sales tips. 5 retweets. 0 comments Feb 2 (4) 1 post – tips for generating leads. 10

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retweets, 0 comments. Feb 1 1 post – 100sales tips book. 14 retweets. 3 comments. 0 reply from SF Feb 1 (2) 1 post – 65 apps on a phone but only 15 used. 24 retweets. 1 comments Feb 1 (3) 1 post – tips & apps for generating leads. 11 retweets. 1 comment Feb 1 (4) 1 post – best way for sales success. 3 retweets. 0 comments Feb 1 (5) 1 post – switch from voicemail to answering service. 10 retweets. 2 comments each from 2 users in Aus. 0 reply from SF. Jan 31 1 post – next gen insights. 4 retweets. 0 comments Blog: Feb 16 1 post – Salesforce blog.salesforce.com/au world tour. 2 (Australia New Zealand retweets, 0 blog) comments, 4 shares Salesforce clearly believes in Feb 12 1 post – 7 signs you pushing out a lot of content need CRM. 0 in US & Aus – as Nathan comments, 0 said. retweets, 6 shares Feb 10 1 post – getting No mutuality or propinquity social with Twitter because no response (how to create twitter profile). 0 comments, 2 shares, 2 retweets Jan 21 1 comment – finding a work life balance. 45 shares, 17 likes, 1 comment (positive) Jan 9 1 post – 2014 state of marketing report. 0 comments, 1 shares, 8 retweets Jan 8 1 post – what is cloud crowd? Created to cater to tech community in Aus/NZ. 0 comments, 10 retweets, 11 shares Jan 6 1 post – Michelle Bridges (trainer from Biggest Loser) is using Slaesforce technology to expand her online weight loss program. 0 comments, 5 retweets, 26 shares Dec 15 1 post – Salesforce charitable

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foundation. 0 comments, 4 Dec retweets, 39 shares 13 1 post – tips for small business success with Salesforce. 4 retweets, 0 comments, 14 shares. Dec 12 1 post – landing the dream job. 2 retweets, 0 comments, 10 shares Blog: Feb 19 1 post – guide to Blog.salesforce.com/compa growing community ny (US blog) for biz. 53 retweets, All shares are in linkedin 13 shares, 0 Compare US to Aus blogs re comments. # of comments Feb 19 1 post – IT must (2) focus on customers. 38 retweets, 8 shares, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – 6 tricks for (3) creating best sales proposal. 33 retweets, 9 shares, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – unlock CRM (4) with automation. 49 retweets, 16 shares, 0 comments Feb 18 1 post – 5 experts on measuring success. 56 retweets, 27 shares, 0 comments Feb 18 1 post – 4 ways (2) CRM helps biz. 67 retweets, 23 shares, 0 comments Feb 18 1 post – 3 secrets to (3) linkedin. 63 retweets, 161 shares, 0 comments Feb 17 1 post – cross device tracking. 87 retweets, 24 shares, 0 comments Feb 17 1 post – don’t close (2) deals too fast. 66 retweets, 139 shares, 0 comments Feb 17 1 post – buyers (3) worry & you can help. 72 retweets, 88 shares, 0 comments Feb 14 1 post – 30 answers to tough sales questions. 90 retweets, 162 shares, 0 comments Facebook/salesforceANZ 322,694 Feb 17 1 post – upcoming (Australia New Zealand) likes salesforce event. 19 Far fewer posts than Twitter likes, 12 shares. I or blog – questionable as to user comment, SF whether Facebook works in reply, user says B2B thanks. 7 other comments

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Can consider most unrelated to post or unresponsive company company. Feb 13 1 post – build Twitter audience (link to blog). 4 likes, 0 shares, 0 comments Jan 21 1 post – webinar for small business. 3 likes, 0 shares, 0 comments Jan 10 1 post – 2014 marketing report (link to blog). 6 likes, 0 shares, 0 Jan 9 comments 1 post – what’s cloud crowd? (link to blog). 4 likes, 1 share, 0 comments Jan 3 1 post – Michelle Bridges & salesforce (link to blog). 3 likes, 0 shares, 0 comments Dec 13 1 post – 5 tips for small biz with Salesforce. 1 share. 0 retweets, 0 comments. Dec 10 1 post – conference in Auckland. 1 like, 0 shares, 0 comments Dec 10 1 post – session for (2) conference beginning. 1 like, 0 shares, 0 comments Dec 10 2 posts regarding (3) readiness of conference in Auckland. 0 shares, 0 likes, 0 comments Dec 6 1 post – Melbourne conference update. 1 share, 0 retweets, 0 comments Channel Ten Facebook/channelten 86,250 Feb 17 1 post – premiere of likes ‘puberty blues’ No substantive conversation w/photo. 149 likes. 12 Unresponsive. No or low comments temporal responsiveness (positive). 1 negative (profane) No mutual equality or comment. 3 propinquity because no comments response. No conversation unrelated to post. 0 at all. reply from 10. Feb 17 1 post – ‘300’ (2) Warrior challenge, win prizes. 31 likes. 1 comment. 1 comment unrelated to post. Feb 17 1 post – ‘secrets & (3) lies’ w/photo. 13 likes. 3 comments, 2 unrelated to post, 1 negative. Feb 17 1 post – Olympics & (4) ‘Chumpy’. 62 likes. 40 comments. 4 re

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Olympic coverage – 1 negative, 1 reply from 10 to positive comment. 30 negative comments about 10’s Olympic coverage in general. 0 reply from 10. Feb 16 1 post – Torah Bright. 126 likes. 1 comment, 1 reply from 10. 13 negative comments on Olympic coverage. Feb 16 1 post – Robbie (2) Williams coming to ‘So you think you can dance aus’ w/photo. 61 likes. 1 comment unrelated to post. Feb 15 1 post – ‘so you think you can dance’ w/photo. 180 likes. 2 negative comments, 1 peer reply. 0 comment from 10. Feb 14 1 post – ‘The living room’ w/photo. 52 likes. 5 negative comments about 10’s Olympic coverage. 0 reply from 10. Feb 13 1 post – Congrats to Torah Bright. 137 likes. 3 negative comments about 10’s Olympic coverage Feb 13 1 post – Torah wins (2) silver. 321 likes. 14 positive comments re Torah, 13 negative comments about 10’s Olympic coverage. 0 reply from 10. Feb 12 1 post – ‘the living room’ w/video. 31 likes. 4 negative comments. 2 profane comments. 4 negative comments to Ch 10 in general. 0 comments from 10. Feb 12 1 post – Day 5 of (2) Sochi. 23 likes. 8 negative comments about 10’s Olympic coverage. Twitter @channelten 105,000 Jan 30 1 post – sign up in followe Adelaide for ‘biggest Several comments in rs loser’ trainer regards to 10 not Shannon Ponton. 4 responding to comments comments, negative about ch 10 (peer Unresponsive. interaction). 0

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Many complaints. No retweets response at all Jan 30 (2) 1 post – rub shoulders with big bash players at final. 3 retweets. 1 comment about comp’s T&C, 1 Q about programming. 0 comment from 10. Jan 30 (3) 1 post – Sochi games & Aus snowboarder Scotty James. 1 video. 1 negative comment re Ch 10 & Olympics Jan 30 (4) 1 post – who is best dressed at AACTAs. 1 retweet. 1 comment asking q unrelated to post. 0 reply from 10 Jan 30 (5) 1 post – promoting AACTAs. 9 retweets. 1 negative comment Jan 29 1 post – Ten Insider crew tweeting from AACTAs. 2 retweets. 1 question. 0 reply from 10. Jan 29 1 retweet from Ten Insider. Jan 29 1 retweet from Wake Up (10 morning show) Jan 28 3 retweets – Ten Insider. Jan 27 1 retweet from ‘biggest loser’. 3 retweets. 1 positive comment Blog on website ‘Ten Insider’. No comments permitted.

Westfield Facebook/westfield 431,835 Jan 20 1 post – suits for likes work from Jacqui E No responses at all w/photo. 7 likes, 0 comments No substantive conversation Jan 20 (2) 1 post – Alannah Hill 2014 w/photos. 261 No mutuality/equality likes, 1 share, 10 comments (all positive) Jan 19 1 post – watermelon dress at Glassons w/photo. 21 likes, 2 comments, 1 from WF within 2 hours Jan 18 1 post – sleepwear from bras & things w/photo. 10 likes, 0 comments Jan 17 1 post – summer bags (post by blogger). 4 comments - 2 positive, 2 negative (0 from Westfield), 46 likes

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Jan 16 1 post – Zanerobe t- shorts at general pants w/photo. 1 like, 0 comments Jan 15 1 post – back to school gimmicks w/photos, 14 likes, 0 comments Jan 14 1 post – Portman’s jumpsuit. 67 likes, 3 comments (2 positive, 1 negative) Jan 13 1 post – coloured jeans (link to blog), 6 likes, 0 comments Jan 12 1 post – Cue houndstooth fashion. 20 likes, 3 comments Jan 11 1 post – Bardot black dress. 14 likes, 3 comments Jan 10 1 post – summer dresses on sale (from WF blogger), 53 likes, 1 comment, 1 share Blog: blog.westfield.com.au Feb 19 1 post – trending ‘Westfield Insider’ denim overalls w/hints & photos. 0 Content about fashion, retweets, 0 where to find it, what fits comments, 13 likes. what body, what’s trendy. Feb 17 1 post – photos of Good information. Blogger ‘flat lays’. 0 won competition to be comments, 0 likes Westfield blogger 3 years Feb 13 1 post – 15 ago. wardrobe items every woman Unable to access comments should own. 0 on older posts. Never reply comments, 1 likes from WF Feb 10 1 post – favorite Very one way – store w/photos. 0 promotional. comments, 0 likes Feb 6 1 post – valentine’s gifts for guys. 0 comments, 0 likes Jan 30 1 post – best of bardot’s crop tops. 0 comments, 0 likes Jan 22 1 post – body shape. What to wear to flatter your legs. 4 comments (very positive; no reply from WF), 0 likes Jan 18 1 post – summer 14 make-up trends from Napoleon Perdis. ‘comments closed’ & unavailable, 0 likes Jan 15 1 post – arm candy. ‘comments closed’, 0 likes Jan 7 1 post – coloured jeans. 3 comments (unable to access comments), 0 likes Jan 3 1 post – how to get rid of chapped lips.

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8 comments (unable to access comments), 0 likes Twitter in beta test currently

Coles Facebook/coles 666,442 Dec 19 1 post – recipe likes glazed ham Coles clearly does not w/photo. 1585 likes, remove anti coles or 269 shares, 176 profane comments. But comments. 152 neither do they reply or anti-meat & vegan engage in conversation. activists posts. 9 positive comments. A lot of negative comments 1 positive comment from vegans or anti-meat about Coles. 4 activists. No response from comments Coles. Many comments unrelated to post. unrelated to post Dec 19 1 post – recipe spice (2) & herb roasted Many comments unrelated to turkey w/photo. 675 posts & negative to Coles in likes, 86 shares, 88 general. No response from comments - 1 Coles positive, 87 negative comments Cannot determine mutuality (50% anti meat or propinquity w/o comments activist, 50% anti Coles), no reply from Coles. Dec 19 1 post – recipe (3) prawns w/mango sauce w/photo. 1160 likes. 176 shares. 113 comment. 11 positive comments. 20 negative re Coles & imported prawns. 1 reply from coles re prawns 100% Aussi.e. Rest of comments over next 5 days, 25% positive, 75% negative re Coles & frozen prawns. Dec 16 1 post – recipe BLT sandwich w/photo. 787 likes, 79 shares, 77 comments (12 positive, 50 negative to Coles & various ingredients, 0 reply from Coles) Dec 12 1 post – recipe zucchini & feta tarts w/photo. 1536 likes, 343 shares, 64 comments (17 positive, no reply from Coles) Dec 11 1 post – recipe lamb & potato pie w/photo. 1400 likes, 331 shares, 70 comments (8 positive) [many vegans use Coles Facebook page as a platform to promote veganism

322 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

and protest against eating meat], 0 reply from Coles Dec 6 1 post – interactive Christmas panorama. 3776 likes, 22 shares, 229 comments (8 positive, 221 negative anti Coles), 0 reply from Coles Dec 5 1 post –Spanish potato bacon & onion tortilla. 1468 likes, 556 shares, 83 comments (5 positive) Dec 5 (2) 1 post - recipe Parsley crusted schnitzel. 5 likes, 51 shares, 0 comments Dec 2 1 post- recipe Shepherds Pi.e. 458 likes, 0 shares, 59 comments

Blog: blog.coles.com.au Jan 20 1 post - Grill basting ‘Coles blog’ sauces w/photo. 1 comment Coles’ replies are neutral Jan 17 1 post – summer and resolve little except with drumstick. 1 passing on message. Most complaint unrelated store complaints have to do to post, 1 reply from with service, stocking of Coles products. Jan 14 1 post – charity Red Kite w/many Some very good content. photos. 0 comments Some reposted on Facebook Jan 8 1 post – Coles Simply less diet Responsiveness quick range. 1 positive w/regards to positive comment comments Jan 7 1 post – Beekeeper w/many photos, 0 comments Jan 6 1 post – guide to non dairy milk. 0 comments Jan 5 1 post – eating healthy and top value healthy foods. 0 comments Jan 3 1 post – Birds Eye stationery giveaway. 4 comments (3 questions about giveaway, 1 Coles reply) Jan 3 (2) 1 post – RSCPA approved fresh chicken, 0 comments Jan 2 1 post – Coles Community Food, helping people in need. 0 comments Twitter @Coles 16,9000 Jan 12 1 post – thoughts (last one is real followe with those battling conversation) rs bushfires. 6 retweets. 1 positive Responsive to positive comment comments Jan 12 (2) 1 post – Asian vegie

323 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

omelette w/photo. No real propinquity or Link to recipe. 2 mutuality but temporal retweets. 0 responsiveness is OK. comments No substantive conversation Jan 7 1 post – promotion: 30% off Mix range (for online only). 0 retweets. 3 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, 2 responses from Coles. Jan 7 (2) 1 post – Dukkah pork & beetroot with link to recipe w/photo. 5 retweets. 1 positive comment from beetroot org. Jan 6 1 post – about haloumi w/video & Curtis Stone. 0 retweets, 0 comments Jan 6 (2) 1 post – Red Gum Honey – link to blog post. 1 retweet. 2 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, reply from Coles. Jan 5 1 post – non-dairy milks for lactose intolerant consumers. Link to blog post. 1 neutral comment. 3 retweets. Jan 2 1 post – buy Birds Eye product and receive free stationery. 2 retweets. 2 comments from 1 user, 2 replies from Coles. 1 additional comment Jan 2 (2) 1 post – announce RSPCA approved fresh chicken. 6 retweets. 4 comments, 1 reply from Coles Jan 1 1 post – Thai coconut chicken salad with link to recipe w/photo. 3 retweets, 1 comment Dec 31 1 post – Coles is 100 years old & is Aussie company. 9 retweets. 2 negative comments, 3 comments from 1 user, 3 replies from Coles.

Jetstar Twitter @jetstarairways 61,800 Feb 4 2 comments from 1 Mutual equality followe Spanish tourism Propinquity rs user, 1 reply from

324 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Not completely mutual Jetstar regarding Conversation not planning vacation substantive but there are (Anita) occasional conversations Feb 4 (2) 2 comments from 1 user regarding Responsive – high temporal feedback for crew. 2 responsiveness comments from Jetstar (Anita) Feb 4 (3) 2 comments from 1 user, 2 replies from Jetstar (Anita) Feb 4 (4) 1 negative comment from user, 1 reply from Jetstar Feb 4 (5) 3 comments from user re Syd/Mel flight, 2 replies from Jetstar Feb 4 (6) 1 query from user re check in time, 1 reply from Jetstar (Jo) Feb 4 (7) 1 query from user re Dreamliner, 1 reply from Jetstar (Jo) Feb 4 (8) 1 comment from Thailand bound traveller, 1 reply from Jetstar (Jo) Feb 4 (9) 2 comments from 1 user, 2 replies from Jetstar re email updates (Anita) complaint re Feb 4 baggage – 3 (10) comments from 1 user, 3 replies from jetstar. User told to fill out form. Left unresolved. Facebook/jetstaraustralia 290,913 Nov 15 1 post – announcing likes new Dreamliner. Much less Jetstar response & Video plus news interaction on facebook than coverage. 95 likes, on Twitter (different from 22 comments (10 other companies) negative and unrelated to post, No conversation at all on 12 positive), 0 facebook – cannot comments from determine propinquity or Jetstar, 16 shares mutuality Nov 14 1 post – Queenstown, NZ w/photo. 169 likes, 6 shares, 8 comments (4 positive & interaction between followers, 2 from suppliers), 0 comment from Jetstar Nov 13 1 post – Dreamliner w/several photos. 605 likes, 23 shares, 39 comments (24 positive), 0 reply from Jetstar Nov 11 1 post – Hamilton Island w/photo. 237 likes, 19 shares, 26 comments (5

325 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

positive), 0 reply from Jetstar Nov 8 1 post – Hamilton Island w/photo. 202 likes, 2 shares, 17 comments. Nov 8 (2) 1 post – Hamilton island. 349 likes, 24 shares, 33 comments (19 positive), 0 reply from Jetstar although other companies replied Nov 8 (3) 1 post – Dreamliner & competition. 118 likes, 14 comments, 3 shares. Nov 2 1 post – results of competition. 40% of people want a beach or island. 118 likes, 7 comments, 2 shares Oct 29 1 post – escape to Mackay w/photo. 209 likes, 13 shares, 15 comments (2 positive, 12 negative), 0 reply from Jetstar Oct 29 1 post – Goldcoast (2) competition. 86 likes, 1 share, 5 comments, 0 reply from Jetstar Oct 24 1 post – escape to Mackay with price. 48 likes, 24 shares, 18 comments, 0 reply from Jetstar Oct 24 1 post tell us about (2) your holiday, win voucher. 478 likes, 49 shares, 112 comments (not relevant or appropriate) Oct 23 1 post – change travel re bushfires. 901 likes, 94 shares, 120 comments (85% positive – competition) No blog

Flight Centre Twitter @flightcentreAU 18,100 Jan 30 1 post – Chinese No substantive conversation followe new year festivities rs around Aus (link to No responses at all so blog). 0 retweets. 0 cannot determine equality or comments propinquity Jan 29 1 post – guiness record aviation No/low temporal response listings (link to blog). 0 retweets. 0 comments. Jan 29 (2) 1 post – where will you travel to next? 1 retweet. 4 comments w/names of countries to

326 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

travel to. 0 reply from FC. Jan 23 1 post – essential items for domestic flight (link to blog). 0 retweets, 0 comments. Jan 22 1 post – hotel with Giness world record (link to blog). 0 retweets, 0 comments Jan 21 1 post – join FC’s regional consultant network (link to blog). 1 retweet. 0 comments Jan 20 1 post – explore Prague in winter (link to blog). 0 retweets, 0 comments Jan 19 1 post – explore Indonesia’s Gili Islands (link to blog). 2 retweets. 0 comments. Jan 19 1 post – Dublin on a budget (link to blog). 0 retweets, 0 comments Jan 18 1 post – Troy Cassar-Daley performing at Tamworth Festival (link to blog). 4 retweets. 0 comments Jan 14 1 post – Best Buck’s Night party destinations (link to blog). 0 retweets. 0 comments. Facebook/flightcentreAU 435,000 Feb 13 1 post – hot (also one for Canada, New likes springs? Where Zealand, UK, South Africa would you travel for health?w/photo. Limited responsiveness & 563 likes, 24 shares. limited responses 50 comments. First 4 comments each Good temporal responses had 1 reply from FC. Rest each named Mutual equality – tone place, 0 comment friendly, equal from FC. Feb 12 1 post – what do you love about UK&Ireland. Competition for $10K towards trip. w/photo of Bath. 603 likes, 42 shares. 1 comment – link to comp not working, FC replied. Next 9 comments each had reply from FC. Rest of 120 comments about visiting UK&Ireland. Feb 12 1 post - Explore (2) Cambodia w/photo

327 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

& link to blog. 117 likes. 0 shares. 5 positive comments Feb 12 1 post – (3) Sydneysiders, share best beaches. 41 likes, 1 share. First 4 comments each had reply from FC (all same reply – cut & paste). 15 more comments, 0 reply from FC. Feb 11 1 post – would you rather trek thru rain forests or bay in Tasmania w/ 2 photos. 544 likes, 29 shares. 47 comments, reply to post. Feb 11 1 post – Scotland’s (2) fringe festival w photo. What do you love about UK & win $10K. 427 likes, 32 shares. 27 comments all related to post. Feb 11 1 post – Opera (3) Houses in Europe w/link to blog. ‘edited’. 0 comments, 0 retweets. Feb 11 1 post – Gordon’s (4) bay, South Africa w/photo. What do you want to visit in SA? ‘edited’. 697 likes, 23 shares. 14 comments, 0 reply from FC. Feb 10 1 post – how do you want to see the world – helicopter, sky dive, hot air balloon or bungy. w/4 photos. 755 likes, 31 shares first 4 comments each get replies from FC. Next 86 comments reply to post, 0 reply from FC. Feb 10 1 post – 3 day (2) itinerary visiting Melbourne w/photo (link to blog). ‘edited’. 156 likes, 0 shares, 8 comments related to post, 0 reply from FC. Feb 10 1 post – tea & (3) scones in the UK. What do you love about UK? win $10K. 277 likes, 12 shares, 26 comments all related to post, 0

328 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

reply from FC. Blog: on website – Dec 17 1 post – top Aus www.flightcentre.com.au/tr New Year’s eve avel-news destinations. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 Lots of content & photos. comments Good information. Linked to Dec 16 1 post – great facebook. Very few Thailand beach comments escapes. 1 like, 0 retweet, 0 Did not see much customer comments service on twitter. Often Dec 14 1 post – Wet n’ wild replies, but no actual slides in Sydney. dialogue. 160 likes, 0 retweet, 0 comments No substantive conversation Dec 13 1 post – world’s most luxurious train No propinquity carriages w/several photos. 10 likes, 0 retweets, 4 comments (2 each from 2 users) Dec 12 1 post – Wallabies venues for rugby world cup announced. 63 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Dec 11 1 post – FC consultant explores LA. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Dec 10 1 post – complimentary Chauffer transfers. 139 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Dec 9 1 post – top tips for bungy jumpers w/3 photos. 103 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Dec 8 1 post – Jimmy Barnes to sing in Auckland with Springsteen. 247 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Dec 6 1 post – top underground cave hotels w/ several photos. 6 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments

Major telco Twitter 33,600 Feb 20 1 post – ‘ever fake a followe mobile call to Mutual equality rs escape a date’. 1 retweet. 8 No substantive conversation comments: 3 comments, 3 replies Not very responsive (tongue in cheek), 1 negative, 1 neutral Tone neutral..some replies Feb 20 1 post – image of very quick. Pick & choose (2) Jessica Muaboy who/what they reply to ‘hope she performs’. 1 positive comments Feb 20 (5 5 posts – images of

329 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

posts) Modern Family cast in Sydney. 3 retweets, 5 neutral comments Feb 19 1 post – see ‘Wolf creek 2 film free’. 1 query, 1 reply from telco Feb 18 1 post – image of Modern family cast ‘what burning question would you ask them?’. 64 retweets. 6 negative, 5 responses to post, 6 replies from Optus (1 reply to each post) Feb 17 1 post – ‘They are here’ (Modern family). 8 retweets, 0 comments Feb 16 3 posts – ‘Modern Family has landed in Aus’. 156 retweets. 15 comments: 1 query unrelated to post, 1 reply from telco; 10 positive comments; 1 negative post, 3 queries unresponded to. Feb 15 1 post – outages due to extreme weather in Victoria. 1 query, 1 response from telco, 1 thank you; 3 positive comments; 1 comment, 1 reply from telco, 1 thank you; 1 negative comment; 2 queries, 2 replies from telco Facebook 144,025 Feb 11 1 post – ‘today is (responses very quick – likes safer internet day’ often within minutes or w/links to gov’t immediate) cybersmart site. 16 likes, 2 shares. 0 (most comments are about comments issues related to products. (comments Telco responds quickly but unavailable) issues do not appear Feb 10 1 post – ‘phone will resolved; many referred to charge faster if in DM, but often users come airplane mode’. 181 back with more complaints. likes, 44 shares. 61 Users using Facebook for comments: 1 customer service issues unrelated query, 1 while telco SMM says reply from telco; 2 Twitter used for customer positive comments service – not as much). (unrelated to post) comments from 1 Some conversation user, 2 replies; 1 negative comment Twitter/Facebook posts (unrelated to post), often the same 1 reply; 2 comments from 1 user Many comments unrelated (unrelated to post, 2

330 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

to posts. Some empathy & replies; 3 unrelated equality negative comments from user, 2 replies; 12 comments related to post; 5 negative comments unrelated to post; 1 query, 0 reply; 24 irrelevant posts Feb 7 1 post – ‘how to protect tech from dirty little fingers’. 52 likes. 35 comments: 3 comments from 1 user (unrelated to post), 3 replies from telco; 1 query unrelated to post, 1 reply; 2 queries from 1 user unrelated to post, 3 replies from telco; 3 comments related to post; 5 negative comments unrelated to post, 0 replies; 6 comments related to post. Feb 6 1 post – never lose your car – take photo of it. 87 likes, 1 shares. 44 comments: 6 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, 4 replies from telco - unresolved; 5 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, 3 replies from telco – unresolved, 2 comments from peer; 1 query, 1 reply, 1 thanks; 1 query, 1 reply, 1 thank you; 1 query unrelated to post, 1 reply; 2 queries from 1 user, 2 replies; 23 comments related to post; 4 negative comments, 0 reply. Feb 4 1 post – Rockcorps is back – sign up for music award. ‘edited’. 24 likes, 27 comments: 3 queries from 1 user unrelated to post, 2 replies from telco; 2 queries from 1 user, 1 reply; 2 queries from 1 user unrelated to post, 2 replies; 6 queries from 1 user, 3 replies from telco; 4 irrelevant comments; 2

331 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

negative comments Feb 4 (2) 1 post – want a ticket to Rockcorps – register now. 18 comments: 2 comments from user, 2 replies; 1 query unrelated to post, 1 reply, 3 negative comments, Feb 3 1 reply from telco w/link to website; 6 peer interactions unrelated to post 1 post – tablet insurance w link to website. 18 likes, 1 share, 22 comments: 1 negative comment unrelated to post, 2 replies from telco; 3 queries/negative comments from 1 user (related to previous complaint), Jan 30 1 reply from telco, 2 peer comments; 3 queries unrelated to post, 2 replies; 4 negative comments from 1 user, 2 replies from telco; 3 comments related to post; further negative comments from previous posters. 1 post – Rockcorps t-shirts & volunteers. 30 likes, 16 comments: 4 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, 2 replies from telco w/link to website; 2 queries from 1 user unrelated to post, 1 reply; 3 queries unrelated to post, 3 replies Business blog only

Major tourism Facebook 5 mil Feb 25 1 post - ‘edited’. body likes Photo of man at Photos are very important zoo. 4206 shares, with very little text. Replies 67817 likes. 1232 are kept to a min & usually comments (1 reply nice. Most comments from MTB – smiley pleasant in response to face) photos. Many photos are Feb 24 1 post - ‘edited’. animals. Too many Who stole Bowen’s comments to analyse in mango? 15113 likes, each post. Images very 2869 shares, 1623 important especially to comments (1 reply international audience. Very from MTB – smiley short & few responses face) Feb 24 1 post – photos of No substantive conversation (2) city at night. 61889 likes, 4227 shares,

332 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Medium temporal 1052 comments (3 responsiveness replies from MTB – glad you liked it; Response to Q’s – but limited thanks; smiley face) responses Feb 23 1 post – tongue in cheek monkey & Propinquity – understanding, koala from zoo. some empathy, low 57006 likes, 8580 vulnerability shares, 1649 comments. 2 ‘edited’ may mean change to additional posts copy, change to text or change from MTB, not in to comments. reply to comments, on zoos w photos Feb 22 1 post – seal on beach w photos. 49731 likes, 3359 shares, 665 comments. MTB added link to news story (MTB comments include smiley face, specific location of seal) Feb 21 1 post – various images, no text. 36 fan photos. 61798 likes, 4704 shares, 1018 comments. MTB posted 6 replies to comments re weather, smiley face, nice response Feb 20 1 post – edited. Photo of wombat ‘after dentist’. 56662 likes, 7638 shares, 1076 comments. 3 MTB responses re wombat. Smiley faces, often same response to question (4), 2 other replies Feb 19 1 post – edited. Image of beach (water & mountains). 58560 likes, 7131 shares, 982 comments. MTB replies: where is beach, ‘thanks’, ‘we have a beautiful spot’ Feb 18 1 post – image of beach (7 photos). 91557 likes, 5850 shares, 2139 comments. MTB reply to queries: where can I buy photo, smiley face, 2 posts with more photos Feb 17 1 post – ‘edited’. Red Bull athlete over lake. 36943 likes, 4143 shares. 601 comments. MTB replied to 10

333 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

comments w more on lake, 3 smiley faces Twitter 30,800 Feb 4 1 post – this week’s followe tourism news w link Not interactive at all rs to newsletter. 4 No responsive retweets, 0 No conversation comments Feb 4 (2) Response to instagram photo. 3 retweets, 0 comments Feb 4 (3) 1 post – find out more about reconciliation plan. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 4 (4) 1 post – link to media release on reconciliation plan. 1 positive comment, 0 retweets Feb 4 (5) Retweet to user w link to video (not working). 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 4 (6) Retweet re instagram image. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 4 (7) Retweet to instagram image. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 4 (8) Retweet of blog re travel w link. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 3 Retweet of image by user. 6 retweets, 0 comments Feb 3 (2) Retweet re tourism awards. 1 retweet, 1 positive comment. No blog

Major bank Twitter (media relations) 3807 Feb 20 1 post – bank CEO followe on post GFC (link to No conversation – mostly rs linkedin article). 0 pushing info out retweets, 1 negative comment unrelated No propinquity or mutual to post. equality Feb 19 1 post – new manager small biz, 0 retweets, 1 negative comment unrelated to post (same user as above). 0 reply from MB Feb 16 1 post – free trade agreement good for Aus. 1 retweet, 0 comments. Feb 16 1 post – free trade (2) agreement w Asia good for Aus. 4 retweets, 0 comments Feb 13 1 post – rates for mortgages remain

334 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

unchanged. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 10 1 post – bank launches capital notes offer w link to media release. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 10 1 post – bank profit (2) for quarter. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 9 1 post – bank 1st quarter update to ASX. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 9 1 post – bank offers (2) relief to Vic fire victims w link to media release. 6 retweets Feb 4 1 post – court rules in favour of bank. 3 negative comments, 2 retweets Twitter (general public) 21,000 Feb 20 1 post – ‘to followe celebrate mardi Low responsiveness rs gras, turned ATMs No substantive conversation into GAYTMs’ w link (no conversation at all) to video (partner of Mardi gras). 44 No mutuality/propinquity retweets. 9 comments: 6 positive, 3 negative Feb 20 1 post –building up (2) to mardi Gras next week w/instagram image. 17 retweets, 2 positive comments Feb 20 1 post – ATMS to be (3) offline Feb 25. 4 retweets, 1 neutral comment. Feb 20 Retweet from (4) [major bank] media re growing in a post GFC world. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – watch talented artist Wigan w link to video. 9 retweets. 2 irrelevant comments, 2 positive, 1 reply from MB. Feb 19 Retweet of positive (2) post & thanks from NFP w image. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 Retweet of [major (3) bank] media: new small biz banking head. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 18 1 post – just launched on

335 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

instagram. 2 comments from 1 user unrelated to post, 2 replies from MB. Feb 17 Retweet from Netball nation. 3 retweets, 0 comments Feb 16 1 post – watch for phony phishing online (links to bank website w protection tips). 1 query unrelated to post, 1 reply from MB. Facebook 83,187 Feb 11 1 post – Wigan likes exhibit w photos. 93 No equality likes, 1 share, 1 comment unrelated Low temporal responsiveness to post, 1 reply from MB, 1 unrelated No conversation comment. Feb 10 1 post – thoughts with victims of fire in VIC & SA w # for hardship to make claim. 34 likes, 1 unrelated comment (as above) Feb 7 1 post – Charity short film. 35 likes, 1 positive comment from charity, 1 share. Feb 4 1 post – Wigan exhibit date & times w photo. 11 shares, 434 likes, 28 comments: 23 irrelevant, 5 positive, Feb 3 1 post – every day banking w link to credit card application. ‘edited’. 91 likes, 2 shares. 4 comments: 2 queries, 2 replies to DM bank, 2 irrelevant comments Jan 31 1 post – sneak peek at latest TV ad. 37 likes, 0 shares, 4 comments: 2 positive, 1 negative with 1 reply, 1 irrelevant Jan 31 (2) 1 post – happy Friday. Tech down for routine maintenance. 26 likes, 3 shares, 1 negative comment Jan 31 (3) 1 post – Wigan tiny sculpture. 2989 likes, 38 shares, 2 irrelevant comments

336 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Jan 31 (4) 1 post – happy lunar new year. 108 likes, 14 shares, 0 comments Jan 30 1 post – competition for lunar new year w link to T&Cs. 115 likes, 16 shares, 59 comments: 2 negative, 1 positive, 1 reply from bank; several comments re private messages; 35 responses to post, 2 irrelevant; 3 negative comments from 1 user w/no reply from MB Blog: [major bank] global Feb 23 1 post – bank Mardi ‘your world’ Gras involvement. 0 (interesting information, comments, 0 shares well written. Not sure how Feb 19 1 post – ‘5 lifehacks many people even know to take the stress about this) out of travel’. 0 comments, 0 shares there is a log in process to Feb 12 1 post – community share. centre in HK teaching kids about money. 0 comments, 0 shares Feb 3 1 post – indigenous training opportunities – 1 story. 0 shares, 0 comments Jan 30 1 post – world of Willard Wigan’s microsculpture. 0 comments, 0 shares [these sculptures have been used in major bank’s TV ad campaigns] Jan 29 1 post –Ethiopian refugee’s new life in Aus & help from NFP. 0 comments, 0 shares. Jan 29 (2) 1 post – making the right career moves – story of 1 major bank employee & learnings. 0 comments, 0 shares. Jan 23 1 post – Mum learned about major bank’s savings program in school newsletter. 0 comments, 0 shares Jan 16 1 post – major bank’s community program; young person with disability. 0 comments, 0 Jan 9 shares. 1 post – support for Australian Open

337 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Tennis

Ansell No twitter Facebook/ansellcondoms 31,728 Feb 12 1 post – condoms (Skyn condoms) – consumer likes have been savings focused. Can also get free us from STIs since condoms 1564 w/photo of bacteria, link to Limited responses source of No substantive conversation information. 17 Tone is equal but no real likes, 1 share, 0 mutuality comments. Feb 10 1 post – just image of condom ad. 26 likes, 2 shares, 0 comments. Feb 5 1 post – win Valentine’s Day dinner. 26 likes. 1 comment – link not working, 1 reply from Ansell. Feb 5 (2) 1 post – enter competition. ‘edited’. 3 likes. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 3 1 post – win pamper package for 2 w/photo & link to competition. 22 likes. 3 comments, 2 about difficulty entering comp, 1 reply from Ansell. Feb 3 (2) 1 post – enter comp. 0 likes, 0 retweets, 0 comments Jan 30 1 post – win ultimate shopping spree worth $1K w/photo & link to comp. 5 likes, 1 share, 7 comments. Jan 30 (2) 1 post – link to comp. 0 retweets, 0 comments. Jan 29 1 post – what’s your favourite innuendo? 3 comments, 1 reply from Ansell, 8 likes. Jan 28 1 post – win skydive w/photo & link to comp. 16 likes, 1 comment. Blog: Feb 17, 1 post – recall of medical.ansell.com.au/blog 2014 safety scalpel

Must log in to post Feb 25, 1 post – new comments. Frank 2013 surgical glove that acknowledged that this hydrates skin. needed to be changed and did not engender trust. Jan 31 1 post – B2B – suppliers & medical electrosurgery staff burns safety hazard.

Push out, one-way Dec 13, Vinyl gloves cheap information 2012 but poor choice Marketing oriented Nov 22 Powdered surgical

338 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

gloves contain hazards

Nov 14 1 post – Ansell gloves have antimicrobial technology

Nov 1 1 post – protect hands with Ansell gloves. Post includes limerick [very poor headline]

Oct 15 1 post -Careful with needles and other sharp hazards

Sept 20 1 post - Be safe with right healthcare safety gloves [very poor headline]

Aug 23 1 post – peri- operative safety solutions Blog: Undated 1 post – don’t ppe.ansell.com.au/safety- ignore work risks re blog infections w/photos of diff. gloves for same content on diff work purposes ppe.ansell.com.au/blog Undated 1 post – dexterity & unable to comment. No tactility available register or log in. all posts w/Ansell work undated. gloves. Diff types of gloves pictured. Link No substantive conversation to contact sales person No dialogue at all Undated 1 post – Hydro Tasmania wins No propinquity/mutual Ansell-sponsored equality Nat’l Safety Council award

Nov 2013 1 post – Ansell provides best chemical protection

Oct 2013 1 post – construction workers suffer greater injuries than other workers. Images of products – various gloves

Oct 2013 1 post – ansell provides safety with aprons & hairnets.

Oct 2013 1 post – Ansell wins Safety award for work gloves

Oct 2013 1 post – workers want safety gloves that prevent perspiration

339 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Sept 1 post – specific 2013 glove that boosts productivity w/sharp objects

Sept 1 post – Ansell 2013 safety sleeves along with gloves

Ford Blog: Under Feb 20 1 post - ‘my ford at Social.ford.com ‘our Michigan proving articles’ grounds’. Many Separated into ‘our articles’, divided photos. Written like ‘your stories’, ‘your ideas’, into magazine article. 1 images, videos product like, 0 tweets, 0 s. comments. Some user submitted stories Studied Feb 12 1 post – ‘ford love is & ideas on front page at ‘all in the air. cars’ Valentine’s tradition Has list of most popular to share Ford love articles with gauge stories. Image of married couple Set up to be a real w/ford. 5 likes, 3 community (thus the name retweets, 0 Ford social) and people on comments there have a real love for Feb 6 1 post – celebrating the brand first time ford owners. 5 likes, 1 No substantive conversation retweet, 0 between company & public. comments Mostly between peers Feb 5 1 post – ‘century of Propinquity but unsure about change’. Influence mutual equality of Henry ford still alive w/ 5 photos. 27 likes, 65 retweets, 0 comments Feb 5 (2) 1 post – Mustang pinball. Mustang iconic, now new pinball game featuring mustang. 33 likes, 24 retweets, 4 positive comments Jan 22 1 post – Mustang celebrates 50 years. 4300 likes, 34 retweets, 7 comments, all attending celebrations in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jan 12 1 post – Ford remote access – can start car remotely and function from smartphone. 19 likes, 10 retweets, 5 comments – 4 from users, 1 reply from Ford Jan 10 1 post – bike parkour w/video. 14 likes, 1 retweet, 5 comments, 3 positive, 2 negative against Parkour not ford. Jan 10 (2) 1 post – electronic

340 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

innovations re Ford at CES (Consumer electronics show), mostly around Mustang. 24 likes, 1 retweet, 0 comments Jan 7 1 post – Ford innovations at CES about new apps. 19 Your likes, 10 retweets, 2 stories comments, both (mostly negative regarding car love specific technology stories Jan 2 1 post – making or music with ford thank Fiesta w/videos. 13 yous) likes, 6 retweets, 0 comments

Feb 11 Most very short, with personal stories accompanied by photos. In ‘all cars’: Feb 11 Man owns 7 Fords (2) since 1962 – thanks Feb 11 for reliability. 0, 0. (3) ‘ford changed my life. Love the Focus. 0, 0. ‘close call’. Reliable classic mustang that Feb 10 he was going to sell, but did not. 1 comment – Feb 5 supportive of mustang, 1 retweet ‘most beautiful car’. Feb 5 (2) 1 true love a ford mustang. 0, 0. ‘saving my bacon’. Owned several Fords, Ford finance very nice to him. Feb 5 (3) Now stock owner. 0,0. Jan 31 ‘my car, my friend’. Photo of old car. 11 yr old car with 250,000 miles. Jan 31 (2) Thank you. 1 comment, supportive. 2 retweets ‘true ford family’. Jan 28 Bought 6 ford focuses since 2012 for family members. 0, 0 ‘if you are buying or leasing read this’. Bought Fusion & it is great. 0, 0 ‘car saved brother’s life’. Brother totaled 2002 Focus but OK. Thank you. 0,0 Taurus has 305K miles. 0, 0 Twitter @ford 392,000 Dec 4 1 post – automated

341 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

All replies from Scott Monty followe driver assist under rs development. 14 Throughout blog, facebook retweets, 3 & Twitter, lots of photos of comments – 1 the cars. Less trolls on positive, 1 negative, facebook than other brands 1 neutral. Dec 4 (2) 1 post – ‘ford Limited conversation & mustang to be response revealed tomorrow’ w/video. 30 retweets, 3 comments: 2 negative 1 positive Dec 4 (3) 1 post – ‘we’re revved up for mustang reveal tomorrow’ w/photo of car. 204 retweets, 0 comments Dec 3 1 post – ‘good nov. sales up. Retail best since 2004’. When did you buy your ford? (designed to elicit comments) 30 retweets. 4 comments: 2 from 2 users, 2 replies from Ford. (Thanks) Dec 3 (2) 1 post – 2 days away from mustang reveal’ w/video. 40 retweets. 2 comments: 1 irrelevant, 1 positive. Dec 3 (3) 1 post – ‘making of a legend. Mustang over 50 years’ w/video. 50 retweets. 2 comments: 1 a translation of post into another language w/link to video, 1 neutral comment. Dec 2 1 post – ‘mustang Monday’ w/photo. 7 comments, 6 irrelevant, 1 positive (instagram). 11 retweets, 1 comment – irrelevant. Dec 2 (2) 1 post –‘mike rowe has a Monday survival tip’ w/link to video & link to car offers. 14 retweets, 0 comments Dec 2 (3) 1 post – ‘mustang & best waves’. Link to instagram photo of beach. (comments on instagram no part of ford social and thus mostly

342 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

negative & irrelevant). 12 retweets, 1 comment – irrelevant. Dec 2 (4) 1 post – base jumping video. 9 retweets, 0 comments. Dec 1 1 post – ‘thanks to submission re mustang inspires series. Days away from launch’ (instagram – 6 positive comments, 13 negative). 8 comments – peer discussion re video Facebook/ford 2 mil Dec 12, 1 post - How are likes 2013 you holding up in Ford has created a series of winter conditions? platforms for peer to peer w/photo of truck. interaction, but little 1371 likes, 83 response from the shares. 151 company. Push out material comments – 5 but no substantive irrelevant, 134 conversation between the positive about truck company and publics or Ford car, 9 snow related, 3 negative. 0 comment from Ford. Dec 11 1 post – next chapter in Mustang history. 3 photos. 7333 likes, 904 shares, 381 comments. 368 comments discussion for & against new mustang (70% for). 1 general negative comment, 12 irrelevant comments. 0 comment from Ford Dec 10 1 post – Software created with Siemens to map assembly plants. ‘edited’. 765 likes, 72 shares, 16 comments – 6 relevant comments, 8 comments irrelevant (positive & negative for Ford), 2 irrelevant. 0 comment from Ford Dec 10 1 post – how do you (20) rate parallel parking ability? w/photo. 1274 likes, 79 shares, 807 comments – of 500 comments, 2 irrelevant, 498 rated themselves out of 10 as good or bad (all relevant to the

343 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

post). 0 comment from Ford Dec 4 1 post – how mustang evolved over 50 years w/photo. 2414 likes, 260 shares, 80 comments – 5 irrelevant, 75 about owning Fords in general or Mustangs. 0 comment from Ford Nov 29 1 post – Happy thanksgiving. 1388 likes, 159 shares, 24 comments – 1 irrelevant, 1 negative, 22 positive or neutral. 0 comment from Ford Nov 27 1 post – photo of 4 cars in diff colours– ‘which one would you choose? 742 likes, 206 shares, 710 comments – of 450 comments, 2 neutral, 448 selected colour or style. Nov 20 1 post – produced 10 millionth Ford Sync technology w/photo. 2226 likes, 174 shares, 95 comments – 13 negative (2 replies from Ford), 3 neutral, 1 irrelevant, 75 positive. Nov 16 1 post – Coke & Ford creating sustainable fabric for future vehicles w photo. 3771 likes, 561 shares, 88 comments – 4 irrelevant, 4 neutral, 11 negative, 59 positive. 0 reply from Ford. 1 post – ‘caption Nov 14 this’ – photo of Explorer SUV in desert mountains. 1046 likes, 55 shares, 60 comments – 3 irrelevant, 1 neutral, 2 negative (1 reply from Ford), 53 captions.

SAP Twitter @SAPcommNet 34,500 Feb 23 1 post – ‘1 in 3 have (SAP Community Network) followe made purchase via rs mobile this year’ most retweets from SAP w/link to blog on executive community network re upcoming event

344 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

No substantive conversation [mobile world congress 2014]. 2 B2B may not engender retweets, 0 conversation in the same comments way. While there are a few Feb 22 1 post – comments, there is no announcement re response if there is no downtime for 24 question hrs. 1 retweet, 0 comments. Feb 21 1 post - announcement re downtime for less than 1 hour. 1 retweet, 0 comments. Feb 21 1 post – ‘get (2) overview of free courses at learning hub’ w/link to course outline on community network. 4 retweets, 133 comments on blog post – positive or questions. 12 responses from SAP Feb 21 1 post – ‘detecting (3) technical errors in netweaver’ w/link to community network. 2 retweets, 9 comments on blog post. Feb 21 1 post – ‘jbelcher (4) (SAP CMO)shares 3 takeaways from maverick hangout’ w/link to post on linked in. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 21 1 post – SAP portal (5) top blog campaign 2013’ w/link to community network. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 21 1 post - 3 key pillars (6) of network netweaver solutions’ w/link to community network. 3 retweets, 4 comments to blog post, 0 from SAP Feb 21 1 post – ‘how to (7) stay cyber safe in social media’ w/link to community network blog post. 4 comments to blog post, 3 positive, 1 neutral, 0 from SAP, Feb 21 1 post – (8) ‘understanding FSN payment flow’ w/link to

345 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

community network blog. 0 comments, 2 retweets Twitter @SAPPHIRENOW 14,000 Upcoming event – (specific to and leading up followe June 3-5 2014 in event) rs Orlando, Fla. Feb 21 1 post – ‘connect most retweets from SAP with SAP from these executive industries’ w/link to conference website. no substantive conversation 1 retweet, 0 so impossible to determine comments. in there is propinquity or Feb 21 1 post – ‘join oracle mutuality (2) on show floor. See here for list of partners’ w link to conference website. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 21 1 post – ‘1 month (3) left to save on early bird rates’ w link to website. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 21 1 post – ‘find out (4) how SAP can help you succeed at Sapphire’ w link to conference website. 3 retweets, 0 comments. Feb 20 1 post – ‘discover what’s new at Sapphire’ w link to website. 5 retweets, 0 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘check out (2) 10 cloud computing trends’ w link to slide presentation on slide share. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘enjoy (3) sessions on mobility from Tata consulting at Sapphire’. Link to conference website. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – ‘watch this replay on how to streamline financial processes’ w/link to video. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – Retweet (2) Burberry video 9SAP client). 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – register (3) now for conference. 3 retweets, 0 comments Facebook/SAP 231,485 Feb 22 1 post – ‘mobile and likes cloud security In interview, Tim & Susan threats are more said Facebook was not predictable’ w link appropriate for them and to pdf. 107 likes. 20 was ‘waning’. Possible run shares, 3

346 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

by another division? comments: 2 positive, 1 neutral Feb 22 1 post – ‘consumers (2) using smart devices. Learn recipe for success’ w link to infographics. 82 likes, 12 shares. 7 comments, all positive. 0 comment from SAP Feb 21 1 post – ‘SAP to open tech school in NY’ w link to video on SAP website (SAP TV). 151 likes, 14 shares, 5 comments, all positive. 0 comment from SAP Feb 21 1 post – ‘half of all (2) corp payments by cheque? SAP wants to change that’ w link to visa media release. 210 likes, 46 shares. 15 comments related to post, 1 comment from SAP Feb 20 1 post – ‘SAP innovation centre’ to play host to next gen developers’ w link to video on SAP TV. 59 likes, 12 shares, 2 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘SAP (2) innovation centre in Potsdam breaks free from convention’ w link to. 112 likes, 22 shares, 2 comments – 1 positive, 1 negative. Feb 19 1 post – ‘SAP founder recognized as top media & tech leaders’ w link to blog post on community network. 291 likes, 52 shares, 6 positive comments. Feb 15 1 post – ‘powerful connections are personal connections’ w photo of baby, link to video. 214 likes, 45 shares, 8 comments – 2 from SAP divisions, 6 positive. 5 comments on Youtube, 3 from same person. Feb 15 1 post – ‘cloud tips (2) for Valentine’s day’ w images. 81 likes, 12 shares, 0

347 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

comments. Feb 12 1 post – ‘65% of info remembered 72 hrs after exposure when visual used’ w link to SAP info session. 96 likes, 11 shares, 2 comments – 1 from SAP division, 1 negative. Feb 12 1 post – ‘cloud love (2) for valentine’s day’ w link to blog post on community network. 113 likes, 13 shares, 0 comments. Blog: Feb 21 1 post – ‘know what Blogs.sap.com your consumer is SAP has 6 different blogs thinking.’ 317 views, (business trends, business 2 shares, 10 innovation banking, retweets, 0 analytics, deployment comments. solutions SAP HANA and Feb 21 1 post – ‘what’s SAP Voice on Forbes.com). (2) required for real biz Have selected the SAP innovations?’ community network blog as interview w/SAP it is often linked to facebook exec by SAP exec. & twitter) (post also appeared on the business No substantive conversation analytics blog). 288 – no response at all so views, 2 shares, 5 cannot determine if there is retweets, 0 mutuality or propinquity comments Feb 20 1 post – SAP strengthens ties with charity in new Orleans. 707 views, 1 share, 16 retweets, 0 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘taking the (2) lead at mobile world congress’. 2046 views, 8 shares, 52 retweets, 2 comments: 1 positive, 1 irrelevant Feb 20 1 post – ‘kicking the (3) paper habit – 12 step program’. 276 views, 2 shares, 5 retweets, 0 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘healthcare (4) providers collaborate for greater customer centricity’ (based on new US gov healthcare website). 258 views, 19 shares, 3 retweets, 0 comments Feb 20 1 post – ‘big trends (5) in predictive’ (interview by SAP with SAP exec) – business intelligence. Promotes 2

348 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

upcoming summits. 350 views, 6 shares, 8 retweets, 0 comments. Feb 20 1 post – why (6) successful orgs need an anti-facebook’ (why orgs block facebook for employees). 1330 views, 6 shares, 21 retweets. 3 comments – 2 positive from users, 1 response from author. Feb 19 1 post – ‘how ARI is teaming with SAP Hana re deliveries’ (logistics & fleet data analysis). 508 views, 9 shares, 15 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – ‘betting on (2) breakfast’ (inflation and prices of goods we eat for brekkie). 290 views, 4 shares, 7 retweets, 0 comments Blog: 806 Feb 22 1 post – ‘data www.forbes.com/sites/sap followe innovators in sports (‘SAP Voice’, part of ‘brand rs & entertainment’ voice’ on forbes.com (1st in a series). 243 written by SAP executives views, 4 shares, 63 on forbes.com. blog is paid retweets, 0 for) comments Feb 21 1 post (Susan Galer) cannot follow comments –‘can google glass unless register with impact your forbes.com. Can’r register business’. 506 to follow comments unless views, 15 shares, subscribe but can submit 109 retweets comment Feb 20 1 post – ‘jobs for new grads’ (grads need mentors, interviews, networking). 64 retweets, 38 shares, 867 views Feb 18 1 post – ‘how to predict a future pop star’. 762 views, 204 retweets, 30 shares (post also appeared on SAP Community Network) Feb 17 1 post (Galer)– ‘TV smackdown: personalization shows customers the love’ (online innovators in entertainment) (post also appeared on SAP business trends). 405 views, 48 retweets, 9 shares Feb 13 1 post – ‘Avon

349 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

cycles revolutionise bike business in india’. (post originally appeared on SAP business trends). 64 retweets, 611 views, 12 shares Feb 12 1 post – ‘is this the year of big data for marketing?’ 916 views, 140 retweets, 42 shares Feb 12 1 post – ‘big data: (2) firing up fans this NBA all star weekend’ (post appeared on SAP business trends). 1346 views, 292 retweets, 57 shares Feb 10 1 post –CVS announces it will no longer sell tobacco in its pharmacies in US – important aspect of healthcare industry (post appeared on SAP business trends). 17,120 views, 49 retweets, 13 shares Feb 10 1 post – ‘how jimmy (2) fallon redefined celebrity bio’ – how he used technology to become popular. 5,019 views, 73 retweets, 15 shares

Alinta Twitter @alintaenergy 233 Feb 8 1 post – query from Just rebuilt website. Will followe user. 1 response have blog on website rs fromAlinta 24 hours later (feb 9) No substantive conversation w/phone #. Temporal response – low. Little Feb 8 (2) 1 post – query from interaction user. 1 response No mutual equality from Alinta 24 hours later w/phone # Feb 5 1 post – query from user. 1 response from Alinta – ‘sorry. DM details’. Feb 5 1 post – query from user. 1 response from Alinta. Retweet of bush fire Feb 2 warning & link to DFES site. 28 retweets, 0 comments Feb 2 (2) 1 post – query from user. 1 response from Alinta Jan 30 1 post – new interactive house (link to website). 1 retweet. 1 positive comment. Jan 20 1 post – query from user w/ 2

350 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

comments, 1 reply from Alinta. Jan 14 Unresolved Retweet from @GetUp re positive solar research. 1 positive comment from user Jan 14 (2) 1 post – Alinta & SA Gov’t fund solar study w link to website (not working). 3 retweets, 1 comment. No facebook page No blog

Lorna Jane Facebook/lornajane.active 910,935 Feb 25 1 post – plan likes workouts with Facebook not responded to active planner (gift in same way as blog or with purchase over twitter. Almost no response, $150). 95 likes, 1 yet many more comments. share. 5 comments: 1 wanting gift after Mutual equality especially on spending – 1 reply blog that rectified Propinquity situation, 1 No substantive conversation complaint similar to Limited interaction on first, 2 irrelevant. facebook – more peer-to-peer Feb 24 1 post – ‘who’s for an all body workout?’ suggestion of workout. 412 likes, 40 shares, 10 comments: 3 positive comments, 1 query (unanswered) 6 irrelevant. Feb 24 1 post – ‘shop for (2) tank tops & save.’ 230 likes, 11 shares, 22 comments: 15 positive comments (many peer interaction), 7 irrelevant. Feb 23 1 post – poster – make opportunities. 631 likes, 60 shares, 3 comments: 2 positive, 1 irrelevant Feb 23 1 post – gluten free (2) pizza – link to blog. 363 likes, 39 shares, 9 positive comments Feb 23 1 post – 20% off (3) with $100 spend. 86 likes, 1 share. 5 comments, 3 negative, 1 positive. Peer interaction. 0 comment from LJ. Feb 23 1 post – Kayla (4) Itsines, trainer – link to blog. 331 likes, 15 shares, 2 positive

351 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

comments Feb 23 1 post – LJ excited (5) to be in US. Link to blog. 26 likes, 3 comments (all from US) Feb 22 1 post – shop for sports bras. 483 likes, 2 shares, 16 comments: 1 negative with 4 replies from peers, 8 positive, 1 irrelevant Feb 22 1 post – blue sports (2) bras. Save 20% with $100 purchase. 469 likes, 9 positive comments, 0 reply from LJ. Twitter @lornajaneactive 23,900 Feb 24 1 post – Have you followe been following (most responses within 4 rs active living hours) project?’ link to blog. 0 retweets, 0 Temporal responsiveness – comments medium Feb 24 1 post – question Responsive (2) from user, reply No substantive conversation – from LJ mutual equality (motivational), thank you from user. Feb 24 1 post from user – (3) check out sister’s instagram exercise. 1 reply from LJ. Feb 24 1 post from user – (4) check out my post. 2 reply from LJ Feb 24 1 post from user – (5) thanks for fitness series. 1 reply from LJ. Feb 24 1 post – ‘behind the (6) scenes on active living mag’ w/instagram image. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 24 1 post from user – (7) fitness approach ahs been fun. 1 reply from LJ – thanks. Feb 24 1 post – getting (8) read carpet ready – link to blog. 1 retweet, 0 comments Feb 21 1 post from user – how to believe in yourself. 1 response from LJ (Feb 24) – thanks Feb 21 1 post from user – (2) my recap of fitness challenge. 1 reply from LJ (Feb 24), 1 comment back from user (thanks) Blog: Feb 22 1 post – launch of LJ www.movenourishbelieve.c in USA w/photos. 1

352 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

om positive comment, 5 facebook shares, 3 (a real community, like retweets Ford. Real questions and Feb 21 1 post – Questions comments on the posts and with Dr Libby interaction between peers) Weaver (includes update on live Q&A Blog written in very friendly session for Feb 24 way. Subjects vary from on Google+). Submit fitness to health to food – questions. 3 no pushing of LJ material. queries/comments Posts written by ‘MNB for Dr Libby, 1 reply team’. from LJ team. 32 comments (some peer interaction). 14 facebook likes, 1 retweet. Feb 21 1 post – ‘sporty (2) sister of the week’ – interview w/personal trainer Kayla Itsines. Multiple images. 1 comment, 1 reply (very friendly manner, sign off with xxx). 4 likes, 1 retweet Feb 20 1 post – 6 yoga poses to do at your desk’. Multiple images. 34 likes, 8 retweets, 0 comments Feb 19 1 post – recipe for gluten free pizza. Multiple images. 11 1 likes, 9 retweets. 1 positive comment, 0 reply. Feb 18 1 post – ‘7 habits of the fabulously fit’. Multiple images. 77 likes, 10 retweets, 0 comments Feb 17 1 post – ‘the active living project week 3’. Multiple images. 0 likes, 0 comments, 2 retweets. Feb 17 1 post – LJ street (2) style: 7 sporty looks’. Multiple images including images submitted by users. 0 comments, 16 likes, 2 retweets Feb 17 1 post – ‘high (3) intensity workout with Kayla’. 5 comments, 2 with questions, 1 answered by peer, 1 left unanswered. 0 comment from LJ. 39 likes, 2 retweets. Feb 14 1 post – ‘sporty brother of the week’ – interview w/Dan Churchill,

353 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

former Masterchef contestant. Includes 1 recipe for healthy waffles. 1 comment, 87 likes, 6 retweets. Feb 13 1 post – ‘love scrub for your bath & body’ – recipe for homemade beauty product. Post written by Carla Oates ‘beauty chef’. 1 comment, 32 likes, 2 retweets

NRMA Twitter @NRMA (motoring 4361 Feb 24 1 post – fuel prices service) followe going down. Link to rs NRMA website & Member based organisation weekly fuel prices. 0 so should be mutual equality retweets, 0 comments No as responsive as could be Feb 24 1 post – come for (2) tea to NRMA offices No substantive conversation to chat with race driver. 0 retweets, 0 comments Feb 24 1 query re waiting (3) for NRMA, 1 reply from NRMA Feb 24 1 angry comment, 1 (4) reply (issue of NRMA motoring vs insurance. Phone for insurance provided) Feb 24 1 post – Aus doesn’t (5) require 90 fuel obligation w link to website re NRMA report on fuel. 2 retweets, 0 comments Feb 23 Retweet of ABC story ‘NRMA warns of fuel crisis’. 5 retweets, 0 comments Feb 23 1 post – 10 most (2) misunderstood road rules in NSW w link to blog. 4 retweets, 0 comments Feb 23 1 post – 3 days of (3) reserve fuel and 7 days of chilled good in freezer. Link to website. 1 retweet, 1 comment Feb 23 1 post re Rules (4) awareness week. 1 comment, 2 NRMA replies. Feb 23 1 post – ‘we need to (5) take control of our fuel. Link to website. 2 retweets, 0 comments. Facebook/myNRMA 76,187 Feb 19 1 post – likes Sydneysiders should No substantive conversation leave work early due to storm w link

354 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Empathy – not real to Daily Tele. 162 propinquity likes, 57 shares, 19 comments re post, 0 Limited responses NRMA reply Feb 19 1 post – ‘with wet (2) weather, we recommend drivers reduce speed’ w link to blog. 44 likes, 1 share, 7 comments related to post, 1 NRMA reply Feb 19 1 post – ‘edited’. (3) Test of road rule. 139 likes, 24 shares, 408 comments related to post, 1 NRMA reply (test so NRMA supplied answer) Feb 18 1 post – notice from NSW police re drink driving. 150 likes, 95 shares, 42 comments related to post Feb 18 1 post – (2) competition re event in Orange. 6 responses to post, 5 replies by NRMA Blog: Feb 25 1 post – ‘we could run www.mynrmacommunity.co out of petrol’ w link to m NRMA special report limited responses on reliance on No substantive conversation imported oil. W No propinquity/mutual infographics. 27 equality Facebook likes, 0 comments - suggestion to comment on facebook or Twitter) – 7 likes, 8 comments on Facebook. Feb 18 1 post – strangest behaviour on trains w photo. 24 likes, 2 comments. Suggest respond on Facebook or Twitter (0 comments on Facebook or Twitter) Feb 14 1 post – ‘will you be kissing & driving on Valentine’s Day?’. 2 comments, 79 likes Feb 7 1 post – ‘join our fight to keep petrol prices fair’. 78 likes, 17 comments, 0 from NRMA Feb 5 1 post – ‘indicating is not a courtesy, it is a law’. 113 likes, 40 comments, 0 from NRMA Jan 30 1 post – ‘the most insane driving laws from around the world’. 216 likes, 1 comment

355 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Jan 29 1 post – ‘know the road rule: using headlights’ (article taken from Jan/Feb issue of NRMA’s magazine Open Road). 127 likes, 2 comments Jan 29 (2) 1 post – ‘did you know a 5% decrease in trips during school holidays increases travel speeds by 50%’. 56 likes, 0 comments. Jan 28 1 post – ‘increased awareness of school zones thanks to the NRMA’. 53 likes, 0 comments. Jan 16 1 post – ‘did you know a dog left in a car can die within 6 minutes?’ 596 likes, 2 comments, 2 replies from NRMA (‘thanks’)

HTC Facebook – at least 7 different 288,800 Jan 29 1 post – HTC device w facebook HTC communities. 0 likes audio. ‘what’s playing Selected facebook/HTCau on your HTC device’. (Australia) 93 likes, 1 share, 8 No substantive conversation comments: 4 negative Limited if any responses to brand, 3 replies to Low temporal responses post, 1 irrelevant No mutual Jan 28 1 post – ‘have you equality/propinquity tried B&W filter on your HTC? Like if you agree’. 19 likes, 3 comments: 1 negative to the brand; 1 negative the post, 1 neutral Jan 25 1 post – Go big or go home – photo of champagne coloured HTC w link to Telstra HTC contract. 122 likes, 4 shares, 7 comments: 6 positive, 1 irrelevant Jan 24 1 post – ‘some of our favourite text acronyms. Like if you use these in your messages’. Link on app on google play. 23 likes, 1 share, 2 comments – 1 positive, 1 irrelevant Jan 23 1 post – see fitness apps to get you motivated w link to google play. 62 shares, 3 comments: 2 positive, 1 irrelevant Jan 22 1 post – make your house party central by sending invites through phone. Link to video to create invites. 23 likes, 0 comments

356 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Jan 21 1 post – launch of champagne coloured HTC phone – win one with Telstra. Link to competition. 60 likes, 1 share, 6 comments: 1 positive, 2 negative, 1 question, 1 irrelevant, 0 reply from HTC Jan 20 1 post – buy HTC mini car kit w link to purchase – get $20 off. W photo. 119 likes, 1 share, 6 comments: 4 positive, 1 negative, 1 neutral Jan 18 1 post – testimonial from client re HTC phone. Question – what’s first song played on your HTC? W link to specs. 87 likes, 4 comments: 2 positive, 1 negative to brand, 1 comment from HTC-related company Jan 17 1 post – Launch of gold HTC. ‘available at Telstra today’ w link. W photo. 11 likes, 1 share, 18 comments: 16 negative to brand or Telstra, 1 neutral

357 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Twitter @HTC (generic/global – 989,000 Jan 1 post – last year of the based in Taiwan) followers 30 horse in 2002. What Temporal response – high kind of phone did you No substantive conversation have then? 22 retweets, 5 comments Mutual equality – tone friendly & in response to post neutral Jan 1 post – How are you 29 using HTC double dip flip stand? W link to specs. 12 retweets, 9 comments: 9 in response to post + 3 Qs w replies from HTC Jan 1 post – football club in 28 Spain w link to website. 25 retweets, 5 comments – 1 from HTC Spain saying thanks for post, 6 comments each from 2 users unrelated to post having discussion. 2 HTC replies recommending user contact HTC in home Jan country 28 (2) 1 post – ‘how do you use HTC 1 to celebrate creativity’. 21 retweets. 3 comments, Jan 2 replies from HTC. 28 (3) 1 post – ‘imagination leads to brilliance’ w photo of Jackson Pollack painting. 103 retweets, 8 comments: 1 negative, 2 positive, Jan 5 irrelevant 27 1 post – what are your favorite games to play on HTC1? 16 retweets, 9 comments: 2 Q from 1 user irrelevant to post, 1 reply from HTC, 2 Qs irrelevant to post, 1 reply from hTC, 2 comments on post from 1 user, 1 reply Jan from HTC. 27 (2) 1 post – sync your hTC to your PC w link to video. 13 retweets, 7 comments: 4 comments, 2 replies Jan from HTC, 1 irrelevant 26 1 post – ‘let’s talk music awards. Who’s going to clean up tonight?’ 22 retweets, 11 comments: 7 irrelevant, 2 positive to Jan brand w/ 2 replies 25 from HTC 1 post – new HTC wallpapers available w link to blog (from sept 2013). 31 retweets, 7 comments: 4 negative (link not working), 2 Jan replies from HTC, 1 24 irrelevant

358 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

1 post – ‘who’s an android veteran? What year did you make the switch?’ 25 retweets, 39 comments: 9 comments in peer interaction irrelevant to post, 20 in peer interaction relevant to post, 2 comments + 1 comment w 1 reply from HTC 1 response back from user Blog: (generic/global) Feb 24 1 post – introducing ‘HTC blog’ HTC desire – mid range Blog.htc.com smartphone. 682 retweets, 31 comments: 24 comments, 7 replies from HTC (answers to questions, 1 request to Feb 21 send him twitter post 1 post – story of Spanish football club in English & Spanish. 47 retweets, 1 positive comment Feb 18 1 post – technology & future of football (infographic). 38 retweets, 21 likes, 1 negative comment Feb 10 1 post – creating video highlights using a smartphone. Written by HTC customer & member of HTC elevate. 34 retweets, 34 likes, 4 comments: 3 comments from 2 users, 1 reply from Feb 3 author 1 post – ‘Top 5 games for HTC 1 as chosen by you’. 75 retweets, 9 Jan 21 likes, 1 comment 1 post – ‘here’s how to read later on blinkfeed’ (how to w images) 119 retweets, 1200 likes, 0 Jan 19 comments 1 post – ‘ultrapixels in action’ w HTC 1. W many photos. 102 retweets, 22 likes, 6 comments, all in relation to defect with HTC 1 camera, 0 reply Jan 16 from HTC 1 post – ‘replace my gift contest winners’ w photos. 22 retweets, 662 likes, 6 positive Jan 13 comments 1 post – ‘tech trends at CES’ written by member of HTC elevate, private VIP community for supporters. 20 Dec 20 retweets, 14 likes, 3

359 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

positive comments 1 post – ‘2013 year of HTC 1’- awards for smartphone. 89 retweets, 331 likes, 8 comments: 7 positive, 1 negative

eBay Facebook/ebay.com.au 298,633 Feb 1 post – ‘catillac’ w likes 24 photo of cat in pink No substantive conversation cat car. 45 likes, 13 No reply at all so cannot determine shares, 2 comments temporal responsiveness, propinquity Feb 1 post – ‘who’d love or mutual equality 23 their car to smell like bacon’ w photo of car freshener that looks like bacon. 27 likes, 3 shares, 22 comments related to post Feb 1 post – ‘have a 22 badass weekend’ w photo of bacon & eggs looking like a pirate. 1506 likes, 127 shares, 56 comments related to image Feb 1 post – ‘small & 21 practical-can you guess what it is?’ w image of ball sponges & link to ebay to purchase. 27 likes, 0 shares, 53 comments: 51 related to post, 2 negative comments, 0 reply from ebay. Feb 1 post – bid on pharell 21 (2) williams’ hat w photo and link to auction on ebay, 50 likes, 3 shares, 13 comments related to post Feb 1 post – ‘sneaker 20 freaker’ w image of coloured sneakers & links to purchase on ebay. 62 likes, 0 shares, 3 comments Feb 1 post – ‘looks like 19 dough, smells like lemon w image & link to purchase on ebay. 19 likes, 0 shares, 0 comments Feb 1 post – ‘edited’. ‘the 18 sonic hour beer head froth maker. Ingenious or…?’ w image & link to purchase on ebay. 93 likes, 12 shares, 43 comments: 2 irrelevant, 1 negative, Feb 40 related to post 17 1 post – ‘fat free cupcakes. Bet you cannot guess what’s inside’ w image & link to purchase on ebay.

360 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

13 likes, 0 shares, 1 Feb comment 16 1 post – ‘breakfast, incoming’ w image of egg in small tank & link to purchase. 474 likes, 77 shares, 30 comments: 1 irrelevant, 29 related Feb to post, 0 from ebay 15 1 post – world’s largest jigsaw puzzle. ‘guesses on how many pieces?’ w image & link to purchase. 8 likes, 0 comments, 0 shares Twitter @ebayau (official twitter 6038 Feb 1 post – who loves a feed for ebay Australia) followers 17 bit of froth? Get sonic hour beer head make’ Responses to queries. No w link to ebay. 0 substantive conversation. No retweets, 0 mutual equality Feb comments. 16 1 post – fat free cupcakes. Guess what they are (same as Facebook). 0 Feb comments, 0 retweets 12 1 post – fan of smoothies, check out cuisinart deal w link to ebay. 0 retweets, 0 Feb comments 11 Query from unhappy user. Reply from ebay Feb to DM details 11 (2) 1 post – asics running out the door at great price w image & link to ebay (no longer working). 0 retweets, Feb 0 comments 10 Query from user re link going to forgery site. Reply from ebay Feb to provide item 10 (2) numbers 1 post – ‘Kanye west’s red nikes sold out & selling on ebay for $20K. What would you spend the $ on?’ Feb w image. 1 retweet, 0 10 (3) comments. 1 post – ‘you would not believe how cheap these dirty dog Feb 9 sunnies are’ w image. 0 retweets, 0 comments 1 query from user re Feb 9 difficulty listing. 1 (2) reply from ebay to DM details. 1 post – anyone want to interpret snoop dog’s artwork on gold coast w link to news story. 1 comment, 1 reply from ebay. [ebay ends with this

361 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

post] Twitter @ebaysupportau 82 Feb 3 Query re counterfeit (specifically for customer service) followers goods, 1 reply – go to resolution centre No mutual equality – users are Jan Query re post code, directed elsewhere. Little 31 reply from ebay (2 resolution to issues, at least days later), further publicly. No propinquity comment from user, 2nd comment from No substantive conversation eBay – ‘will DM you’ – but there is interaction unresolved Jan Query re photo 19 upload failure, reply from ebay – ‘will tell Jan 5 tech team’. Query from unhappy user (ebay is scam), Jan 1 reply to DM details Query from unhappy user debating charges, reply from Jan 1 ebay – ‘DM details’ Query from user re ‘buy it now’, reply Dec from ebay ‘DM 11 details’ Query from user, reply, query to cancel, reply from ebay. 6 exchanges. Dec 8 Unresolved – ebay told him to call seller. Query from user, Dec 5 reply from ebay – ‘DM details’ Nov Query from user, 15 reply, follow up, reply. Query from user re log in problem, reply from ebay – unresolved No blog specific to ebay. There is one for mums business

362 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Appendix 7 Blogs benefits and rationale

Participant Important aspect of Benefits of Rationale for Content blogs blog blog analysis vs interview content Telstra Not just a broadcast Humanises the Able to tell ‘our Despite exchange.telstra. com.au. ‘Telstra platform brand stories’ desire for Exchange – What’s your view?” Should be personable, Direct contact Direct contact conversation, emotional, have with with customers few opinions customers Engagement comments on Authenticity imperative Face behind with blog – mostly Cannot be misleading or the business community 0, sometimes deceptive Platform for Content allows 2, sometimes Multiple authors stories, conversation 5. Invites advocates to opinion Technology- write blog post Important related posts All about conversation during crises generated Write in own voice Collaborative most comments. Telstra acknowledge d tech community important to them Multiple authors, but written in strikingly similar way Posts are not just about pushing Telstra information out

Bank of Queensland Place for thought Central to Ability to liaise Launched Feb www.boq.com.au/blog leadership content directly with 2014 ‘blog@boq’ marketing customers Humanises the Infographics brand Good for SEO Good for SEO Lets you tell story of organisation

Jetstar Provide value to Needs reason No blog yet customers for people to Resource read it considerations Can tell longer story plus video & graphics

Llewellyn Awareness for public Comments Push out Salesforce relations show information AU/NZ: Multiple authors community PR awareness Multiple improves authenticity engagement Build brand authors Needs to provide value Lead Had to use Most posts Create community generation, if what we were sales focused, Comments are possible selling but some important Direct Improves SEO around CSR, Regular posts relationship Helps clarify tips for Structure & discipline to with audience ‘media success posting Augment distortion’ Community media which relations retweets, but Post goes viral no comments Website growth

Ch 10 Can create content that Showcase case Tell our stories Pushes out Tenplay.com.au/blog/the- does not fit other places studies PR information insider announcement No comments ‘Ten Insider’ s on blog Longer form aspects of microbloggin

363 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

g

Coles Repository of Helps with SEO Can post longer Recipes with Blog.coles.com.au information, especially ranking form content images or ‘Coles blog’ recipes videos. Comments not Product important on blog; promotion more so on social media Interesting information (e.g. What to do with quinoa, non- lactose milks) No comments except for competitions

HTC Resource commitment Technology Blog.htc.com required stories and ‘HTC blog’ Long term commitment CSR stories required with Often invite advocates infographics to write blog post More comments than many other blogs Advocates (members of HTC Elevate) write posts

Westfield Direct link with Showcase Liaise directly Posts Blog.westfield.com.au consumers product with consumers primarily ‘Westfield Insider’ Good for conversation about and dialogue clothes, so does showcase some Westfield product from different retailers 4 comments in 10 posts – no reply from Westfield, so no conversation or dialogue

NRMA Share information with Another Long form Long form www.Mynrmacommunity.c members channel to content content om.au Can deal with issues share dealing with ‘NRMA Motoring blog – Requires resources information issues of have your say’ Topics important interest to Often get request for members information. Only place including is blog automobiles, road safety, bicycles, motorcycles Topics reference political or legislative issues or articles in response to questions from members Comments – from 0 to 40 on posts studied, with average of 5.

Lorna Jane Often invite advocates Long form Posts about www.movenourishbelieve.c to write blog post content health and om well-being – ‘movenourishbelieve’ eating,

364 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

exercising, health, periodically fashion Focus on people – trainers, chefs More interaction between peers than with company

eBay Can discuss issues Content can be No blog for Not having blog is mirrored on eBay missed opportunity Facebook specifically Authenticity

Alinta Takes time to develop SEO ranking SEO ranking No blog yet audience Wants different voices writing on different subjects Must be sincere

SAP Important to Improves Want to inspire Discussion 1. Blogs.sap.com communicate business visibility discussion around 2. www.forbes.com/sites issues Useful channel Lets us tell our business /sap SAPVoice – Run better Cannot be misleading or own stories trends and deceptive Critical part of topics of Write in own voice content interest strategy Forbes blog is Often a call to written more action from in own voice blog post than other SAP blogs

Major tourism body Can put blog content on No blog website

Flight Centre Blog amplified through SEO ranking SEO ranking Blogs include www.flightcentre.com.au/t social media Shows that many images ravelnews/ Interesting travel real people of places to information - on work for the visit inside website; leads to sales company and outside Australia Often written by company employees who travel

Major bank Journalists talk about us Posts amplified Posts often on other blog sites through other amplified whilst hunting for a social media through other story social media About CSR and sponsorships as well as financial concerns No comments

Salesforce Good to start Reputation Drive traffic to No comments 1. Blog.salesforce.com.au conversation, especially improvement website for on posts ‘Salesforce Australaia & NZ in new markets lead generation Posts focus blog’ Multiple authors on sales, 2. important leads, deals Blog.salesforce.com/company Need editor to keep Multiple ‘Salesforce blog’ different authors in authors check re writing style Employee profiles

Commonwealth Bank Blog is something we Posts cover a www.commonbank.com.au own, as compared to number of /blog.html social media sites issues ‘Commonwealth Bank blog’ Needs to be engaging Client profiles and dynamic Visuals are Would love dialogue dynamic

365 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

Feature authors’ bios

Ford Needs to be robust and Fans tell their Started for Divided into Social.ford.com/ford-on- comprehensive stories political ‘our article’, blogs Helps company advocacy ‘your stories’, communicate (‘carpocolypse’) ‘your ideas’. Different from other Opportunities Different corporate blogs to tell stories from other corporate blogs Focus on Ford community More interaction between peers than other communities

Ansell New strategy in Marketing 1. development to replace oriented. All www.Medical.ansell.com.au/ current social media about selling blog strategy product in 2 blogs – 2. Ppe.ansell.com.au/blog medical and safety wear Posts about product or recall Limited posts Links to purchase

366 Melanie King Corporate Blogging and Microblogging PhD Thesis 2014-5

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