Alexander Groflin - 2012 - The Change of Social Media in Companies Best Marketing Tool or A Major Security Threat

Master Thesis
Master of Science in Business Information Systems Master of Science in Information Technology
The Change of Social Media in Companies: Best Marketing Tool or a Major Security Threat
advised by
Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia and Doctor Nicola Cannata
written by
Alexander Grflin Basel, 09/17/2012
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Information on work
Author
Alexander Grflin P.O. Box 156 CH-4009 Basel Switzerland Mobile: +41 79 788 41 32 E-mail: alexander.groeflin@students.fhnw.ch
Advisor FHNW
Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) School of Business Institute for Information Systems Peter Merian-Strasse 86 CH-4002 Basel Switzerland Phone: +41 61 279 17 65 E-mail: martina.dallavecchia@fhnw.ch
Advisor UNICAM
Dr Nicola Cannata Universit di Camerino (UNICAM) Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica Via Madonna delle Carceri 9 I-62032 Camerino (MC) Italy Phone: +39 0737 402563 E-mail: nicola.cannata@unicam.it
Completed
Basel, September 2012
Table of Contents
A B C 1 Preamble ................................................................................................................... VI Authenticity Statement ........................................................................................... VII Executive Summary ............................................................................................... VIII Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 1.2 Motivation ....................................................................................................................1 Methodology ................................................................................................................3 1.2.1 Research Problem ........................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Research Questions ........................................................................................ 4 1.2.3 Research Procedure........................................................................................ 5 1.2.4 Research Approach ......................................................................................... 7 Goals and Deliverables ............................................................................................... 9 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 10 From Web 2.0 to Social Media .................................................................................. 12 Social Media Marketing............................................................................................. 13 Social Media Corporate Network Analysis .............................................................. 16 Social Media Corporate Monitoring ......................................................................... 17 Social Media Corporate Branding ............................................................................ 19 Social Media Corporate Identity ............................................................................... 21 2.7.1 Corporate Design .......................................................................................... 22 2.7.2 Corporate Behaviour ..................................................................................... 23 2.7.3 Corporate Communication ............................................................................. 24 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 28 Social Media Strategy ............................................................................................... 31 Social Media Policy ................................................................................................... 33 Social Media Concept ............................................................................................... 36 Social Media Plan ...................................................................................................... 40 External and Internal Instruments............................................................................ 41 3.5.1 External Instruments...................................................................................... 41 3.5.1.1 Marketing .................................................................................................. 41 3.5.1.2 Monitoring ................................................................................................. 42 3.5.1.3 Distribution ................................................................................................ 44 3.5.1.4 Human Resources .................................................................................... 45 3.5.2 Internal Instruments ....................................................................................... 45 3.5.2.1 Communication ......................................................................................... 46 3.5.2.2 Knowledge Management .......................................................................... 47 Organisational Transformation ................................................................................ 48
1.3
Theory of Corporate Social Media ......................................................................... 10

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7
2.8
Corporate Social Media Framework ...................................................................... 30

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5
The Change in Companies with Social Media ...................................................... 48

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.1.1 Organisational Models ................................................................................... 49 4.1.2 Maturity Model ............................................................................................... 51 4.1.3 Effects on the Value Chain ............................................................................ 54 Challenges of Social Media ...................................................................................... 56 4.2.1 Identified Challenges ..................................................................................... 56 4.2.2 Identified Success Factors............................................................................. 57 4.2.3 What is a Shitstorm? ..................................................................................... 58 4.2.3.1 Showcase Mammut .................................................................................. 58 4.2.3.2 Shitstorm Scale ......................................................................................... 59 Suggestions for Organisations ................................................................................ 61 4.3.1 Definition of Objectives .................................................................................. 61 4.3.2 Social Media Rules ........................................................................................ 61 4.3.3 Employee Training......................................................................................... 61 4.3.4 Organisational Definition................................................................................ 62 4.3.5 Empower Social Media Officials .................................................................... 62 Analysis of Company Timelines on Facebook ........................................................ 63 5.1.1 Company Selection Process .......................................................................... 64 5.1.2 Analysis Criteria............................................................................................. 66 5.1.2.1 Timeline Presence .................................................................................... 66 5.1.2.2 Participant Interaction ............................................................................... 68 5.1.3 Timeline Analysis........................................................................................... 69 5.1.3.1 Lavazza .................................................................................................... 69 5.1.3.2 Nespresso................................................................................................. 72 5.1.3.3 Parmalat ................................................................................................... 75 5.1.3.4 Emmi ........................................................................................................ 77 5.1.3.5 Officine Panerai ........................................................................................ 81 5.1.3.6 Swatch ...................................................................................................... 83 5.1.3.7 Barilla ........................................................................................................ 86 5.1.3.8 Ricola ........................................................................................................ 88 5.1.3.9 GEOX ....................................................................................................... 90 5.1.3.10 Mammut .................................................................................................... 93 5.1.4 Results .......................................................................................................... 96 5.1.5 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 99 Evaluation of the Online Survey............................................................................. 101 5.2.1 Survey Methodology .................................................................................... 101 5.2.2 Respondent Characteristics ......................................................................... 102 5.2.3 Findings ....................................................................................................... 104 5.2.3.1 Usage of Social Media ............................................................................ 104 5.2.3.2 Organisational Impact of Social Media .................................................... 109 5.2.3.3 Operative Impact of Social Media ........................................................... 113 5.2.3.4 Prospective View on Social Media .......................................................... 117 5.2.4 Conclusion................................................................................................... 119
Evaluation of Corporate Social Media ................................................................... 63

5.1
5.2
Conclusion............................................................................................................. 120
6.1 6.2 Summary of Results................................................................................................ 120 Research Questions................................................................................................ 121
7 8 9 10
Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 123 List of Figures ....................................................................................................... 131 List of Tables ......................................................................................................... 133 Appendix ................................................................................................................ 134
Preamble
This Master thesis finally completes my five year long journey of studies at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) which included an exchange semester at the University of Camerino in Italy (UNICAM). It was a long but educational time which imparted to me vital know-how and tools for my future career. Hereby I would like to thank all my lecturers and fellow students for the pleasant collaboration throughout my studies. A special thanks goes to my fellow student Matthias Stalder who has always supported me during my studies and beyond. I also would like to thank my advisors Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia and Dr Nicola Cannata for their pleasant and constructive assistance in the countless hours of meetings and Skype sessions which were always very kind and goal-oriented.
Authenticity Statement
I the undersigned declare that all material presented in this paper is my own work or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources. I understand that if at any time it is shown that I have significantly misrepresented material presented here, any degree or credits awarded to me on the basis of that material may be revoked. I declare that all statements and information contained herein are true, correct and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Name
Alexander Grflin
Date
09/17/2012
Signature
.....................
Executive Summary
Social media are becoming increasingly omnipresent, driven by rising user numbers on platforms and its benefits for consumers. People are becoming dependent on social media in their everyday life, and are willing to use this particular technology in business areas. This let more and organisations appear on social media channels. The widespread use of social media in today's businesses, lead to organisational transformation, in which social media are used among many stakeholders and decision making becomes increasingly difficult due to rising complexity. This Master thesis starts with definitions and clarification to understand the terms web 2.0 and social media. Afterwards, the development of a corporate social media framework gives organisations a guidance to bring order into their social media chaos. The extended framework consists following elements: Social media strategy Social media policy Social media concept Social media plan External instruments o o o o Social media marketing Social media monitoring Social media distribution Social media human resources
Internal instruments o o Social media communication Social media knowledge management
Social media transformed organisations in several ways and came with challenges and success factors. A catalogue of challenges describes the problems that organisations do face with social media and success factors help organisations to sustain with the use of social media. In addition, measurements and suggestions for organisations are given. For the final evaluation of social media a Facebook timeline analysis revealed interesting insights of 5 Italian and 5 Swiss companies. In order to provide an analysis focuses on consumer interaction. Finally, a comprehensive online survey with 28 questions illustrated similarities and differences of Italian and Swiss companies.
Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to this Master thesis. After stating the motivation for writing this thesis in section 1.1, the methodology applied is explained in section 1.2. In section 1.3 goals and deliverables are declared.
1.1
Motivation
Over the past 20 years, the progressive development of the Internet has lead to new trends and movements which have a significant impact to our society but also to corporate communication. For many years traditional publishing and broadcasting channels for external business communication such as newspapers and television had been the only option to distribute corporate information to stakeholders. Figure 1 gives an overview of the evolution of business publishing channels and their development during the last 30 years.
1980
Traditional Publishing
1990
Traditional Broadcasting
2000
Personal Publishing
2005
Interactive Publishing
2010
Network Publishing
Traditional Publishing Channels
New Publishing Channels
Social Media Channels
Figure 1: Development of Business Communication (Hurd 2010)
With the support of the Internet, new publishing channels changed the distribution of external and also of internal business communication completely. In the late 1990s, personal publishing via an own website became popular on the Internet involving business communication (Hurd 2010). Company leaders began to publish personal messages on weblogs commenting on present issues. Further developments have given web users more interactive features with shorter response times. Hurd (2010) defined network publishing as being a social media communication tool that allows fast corporate communication to be distributed via computers and mobile devices to defined users within a platform: "In just the past ten years, technology has given birth to the idea that a majority of individuals have the ability to communicate wirelessly in seconds with hundreds of people.".
Today, the buzzword "social media" is haunting the executive floors. Not larger number of Internet users are nowadays participating in social media and they interconnect millions of people around the world; social media help participants to share information easily. This new playground opens new marketing perspectives for companies and makes them more and more interested in social media, because of their potential for marketing purposes. A study by Burson-Marsteller (2011) revealed that companies actually need social media accounts to present them as young, dynamic and sympathetic. Almost all companies want to capitalise social media potentials, but they do not have any clue how to handle it in this dense jungle (BursonMarsteller 2011, slide 3). While the battle for supremacy of social media platforms is still going on, companies have to choose between existing social media platforms to channel information to followers. This also means that social media platforms must be monitored by companies; social media channels must be observed, including comments of participants, to respond adequately (see also Sicking 2011). Therefore, the intention of this Master thesis is to support companies with a systematic framework that enable them to successfully handle social media. Besides that, this thesis points out a comparison of the social media practice between Italy and Switzerland. This is not strictly required for the development of a framework for companies, but to see through the jungle from the perspective of a company an introduction of a corporate social media framework is necessary.
1.2
Methodology
This section explains the methodology used in this Master thesis. Section 1.2.1 introduces the research problem and section 1.2.2 illustrates the research questions which are building the basis for the research. Then, section 1.2.3 and section 1.2.4 explain the research procedure and the approach that solves the research problem and answers the research questions. 1.2.1 Research Problem
The objective of the Master thesis is to recognise and to compare corporate social media communication. The proposed research design in the thesis intends to answer the following research problem: What are the benefits and risks that companies should be acquainted with when considering to introduce social media? The current situation requires more research on the power of social media for marketing purposes and how companies can exploit social media. However, companies do not know what exactly is needed to successfully make use of social media (Hurd 2010). In fact, no prefilled vessel with knowledge is available that companies could easily use and implement best practices. The numerous social media platforms makes companies desperately looking for the best choice but leaves them helplessly lost in the social media environment. Based on previous observations (Onyechi et al. 2009, p.1 ff.), the development of suggestions for social features would not only be beneficial for companies wanting to join corporate social media communication but also for end users and researchers. By comparing corporate social media communication from diverse sectors, it is possible to recognise the best practises. The idea is to evaluate corporate social media communication with focus on companies in Italy and Switzerland and describe similarities and differences.
1.2.2
Research Questions
The approach on the research topic used in this thesis is structured in three steps by answering the following three research questions: 1. Which aspects of corporate communications are undertaken in social media and what are the changes of the last 10 years that companies had to face? 2. Which approach for corporate social media communication is used by companies and how do they evaluate the value of social media? Which parameters/measuring options do companies have and how efficiently can they be measured? 3. What are the methods that companies adopt in social media communication, how do customers respond, and what are the differences between Italy and Switzerland? The first research question focuses on understanding corporate social media communication and identifying specific requirements of social media channels for marketing purposes. This can be answered by identifying policies, response flow charts and early warning systems, which can then be assigned to aspects of communication that focus on these characteristics. In addition, the change of corporate communication within the last 10 years is examined. Since social media took advantage of marketing, it is inevitable for companies to adjust their strategy with this component. Most of the companies that failed to adapt their strategy to these new circumstances are suffering a loss of sales (Sherman 2012). The second research question focuses on the possibilities of corporate communication that companies could use with social media. This can be answered by describing social features which can be implemented in the value chain of companies to provide an adequate information flow. Thus, the value that companies gain from social media activities should not be underestimated. Therefore, quantitative parameters for measuring effectiveness can be identified. The third research question focuses on the methods of corporate social media communication. It can be answered by reviewing activities in current social media as well as discussing the strategies of companies on social media in general. Last but not least, a comparison points out the differences and similarities between Italy and Switzerland in terms of corporate social media communication. With such an approach, this Master thesis will provide a well-grounded, theoretical and practical contribution to the topic of corporate social media communication. The theoretical contribution is based on a literature review pointing on businesses; the practical contribution is based on questionnaires that are filled out by companies and include further analysis. The intention is to describe the latest developments in the area of corporate social media communication and what has changed within the last decade, as well as to be able to give a prognosis for future prospects.
1.2.3
Research Procedure
The research procedure of the Master thesis is illustrated in Figure 2 and explains how the author will proceed to solve the research problem and to answer the research questions.
1. Methodology 2. Theory Findings Resulting In A Corporate Social Media Framework
6. Suggestions For Companies And Correction Session
3. Conduct Expert And Company Interviews
5. Funnelling Collected Data To Information 4. Observe Corporate Activity In Social Media (Italy And Switzerland)
Figure 2: Activities during the Master thesis
First of all, the methodology builds the basis of this thesis and defines the individual steps. Second, current theories on social media academic literature and other publications and researches are used to develop a framework for corporate social media. Corporate social media framework is an arrangement of helpful advices and tools for businesses in the context of social media (Hermida 2011). The third activity is to conduct interviews from experienced experts and companies that have everyday contact with corporate social media issues. All data collected during the previous steps are funnelled to useful information (point five). Especially, the observed corporate activities on social media channels are regarded e.g. on Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Sixth, a correction session is bringing the reflection needed and are providing companies suggestions using social media in the future.
Probably the most widespread framework for research methods of business scholars has been developed by Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2009). They argue that there are essential layers within the research procedure. The intention of this chapter is to give the reader the understanding on the used methods, why this methodological approach has been chosen, and how the author carried out the study. Figure 3 illustrates the research onion adapted to requirements of this thesis. In bold the name of the layer and underneath the used approach is given.
Philosphy: Interpretive Approach: Deductive Strategy: Survey, Case Studies, Grounded Theory Choice: Mixed Methods Time Horizon: Cross-sectional Techniques and Procedures: Observation, Questionnaire
Figure 3: Adapted Research Onion of the Master thesis (based on Saunders et al. 2009, p.108)
The first layer, philosophy, aspires to the scientific point of departure (interpretive), though the second layer deals with the chosen research approach (deductive). Followed by the research strategy, in which tools for research are mentioned (survey, case studies, grounded theory). Moreover, research choices state whether qualitative, quantitative or both techniques are used (mixed methods); a research is considered mixed when quantitative and qualitative approaches are used. The layer time horizon defines whether a research is more like a "snapshot" which means crosssectional or a "movie" which means longitudinal (cross-sectional). The last layer research tech-
niques and procedures counters weaknesses of chosen approaches within the research. Collected data are compared and checked for validation (observation, questionnaire). 1.2.4 Research Approach
As mentioned in section 1.2.1 "Research Problem" and section 1.2.2 "Research Questions", this Master thesis intends to answer three research questions. These research questions move towards theoretical fundamentals of social media, as well as understanding their impact on business practice. These two perceptions can be accomplished in four steps, as shown in Figure 4.
Step 1
Specific Corporate Specific Communication Corporate over Social Media Communication Channels over Social Media Channels
Step 2
The Changeof of The Change Corporate Corporate Communication within Communciation the Last 10 Years within the Last 10 Years
Step 3
Identification Identification and Measurement of and Corporate Social Measurement of Media CommuniCorporate cation
Step 4
Social Media Social Media Methods Methods andand Comparison Comparision between Italy and between Switzerland
First Research Question Theoretical Fundamentals
Second Research Question
Third Research Question
Impact on Business Practice
Benefits and Risks for Companies that are using Social Media as a Marketing Tool
Tasks
Best Marketing Tool
Risks
Figure 4: Research Approach of the Master thesis
The first step of the research approach classifies corporate social media communication, which is spread over different channels. This includes analysing and identifying the process of content publishing in companies e.g. reviewing literature heading towards corporate social media communication, procedure of dialogs between customer and company. In the second step, the changes within the last 10 years which are relevant for corporate communication have to be recognised. This is done by over viewing the state of the art in corporate communication and how companies changed their communication. It also includes an inspection of each social media channels where corporate communication takes place.
Together, these two steps build the basis to answer the first research question. They give a crucial theoretical understanding that is expressed in a corporate social media framework. The third step wants to answer the second research question by identifying and measuring corporate social media communication. Methods that measure marketing metrics and marketing performance of a social media activity are investigated to provide a feedback on the company's efforts. This is done by reviewing and observing existing corporate communication on social media channels e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Finally, the fourth step will outline methods which are heading to essential suggestions for companies. This includes analyzing the outcome of a survey dispensed to companies and interviews with experts, a discussion of results, as well as general issues related to corporate communication and social media. The main research lies in the observation of company activities on social media channels in Italy and Switzerland and the following actions that occur. In addition, interviews of experts that act as opinion-makers all around the world make them very interesting and give a good reason to accompany organisations on social media platforms. Together, step three and four illustrate the impact on business practice. All pieces together finally answer the research problem. After all, recognising the research methods by de Villiers (2005) in this thesis is leading to a more qualitative approach, which means the underlying epistemology is more interpretive. "Interpretivism aims to find new interpretations or underlying meanings and adheres to the ontological assumption of multiples realities, which are time-and context depended" (de Villiers 2005). Positivism is more absolute and objective and conquers the lack of objectivity of human beings (de Villiers 2005). Figure 5 shows all research methods applied in this Master thesis, with an overlap of both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Observation Surveys: Questionnaire Interviews
Quantitative
Qualitative
Positivist
Overlap
Interpretivist
Figure 5: Research Methods of Master thesis (based on de Villiers 2005, pp.142151)
1.3
Goals and Deliverables
Social Media are used on the corporate landscape around the world for numerous scenarios. Thus, Social Media platforms provide companies a communication channel for external and internal communication. Contributions to the Master thesis are: A catalogue of challenges that companies do face in terms of marketing (best marketing tool) and risks (major security threat). An illustration of business benefits in a corporate social media framework. Best practice suggestions and success factors for corporate social media communication (focus: Facebook and Twitter). Investigation on social media integration in companies: policies, response flow charts and early warning systems, measurements criteria e.g. "The Facebook Factor" (Sverdlov 2012). Evaluation of user behaviour in corporate social media activities and influences (profiles, comments and linking of different platforms) with respect to marketing and target groups, by exploring the social media integration and social media value chain in companies. Identification and review of corporate social media communication. A comparison of organisations in Switzerland and Italy in terms of social media communication (survey with question catalogue). Timeline analysis of 5 companies in Switzerland and in Italy concerning customer comments and negative posts. How do these companies react? Especially companies that are facing or faced a "shit storm". Analysis of profiles and profile names that companies do use.
Following aspects are not covered by the Master thesis: Analysis of private social media communication. Examination of technical issues caused by identification of security risks. Investigation of internal social media communication. Research of legal aspects of social media. Social behaviour study for implementation of social media marketing.
Theory of Corporate Social Media
This chapter gives the opportunity to provide an insight view on available theories and studies on corporate social media. In the following sections most important theories about corporate social media will be clarified and discussed.
2.1
Literature Review
Social media are a big issue in academic research and in business research. Their social basis can be linked with human interest to communicate with each other. The following judgment of Aristotle which was written over 2,000 years ago is still suitable: "human beings are social animals" (Aristotls n.d.). Nowadays information technology accomplishes human interaction with social media. Google search results reveal that there are well researched social studies and a lot of literature, but not that much on corporate social media communication. Social media development and research were always depending on trends in the information technology industry and are changing rapidly with technical advance. Since the year 2002, concepts of web 2.0 were in focus as well as communities (Prinz 2007, p.3). Ten years later, Facebook has become the world's largest social media platform by numbers of users on the Internet (Facebook 2012). The listed literature describes social media clearly, but since this Master thesis does not mainly focus on theoretical clarification, the following sections will illustrate expressions and terms that are essential for this work. The main subjects of this chapter are web 2.0 and social media from which corporate branding, monitoring and network analysis are subsumed issues. Theories of social media platforms and about marketing with social media are examined. Furthermore, the aspects of corporate identity on social media are examined. All the essential topics will be discussed in the next few sections.
Basically, there exists a broad selection of academic papers and books published on this subject today e.g.: A. M. Kaplan & M. Haenlein, Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media, Elsevier, 2010. A. Tllinen & H. Karjaluoto, Marketing communication metrics for social media, Int. J. Technology Marketing, 2011. A.L. Penenberg, Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves, Hyperion, 2009. C. Brogan & J. Smith, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, Wiley, 2009. D. Tapscott & A.D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio Trade, 2010. D. Zarrella, The Social Media Marketing Book, O'Reilly, 2009. D.M. Scott, The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, Wiley, 2011. E. Qualman, Socialnomics Publisher: Wiley; Revised and Updated Edition, Wiley, 2011. J. Falls & E. Deckers, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, Que, 2011. J. Howe, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, Crown Business, 2009. J. Postman, SocialCorp, Social Media Goes Corporate, New Riders, 2009. T. Hunt, The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business, Crown Business, 2010. T. Weinberg, Social Media Marketing, Strategien fr Twitter, Facebook & Co., O'Reilly, 2011. W. G. Mangold & D. J. Faulds, Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix, Elsevier, 2009.
2.2
From Web 2.0 to Social Media
After the turn of the millennium Internet users were confronted with a new form of communication. On websites comments could be published directly without a webmaster trough a simple form. Interaction time between webmaster and web user was shrinking rapidly and was also the basis of this new paradigm (Graham 2005). The term web 2.0 is closely related to Tim O'Reilly because of the first mention at the OReilly Media web 2.0 conference in 2004 (OReilly 2005). The term promised a new kind or a new version of the Internet, but it does not contain any technical specification. It is just addressing the software developers and end-users of the Internet (Graham 2005). Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, defined web 2.0 as "a place where we all come together, read and write" (Lawson 2005). McAfee describes the term web 2.0 as "generating, sharing and refining of information" to make approaches and results of employees visible (McAfee 2006b, p.23). Moreover, he brings in a new description for enterprise-wide communication systems: "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. (McAfee 2006a). In recent years, the term web 2.0 is decreasingly applied on the Internet. An upcoming new term for this perception is social media (Schrig 2010) and that is the reason why the term social media will be used in the remaining of this Master thesis. As the name suggests, social media support participants of social media platforms in their information exchange over the Internet. Diverse social media platforms, also known as social media channels, are open for communication with people around the globe (Geiler 2010). Another statement by Kaplan and Haenlein describe social media as "[...] 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." (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.61). According to Kaplan and Haenlein, social media platforms can be classified in separate groups according to their motivation. Each channel has chances and unique opportunities for marketing purposes (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.62): Collective projects (e.g. Wikipedia) Blogs and micro blogs (e.g. Twitter) Content communities (e.g. YouTube) Social networks (e.g. Facebook) MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (e.g. World of Warcraft) Social virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life)
Collective projects e.g. wikis come up with a large degree of collaboration while content communities usually cause a big amount of traffic with contents to all participants. Nevertheless, Kaplan and Haenlein point out that those collective projects may become the main source for information about consumer behaviour (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, pp.6263).
2.3
Social Media Marketing
Mangold and Faulds (2009) stated that traditional marketing communications have lost its importance in today's interconnected Internet world. Therefore they introduced a concept which brings in social media as a hybrid component of the promotional mix. In the end, social media marketing is responsible for the elements of the promotional mix. In Figure 6 the classic promotional mix contains five main elements in which each component is extended for social media functions:
Advertising
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
Public Relations
Direct Marketing
Social Media
Social Media
Social Media
Social Media
Social Media
Figure 6: Extended Social Media Promotional Mix (based on Mangold & Faulds 2009, p.360)
This new hybrid element "social media" of the promotion mix combines conventional characteristics of the traditional concept with a highly increased power of word-of-mouth communication in which marketing managers cannot control the content and frequency of information anymore (Mangold & Faulds 2009, pp.358361). The most practical goals of social media marketing are focusing on three points (Klein 1998, pp.195203): Become aware of the brand, product or company Engagement of participants with business content in online conversations Sharing of content on social media platforms
Organisations have begun to exploit the economic potential of social media in the late nineties. Mangold and Faulds (2009) underline the importance of social media for corporate communications. The reputation of a company is strongly influenced by social media (Ind & Riondino 2001).
As well to traditional marketing concepts Constantinides and Fountain (2008) propose that web 2.0 functionalities do highly affect consumer decisions. Such factors are playing a significant role in an uncontrollable way. Consumers are influenced by each other's choices automatically as long as they are participating on social media platforms (Constantinides & Fountain 2008, pp.231244). Bunting and Lipski (2001) suggest that this is also reflected in a weaker relationship between corporate communications and reputation; the control is slightly moving away from companies to consumers. In addition, Bunting and Lipski summarise that the Internet is a valuable communication and reputation building tool (Bunting & Lipski 2001, pp.170178). The variety of social media platforms is enormous and so are the marketing opportunities for companies. Marketing may have a different appearance on each social media platform, but it has always the same objectives: to engage consumers, to spread information, to answer questions and to establish a constant presence.
Particularly Facebook participants do have an easy method to connect a product or a service with their friends only by clicking on the "LIKE" button. This message contains a positive meaning or favour and is automatically published on the personal profile page (timeline) and every friend is able to see this preferred LIKE. Social media platforms have their own singularity, but most of them do have such a function e.g. Twitter. On the social media platform Twitter a limited number of characters, a so called micro-blog format, gave participants the opportunity to comment any announcement, statement or news of companies. The message itself is automatically published and distributed to all subscribed followers. Symbols e.g. "#" or "@" followed by a word help out to spread and classify information according to participants interest. On the corporate landscape Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used social media platforms in terms of verbal communication; however they are not the only ones. Google+ for example is trying to catch up. The friend list in Google+ is arranged by circles in which friends can be placed. This makes it very simple to group friends and to channel communication to accurate friends. Facebook does also have a feature to arrange people by groups, but the time costs for arranging friends are much higher with Facebook than with Google+ (Frickel 2011). Social media also include streaming websites e.g. YouTube. They are playing also a big role in terms of video content communication. These channels are having also an essential impact on the
corporate landscape. Although many companies withdraw streaming platforms because of the high efforts professional produced movies cause. Another easy option if possible is to upload already existing movie material (e.g. television advertisements) to social media streaming platforms. This is a common strategy for companies to publish content on social media platforms in order to have a cheap alternative to television channels or radio stations because there are no broadcasting costs. Additionally, own channels of companies in social media streaming platforms are giving participants the opportunity to have an interactive experience of the company brand (Pring 2012). Another way to publish corporate content of an organisation on the Internet are weblogs which can be also used for marketing purposes. Weblogs or blogs provide essential instruments to promote brand awareness and concepts that support quantification levels and trends in consumer knowledge of a brand's existence (Farris et al. 2010, pp.2764) e.g. publishing of inside information and promoting new products or services within distribution channels. Blogs do also have the functionality for Internet users to post comments which enable users to state their opinion and directly ask questions. This helps to increase the exchange of ideas between consumers, individuals and businesses (Hafele 2011, p.2). According to Kilian, social media marketing includes all actions of companies on social media platforms that are mainly used for marketing purposes. For instance, company brands which are using social media platforms for interactions with their fans and critics (K. Kilian 2011, p.62). Online marketing is quite an innovative form for branding and marketing, especially with collaboration on social media. Consequently, social media marketing is an integrated marketing tool from which a company may profit in a potential target market, to get contact to potential customers and to sell the products or services to a specific target group. With the help of social media platforms relevant information can be beneficially delivered to all stakeholders, including customers and the company itself. The dilemma is that the power over information is shifting away from companies to participants on social media. Participants in social media can write whatever they want on the company or product page. Corporate activity may be counted by the number of likes on Facebook, followers on Twitter and +1 on Google+. The higher the numbers the higher the activity (Burson-Marsteller 2011, pp.427). Moreover, social media come along with recommendation of participants and customer dialog that can be a critical task for branding. The recommendation process takes place on fan pages or on profiles of companies or their products or services. When a lot of customers are commenting postings positively, it is more likely to gain new customers. Reasonably, a potential costumer has more trust in consumer comments than in a company statement. Recommendations by consumers for a product or service makes it very attractive for potential customers to buy the product or service; it
heightens the chance for a company to sell their products or services. That is the reason why it is so important to have positive comments of social media participants on a company's social media profile. More time consuming is the part of social media marketing when the customer dialog or interaction takes place. Companies have to invest a lot of time answering questions and comments in a kind way on social media. With such an interaction all participants can see that the company is taking consumers and their presence on social media seriously. Social media marketing should not be confused with web monitoring. Web monitoring is looking for a company brand, products or services on the Internet and the categorisation of them. Also the search for competitors is covered by the web monitoring. It gives a comprehensive overview of where and in what context the company appears on the Internet (Lange 2011, pp.655659).
2.4
Social Media Corporate Network Analysis
Social media corporate network analysis wants to cluster consumers in separate groups. Social relationships are simplified with nodes and ties: Individual participants are represented with nodes and the relationship between participants is represented with ties in the network. The term analysis suggests that socialisation into norms determines most of consumer behaviour, but network analysis is looking for the quantity to know which composition of ties are affected by norms (Kelsey 2010, p.468). The term network is another word for social media platform. In other words, networks are the platforms on which participants are interacting with each other. Corporate analysis of social media platforms has transformed from a suggestive examination to an analytic approach. The theoretical fundament, methods, social network analysis software, and researchers are now bound within a company. The main effort of employees is to study "complete networks", the ties and specified relations e.g. a defined target group. Most of the ties with specified target groups are "personal networks" (O. Deji & O. F. Deji 2011, p.78). Companies gather data between complete and personal networks in an absolutely different way; this is depending on how analysts are able to look for data. Analysts must have complete information about who was in the network and the participants. Social media corporate network analysis does have traditional aspects of social scientific studies in common where attributes of individuals do matter. An alternate point of view arises from the attributes of individuals that are not as important as relationships and ties within networks. This method is very useful to explain phenomena in the real world (Kobielus 2010).
Small networks may be not that useful for their participants than networks with a lot of weak connections between participants outside the network. Open networks tend to have more weak ties and social connections, but they give the opportunity for participants to present new ideas. Closed networks with many redundant ties do not have such an impact. A closed group of friends that only shares things with each other, already shares the same facts. Social media corporate network analysis does also examine the interaction of organisations with each other. Informal connections are revealed in which executives of separate organisations are linked together. Also connections of employees to other organisations are identified. Social media platforms do have significant change in hiring, in business success, and in job performance. Such networks provide companies an easy way to get information, deter competition and plan prices or policies (Rutledge 2008, p.131 ff.).
2.5
Social Media Corporate Monitoring
Social media monitoring is the observation and analysis of user generated content and the resulting opinions on the social web. The main channels are blogs, micro blogs and social media platforms. Social media monitoring can help to identify trends and plays an eminent role in corporate communication. Organisations must listen to and observe the comments on their profile page and follow the whole conversation. In addition, organisations have to understand what the authors mean. It is not enough just to create a company fan page. The comments must be actively monitored what costs a lot of time; this issue should not be underestimated (Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011, pp.275282). The term social media monitoring can be interpreted in several ways. It is necessary to distinguish between social media and web monitoring. Social media monitoring is focusing on user generated content that was created by users, such as blogs, forums or social media platforms. Social media monitoring includes the identification of relevant content and platforms. It has not only quantitative but also qualitative character. In summary, all user generated content must be analysed and interpreted. Lange (2011) describes social media monitoring as "[...] comparable to traditional market research. The advantage is that customers not have to be interviewed, but all the answers are already freely available on the web." (Lange 2011, p.655ff.). Another description provided by Khler defines social media monitoring even more precisely: "Social Media Monitoring describes the identification, monitoring, analyzing and interpretation of user-generated content on the Web for different purposes using different methods." (Lange 2011, p.656).
The analysis, optimisation and control of processes to all Internet activities are called web analytics (See also section 2.4 "Social Media Corporate Network Analysis"). Monitoring tools allow not only to observe social media; they give evaluations of websites and marketing campaigns. In contrast to social media monitoring, web analysis has the following main tasks (Yottaa, Inc. 2012, pp.112): Average transaction value Effectiveness of advertisement Number of website visitors Visitors who complete the purchase process Visitors who put something in cart
These facts and figures are put together in a statistic for evaluation. The results help to optimise future marketing campaigns and the corporate website itself. In comparison, social media corporate monitoring has to cover the following main tasks about conversations on social media (Hallett 2009): Discovery Aggregation Escalation Participation Tracking Archival
A more practical clarification of social media monitoring activities is given in section 3.5.1.2 "Monitoring" of the corporate social media framework. Constant companion in an active involvement of companies in social media is the fear of losing control. Every company must know that since comments can be written a controversial discussion may suddenly take place. Companies may delete negative posts but the control is still in the hands of the participants. Posts will be evaluated by organisations positively or negatively. Positive posts are always welcome. There are no possibilities to block negative posts from the page; the only option is to delete unwanted reactions manually. On several social media platform even this is not possible e.g. Twitter. Companies must act to avoid opposition before it started; deleting every negative post is not an option. Thus, decisions are built on comments made by user or customer reviews e.g. TripAdvisor. These stated opinions do have serious impact on booking decisions (Gretzel & Yoo 2008, p.84ff.). This implies the same influence on purchasing decisions. More and more Internet users will base their decisions on posts, user and customer reviews and more consumer advice. Unless companies are monitoring user activities, they are completely blind and cannot react in any circumstances (Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011, pp.275282).
2.6
Social Media Corporate Branding
Social media corporate branding describes the development and utilisation of trademarks in social media in order to distinguish companies and to increase the company's value. On first sight, social media corporate branding depends on the reputation as well as how many followers or likes a social media profile has, but every social media platform has its own target group with a different kind of participants. Here, it appears very interesting that most companies are using social media platforms with multiple accounts. This comes of course with challenges of coordination of each platform. In addition, companies have to follow a complete social media strategy for corporate branding. Nowadays, corporate branding is based on the Vision-Culture-Image (VCI) model by Hatch and Schultz (2008). The VCI alignment model contains three topics: Strategic goals of the top management (strategic vision), knowledge and attitudes of employees (organisational culture) and external stakeholders of the company (stakeholder image). A missing piece of these three factors is often an indicator of weak corporate branding which ends in a branding failure (Hatch & M. Schultz 2008, p.11ff). A large-scale study by Da Silva and Syed Alwi (2007) revealed the "corporate personality" of two UK bookstores. Their conclusion is that the brand image is strongly depending on whether the bookstore is online or offline. Nevertheless, a clear statement for other business topics is not examined (Syed Alwi & Da Silva 2007, pp.217244). Moreover, the same authors stated a proposition in which corporate brand images are defined by ease of use, security, personalisation, customer care and reliability of corporate websites (Da Silva & Syed Alwi 2008, p.22). An analysis of the impact of word-of-mouth (WOM) on the social media platform Friendster proves the influence of WOM to new customers. WOM clearly has a strong influence on acquisition of new customers (Trusov et al. 2009, p.1ff.). Social media corporate branding gives numerous unknown company brands the opportunity to quickly emerge and make a threat to established brands: "Online communities are a double edged sword." (Chen 2001, pp.288302). Companies must establish an emotional relationship with their customers to prevent competition before it can even start. The Internet gives the tools needed to establish an emotional connection between consumers and a brand (Clauser 2001, pp.270287). Social media particularly play a significant role in this matter. Even though, the openness might be hard to control, especially unwanted participants have the capability to potential threat for the brand with their destructive posts. Catalano (2007) identifies measures and guidance's to prevent negative impacts on brands in companies. Analysis and monitoring is one of the main tasks for companies to avoid a negative
outcome of corporate blogs (Catalano 2007, pp.247262). Blogging may also help building a relationship, fostering trust and identification. Although there are many risks "such as organisational bloggers who are not adequately trained in public communication and dialogue, or independently decide whether or not to go public on an issue rather than consulting with organisational leaders." (Kent 2008, p.37). Stuart and Jones (2004) claim that companies must guarantee consistency between corporate brand and online communication. With the options of the Internet, companies must take advantage of communities to grow together with customers (Stuart & Jones 2004, pp.8493). However, social media corporate branding gives corporate leaders new possibilities for branding a product, service or a company. The success of social media (e.g. Facebook or Twitter profile) is highly dependent on a correct applied VCI alignment model. Measurement of corporate branding has the advantage of concrete advice on the corporate social media communications mix. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has developed a metrics definition in order to give companies a guidance (IAB 2009, pp.610). This gives benchmarks that allow measurements of social media profiles with different factors such as unique visitors, page views and time spent.
2.7
Social Media Corporate Identity
Social media corporate identity is the catchword for corporate identity on company profiles on social media. It describes characteristics that make up an impression of a company on social media platforms. As any human being, a company also must define its identity by setting up personal goals. The theory of social media corporate identity is adjusted from the classical corporate identity theory. In Figure 7 the different aspects of social media corporate identity are illustrated in the shape of a house. The fundament of corporate identity house is building social media, because social media platforms are the basis of all actions that are taking place to achieve coherent corporate identity. The identity of a company is derived from three components: appearance, communication and behaviour.
Social Media
Figure 7: Corporate Identity House adopted from Kaleta (Kaleta 2009)
The house originates from Kaleta (2009) which has been adapted to social media on the fundament of social media since all corporate identity actives are built on social media. In context of businesses, appearance is also called corporate design (CD). Together with corporate communication (CC) and corporate behaviour (CB), it is building the identity of a company. The Impressions by individuals about companies on social media platforms are derived from similar factors for instance used language, presentation and number of posts. This generates a picture of the company in the environment. The interaction of such factors gives the participants of social media platforms a so called general impression (Herbst 2009, p.122 ff.). The necessity of a clear social media corporate identity is derivable from consumer behaviour in which quality and service will be rated when the buying action takes place. Companies must spend a lot of effort in alignment of their actual product or service and include this picture into the buying process. Consumers do identify the product alone, but also with the company and how the company presents itself and what values are inside. The identity depends on the values, objectives and the qualities. By defining these properties self and external perceptions have to be checked before communicated. With the help of communication tools corporate design, corporate communication and corporate behaviour this can be sufficiently fulfilled. At this point of view, it is necessary that certain values, characteristics and goals must be aligned to consumers and potential business partners. A questionable identity arises when the external communication does not match with the internal communication (Herbst 2009, p.58ff.). 2.7.1 Corporate Design
Corporate design is the most popular communication tool of corporate identity. It acts as a visual guideline which is building corporate design. Corporate design is able to catch the confidence of consumers and to build identification even with the own employees. The goal is to ensure a consistent appearance on social media platforms (Mozota 2003, p.67ff.). Therefore, it is important that each company presents itself with a profile on social media platforms which has been created by company officials or authorised agencies, because the company must have control over their own social media accounts. There are still plenty of profile pages and accounts with unknown administrators that are not involved with the mentioned company at all. The profile page is the heart of social media communication and gives the company a unique personality in communities (Abdullah & Cziwerny 2007, p.13).
2.7.2
Corporate Behaviour
Corporate behaviour can be described as a type of code of conduct in which aspects of corporate identity are organised. It refers to the actions and behaviour of the employees and management to each other and the behaviour towards customers, suppliers and the public. The creation of a corporate behaviour is a long-term process, which is determined by many factors. It is clear that no company can hide itself from its environment; therefore actions, announcements and statements must be well considered before publishing them. The overall impression of a company depends on such activities (Wache & Brammer 1993, p.109ff.). It is the most powerful but difficult tool of corporate identity. The presentation of the company is just one aspect, but actions carry out far more than only words do: Actions speak louder than words. (Birkigt et al. 2000, p.20). The consumer impression of a company is much more formed by actions or behaviour. After all, concluding effects to consumers are much more intense and lasting than only optical communication. Corporate behaviour is the way a company behaves and interacts with employees and customers. Birkigt et al. (2000) describes corporate behaviour as self-consistent and thus reliable orientation of all actions of corporate relationships indoor and outdoor (Birkigt et al. 2000, p.20). Simply spoken, it is a consistent behaviour of a company with all implications and consequences. On social media channels, it is important that the behaviour is consistent too, as well as principles, values and mission statements of the company. Probably the driver of corporate behaviour is the improvement of the general image of the company in order to create a positive work environment. Moreover, this is leading to a better performance of all employees (Regenthal 2002, p.62). Corporate behaviour can be divided into external and internal communications. The aim of communication in social media is to create a positive atmosphere that leads to better performance in daily life of employees and thus improve the overall image of the company in public. The key benefits and goals can be defined as following (Hartling 2006): Effective cooperation Identification with the company Improving the image Increase the efficiency of the company Strengthening the employees identification
2.7.3
Corporate Communication
Corporate communication involves all communication tools and measures a company applies internally and externally. A uniform appearance to respective target groups is the main task. In the early stage of introducing new products or services communication is very important. As well as in corporate design a consistent, planned and strategic vision must reach different groups with the same message in the same language. Corporate communication makes certain messages through a very unique communication strategy immediately recognisable (Herbst 2009, p.123). Such measures are creating the overall strategic vision which increasingly strengthen the awareness and in the end improves the company image. A social media manager is in charge of all external or internal communications, advertising, public relations, sales promotion and sponsorship over social media. These tasks are often very time consuming and can be centralised in a department (see chapter 4, section 4.1.1 "Organisational Models"). All actions must be coordinated with all corporate identity aspects. Corporate communication comes with four different instruments (D. E. Schultz 1992, pp.99104): Advertising Advertising is based on the product or service offered by the company and is either sales or market-related. It increases brand and company knowledge of consumers and additionally strengthens the brand and corporate image. The intention is that the consumer is bound in a long-term way to the company. In this matter, consistency plays an important role and must be persuaded that an already positive corporate image can support new products or services enter the market and promote sales much better. For instance, Facebook uses an advertising application in which target group and other factors can be set manually.
Sales promotion With the help of sales promotion companies, other resellers or promotion staff make use of social media to publicise special events aiming on sales. The goal is to spread the promotion message over social media to generate sales. Usually, sales promotion does look like a product or service that has been recently updated what will lead to increased sales. In this particular case, a well defined social media presence assists to make sales promotion easier. This fact creates a pressure on trades to include the products in the collection and on the client side it creates a very strong demand; it is called a pull strategy (Godefroid & Pfrtsch 2008, p.424 ff.).
In Figure 8 a typical sales promotion is published by jeans wear producer Levi's.
Figure 8: Levi's Sales Promotion on Facebook (see also Ins Caldern 2010)
With such a sales promotion participants are asked to respond. So called RSVP (rpondez s'il vous plat) are often used: RSVP Yes for 25% off at Levis online store!.
Public Relations (PR) In the context of social media public relations are also called social media relations. They are referring to management of corporate communications with the key stakeholders of the company with the aim of increasing awareness of the company. It creates a defined image of the corporate identity. Social media relations primarily call for a modernisation of the traditional press and public relations. With the use of the term social media relations are two aspects to consider (Jodeleit 2010, pp.2329): Relationships of people: The use social media to reach consumers, customers and organisations. Relations of people: Among themselves and with each other. This is often a difference between persons who are already known each other from real life and the people who get to know each other only on the Internet. Figure 9 exemplifies the promotion of GEOX upcoming women's winter collection 2012. Only participants that clicked on the "LIKE" button are allowed to preview the new collection.
Figure 9: Sales Promotion of GEOX on Facebook (GEOX 2012a)
Social media relations are taking care of influencers or opinion leaders on social media platforms and it is mainly applied in external corporate communication available to outside participants.
Sponsorship Sponsorship generates a win-win relationship between the sponsored person or event and a company. The company takes the role of a sponsor and supports another (sponsored) financially or materially. The sponsored person or event must communicate the name of the organisation in public to remind consumers positively. In Figure 10 the tennis player Roger Federer asks the Facebook community to choose which print advertisement the car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz should publish. He states that "[...] the new 7-passenger 2013 GL [is] the vehicle of choice for me and my family".
Figure 10: Roger Federer Sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz on Facebook (Federer 2012)
All four instruments do have the corporate language in common. It refers to a distinctive and specific language of the company, which is subject to two rules: The corporate language must be clear and understandable. All texts communicated must be understandable and must follow the principle to be focussed. For that reason the language is understood better and easier for target groups. Nevertheless, the language should have an individual characteristic and have to reflect the corporate identity with its values and norms. Companies should take care of the language for specific target groups (Ryser et al. 2011, p.1130). A corporate design manual gives the guidelines needed, in which the main principles and rules of corporate language are combined. Such rules could contain for example a list of words which must not be used, or words or phrases that are favoured. That will be stored in the manual as a template and can be considered in a similar form for the guidance of the corporate language. However, this might be prefabricated and combined for everyday communication phrases or text blocks (Herbst 2009, p.122).
2.8
Conclusion
The sections before made it obvious that social media have become a new power in organisations around the world. The potentials of social media are enormous, but so are the risks too. A lot of organisations are learning by doing to improve their practises and sometimes perform not in the best way (see chapter 4, section 4.2.3.1 "Showcase Mammut"). As a matter of fact, organisations are today more independent from traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers than 10 years ago. Facebook, Twitter and blogs etc. are giving organisations the opportunity to join conversation and engage with consumers at any time and everywhere on the Internet. Good social media strategies combined with classical economic theory and its tools give companies one of the best marketing tool since the beginning of the Internet. Business theories are more and more adapted in social media environments. Nevertheless, literature does as well mention that many organisations are still having difficulties to integrate and implement social media into their existing communication streams. Risks are often underestimated and sometimes companies are not prepared to the negative impacts social media may have. That is the reason why many authors conclude that activities of companies on social media platforms must be monitored; companies have to listen to their participants and must make the right statements in the right time. Afterwards an analysis of all responses will give companies a conclusion which will help to improve the conversations in future. For that reason many companies introduced a social media officer or manager who is in charge of these tasks which are very time consuming. The most attractive thing about corporate social media is the steady flow of added value that is spread over social media channels. This is what keeps stakeholders employees, suppliers, customers and potential customers constantly in contact with the company brand. In addition, participants do have the ability to be online on social media platforms with mobile devices. This creates a more frequent and more interactive way to gather information about a certain company brand. However, companies never get in touch with the public so easy before. It is the most direct way a company can publish content today. Individual initiatives in companies automatically transformed themselves in the past 5 years into important, integrated tools for marketing and communication. In the end, participants decide what type of social media they want. It depends on what kind of interactions users do like. In summary, the findings are that the use of social media will clearly increase. A study by Harvard Business Review (2010) revealed that two thirds of the companies predicted a growth of their use of social media over the next years. The awareness of social media power has extensively grown in companies and there are many organisations that have a budget for social media expenses. Al-
most all companies are expecting an increase over 30% in just one year, while general expenses for marketing dropped. The goal of companies is to create metrics, to measure the impact and to understand how to react in a new conversation experience with their customers. Effective use of social media will guide these organisations and will enable this new relationship with customers, employees and partners (Harvard Business Review 2010, p.18). After all technical progress, intensive publication of content might lead to information overload and security leaks. In contrast to common media, social media platforms do not have the setting option of how much and how often information is broadcasted or printed. It is a cheaper way for companies to communicate which could lead to an overload of publications. The excess of information might confuse consumers. In addition, the likely leak of secret corporate information over social media might be another issue. But not only companies do take risks into account, also participants do face threats by sharing their personal information on social media platforms e.g. identity theft. It may also be a question of privacy that will discourage people from ever joining social media channels (Dwivedi 2012). The future of social media seems very promising; however a unified corporate social media framework is still missing. The theoretical findings about social media before can be put into practice in a uniform corporate social media framework that helps companies in a practical way to use social media as a best marketing tool and to avoid risks.
Corporate Social Media Framework
This chapter introduces the corporate social media framework including external and internal instruments. Thus, corporate social media is a concept of integration of social media aspects in business communication. The expression itself was first mentioned in a thesis by Antonson and Wendels (2008). Ongoing growth and expansion of social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and of course many others have forced companies to make numerous adjustments. Consequently, the value from a more fluid communication has been identified by company leaders. The business interest of corporate social media is to integrate social aspects in business communication and to improve communication between stakeholders e.g. customers, employees, suppliers (Antonson & Wendels 2008, p.1). Several cases confirm (see chapter 4, section 4.2.3.1 "Showcase Mammut") that companies are learning by doing regarding social media communication. Companies are setting up their own practises for corporate social media communication. However, this fact makes it possible to identify a suitable framework that is valid for companies in general. Figure 11 illustrates the recognised contents of the framework and outlines interfaces that are significant for companies.
Corporate Social Media Framework Social Media Strategy Social Media Policy Social Media Concept Social Media Plan
External Instruments Marketing Monitoring Distribution Human Resources Internal Instruments Communication Knowledge Management
Figure 11: Corporate Social Media Framework adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 14)
This concept was first introduced by Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia and is now extended in this Master thesis with external and internal instruments of social media. External instruments include all interactions outside and internal instruments include all interactions inside an organisation. External instruments contain social media marketing, monitoring, distribution and human resources. Internal instruments are communication and knowledge management. Each topic of the framework is explained and examined in the following sections. The breakdown of external and internal instruments underlines the complete asset of corporate communication.
3.1
Social Media Strategy
The commitment and competence of companies in handling social media is for many reasons quite different. Companies find themselves somewhere in between four quadrants. Some companies prefer to pick only selected social media platforms, while other companies want to have the entire portfolio of social media. Figure 12 describes the four commitment and competence quadrants of the social media strategy.
Social Media Corporate Commitment
high
Social Media Experiment
Social Media Selection
Social Media Refusal
Social Media Entire Portfolio
low low
Social Media Competence

Figure 12: Corporate Social Media Commitment and Competence, adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 16)
high
Low social media corporate commitment and low social media competence refer to social media refusal. Such companies do not want to be active on social media at all. Nevertheless, the decision not to take part in social media is as well a social media strategy that does not need further con-
siderations. However, this choice should be reviewed from time to time. Compared to high social media corporate commitment and a low social media competence, social media experiment assists companies to gain skills by practical experience. High social media competence and corporate commitment will offer companies the choice by social media selection. In practice, only selected social media platforms are being used. High social media competence and low social media corporate commitment have the effects of a social media entire portfolio. In this case, as many social media platforms as possible are being used for corporate social media communication. Furthermore, a social media strategy must achieve the engagement of people on social media platforms. This is done by providing relevant information to each social media channel to the right audience. It must follow company objectives adjusted with the main goals to motivate participants and to buy the offered products or services (Brogan & Smith 2009, pp.196197). Successful social media strategies are built on a business plan, the marketing plan and a corporate social media framework with its own elements (see also Figure 11). The engaging process is based on the defined objectives, target markets and participants that have all measurable parameters in common. Figure 13 illustrates the creation of a social media strategy.
Business Plan
Objectives of the Company
Marketing Plan
Define strategic marketing objectives Define target markets and people
Corporate Social Media Framework
Social Media Strategy

Define social media objectives Define goals for engaging participants Define social media platforms and participants
Figure 13: Development of a Social Media Strategy (based on megantime 2011)
First, the business plan has to be created in which company objectives are written down. Most companies already have a business plan containing the objectives. Second, the marketing plan is
derived from the existing business plan and its objectives. Strategic marketing objectives are developed with the help of the business plan objectives. By entering the corporate social media framework social media considerations are carried out. The development of a social media strategy can now be started. Marketing objectives that support the engagement in social media have to be selected from the existing marketing plan. There must be a correlation between the marketing plan and the corporate social media framework to have a solution aiming at reaching the company goals. For that reason the company must know where it wants to go. Moreover, social media objectives are defined that support at least one of the strategic marketing objectives. Besides, target markets are already defined by the marketing plan. A new definition of the target markets would break the whole strategy apart. Such conflicts are solved by reviewing higher level objectives to ensure the decision is right. In addition, measurable goals for all social media objectives and target markets should be set in place. Platforms and participants that are significant in the engagement process must be defined within the target market as well.
3.2
Social Media Policy
A corporate social media framework must contain a social media policy for employees that ensure a consistent presence on social media platforms. The policy addresses all employees of a company that is active on social media. Usually, a social media policy should begin with what a company wants to achieve through social media. It is the main driver for the content of the policy and as well gives advice to make the right decision about issues that are not explicitly covered by the policy. It is followed by the core values, a brief description for what values the company does stand, which every social media manager or official should know. The audience and platforms defined from the strategy must be mentioned in the policy to ensure that no mistakes occur. Also the employees and restrictions for their behaviour that are working with social media are probably defined in the policy. Figure 14 summarises a social media policy into five key elements.
Social Media Policy

Achievements Core Values Audience and Platforms Employees Restrictions
Figure 14: Social Media Policy Contents (based on Verlee 2011)
Besides official spokesmen, social media officials are authorised representatives to grant interviews to journalists and bloggers. Social media officials do manage social media accounts and do upload announcements of the company. All other employees must know their influence in social media. Participants may recognise personal postings of employees on social media platforms as an official company statement. The borders between business and private social media usage are sometimes vanished. A personal Twitter message, a private photo on Facebook and job descriptions on LinkedIn will probably have the character of an official company announcement. There are no doubts that social media activities by employees have an impact on the social media presence of the company. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the social media policy to all employees, not only to experienced social media officials. This gives the employees security, acts as a kind of safety instruction and helps to protect the companys reputation from inside (Verlee 2011). Still, the management has the power to make a final decision whether or not ordinary employees are allowed to use social media platforms during working hours. Another regulation would be how much time they can spend on social media platforms. Management decisions about social media are final and must be described clearly in the policy. Social media policies can serve their purpose only when employees understand the benefits of the web 2.0. Inexperience and lack of social media competence may lead to devastating results e.g. employee writes something against his own company. Another issue is the definition of the published content. By looking back to the core values of the company the types of content can be derived. Companies should especially avoid inconsistent behaviour e.g. criticise colleagues, supervisors or people in public, ethnic insults, rough jokes and political statements. The management is allowed to state in the policy that employees are not authorised to complain about the company regulations neither clients nor projects on social media platforms, unless it has been officially published. For frequently asked questions it can be very helpful to provide social media officials a system with answers to frequently asked questions of products and services (Riesterer 2011, pp.4243). Some companies introduced an approval process for social media officials. This makes it clear what has to be done when problems occur. For instance an additional company official may approve the proposed action from his colleague. It is reasonable that policies do only work when they are implemented and monitored. The responsible officials must monitor the companys social media presence and usage by employees. Social media officials do have the overall responsibility for all actions taken. The consequences of violation can be also a point in the policy. Finally, each social media platform has got its own tools, strengths and weaknesses. The policy must fit the platforms chosen from the social media strategy. Social media policies should be al-
ways adoptable to the strategy, so the risks can be minimised (Verlee 2011). Moreover, social media officials must set their focus on the content that is permitted by the social media policy. The following bullet list gives vital suggestions for company officials to act in a correct way (Su Franke 2011): Mention Sources Corporate social media officials have to show from where they have the content. Sources should always be mentioned and should be discussed in the message too. Social media are built on active linking which is highly recommended for better ranking on search engine results. Social media are about linking and networking: even in case of another rival company the name should be mentioned.
Look for Dialog The interest in dialogue and giving answers to comments is an eminent factor for engagement. Corporate social media officials should take their time in writing personal statements to participants. This measure takes away the fear of active participants to be ignored. Officials have to be active commenters that participants will follow and start discussions.
Pleasant and Respectful What is right in the daily business has its accuracy in corporate social media communication too. Policies should include a kind of writing guide in which pleasant and respectful manners are written down. This prevents negative postings before the situation escalates. Officials have to talk respectfully and not in an offensive way about competitors. And if harsh criticism still raises, do not get upset; be businesslike.
Take Responsibility Officials have to take responsibility for their writings. They must stand to their own opinion and also should use the first person singular in comments to create a more familiar dialogue with participants. This means that participants are still able to post negative postings and officials must admit mistakes. Instead of deleting or ignoring negative postings, an adequate reply should be made e.g. giving a kind response.
Create Value for Participants The content of a social media channel is primarily written for participants and bring them a benefit or should inspire or amuse them. Officials have to provide value with the help of special content, personal views and unique opportunities.
Show Identity After statements and comments it should always follow the full name of the company official. Nameless posts are not personal and have the look of computer generated standard answers. Officials should always stand with their name beside each post. This is more personal and participants see that the employees taking the feedback serious.
Confidentiality and Law Officials have to respect the law. Copyright infringements are often an issue when pictures, songs and movies are spread over the company social media channel. In addition company secrets must be kept secret. Sharing or collecting information of customers need their approval.
3.3
Social Media Concept
The main purpose of the social media concept is how to engage people on social media platforms. For each type of social media channel information different kind of content must be published in an accurate form to the participants. The mission is to find the right people on the right social media platform to engage. According to a survey by Forrester Research (2011), there are six different types of social media users. A social media strategy depends on which participants a company is looking for. Figure 15 shows on the vertical left side what people are doing on social media platforms. This is illustrated by the different types of social media users. On the right side the percentage of different age categories are presented (see also von Brockdorff 2011):
Figure 15: Different Types of Social Media Participants (von Brockdorff 2011)
The Creators A creator publishes content on social media platforms for sharing things with the community. Such a type of user will share his thoughts in statements on blogs, forums or personal page on social media. More intense creators are producing videos, images or audio. A creator earns satisfaction by rising number of hits on its released content. The more hits his content produces the more satisfied is the creator.
The Critics Critics are persons that respond on published content by others participants. They are posting ratings and reviews of products and of services e.g. a hotel review. Critics as well possibly will comment in blogs or forums and even do contribute to articles on a wiki platform. The motivation that triggers the action is mostly information which is not accurate on the point of view of the critic.
The Collectors Collectors are following the information on social media channels and are looking for useful content for their own use. It looks like that collectors are gathering as much interesting content as possible from any kind of information source: RSS feds, photo or page tags and best rated content.
The Joiners Joiners are not just creating one social media account on one platform but using multiple accounts and multiple profiles for their purpose to be part of it. Most of the joiners want to keep in touch with as many persons as possible. Therefore many social media accounts are being used.
The Spectators Spectators are only creating a social media account for consummation. They only read blogs, look for reviews by other users and watch YouTube videos. Other possibilities can be online forums, podcasts and searches following user reviews and other ratings.
The Inactives Persons that are online but do not participate at all in any form of the social media. Registered inactives have empty profile and no posts are made. This type is quite rare where in most websites social media elements are integrated more and more. Seniors tend to be more inactive because of their lack of interest.
For all kind of participants that Forrester identified, engagement goals have to be setup which includes definitions for each group of participants. From the marketing plan all primary needs and wants are derived for each participant group. The positioning of a company is coming with the key messages and also an investigation for competitors. The concept should not only give information about the participants, but also provide information about where to meet potential customers. Forrester Research illustrates in Figure 15 the different types of social media participants and which age categories are found where in percentage terms. A social media presence should depend on where consumers expect the company e.g. Facebook or XING (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slides 20-30). Since Facebook has become something like a social media monopoly, it is essential not to avoid this platform. That is why a Facebook presence must almost always be taken into account.
Figure 16 illustrates the subjects of a social media concept. These elements are not a must have, they can be chosen optionally for the social media concept. If so, they should be integrated into the company website. Linking content and attracting people is the main goal of the concept.
Social Media Concept

Publish Share Discuss Commerce Location Network Games
Figure 16: Social Media Concept Contents
The concept describes which content items a company would like to take advantage of mainly on social media. In the maximum case, all items are exhausted through various social media platforms. Publishing content e.g. blogs or twitter is timeless and can be used for development of human resources marketing and even expertise. Search engines will absorb the content and represent it with an appropriate search query. Likewise, sharing content e.g. Youtube and Flickr are interesting for product presentations or simply for entertainment. Besides, discussions are easy to handle with so called boards and allow to establish a customer service. The discussions help to collect lessons learned for the product development. Commercial content e.g. Groupon is an important part for product reviews, even so it inspires for co-shopping. Location is important for sales promotion because it addresses customers directly. E.g. Foursquare recommends places for instance a restaurant based on friends ratings. This opens doors for market research too. Networks such as Facebook, XING, LinkedIn and Google+ consist mainly of recommendations but also have combinations of publishing, sharing, discussion and commercial as well as location in common. Games on social media are important vessels for product placement and general entertainment of participants. With product placement in games, branding is supported and online advertisements can be shown in the browser window.
3.4
Social Media Plan
A comprehensive social media plan depends on the platforms and the information that will be provided to participants on the platform. The information may contain product releases, discounted prices or timed contest sponsoring e.g. London Olympic Games 2012. There are strategic campaign plans, engagement plans and alert plans for corporate social media (Hollenhorst & Barrett 2009). Strategic campaign plans are basic information to engage with participant (see also Figure 15). Such a plan should contain following elements: Campaign overview Defined and measureable goals Requirements (employees, skills and people) Schedule Used mediums and channels
At this point, engagement plans describe how the company cooperates with participants within the target market. Relationships between community monitoring and engagement plans are arranged together to improve engagement e.g. responding on blog entries or contacting participants directly that made negative comments. Finally, alert plans which are notifying social media participants of relevant news and company events. With the help of a matrix about participants, topics and mediums or channels are listed. Alert plans explain exactly how to inform company officials when predefined events occur e.g.: Advertisements Contracts Deals Hiring Product update Tradeshow appearance
In summary, a social media plan should outline on what platform which activity is undertaken by company officials. A responsibility table shows who is in charge of updating social media content and how often.
3.5
External and Internal Instruments
Business distinguishes between external and internal use of social media. Already established external instruments are combined with social media. Independent social media channels are internal instruments with restricted access to employees within an organisation. An integrated social media platform has the aim to support the communication structures in the company and the knowledge management. External interfaces focus on the use of marketing, public relations, human resources, research and development (Sten Franke et al. 2009, pp.1014). For marketing and public relations an additional element for companies in social media is the development of monitoring mechanisms. Moreover the internal use in the field of communication and knowledge management gave companies new unexpected possibilities. Social media technology gives large companies with global structures and several locations around the world true advantages. The adoption of Internet based collaboration tools on the corporate landscape is still ongoing (Onyechi et al. 2009, p.1 ff.). 3.5.1 External Instruments
External instruments do take advantage of social media communication and are represented by interactions of the organisation on social media channels. All external social media communication to participants always represents the values of the company. Therefore companies need social media guidelines mention in section 3.2 "Social Media Policy". 3.5.1.1 Marketing Another form of online marketing is social media marketing, branding and communication. Besides that, it is an integrated element of marketing communications of a company. The main goal is to reach as many participants as possible through numerous social media platforms. Target markets are approached by target groups in integrated marketing communication to get in contact with appropriate participants. Marketing communication coordinates all elements of the promotional mix (see also chapter 2, section 2.3 Social Media Marketing): advertising, direct marketing, direct marketing, public relations and sales promotion. It aims to communicate in customer-oriented way (Mangold & Faulds 2009, p.360). Marketing is a peculiar subject of the corporate social media framework. With the help of external agents, agencies, research institutes and public relations companies control frequency, timing and communication of marketing. Public relations over social media are also called social media relations (Parise et al. 2008).
3.5.1.2 Monitoring In contrast to chapter 2, section 2.5 "Social Media Corporate Monitoring", this section explains social media monitoring in a practical rather than a theoretical way. Thus, social media monitoring is one of the most important topics a company must have in its corporate social media framework. Systematic analysis and observation of social media conversations is the main task of monitoring. Monitoring gives a fast overview of issues and opinions of social media participants. Unlike other analysis methods social media monitoring is carried out continuously. In order to detect moods in discussions, a sentiment assessment of the individual opinions of a defined group is undertaken constantly. In situations of crisis or problems, alert plan mentioned in section 3.4 "Social Media Plan" are being used. Social media monitoring is primarily carried out by businesses to receive direct opinions, criticism and suggestions for products or services. Fortunately, there are a lot of free and tools to purchase that help companies to check communication channels for predefined terms. Mostly company name, brand name, product name have been chosen to alert social media officials. These tools allow companies to know where and when they are mentioned on the Internet by any media, blogs, newsgroups and social media platforms. Moreover, popular industry websites should be also under steady surveillance (Hollenhorst & Barrett 2009, slides 16-70). Social media contain conversations between participants, some are critical and others not. The communication with individuals takes place on profiles or in groups. Joining for example Twitter can give organisations the opportunity see a crisis before it comes. In this context social media acts as an early warning system. That is the reason why it is highly recommended to monitor social media (Rice 2010). Companies do have the choice of several free listening tolls are available on the Internet: Google Alerts Beta pipes Addict-o-matic Technorati Google Trends Socialmention HowSociable? Twilert
Not free listening tools are: Radian6
Scoutlabs Sysomos
For the monitoring process of social media activities several issues must be defined. Companies must consider the websites that have the most activity to the organisation and what kind of people do post about the company. An investigation about the people that are connected to other organisations is important for the company interest as well. Negative comments should be analysed carefully to counter. This is done for a better understanding of your brand presence in the Internet and to know which social media platforms companies should join to engage with potential consumers. The aim should always be the target markets and influencers, participants that act as an opinion leader. That is the reason why organisations must check their values against the chosen approach. Figure 17 explains the monitoring process in detail and illustrates the main tasks of each activity.
1. Conversation Discovery
Monitoring services Keyword watch lists Alerts
6. Conversation Archival
Conversation outcomes Influencer engagement histories Discussion pattern tracking
2. Conversation Aggregation
Feed readers Content aggregators Mail inbox
5. Conversation Tracking
Activity tracker Commenting system Mail threads
3. Conversation Escalation
Internal escalation paths Ticketing system Mailing lists
4. Conversation Participation
Direct (comments, posts, mail) Indirect (social bookmarks, tags) Offline (in-person)
Figure 17: Social Media Monitoring adapted from Hallett (based on Hallett 2009)
The discovery of conversations is the first and vital part of the monitoring process in companies. Officials set up monitoring services e.g. Google Alert are looking for mentions of the brand activity on the Internet and also on social media. Predefined keyword watch lists are constantly active and will trigger alerts, typically by mail, and inform company officials. Second, the conversation aggregation is undertaken. Feed readers are established for commercial purposes and customised content aggregators are combining all content. Besides that also mail inbox is screened for consumer input. Third, conversation escalation takes place to describe the internal escalation paths. The information flow in the company is defined to inform officials how to react in certain cases. Additionally, input of consumers is handled with a ticketing system and interested people can join mailing lists. Forth, the conversation participation is the stage when company officials interact on social media channels with consumers. There are three ways of conversation participation: Direct: comments, posts and mail Indirect: social bookmarks, tags Offline: in-person
Fifth, conversation tracking does follow the dialogues. The activities are tracked with an activity tracker to ensure that the company does not miss a discussion with consumers. Each commenting system will co-comment incoming comments for officials in the company. Besides, mail threads are checked and answered. Sixth, conversation archival ensures that lessons learned are conserved for other employees in the company. The outcome of conversation is important for future behavior and evades inconsistency. Additionally, the history of engagement with influencers is stored and analysed. The examination of the influencers can be used in future to convince them more. With the help of a discussion pattern tracking an overview of discussion topics are illustrated for company officials which helps to store the outcomes. 3.5.1.3 Distribution Depending on the industry, there are distribution chains which engages more or less distributors and sales representatives. For the distribution process all roles help to get the product from the factory to the end-user. Social media may be used for distribution to establish contacts with business partners and to sell products directly to customers. The company may build a direct selling network with the help of social media. The idea is to identify potential customers and then contact them through social media channels. That is the reason why companies should publish key figures
of their business to show potential customers the benefits. Moreover, Internet based distribution reduces costs (Cyganski & Hass 2011, pp.101120). 3.5.1.4 Human Resources Within human resource management social media offer great potential in terms of recruitment of staff. XING, LinkedIn, online job boards are vital talent communities and source for companies to hire staff. The ability to share knowledge about people is key to human resources. Figure 18 describes the contents of human resources combined with social media.
Human Resources
Talent Acquisiton Career Management Engagement and Communication
Figure 18: Human Resources Contents (based on Veluswamy 2009)
Talent acquisition is examined by many human resources scouts on social media platforms without the awareness of participants. New graduates are hired online on social media platforms. In separate social media channels new employees get to know each other before they even start to work for the company. In the end, a strong sense of belonging was created. Moreover, companies introduce on their websites groups of former employees. Career management is performed with elearning solutions to get customised overview of defined learning goals. Nevertheless, engagement and communication on social media are the source for human resources. People that are interested and making beneficial comments to company statements are more likely to be selected by scouts (Veluswamy 2009). While the benefits of social media tools are recognised by human resource departments, many personal and social purposes are still needed in daily business life. Therefore, the transition of the use of this powerful communication tool in the business environment will require significant internal changes (Ganouchi & Senn 2011, slides 5-19). 3.5.2 Internal Instruments
There is a growing market for all kind of software that increases the efficiency and effectivity of organisations. Just because organisations have discovered the advantages of using integrated tools such as social media in their company. According to Gartner 80% of internal company platforms will be based on Web 2.0 techniques in 2013 (Gartner 2009). One of the main benefits of social media in the corporate structures is the potential that improves communication, collaboration and knowledge management within the organisation. This additional
potential is growing with the company's size and spread over geographically dispersed locations of multinational companies (Onyechi et al. 2009, p.1 ff.). For example, IBM Lotus Sametime, a kind of integrated social network saved a global insurance company many hours of labour. Compared to traditional solutions the collaborative system did save more than 5% of the costs per month per employee (Schwaferts 2010, slides 21-23). 3.5.2.1 Communication Internal communication is a tool of corporate communication, which ensures the controlled information flow and sustains the dialogue between the management and the employees. Organisations were able to expand internal communication with the help of social media technologies in recent years. While various forms of oral and printed communication are not dispensable for companies, many organisations use social media in employee communication. Figure 19 illustrates a Matrix by Diebold (2009) of all instruments available for internal communication. Large Numbers
Employee Magazine Newsletter (Mail) Business Report Presentations RSS Podcasts, Video casts Intranet Meetings Events Videoconference Forum Wikis Social Media Platforms Micro blogging Corporate Blogs
Dialogue
Monologue
Letters, Mails
Seminar, Course Working Groups, Workshops Letters, Mails Individual Talks (in-person/phone) Newsletter Instant Messaging Team-Blogs
Small Numbers
Figure 19: Instruments of Internal Communication, adapted from Diebold (Diebold 2009, p.19)
Besides the classic intranet that many organisations already have implemented as the main medium for employee communication, social media technologies in particular allow new forms of information distribution and dialogue in companies. Applications such as forums and blogs with commenting functions are modern intranet solutions and make the dialogue more interactive. The basic idea of blogs is an exchange between author and reader. It is interesting that most of the instruments are Web 2.0 based communication media (in italic, Figure 19) Blogs and micro blogs allow to communicate with a large number of employees to engage in dialogue (Diebold 2009, p.19). With respect to the monologue communication, it often happens that the employee newsletter is often complemented by the e-newsletter or even replaced (Mast et al. 2006, p.199). 3.5.2.2 Knowledge Management The ability for organisations to separate the know-how from the carrier and spread this knowledge internally via new technologies is for many companies a valuable option. In the early beginning know-how has been written down by hand to spread it within a company. Social media technologies are being used to solve such business problems electronically. Wikis had and still have a triumphal march not only into the Internet, but also into organisations called expert Wikis (Anderson 2007). The most famous example of a wiki is for sure Wikipedia, but countless internal installations of wiki software have been set up for daily businesses on the corporate landscape. Wikis have emerged to a powerful internal knowledge management tool. A company wiki has the character of a collaborative working tool that allows employees to contribute information for specified groups via the local area network in organisations. The range of available Wiki software is enormous and to find the appropriate software that fits the company is a tough task. It usually depends on the requirements and the existing environment of each organisation (Sommergut 2007).
The Change in Companies with Social Media
This chapter explains the changes within the past 10 years in which social media forced many companies to line up their communication strategy completely. Social media reorganised in the whole departments, roles and functions which are involved in social media to a well coordinated powerful communication tool. From the own companys website to the social media presence, all must be accurately adjusted for social media e.g. compatible design. Still, social media do create a lot of traffic on a companys website what means that participants are following the hyperlinks in social media to the corporate website (Loubet 2011). With the help of a LIKE button appreciations are shared with the whole friend list. Other friends will follow and promote the brand, company, product or service too in order to keep the message viral. That is the reason why user generated content on social media gives consumers a more powerful own voice. Social media give participants the opportunity to write and actually see comments or feedback from other customers on products and services. In the end, this is part of the social corporate identity of an organisation (see chapter 2, section 2.7 "Social Media Corporate Identity"). This is the point where some companies are having serious trouble. Companies must be aware of what they are going to spread for the brand's message and they have to listen and care about these new communication channels.
4.1
Organisational Transformation
Many social media experts argue that a successful introduction of social media in organisations begins with the transformation of the organisation itself. Solis is the principal of Altimeter, a well known information technology research and advisory company, and expert for social media argues that change comes from the inside out of an organisation and he points out that the impact in the very beginning of a transformation is not scalable (Solis 2010). However, new formed positions and roles will cause a reorganisation of involved employees. This action will force organisations to transform their structures to the new requirements what ensures the following measurements (Solis 2010): Effective engagement Production Ensuring brand or product relevance
The efforts of organisations to use social media in a beneficial way do have a certain impact on strategies and organisational structures. In general, organisations lag behind social media developments. Ten years ago, every few years the mission statement and the organisational strategy
were revised. Today, every time a social media participant publishes a post organisations will review that post within a short time. The following sections will introduce models that help organisations in the alignment process of social media integration. The organisational model proposes several company structures for social media communications while the maturity model provides information on the maturity of an organisation. Afterwards, the effects on the value chain are examined. 4.1.1 Organisational Models
As explained before, there are many reasons for the restructuring of the organisations that are using social media. The question to answer is how social media should be arranged in organisations. So, companies do have the choice between several integration models that fits best into their culture for an effective collaboration. Though, social media cross lines between departments and divisions and weaken hierarchical levels within the institution. One option would be a group of experts which is centralised in the organisation. Another option would be a decentralised/distributed approach. A good overview for all opportunities is given by the model for organising social media published by the Altimeter Group. It illustrates the different arrangements of organisational structures which may be embedded for social media. Figure 20 shows the model with its five different organisational structures for social media.
Figure 20: Social Media Organisation Model (Jeremiah Owyang 2010, slide 6)
Centralised With the centralised implementation of social media, all activities on social media derive from one point in the organisation. The control is hold by one department, team or a person that leads to a consistent social media appearance. The negative implications are that this form of social media integration may not seem very authentic for participants. However, it provides a consistent flow of information trough social media channels. Distributed The distributed or decentralised organisation model bases on decentralised social media activities that are not coordinated from one point in the organisation. Authorised decentralised teams from different departments are allowed to engage on social media platforms. With such an approach the authenticity is given and that rises the responsibility of each authorised team and department. Coordinated (Hub-and spoke) Hub-and-spoke strikes a balance between centralised and distributed organisation model. The main hub sets rules, policies and procedures which the other hubs must follow. The implementation is undertaken in the decentralised units with their own efforts. This model spreads across the whole organisation which takes a lot of time. Multiple Hub-and-spoke or Dandelion Based on the hub-and-spoke model, multiple hub-and-spoke are controlled from a single point across brands and units. Decisions for brands, products and business units are controlled within the same hub-and-spoke which are coordinated from a position outside the system. Holistic or Honeycomb The holistic organisation model is nothing else than no restrictions for employees at all. Each employee is allowed to engage. It is not about an experimental procedure, it is about a holistic whole, where individual actions are coordinated. The collective in the honeycomb provides is in charge to control the actions in which employees are organised (Jeremiah Owyang 2010, slides 6-11).
Research by Altimeter among 140 corporate social strategists in companies revealed how they arrange their social media in their organisation. Figure 21 shows the percentage of each organisation model for social media.
Figure 21: Choice of Companies (Jeremiah Owyang 2010, slide 12)
The survey reported that the most companies (41%) installed a hub and spoke organisation for their social media activities. Followed by a centralised organisation model (28.8%) and multiple hub and spoke (18%). In reality, a mix of suitable contributions in social media may be more powerful than in traditional media. Centralised social media activities can direct all actions from the very beginning to the end while distributed decentralised social media activities are more authentic. However, in a decentralised organisation the lack of know-how in each individual may disturb the content distribution, that is the reason why more companies did choose a centralised rather than a decentralised organisation (Allen-Greil et al. 2011). 4.1.2 Maturity Model
At the beginning of social media introduction, an organisation must find out how mature it is with the usage of social media. A maturity models support organisations in several ways (van der Sleen 2009, slide 8): Determining where they are Identifying the next steps Offering of benchmarks
Afterwards, a decision how to approach the transformation can be made. In the past year, many concepts and models were developed to help organisations with the introduction of social media. The only model that is based on adoption is the social media maturity model, the vast majority are based on processes (e.g. capability maturity model integration) or do begin from scratch. This makes the social media maturity model very interesting for organisations that only want to adopt their existing model. The Dutch specialist for integration of business organisation and information M&I/Partners developed this maturity model to determine where the organisation stands in the implementation procedure of social media; the model specifies the maturity of an organisation. An organisation can be categorised into four separate stages: ad hoc, experimental, functional and transformation. In Figure 22 the model is illustrated with a distinction of tactical and strategic measures.
Figure 22: Social Media Maturity Model (van Luxemburg 2011)
Moreover, Figure 22 explains all stages in which the action are explained and additionally are indicated the steps that an organisation must take to reach the next level.
Ad hoc Ad hoc is the first stage of four stages in which employees start to social media projects on their own. This initial position is unstructured and not very useful to accomplish strategic goals (e.g. employee creates Facebook page). Unfortunately, the actions will not take positive effects on the inside of the organisation. Employees use social media for their own benefit in which business and private may have an overlap. However, decision makers of organisations have to accept the opportunities with social media. Experimental The experimental stage takes care of social media as an accepted phenomenon. Organisations start to explore the opportunities of social media with own projects e.g.: Setting up a Twitter account Linking to social media initiatives on organisations website Posting videos on YouTube
All the activities are in an experimental phases which could be reviewed after a certain time. In the departments experience is gained with the use of social media. For a more targeted approach a rising need for a social media strategy and policy will regulate each interaction. Nevertheless, the coordination of responses is still unstructured. The success depends on the employee that is in charge of the social media channel. Functional The functional stage is reached when experimental social media projects are integrated into the organisation. Already at this stage social media have been recognised by the organisation as a valuable tool for marketing campaigns. Decision makers do also use social media tools for communication purposes. In addition, social media may have the effect of multiplication when content goes viral on the social media platform and reaches friends of friends. The organisation has introduced a social media policy in which the best practices are described. A social media manager supervises social media activities with the help of monitoring tools (see chapter 3, section 3.5.1.2 "Monitoring"). Transformation In the transformation stage strategic actions take place in which the organisation appears close to the people. The boundaries between the organisation and stakeholders are disappearing. Social media are a fully integrated component of the organisation. Social media strategy, policy, concept and plan including external and internal instruments are defined and actively used. Different target
groups are approached, influencers are dealt with and projects are developed for a better value creation (see also van Luxemburg 2011). 4.1.3 Effects on the Value Chain
On the way to organisational transformation traditional functions frequently play out social media, while marketing employees promote events and highlight their own discipline. This phenomenon points out the natural behaviour of humans that transfer already recognised know-how into a new sphere (Allen-Greil et al. 2011). Of course social media put pressure on existing tasks and do have an effect on the value chain. The impact on the collaboration is certain and will transform the value chain. In combination with social media the complete unfolding of Porters value chain strengthens the organisations understanding which tasks deliver value to their products or services. Social media may also have a value added contribution to consumers. In the end, a social features may generate new and bind old customers to create a social branding factor (see chapter 2, section 2.6 "Social Media Corporate Branding"). By implementing social media features in a corporate environment, most business processes of the value chain in the whole organisation are affected. Figure 23 illustrates Michael Porters value chain extended with social media features.
Figure 23: Porter's Value Chain (Singh 2009)
Primary activities are those that deliver a direct value added contribution to the creation of a product or service. The basic model starts with the inbound logistics, production, outbound logistics, marketing & sales and service. Support activities are those actions that are necessary for the primary activities to be operational. They give a serious contribution to the creation of a product or service. Support activities are firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology and procurement. The value chain of an organisation is linked to the value chains of suppliers and buyers. They make up the supply chain system of an industry (Porter 1998, pp.3352). The most important value creating parts on Porters value chain will change drastically with social media. The focus lies on human resource management, marketing and sales and service. Other primary activities such as inbound logistics, Operations and outbound logistics that are having an value added revenue should be included and given the opportunity to offer social media value. Important developments should be passed over to social media officials e.g. in the marketing and sales division for engagement with participants on platforms. Internal incentives, financial or remunerative, may bring the motivation for employees to engage more. This method may give a lift to activities on social media. Support activities technology and firm infrastructure do not only provide further selections of information to share on social media, a social media platform could also be used outside an organisation. An alternative could be the publication of articles about successfully implemented technologies. For sure, a leak of secret information is a serious problem and might be the reason why it is too risky for an involvement of technology employees in social media. In any case, a social media manager must overview all activities of the organisation on each social media channel. Service Customer service plays an important role for social media and must be considered as a real after sales benefit for customers. Social media may have a positive effect on the reputation of the organisation or its brand by keeping the attraction to the products high. The information flow to customers is as well a true benefit for costumers and highly significant. Especially when new products are introduced or services are changed. Therefore changes are announced with participant interaction on social media, so negative surprises can be eliminated. Over all, additional information to consumers and costumers is very beneficial, beside the interactions. In the end, social media may develop to an online customer service which must be cared like an English garden. Human Resource Management Many organisations do forget that social media can be easily used for acquisition of talents. Particularly when it is too late and a gap of employees already exists social media increases the reach of new employees. This may lead to a research on the existing resources to evaluate the best pro-
file for upcoming applicants. By building a community for former and future employees a human resource management can make use of it as a pool for suitable candidates. Marketing Marketing first adopted social media techniques for their own field of activity. Thus, social media profiles are used to engage participants and create attraction. This leads to value added interactions. Also community building is a point where potential customers can be reached and attracted. Growing interest for organisations requires public relations on all channels which checks the content for a good reputation. Marketing should underline the sales support in social media to increase the happiness of the customers and to attract new customers.
4.2
4.2.1
Challenges of Social Media

Identified Challenges
More and more businesses are joining social media platforms to gain benefits, it is certain that the introduction of social media does not come without challenges. The biggest social media challenges are (Hill 2011): Creating new content Deciding what to publish Engaging with participants Having the time Measuring return on investment
For Hill it was not a surprise that "having time" and "creating new content" were reported as the biggest challenges yet. It is eminent to create new original content. So, it is possible for organisations to position themselves as innovation leaders which increases traffic on corporate websites and brand awareness. By creating more and more content, better search engine results are achieved. Organisations should focus on high new, quality and original content that requires professionals for the creation. Another difficulty is to find the right content at the right time. The decision what to publish is not an easy task. Even when participants are not engaging on the social media channel, organisations have to rethink their input and start with something they are familiar with. Although this is a very good move but will not be the best solution for social media fame. Progressive organisations will start to make use of animators; the same as at a holiday resort. The aim is to lead conversations and encourage engagement of participants with the help of animators (see also Wu 2010).
The best content is useless if organisations are not talking to participants. The engagement with participants is crucial for a successful social media presence. Though, the costs of great content does not pay if participants are not talking about it. Social media content must be entertaining, interesting and valuable to engage participants. One of the biggest challenge is to deal with the enormous amount of time that social media swallow. For participant satisfaction, all requests on social media channels have to be answered by the organisation within an adequate timeframe. Having the time for these tasks is difficult to comply. Social media are permanent processes and do not have a limit. Other tasks may have a higher priority but they also must be done. After the integration of social media into the organisation, companies are wondering what the return on investments are. The easiest way is to look at the numbers: website traffic, search engine rankings, followers, likes, shares, comments etc. (see chapter 2, section 2.5 "Social Media Corporate Monitoring"). If the numbers are rising, organisations will recognise the value (see also Hill 2011). 4.2.2 Identified Success Factors
There must exist success factors that have successful organisations in common. These factors can help other organisation to avoid mistakes. With the help of the illustrated challenges, it is possible to derive the factors of a successful social media usage (see also Brand Science Institute 2010, slide 2): Corporate thinking Customer focus Management understanding Many likes or followers Support 24/7
Social media channels are not only there for marketing purposes. Corporate thinking must take part in organisations. Only marketing on social media channels leaves organisations extremely vulnerable (Hensch 2011). Marketing is looking for the revenue, it avoids interactions with participants. In the case of Mammut that was the main problem (see section 4.2.3.1 "Showcase Mammut"). It is vital for organisations to keep focus on customers but on no one else. Answered posts of customers by companies gives potential customers the feeling of being heard. That is the reason why requests of customers always have priority. Participants on social media channels must have the impression that the company takes care about their issues.
The management must have the understanding of social media channels. Top decision makers barely have an idea for what social media are useful, they just gave the permission to use it as a tool (Sicking 2011). The problem comes with the lack of technical and social understanding. Many likes or followers protect social media channels from unwanted posts e.g. criticisms. Such posts are easier to detect on small channels than on big ones. In the beginning of a social media presence, organisations must catch as fast as possible many likes or followers to set up a shield against such risks. Social media have no opening hours, it is always available. This makes it hard for organisations to take care of their social media channels 24/7. But it is meant to be like a 24/7 support channel. Participants do not study the office opening hours, they are posting requests also on weekends. So organisations have the responsibility to handle requests at any time. At best technicians join together with managers to work together for a change. Organisations need to prepare themselves for that (see also Hensch 2011). 4.2.3 What is a Shitstorm?
In German speaking countries a shitstorm describes a social media interaction in which massive outrage against an organisation, brand or an individual is expressed by numerous participants. The dictionary Duden defines a shitstorm as a "storm of protest in a communication channel on the Internet, which is associated partially with insulting comments" (Duden 2012). Typically a shitstorm consists of posts on Twitter or Facebook in which are a mixture of criticism and irrelevant messages are spoken out. In Germany, the term was elected Anglicism of 2011 (Stefanowitsch 2012). In addition, shitstorms get much attention from the media what increases the pressure on the receiver to respond to criticism. In English, the term shitstorm refers more generally to an unpleasant situation. 4.2.3.1 Showcase Mammut The company Mammut, which supports climate protection and save resources, has always been recognised as a green organisation. Its CEO who sits in the board of economiesuisse involved Mammut for a reasonable CO2 law, which among other things means putting the company logo on the campaign website. After a while the Facebook page of Mammut was covered by countless posts with negative comments that stated Mammut must stop the support of the campaign against the CO2 law. Mammut responded with a public relations press release in a unauthentic and an uninspired way. After less than a day, Mammut finally announced to withdraw from the campaign website and suddenly ended the shitstorm (see also chapter 5, section 5.1.3.10 "Mammut").
Lessons Learned What would have happened if Mammut did not rethink their support of a political campaign, can only be guessed. A damage of the image and reputation is the worst case an organisation on social media can expect that may result in revenue losses (e.g. a boycott call). Fortunately, Mammut acted within 24 hours and mitigate the shitstorm (Bisculm 2011). It was a short debate which professionally came to an end. From the shitstorm against Mammut can be drawn several lessons learned for organisations and individuals for a better use of social media. The short answer: Stay calm and take time to observe social media channels. Following listing summarises the lessons learned (see also Hensch 2011): An objective discussion is not possible Authenticity and transparency will be appreciated Be professional and react without emotions Declared values and dissimilar behaviour may lead to shitstorms Fast, effective actions are useful Marketing, public relations or copy paste messages do not calm down the outrage Respond in a way which makes sense Understand the motivation behind the fans
4.2.3.2 Shitstorm Scale A shitstorm analysis is not an exact science; not all online protests do have an equal strength. The perceived intensity of a shitstorm possibly will differ from person to person and therefore is subjective feeling rather than an objective perception. That is the reason why an empirical experience does matter for an analysis. Since shitstorm behave almost like the wind to the weather Graf and Schwede (2012) developed a shitstorm scale with the help of the Beaufort wind scale which bases on observations of sea and wind. For instance when huge waves, completely white sea, air filled with driving spray and greatly reduced visibility are reported, this observation matches Beaufort scale number 12 "hurricane". Graf and Schwede tried to apply the Beaufort scale on social media by reducing the 12 number scale to a 0 to 6 number scale what allows an objective categorisation of shitstorms. In Table 1 the shitstorm scale is presented. The columns behind the scale number explain the impact on social media and the media. The scale appears to be one of the best classification option of shitstorms available.
Scale
Wind Term
calm
Sea
Silence, smooth sea
Social Media
No critical responses.
Media reports
No media reports.
light air
Quiet, ruffled sea
Occasional criticism of individuals without resonance.
No media reports.
light breeze
Slightly moving sea
Repeated criticism of individuals. W eak reactions of the community on the same channel.
No media reports.
moderate breeze
moderately moving sea
Steady critics of individuals. Rising reactions of the community. Distribution to further channels.
Media is interested. First articles in blogs and online media. Numerous blogs and reports in online media. First article in print media.
strong breeze
rough sea
Emergence of a networked protest group. The growing, active follower channels. audience across all
storm
strong sea
Protest developing into a campaign. Much of the audience growing opts for participating. Package, highly emotional accusations, cross-channel chain reaction.
Full blog posts. Follow-up article in online media. Growing number of articles in classical media (print, radio, television)
hurricane
heavy sea
Snowball effect with concerned participants. Atmosphere mostly aggressive, abusive, threatening.
Number
one
headline
in
online media. Intensive coverage in all media.
Table 1: Weather Report for Social Media (based on Graf & Schwede 2012)
At the highest scale, 6, the shitstorm is categorised as a hurricane. The mood of participants is mainly aggressive, abusive, threatening. In addition, all media, online, print and television report about the outrage.
4.3
Suggestions for Organisations
For a lot of companies social media may feel like a stream of endless opportunities to share information on a brand for marketing purposes. But just sharing some information e.g. press releases would not be sufficient or adequate enough for a good social media presence. There are several ways to improve the actions for companies on social media. Following sections are giving suggestions to organisations to advance their appearance (see also Edelstein 2011). 4.3.1 Definition of Objectives
It is important to understand the intentions and to prepare the objectives of social media. With the clear definition of objectives, it is possible to measure success and failure. Success cannot be measured or reported, if objectives have not been clearly defined before. This should be the number one priority of an organisation while each employee must accept to invest a lot of time. 4.3.2 Social Media Rules
What comes also in mind is a companywide social media policy. The imagination that numerous employees across departments are uncontrollably posting on social media channels about their company without any limits would make the coolest boss nervous. Impacts of social media can be managed by social media policy which gives employees a guidance. The point is clear; legal risks and information leaks must be prevented with a social media policy. 4.3.3 Employee Training
To build trust with our audiences, we need to cultivate trustful relationships within the organisation. Training, raising awareness, and promoting collaboration amongst staff are critical pieces of any social media strategy. Most of the social media initiatives make use of multiple social media channels, but do not know how to coordinate them. Experienced social media users are more effective and are aware of risks. Education and instruction must be part of the given social media access to employees. In addition, employees that do not have access to social media must also be informed how the organisation is using social platforms. This avoids misunderstandings. However, one big problem is to motivate employees to accept social media. A study by Onyechi and Abeysinghe (2009) revealed that the acceptance of social media is decreasing with the age. According to these users under the age of 35 may have a significantly increased acceptance of social media in the workplace than their older colleagues (Onyechi et al. 2009, p.1 ff.).
4.3.4
Organisational Definition
Organisations must align structure of social media. Questions about responsibility and roles of social media must be answered in advance in the social media strategy. The introduction of a new role called social media manger is useful for keeping the social media under watch. 4.3.5 Empower Social Media Officials
In the whole organisation social media officials need to be empowered and recognised. Organisations need social media experts that help through the organisational transformation. Internal instruments for knowledge management such as a wiki may help to share expert know-how and information about the latest issues (see also chapter 3, section 3.5.2.2 "Knowledge Management"). Empowered social media officials may use such tools to declare policies and guidelines for employees.
Evaluation of Corporate Social Media
This chapter evaluates corporate social media communication. Section 5.1 describes the analysis of Facebook timelines of 10 companies and its results and conclusion. In the following, section 5.2 illustrates the findings of the online survey and its findings. Finally, this section is completed with a conclusion.
5.1
Analysis of Company Timelines on Facebook
Timeline is the new term for a Facebook profile on which interactions take place. Through content, friends, likes and milestones the company story can be told (Facebook 2012). An analysis is the systematic examination of a subject or an object by breaking it down into its components to get an improved perception. This method has been undertaken in several academic disciplines. In mathematics and logic even Aristotle's (384 322 B.C.) made use of analysis since before. However, the consolidation of analysis as a formal concept is an exceptionally recent development (Baeney 2009). The Oxford Dictionaries define analysis as the "resolution into simpler elements by analysing (opp. synthesis)" (Oxford Dictionaries 2012). Figure 24 indicates the five steps of the timeline analysis from the selection of companies to the analysis result:
1. Select Comparable Companies 2. Analysis Criteria
3. Timeline Analysis
4. Identify Participant Interaction 5. Results and Conclusion
Figure 24: Analysis Methodology
The first step must be initiated to discover and to select comparable companies with a Facebook fan page five Italian companies and five Swiss companies that can be compared with each other for this analysis. For that reason, the main comparison criteria is the same branch of industry
of the five pairs companies. Additionally to the branch of industry, the number of followers/fans must be approximately equal for similar circumstances. Second, the analysis criteria defines the elements which should be split up from the brand timeline page. These elements will be analysed in detail. Third, the timelines of the pairs of companies will be analysed. Third, the timelines are checked in the light of consumer interactions. The last part of the analysis is the analysis result in which the findings of each company timeline are illustrated. A conclusion is presented in the end. 5.1.1 Company Selection Process
The search for companies in Italy and Switzerland with comparable parameters is not an easy task. The challenge is to find an Italian and a Swiss company that is more or less equivalent and to build five pairs of Swiss and Italian companies. In total, over 60 Italian and Swiss companies and brands were examined including a short review of their Facebook page. In the beginning the definition of the factors are crucial for the selection process. Following factors must be considered for the selection process: Country difference: Italy and Switzerland Branch of industry Facebook page Similar number of likes
Within the selection process the best matches are chosen to achieve an analysis. In Table 2 companies were paired and reviewed but not selected for the Facebook timeline analysis: Italy
Alessi (coffee) Angelini (Pharmaceutical) Autogrill Barilla Barilla Basso (bicycle) Benetton Group Bianchi (bicycle) Brionvega (electronics) Chicco (toys) DeLonghi (coffee machines) Diesel Dolce & Gabbana Ferrari
Switzerland
Kaba Group (doors) Lonza Group Valora Pasta Rthlin Ricola Simple.ch (bicycle) Schild Scott Sports (bicycle) ABB Franz Carl Weber Jura (coffee machines) Manor Globus Pilatus Aircrafts
Ferrero Fiat Galbani Geloso (electronics) Geox Giorgio Armani Gucci Italcementi (material) Lavazza Marelli (electronics) Maserati Max Mara Menarini (Pharmaceutical) Merlo (machines) Moby Lines (ferries line) Officine Panerai Parmalat Pinarello (bicycle) Riva Group (steel) San Pellegrino Sardinia Ferries (ferries line) Segafredo (coffee) Technogym (fitness equipment) Trussardi Venieri (machines) Zenith (office accessories)
Lindt & Sprngli Auto AG (transportation) Emmentaler Holcim Mammut Charles Vgele PKZ Schindler Group Nespresso Implenia Stadler Rail (train) Feldpausch Nobel Biocare Sika (machines) Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstttersees Swatch Emmi BMC (bicycle) Von Roll Rivella Zrichsee Schifffahrt Blasercaf (coffee) Shark Fitness (fitness equipment) Jelmoli ABB Victorinox
Table 2: Not chosen Companies
The selection of companies is focusing on business-to-consumer (B2C). Understandably, companies with business-to-business (B2B) do search less contact in social media or do not have a social media presence. That is the reason why the selection is limited to companies focusing on consumers.
After checking the crucial factors of each company pair for the analysis and review, 10 companies were selected for the Facebook timeline analysis (Table 3): Italy
Lavazza Parmalat Officine Panerai Barilla Geox
Switzerland
Nespresso Emmi Swatch Ricola Mammut
Table 3: Chosen Companies
5.1.2
Analysis Criteria
The analysis criteria include a collection of elements which are used for examination. The analysis process cares about how much the timelines achieve their purpose from the given criteria catalogue. Each company has its own strategy for the presence on Facebook timeline and sets of course different priorities. The chosen criteria are containing common functions and options of Facebook 's timeline (Gage Marketing 2012, slides 5-17). 5.1.2.1 Timeline Presence Cover Photo Perhaps one of the first view on a company's Facebook timeline page is the cover photo on top of the page which creates the first impression to participants. Not to be confused with the quadratic profile picture on the left, the cover photo comes with several limitations. The size of the cover photo is limited to 850x315 pixels and there is no function to call an action within the cover photo. There is no way for any action e.g. likes, hyperlinks or story sharing. Profile Picture The Profile Picture is the quadratic image on the left over the cover photo. It is presented as a thumbnail in the news feed stories, as an advertisement, in sponsored stories and comments of the profile. The best solution is to choose an image that is well-known, easily identifiable and does have a good appearance at both 180x180 pixels and 32x32 pixels. Fan Gates The ability to install a fan gate or a simple welcome page has been withdrawn by Facebook since the introduction of timeline. Participants who are not fans of a certain page cannot be redirected automatically to a specific panel inside the page. Every visitor lands always on the timeline of the
fan page. However, new fans can be generated by advertisements. In the application "Facebook Ads" a landing view can be defined. Thus, participants that clicked on the advertisement while logged in on Facebook will be redirected to the specified page. Figure 25 shows the creation of an advert on Facebook. The landing view can be chosen directly in the field "Landing View" from the available panels including pages or applications of the advertised Facebook page.
Figure 25: Screenshot of Advertise on Facebook (Facebook, Inc. 2012)
After introduction of the timeline concept, it was no longer possible to implement a traditional fan gate. This feature is now available again with the help of adverts (Wiese 2012). Timeline Caring The timeline captures the history of a company with many posts, photos and milestones. This is giving participants a visual roadmap of the emergence of the company up to date. Companies should not underestimate the importance of a well described timeline history. Every company can go back in time and add company milestones onto the timeline. Therefore, an analysis of the archived content is necessary e.g. milestones, important events. Furthermore, wall posts can be pinned and highlighted to the top of the timeline. The analysis concentrates on the first three posts of the timeline by the company. Panels Apps, photos, videos and likes are arranged in a sequence of panels below the cover photo and before the timeline starts with the latest entry. The arrangement of the panels has to be chosen wisely; the panels are limited to a total of 12, four panels are shown without expanding the listing and the first panel is permanently reserved for photos. So the analysis takes a look at the choices of the order.
As mentioned in chapter 3, section 3.1 "Social Media Strategy", it is all about engagement. So the question is, does the Facebook presence increase engagement? The analysis wants to divide the creativity of the timeline, visual appearance and the interaction with participants. In the end, the big picture of a Facebook page is important. The analysis will outline the offered apps, featured offers or promotions, call to actions, events and links. 5.1.2.2 Participant Interaction Approach For analysing the interaction of companies with participants on Facebook timeline several criteria must be defined. Logically, consumer interaction of companies can be distinguished in the following two categories: action reaction
On the one hand an action is nothing more than corporate communication for example publishing a press release. On the other hand a reaction addresses a comment or a post of a participant. Reactions can be undertaken by commenting directly visible to all participants or by a private text message. Average Response Time The calculation of an average response time to a participant request gives answers to the quickwittedness of the maintenance of the Facebook page. For measuring this value the average response time of the latest 20 replies to participant posts will be calculated. The calculation makes it possible to compare how fast each company or brand reacts. Negative posts The handling of negative feedback and critical opinions is a very difficult and sensitive matter. Company officials must adequately behave themselves, otherwise the dispute may develop from a critical reaction to a massive shitstorm against the company (Duden 2012). That is the reason why negative posts and the reaction to them will be analysed. This will give an insight view of the different reactions techniques of each company.
5.1.3
Timeline Analysis
5.1.3.1 Lavazza Timeline Presence Lavazza is a famous Italian coffee producer. The Facebook page does provide a tidy initial impression. After a while a kind of an empty feeling arises. Figure 26 shows a screenshot of the head of the page. The cover photo presents a white cup of coffee with its chocolate brown coloured liquid and makes the coffee shine down the presence. The profile picture shows the company logo with its slogan "Italy's favourite coffee" and seems reasonable. Lavazza does also have additional fan pages on Facebook for different countries. The selected presence is the international profile of Lavazza which is reflected by the language mix of the comments and the higher amount of likes (app. 100,000). Particularly the country profiles do address only country-specific characteristics. Lavazza does also take care of their timeline from the founding back in 1895 in Torino until today. Every important step in the history of Lavazza appears on the timeline.
Figure 26: Screenshot of Lavazza 's Facebook Page
The company information in the section about wants to suggest that Lavazza is the real Italian coffee experience. There are eight tabs that are containing mandatory sections photos, the number of
likes and worldwide events. A special application where participants can share their own Lavazza experience e.g. pictures of a cappuccino on a world map makes the page somewhat interactive. Further, the page mediates the official sponsor of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships frequently. With numerous pictures and statements e.g. "Congrats Mr Federer from the Official Supplier of the Real Italian Espresso Experience at Wimbledon!" participants really feel the strong commitment of Lavazza to the Wimbledon Championships. Participant Interaction Lavazza publishes content at least three times a week. Posts with text only are rare, in most cases text is underlined with a picture or a video in combination with "The Italian Experience" Facebook app. A selection of participant posts are outlined on the Facebook page to boost interactions and likes to the content. The main posts are written in English, but there are numerous Italian posts of Lavazza what underlines the international presence. The average response time to a participant is within 24 hours. Overall, reactions of Lavazza are well considered and give a good explanation to asked issues. In most cases critical and negative posts of participants are passed on to an e-mail address, only a minority will be answered directly. Figure 27 shows the reaction of Lavazza to a suggestion about compatible machines. This clearly shows the allocation of challenging reactions to participants suggestions, criticism and negative posts to the right addressee inside the company.
Figure 27: Screenshot of a Participant Suggestion
Summary Lavazza 's Facebook page does bring true benefits to the consumers e.g. pictures of Wimbledon Championships. The company guides the consumers from the international to the national level and the right contact persons. Consumers really get the feeling that the company does care about their issues. Despite the small number of nearly 100,000 fans, the presence exudes a unique Italian flair in which the milestones in the history of Lavazza is well described on the timeline.
Strengths + Fast response time + Allocation of consumer interaction to the right places inside the company + Underlining great sponsorships + Timeline history
Weaknesses - Cover photo - Time consuming individual answers
5.1.3.2 Nespresso Timeline Presence Nespresso is the coffee capsules product division of the company Nestl and possesses an own Facebook page "Nespresso". The initial impression of the fan page is a colourful and stylish one; corporate identity is highly respected. That is the reason why Nespresso does not highlight consumer posts on their timeline. Moreover, every single picture does have a professional look. A visitor of the Nespresso fan page will only see professional produced photographs. Figure 28 shows a screenshot of the head of the page. The cover photo presents a selection capsules with different flavours that are falling from the dark onto a goldenrod coloured table. The profile picture illustrates the product logo "N". There exist no other Nespresso fan page what is explaining the big amount of likes (over 1.7 million likes). For sure, the profile is international since there is no other profile for Nespresso. Logically, the language mix is even bigger on such an international only presence. Interestingly, the house rules are signed by the Nespresso marketing team. This reveals that the page has clearly a marketing purpose and does fit into the marketing strategy of Nespresso.
Figure 28: Screenshot of Nespresso 's Facebook Page
The about section does point out that it is the official fan page of Nespresso. The linking of several other social media becomes the key of the website. For instance, pictures are published on timeline with the help of Instagram, a photo sharing social media, which is currently in purchase negotiations with Facebook (Gelles & Dembosky 2012). Other linking's to YouTube and Twitter are also used and integrated into the Facebook page. A recycling guide is published on the panel Ecolaboration which is giving instructions what to do with empty capsules. Besides the poll app is asking participants to rate the latest advertisements or vote for a new product. In addition, a integrated worldwide store finder application helps to find the nearest point of sale. Participant Interaction Usually, Nespresso publishes content two times a week and a posting of Nespresso comes always with a picture. After all no participant posts are outlined on the timeline what makes the interaction pretty unilateral. More irritating appears the standard phrase to suggestions or questions which is posted like an automated machine response: "We will pass your request on to the appropriate team. Have a nice day!". Major language written on timeline is English but since it is an international profile other languages are also encountered. The average response time to a participant is over 3 days. But there are numerous posts of participants with a matter of concern where there exists no response at all. The reactions of Nespresso are once again standard phrases and give no personal feeling. Critical and negative posts are unanswered but are deleted after a few weeks to let grass grow over it. Today, the shitstorm that Nespresso experience in September 2011 is completely vanished from the timeline. The controversy has been started by the Swiss Labour Assistance (SAH) with the publication of Facebook advertisements and of a video on Youtube which criticises the exploitation of coffee farmers. The aim was to force Nespresso into a higher payment of coffee farmers and to offer fair trade products (Solidar Suisse 2011). Figure 29 shows a critical posting of a consumer who wants a change the products of Nespresso to fair trade.
Figure 29: Screenshot of a Critical Posting on Nespresso 's Timeline
The reaction of Nespresso was a standard answer to all posts replied again and again on the timeline. This has slowed the campaign of SAH significantly. Nevertheless, a direct dialog was not established to each of the critics but conquered with an own advertising campaign (Hutter 2011). It is certain that a more direct interaction would have been a bigger impact against the shitstorm. Summary Nespresso 's Facebook page does keep consumers up to date e.g. new products and also gives them the ability to give in feedback on products with polls. The marketing team is fully in charge of the profile. This may lead to impersonal answers because of the lack of time the marketing team does have. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is to have an overview of the profile with its 1.7 million followers. That is the reason why some of the comments or suggestions are unanswered. However, after all Nespresso tries to handle all requests in an adequate time frame with a reasonable answer, even with more than 1.7 million likes.
Strengths + More than 1.7 million likes + Professional design
Weaknesses - Standard answers - Response time - Unanswered comments
5.1.3.3 Parmalat Timeline Presence Parmalat is an Italian food producer and presents itself on a relatively small Facebook page (44,000 likes). The cover photo is inspired by the mint cream colour of the profile picture "Parmalat Il latte oggi". Besides the standard panels photos, videos and likes, there are only two more panels to chose what leaves a clear overview. The timeline comes with professional photographs presumably originating from several product labels or old advertisements e.g. milk man. This is a very common solution for having interesting pictures published exclusively on timeline. Figure 30 shows a screenshot of the Facebook page which is mainly build for the Italian market and therefore a national profile.
Figure 30: Screenshot of Parmalat 's Facebook Page
The about section does point out important facts and figures about Parmalat. The only two more panels contain new products with explanations e.g. Parmalat BLU.
Participant Interaction Parmalat publishes content two times a week and always with pictures. A selection of participant posts are shared and outlined on the Facebook timeline. The main posts are written in Italian, but there are some English posts too. Many benefits come with the Parmalat page e.g. recipes and as well ideas for a better meal. The average response time to a participant is within 2 days. Overall, reactions of Parmalat are very personal and give a good explanation to asked issues. The company wants to have direct and personal conversations with participants. Again and again recipes are presented and discussed with participants. Questions are answered directly on the timeline or over private messages. In most cases critical and negative posts of participants are passed on to a phone number or will be answered directly. Summary Parmalat 's Facebook page does give consumer benefits in order to have a better meal. Posts by Parmalat are always kind and helpful within an adequate time frame. Strengths + Personal answers + Fast response time + Benefits e.g. recipes Weaknesses - No timeline history - Cover photo
5.1.3.4 Emmi Timeline Presence Emmi is a Swiss food producer. The Facebook page does have a colourful first impression. Figure 31 shows a screenshot of the head of the page. The cover photo presents new product with a crimson red coloured background. Interestingly, the profile picture is showing a marmot and the official Facebook page is called after the animal "Emmi Murmeli". This seems kind of childish but this is the official national page of Emmi with only 6,500 likes. The reason why is that there are more Emmi profiles on Facebook. Emmi does create Facebook pages for each product. For instance, the Facebook page "Emmi CAFF LATTE" does have more than 74,500 likes.
Figure 31: Screenshot of Emmi 's Facebook Page
The about section does point out that it is a game with marmots, known from Emmi TV commercials. The panels contain videos, a funny marmot app and a special section for Frufoo. In contrast to Parmalat, many comments from Emmi are posted without a picture just to inform participants on ongoing events. Pictures posted are all with products that are promoted.
Participant Interaction Emmi publishes content at least two times a month. The main posts are written in German, but there are some posts in other languages too. The average response time to a participant is within 24 hours. Overall, reactions of Emmi are kind and give relevant information. Suggestions and questions are answered directly on the timeline or by leaving a direct phone number. In most cases critical posts are commented with a personal statement. Emmi faced a kind of shitstorm because of a no longer produced children quark in the form of a UFO with a little alien in the packaging. In 2004, the UFOs were dropped by the producer Onken because of low demands. Today, all trademarks of the brand Onken belong to Emmi. On a Facebook page "We want to have again Frufoo - Petition" with over 14,000 fans participants want to force Emmi to produce again Frufoo. After rising critics Emmi published a statement directly on the Frufoo fan page. Figure 32 shows the complete text in which the circumstances of the product Frufoo are described. The spokesperson of the company communication division explained in detail that at this time the infrastructure of Emmi is not able to produce the Frufoo product.
Figure 32: Screenshot of Emmi 's Statement about Frufoo
The reaction on this statement was enormous. Many participants understood now why Emmi could not produce the product, but hardcore fans still could not accept the explanation and the negative comments continued to rise. That is the reason why Emmi decided to set up a panel "Free Frufoo Shirt" in July 2012. Emmi wants to say thank you to all Frufoo with a t-shirt (see Figure 33): "I wanted Frufoo back and all I got was this lousy shirt".
Figure 33: Screenshot of Emmi 's Frufoo Panel
This reaction really surprise the Frufoo fan community in a positive way and marked the decline of criticism. Nevertheless, there are still fans of Frufoo that still cannot understand the decision and are posting negative comments on the timeline of Emmi (Figure 34).
Figure 34: Screenshot of a Negative Post
Summary Emmi 's Facebook page "Emmi Murmeli" does have a small number of likes because of several separate product pages e.g. Emmi CAFF LATTE. The product pages are competing with the Emmi main page. The reaction on a rising concern is exemplary and prevents more negative reaction. Strengths + Product specific fan pages + Fast response time + Good reaction on criticism Weaknesses - Small number of likes (7,000)
5.1.3.5 Officine Panerai Timeline Presence Officine Panerai is the Italian watch manufacturer which develops and produces watches with Italian design. The about page highlights that "Panerai is a high-end status sports brand that operates in a niche segment, fully exploiting its values of belonging that allow Panerai owners to feel part of an exclusive Club." The first impression of the fan page is a very elegant and luxurious one. Also the shape and the bisque colour of the watch made of metal is graceful. Figure 35 shows a screenshot of the top of the page in which the cover photo presents the form of a watch. The profile picture is showing the product logo. Professional produced photographs of watches and well designed shops are posted regularly to keep the participants updated on the latest developments.
Figure 35: Screenshot of Officine Panerai 's Facebook Page
Officine Panerai does have only one presence on Facebook which is therefore an international profile. The linking between social media is actively supported with three panels of Twitter, YouTube and Google+. Interestingly, a welcome page wants to animate new followers. From this it can be concluded that the profile is directed by the marketing division (see section 5.1.2.1 "Timeline Presence"). Unfortunately, Officine Panerai does not take care of their company history on timeline. There is only one entry on the timeline in the 150 year old history of the company founded in 1860.
In the movie expendables directed by Sylvester Stallone, lead actors have been featured wearing a Panerai "PAM 382" watch throughout the movie. When it comes to military watches, Panerai have built a value that many elite squads in the world want to have. The use of Officine Panerai watches during special operations have a long heritage partnership with Panerai. Participant Interaction Officine Panerai publishes content three times a month. There are no posts from participants online on Facebook timeline. The main posts are written in English, but there are some Italian posts too. Summary Officine Panerai 's Facebook page stands for luxury which is represented with pictures from a sponsored yachts competition. Sadly, the timeline does not provide information on the company that is founded back in 1860. Some milestones of the history of Officine Panerai would be interesting.
Strengths + Product presentation + Represents luxury
Weaknesses - No timeline history - Unanswered requests
5.1.3.6 Swatch Timeline Presence SWATCH is a Swiss wrist watch producer well known for stylish plastic watches. The Facebook page does have a provocative question on the cover photo: "What happens when you push the button of fun?". This underlines the innovation and the surprise of SWATCH designs. Its "trendsetting design, fashionable colours and rugged, sporty materials" perfectly fit into a motocross racer on the cover photo in Figure 36.
Figure 36: Screenshot of Swatch 's Facebook Page
SWATCH uses the full potential of Facebook and applied the maximum of 12 panels. From video contests over the watch collection on Facebook, top fans can be voted and rated in an own application. Moreover, a lot of sponsored persons are representing the brand on the panel "Swatch PROTEAM". They are all stand to the product and stand with their names for SWATCH. The social media linking to Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube is fully integrated on the Facebook page the
transition is fluid. The history of SWATCH is well described on the timeline and starts with a picture of the first SWATCH watches in 1980. Interestingly, the official SWATCH Facebook page "Swatch" is an international presence which contains a panel "SWATCH World" where more than 40 countries do have their own national profile (see Figure 37).
Figure 37: Screenshot of Swatch 's National Profiles
The profiles are adapted to each nation and its own characteristics, most obvious is the language. Besides the national pages an application promotes the best watch after completing a question catalogue. Participant Interaction SWATCH publishes content very frequently, at least 4 times a week. The main posts are written in English, but there are some posts in other languages too. At first glance, it looks like a browser issue because posts were not published on the Facebook page. However, it is not possible to post directly on SWATCH 's timeline. SWATCH suppresses posts by participants on their own timeline in the section "Manage permissions" in the Facebook settings. In conclusion, the average response time cannot be determined. Even on national profiles timeline posts are hidden. The only way to participate on Facebook with SWATCH is by commenting existing posts on timeline. This post restriction is surprising, especially SWATCH did not experience a shitstorm at all. Perhaps this solution prevents problems that may occur with more than 900,000 fans.
Summary SWATCH truly possesses a fully equipped Facebook page with the maximum panels allowed. Although SWATCH wipes out the postings of all participants. As a result valuable interactions do not take place. This strategy may be smart to save time for their employees but participants cannot state their opinion.
Strengths + International and national pages + Good timeline history + Information on products
Weaknesses - Suppresses posts - Low interaction
5.1.3.7 Barilla Timeline Presence Barilla is an Italian food company founded 1877 in Parma. Figure 38 shows the cover photo in which three faces are made of pasta on a black background. After a while the black background affects the page in a depressing way. The profile picture shows the red and white company logo with a navy blue coloured background. On the Facebook page the most spoken language is Italian. Therefore, the profile "Barilla" is a national representation in Italy. There are other Barilla fan pages for France and US market. With eight used panels Barilla does have almost 70,000 likes while Barilla US does have more than 290,000 likes. A fan gate pushes participants from advertisements to click on the like button of Barilla. Barilla also does take care of its timeline and outlines the milestones of the company until today.
Figure 38: Screenshot of Barilla 's Facebook Page
The about section, written only in Italian, explains the history of Barilla that dates back in 1877. A calendar illustrates important events while the application "Casa Barilla" invites participants to come to events across Italy. Nevertheless, a netiquette section explains the rules clearly.
Participant Interaction Barilla acts actively and publishes content two times a week. The posts are written in Italian plus there are also some minor posts in English. The biggest benefit comes with the recipe advices and builds an information channel for new Barilla products. The average response time to a participant is within 24 hours. Overall, reactions of Barilla are very kind and give a good explanation on the issues. The company wants to have a direct involvement with participants and this is underlined in a collection of provoking pictures. Suggestions, questions and critical posts are answered directly on the timeline. Sometimes requests of participants are passed on to a phone number. Summary Barilla 's Facebook page does give consumers advice for better use of their products. All benefits are in order to have a better meal. A weakness is that the presence is only described in Italian. Of course there is a separate page for the US market but a lot of English speaking participants do not want to be part of a page that is named "Barilla US". Nevertheless, replies by Barilla are always kind and very helpful.
Strengths + Information on products + Timeline history + Benefits e.g. recipes
Weaknesses - Presence only in Italian
5.1.3.8 Ricola Timeline Presence Ricola is a herb drops manufacturer located in Laufen, Switzerland. There exists only an international Facebook page of Ricola, there exist no other national pages. The first view of the cover photo in Figure 39 brings the Swiss alps onto the screen of participants with the famous mountain view of the Matterhorn, while the profile picture shows the Ricola logo. The sharp grey coloured mountain is reflected in a tarn and does outline the natural product of Ricola herbs drops. Swissness plays an important role at Ricola since television advertisements, available in the video panel, are pointing out that the herb drops are a Swiss invention. Moreover, the fan gate welcomes each participant from Facebook ads and motivates them to engage: "We really want you to hear your opinions and thoughts [...]".
Figure 39: Screenshot of Ricola 's Facebook Page
The about section does point out that Ricola is all about herbs. More than 174,000 participants like Ricola and its products that are presented on a panel in detail. Also the timeline history is ex-
plained in detail, even the story that a bakery wanted to attract more customers during the economic crisis back in the 1930s. There is also a download section for a ringtone and a new television commercial. Interestingly the official Madonna fan page likes Ricola as well as the Swiss Tourism organisation. This kind of marketing can be used for other fan pages too. Participant Interaction Ricola publishes content once a week. All posts are written in English, answers to requests are given in the languages of the participant. Unfortunately, the average response time to a participant is longer than a week. This is maybe a cause of the 174,000 participants that are posting continuously onto the wall. Overall, the reactions of Ricola are purposeful and give relevant information to the participants. Since there are no critical or negative posts to find on the timeline, it can be assumed that Ricola either deletes successively negative posts or there are no such posts. If the last is the case then consumer interaction is so satisfying that destructive posts are vanished from an early beginning. Summary Ricola relies on the Swissness factor to promote its products even on Facebook. One international presence avoids misunderstandings and makes it possible to promote products consistently all around the world. Although Ricola has many unanswered requests of participants and leaves them alone for a long time; it may take up to 10 days until a response of Ricola comes. In summary it can be said that with a little more effort a perfect interaction on Facebook could take place with consumers.
Strengths + One international presence + Good timeline history + Information on products + Only positive posts
Weaknesses - Unanswered requests - Long response time
5.1.3.9 GEOX Timeline Presence GEOX is an Italian footwear producer well known for breath active shoes. The first impression of the "GEOX" Facebook page is a dynamic and sportive one. Figure 40 shows a screenshot of the page in which the cover photo consists the recent announcement of GEOX in which the brand will be official team partner of the Red Bull formula one racing team (GEOX 2012b). With the help of the cover photo the new commitment is illustrated and the standing drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber do underline this new partnership. Interestingly, since this new cover picture has been uploaded in mid August GEOX was able to increase the number of likes by 10,000 to 112,000 participants.
Figure 40: Screenshot of GEOX 's Facebook Page
As usual the profile picture shows the product logo "GEOX". Second last panel is reserved for linking with YouTube and the last panel is used for notes. Fascinatingly, in the notes panel GEOX was looking for product testers. A lot of participants took the chance to apply for this job including a journey to India. This is more or less an easy way to find people that fit the criteria (English speaking, live in Europe, adventurous spirit, comfortable in front of cameras). One gets the impression
the products are the main reason why GEOX set up its own Facebook page. Product pictures and movies are posted on timeline and exposed to participants. Participant Interaction GEOX publishes every two days content on timeline. All posts by GEOX are written in English, answers to requests of the participant too. Unfortunately, the average response time to a participant is not measurable because there is hardly any response to participant requests at all. From time to time GEOX officials clean the timeline without answering the requests. Figure 41 shows a message of a participant that is concerned about the unanswered post which has been deleted without a reply.
Figure 41: Screenshot of Participant Post on GEOX 's Timeline
Unfortunately for GEOX this is not the only example. There are plenty of posts which are unanswered and lies empty on the timeline. In Figure 42 participants are asking themselves if there was an official answer after 13 days.
Figure 42: Screenshot of Participant Request
Not only customers can observe the ignorance of the company, potential customers may also see problems with the product and still the company is not interested. For the corporate image this fact is very disturbing. However, after 14 days of uncertainty silence GEOX replies to the request (Figure 43). A social media manager expresses a remarkable confession: "[...] apologies for the delay, Facebook is operated part-time.". Such an honest answer acts almost like a boomerang that hits all participants that are desperate looking for a reply. Each consumer will inevitably ask the question, why GEOX does have a Facebook page when only one employee handles part-time all requests?
Figure 43: Screenshot of GEOX Reply
At least the answer of the social media manager is adequate and helps the participant. Many participants might get the feeling that the company GEOX is not interested in customers at all. Summary GEOX presents its products very active on Facebook and attracts a lot of new participants with the recent commitment to the formula 1 (cover photo). The fact that GEOX has one international presence and is not having enough manpower to handle the easiest requests of participants is very disturbing. Such treatment takes a lot of trust from consumers. Moreover, the social media manager deletes unanswered posts and inhibits completely the interaction.
Strengths + One international presence + Good timeline history + Information on products
Weaknesses - Unanswered requests - Long response time (>10 days)
5.1.3.10 Mammut Timeline Presence Mammut is a Swiss outdoor products manufacturer with a Facebook presence "Mammut". Figure 44 shows the cover photo in which two climbers climb up a steep mountain in front of a sea of fog with numerous peaks in the background. The picture itself has a romantic touch and suggests a transcendent view. On top of the page a red headline "The Biggest Peak Project In History" supports the climbers and the red company logo in the profile picture. The profile picture stands out because of the black background. The 150-year anniversary is well celebrated on the Facebook page. Mammut presents itself in English language but does also post many posts in German. Requests of participants are answered in the language of the participant in a very kind and personal way.
Figure 44: Screenshot of Mammut 's Facebook Page
Eleven panels reveal that Mammut does actively use Facebook and has gained more than 90,000 likes. The about panel describes the company well and illustrates the history of the company (His-
tory by year). Several social media channels e.g. YouTube and Instagram are connected to the Facebook page. Obviously, the Facebook page of Mammut has many benefits that can attract a lot of participants. The following list summarises the advantages for participants: Practical advice for outdoor trips Fully Facebook integrated newsletter Free wallpapers iPhone application for outdoor trips
Participant Interaction Mammut makes use of the tool named "ORACLE involver" to manage the social media channels which can be recognised in the YouTube panel. Out of 10 companies only one company Mammut tolerates to identify the name of the used tool for social media. The interaction with participants is always authentic and not a copy paste text. Since Mammut experienced a shitstorm in August 2011, the company improved its social media management significantly. This might be the reason why the costly tool "ORACLE involver" is used for social media communication. The image of Mammut mediates values such as nature, healthy environment and even sustainability. Rolf Schmid, CEO of Mammut Sports Group said: "Mammut lives of and for nature.". The beginning of the shitstorm is marked with simple call to participants on Twitter. Figure 45 gives a picture of the very first comment which created a massive outrage on Mammut 's Facebook and Twitter channel.
Figure 45: Initial Message of a Shitstorm
Mammut executives rejected a Swiss law for CO2 reduction and has supported the committee on its website with the company logo. For Mammut fans it was inexplicable how a renowned environmentalist could oppose a law for a healthy environment. That is the reason why participants questioned Mammut 's contradictory behaviour on the Facebook page and on Twitter. In the beginning, Mammut did not react and a Shitstorm emerged. After a few hours a PR-statement was published addressed to all participants. Unfortunately the statement has been reused by Mammut officials over and over again. Instead of personal replies, answers were copy paste and impersonal. Critical participants did not feel taken seriously.
One day after the beginning of the massive Shitstorm Mammut decided to withdraw the support on the committee website: "The massive criticism of the last few hours on Facebook has led us to remove the entry on the website immediately" (Bisculm 2011). With their withdrawal Mammut has acted fast in appropriate way and has stopped the outrage immediately. Summary Mammut does have one of best Facebook pages of all 10 companies that has been analysed in this Master thesis. The company really does have one international presence that avoids misunderstandings and makes it possible to promote products consistently.
Strengths + One international presence + Well designed timeline history + Information on products + Fast response time
Weaknesses - Time consuming social media presence
5.1.4
Results
Timeline does have an effect on relationships between fans and the analysed companies. Interaction with participants are with timeline in an area that must be maximised to see how they react. As a matter of fact, Facebook timeline has forced companies or brands to interact more carefully with their followers. The appearance is more inviting and more interactive than it was before. It no longer needs a fan gate to direct participants to it for the creation of new likes. Especially participants do not join a Facebook page just for fun, they want to have certain benefits with the exposure of a status update a like creates. The interaction with the company must be given otherwise there must be other benefits available. The social media linking's with other social media made it clear that Facebook faces competition from Instagram and Pinterest. Those platforms attract more consumer response. This also means that the competition of social media platforms for participants is still going on. The most important finding of the analysis is that a social media page of a company should catch the attention of participants within the first few seconds. The participants must be attracted from the very first visit with a catching cover photo. With the exception of Lavazza and Parmalat every analysed company did a very good job. Lavazza with the cup of coffee (Figure 26) and Parmalat with the fluid milk (Figure 30) are not really an eye catcher. What is clear that the quadratic profile picture is always reserved for the company logos. Many panels are a sign for participants of a interesting Facebook page with a lot of benefits to discover. Fan gates are decreasingly implemented. The main reason for a fan gate is to show participants that clicked on an advert a welcome page. The standard name for manner rules is a netiquette which is widely used. In participant interaction the companies have a different approach. For example Nespresso is reusing the same sentences again and again for replies: "We will pass your request on to the appropriate team. Have a nice day!", while Lavazza is having always a more personal and different answer. Of course standard statements are time efficient but have the disadvantages of not being very personal. Participants feel and see the difference, that is the reason why Lavazza is doing a better job here what is on the other side more time consuming. In terms of timeline history, Parmalat as global food producer, has one of the weakest Facebook presence. The only history entry is the founding in 1961. Just as Emmi which is not publishing any company history on their official Facebook page. The official presence is focusing more on a game rather than the history of the company. Emmi created with the Facebook page "Emmi CAFF LATTE" a separate product page to actively promote the product on Facebook. Unfortunately, worse than Parmalat is the watch producer Officine Panerai which has been founded in 1860. The
company history is inexistent on Facebook. On the other side Officine Panerai is having a vital social media mix what is shown in the panels with connections to Twitter, YouTube and Google+. When it comes to interaction many likes may become a curse to the company or brand. The more likes a Facebook page has the less responses a company or a brand makes on Facebook. For instance, SWATCH completely blocked posts on their timeline. That is a pity, but from a certain number of fans more than 500,000 fans this action is needed to avoid a post overload. Though, SWATCH strengths lies in the number of fans. That is the reason why SWATCH has got over 40 national Facebook pages and may use the pages to distinguish between national and international adverts. The main finding is that most of the analysed companies do have welcoming posts on with insights to the company and their products which is giving interested people an idea. With rising posts of participants some companies start to struggle. Ricola for example needs beside its exemplary Facebook page more than a week to answer the simplest requests. The worst example is giving the Italian shoe producer GEOX which is openly talking about the understaffing of the Facebook caring (Figure 43). GEOX developed the strategy to delete posts after a while to reduce participant concerns with unanswered requests. Another impact on a company or brand Facebook page does have a linking with a like of another Facebook page. Interestingly, the official Facebook page of the entertainer Madonna does like the Ricola Facebook page. This kind of linking to celebrities is widely used to acquaint the products of a brand. GEOX does have two formula one drivers on their like list. The analysis has also observed that companies that have gone through a shitstorm have learned from their mistakes. All companies in this analysis with such a bad social media experience are in a better position. Learning by doing may be also a social media strategy, for sure it is not the best.
Lessons Learned Complete timeline histories implies an actively used social media presence Facebook pages of companies with more than 500,000 likes disable posts International and national profiles are used to distinct brands regionally Most timelines have a netiquette panel Organisations that faced a shitstorm are in a better shape Requests must be answered or posts must be disabled The cover photo has an impact on the number of new likes Timeline affects relationship between organisations and customers Timeline forces organisations to interact with participants Understaffing is not a solution for a social media presence
5.1.5
Conclusion
The implementation of timeline by Facebook is not only helping participants to preserve the history. With the collected information Facebook is able to recognise the behaviour of all participants for a better placement of advertisements. Because for Facebook advertising is the only source of income. Besides that, timeline is giving companies and brands the opportunity to illustrate their history to engage with potential consumers. For traditional companies it is important to have a well described timeline history. The attractiveness of the page for interested participant will rise by each entry. With all the information a Facebook page provides, helps to preserve the memories of each participating company or brand in the minds of the followers. When it comes to pictures, the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" is underlining the importance of the graphical appearance. It is clear that companies must make good use of the cover photo, since timeline is a visually driven platform (Saskamodie 2012). That means that the cover photo does have an active role on the first impression of a corporate Facebook page. Logically, the quality of published pictures must be good. By selecting a cover photo the social media manager of the page must know that the picture must have a recognition value for the company and attract participants. The engagement of content on the timeline might be supported with professional pictures that are giving more feedbacks. All companies in the analysis are trying to publish content that is an eye catcher for participants. Some companies do have difficulties (Lavazza and Parmalat) but aesthetics is always debatable. A well thought out social media plan (see also chapter 3, section 3.4 "Social Media Plan") is necessary for the best results. The social media officials have to post relevant and engaging content on the page. Companies are struggling to publish content that can be turned into an advertisement for the brand e.g. status message, photos, videos, events. Although it is inevitable to make campaigns with the help of the application "Facebook Ads" but those come at a price. Another way to attract new likes by participants is the pattern to put links to social media on the official website of the company or brand. This is used by every analysed company to increase the number of likes by interested persons that were surfing. Answering participants requests is a common task on a corporate Facebook page. Eminent for the interaction is that the company is following the conversation and to interact with each participant. Since the new timeline posts of participants are in a small area that must be expanded. Some companies forget to check such posts from potential customers. A social media manager of a Facebook page must act immediately if the manpower is too small to handle the requests. Because there are too many comments (SWATCH) or too little manpower (GEOX) the comment func-
tion can be disabled in the page settings. In addition, it also not satisfactory for companies or brands to copy paste answers to participants. This might work by mail but not in social media where every participant can see the requests and answers of another entry. However, a Facebook page lives from posts and therefore should highlight, star or pin certain posts to create an interactive page. Corporate Facebook pages that are putting in a lot of effort in updates and shares of vital information will catch the attention of the participants. The aim is to give participants benefits in order to keep the products constantly in mind. More costly but more effective are built in Facebook applications that drive the engagement process. An interesting postings at the right time on the right channel creates the most benefit for participants. For instance, it can be observed that the brands Emmi, GEOX, Nespresso, SWATCH and Mammut published some new products exclusively on their Facebook page. Profile names are simply based on the name of the company. As in all other social media channels, the names stand for themselves and are used without the legal form of a company. Also mentioned in the section 5.1.2 the target group is considered consumers and media. A negligible part are other businesses. After all, Facebook timeline is the next step of brand integration in social media in which companies compete against each other in a even stronger way.
5.2
5.2.1
Evaluation of the Online Survey

Survey Methodology
Employees of organisations in Italy and Switzerland were asked to fill out an online survey. The online survey was accessible in between the 2nd of July 2012 until the 5th of August 2012. With the help of the market leader Qualtrics Labs, which provides free access for academics, a survey with 29 questions has been created. Before respondents could start the online survey an opening introduced the topic corporate social media as following (Figure 46):
Figure 46: Screenshot of the Online Survey
As of August 5th, 2012, in total 85 employees of organisations had completed the online survey. Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia kindly invited in their professional trainees, Doctor Nicola Cannata posted the survey link on LinkedIn groups and Carlo Vaccari a professor of UNICAM invited colleges to fill out the online survey. Moreover, many respondents were invited to this survey with direct requests by mail.
5.2.2
Respondent Characteristics
The online survey about corporate social media was completed by a diverse group of employees representing Italian and Swiss organisations. Employees of organisations based in Switzerland answered 45 times (53%) and employees of organisations based in Italy answered 40 times (47%). In total there were given 85 answers (see Table 4).
# 1 2 Answer Switzerland Italy Total Response 45 40 85 % 53% 47% 100%
Table 4: Surveys by Countries
The most responses were given by the IT industry followed by services and education. The economic branches of Italian and Swiss respondents in Figure 47 are in perfect balance, what makes a good comparison possible. Economic Branch of Respondents 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 5 5 5 6 7 10 11 12
Figure 47: Economic Branch of Respondents
There is no significant difference in the set of Italian and Swiss organisations.
The age of the respondents is spread from under 19 (13) to over 70 (4) years. The most respondents are found in the middle, 30 until 49 years old. Age of Respondents
40 30 20 10 0 <19 20-29 30-49 50-69 >70 13 29 22 17 4
Figure 48: Age of Respondents
As illustrated in the Table 5 the gender of respondents is well mixed with a small lead of females (+5). In numbers, 40 male (47%) and 45 female (53%) respondents took part in the online survey.
# 1 2 Answer Male Female Total Response 40 45 85 % 47% 53% 100%
Table 5: Gender of Respondents
5.2.3
Findings
5.2.3.1 Usage of Social Media The majority of organisations 62% (48) access social media with their personal computers or notebooks within their offices. Only a minority of 38% (29) organisations do use mobile devices such as Tablet-PC or a smart phone for work-related social media purposes (see Table 6).
# 1 Answer PC/Notebook Mobile device 2 (e.g. Tablet-PC, Smart phone) Total 77 100% 29 38% Response 48 % 62%
Table 6: Corporate Social Media Access
However, almost all organisations make use of more than one social media channel. Only 9.4% (8) of all organisations reported they do not use social media for work-related purposes. Fascinatingly, social media seem still a new issue for organisations. As illustrated in the Table 7, a majority of 32% (25) use social media since less than a year. 27% (21) do use social media for one or two years and 29% (22) use social media since more than two years. A small number of 12% (9) do not know when social media were implemented for work-related purposes.
# 1 Answer Less than 1 year Between 1 and 2 years More than 2 years I do not know Total Response 25 % 32%
21
27%
22
29%
9 77
12% 100%
Table 7: Corporate Social Media in Years
Although the social media boom in recent years, organisations both in Italy and Switzerland seem to hesitate to join social media platforms. There is no other explanation why so many respondents started to use social media since less than one year. Another study on the development of ecommerce in Switzerland states that in most cases social media are the final steps after organisations have introduced the mandatory program for building offering and fulfilment as well as established online marketing tools (Wlfle & Leimstoll 2012, p.9). That is the reason why so many organisations recently began to join social media channels. The acknowledged leader of all social media channels is of course Facebook, which falls under the category Private Social Networking. Figure 49 illustrates the social media channels used by the respondents. Among Facebook, there are respondents who mentioned Google+ explicitly in the category Other. Followed by micro blogging (e.g. Twitter) and business social networking (e.g. XING). Social Media Channels
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 17 19 24 36
58
Figure 49: Reported Social Media Channels
In the category Other respondents specified five times the photo sharing tool Instagram and highlights that Instagram is also for organisations a rising social media platform. Again, there is still no significant distinction between Italian and Swiss companies. The values are distributed more or less evenly on both countries. When it comes down to the organisational position who is in charge of social media, respondents gave many different answers: Table 8 shows that the most responses received "Social media officer or supervisor" with 49. Followed by "all employees" with 47 hits. On the third place is "Nobody"
with 41 counts hits and on the forth place general managers are allowed to use social media for work-related purposes. # 1 Answer All employees Social media officer or supervisor Managers Nobody Other (please specify)
Table 8: Roles Allowed to Use Social Media
Response 47
49
3 4 5
33 41 23
For this question multiple answers were allowed. Most respondents interpreted answer 4 "Nobody" of question 9 "Who is allowed to use social media for work-related purposed at your organisation?" in a contrary way the author thought. The intention was to give respondents the possibility to state that nobody is allowed to use social media in their organisation. There were only two respondents (2%) that selected the field "Nobody" only. The majority of respondents (98%) wanted to state that no one is allowed to use social media except the selected answers. Thus, the respondents message of "Nobody" underlines that the only the selected answers are allowed to use social media. At this point, for the first time in this survey, a greater difference can be observed. Swiss organisations tend to restrict access to their employees more than Italian organisations do. Out of 47 responses for the first answer "All employees" (in Table 8) 28 Italian organisations reported to allow access to all employees while only 19 Swiss organisations do it in the same way. The possibility that traditional restrictions in Switzerland for instance secrecy law for Swiss banks could have distorted the results may also be excluded. There are only five organisations that declared themselves in the banking sector from which three are from Switzerland. Italian organisations are not as restrictive as Swiss organisations. Apparently, it is frowned upon to use social media at work unless it is connected to work-related issues. Specified answers by either Italian and Swiss respondents in Table 8 were: Marketing, 5x Sales, 4x Development and research, 3x
Management board, 2x Human resources, 2x
In five organisations the marketing division has the lead for work-related social media usage. Followed by the sales division which in small organisations is in charge of marketing. Obliquely in the bullet list above is development and research. For three organisations development and research division is allowed to use Facebook. This decision must be quite well considered because development and research is essential for the sustainability of the organisation. Leaking business secrets through social media, especially from development and research employees, may be devastating for the success of an organisation. In case of recruitment of employees possibly human resources is given access to social media what explains the reported result "human resources". The purpose why organisations do use social media channels may have many different reasons. Therefore, the survey asked explicitly for the application. The results are published in Table 9.
# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Answer Communication Community Involvement Consumer Feedback Crowd Sourcing Customer Analysis Customer Service Recruitment Marketing Networking Knowledge Sharing/Creation (e.g. blogs/wikis) Other (please specify) Response 47 50 36 28 24 26 36 48
34
10
14
Table 9: Purpose of Using Social Media
Following top three answers were given by respondents: Community Involvement 58.8% (50) Marketing 56.5% (48)
Communication 55.3% (47)
Most organisations reported that they want generate community involvement followed by marketing and communications. Those are the major drivers for corporate social media. Again, there cannot be found any significant dissimilarity between organisations in Italy and Switzerland. No more than a slight distinction can be identified in answer 7 "Recruitment". Out of 85 responses 16.5% (14) Italian organisations reported that they use social media for recruitment. Swiss organisations did more often use social media for recruitment 25.9% (22). By comparing economic facts and figures between Switzerland and Italy, the cause may be explained. On the basis of the unemployment rate Switzerland faces a impressive low unemployment rate in July 2012 of 2.7% (SECO 2012). Meanwhile Italy struggled with an unemployment rate of 10.7% (eurostat 2012). Therefore, qualified employees are wanted in Switzerland and thanks to the freedom of movement of persons treaty also be found abroad. Respondents from both countries specified following more purposes: Accompany customers, 2x Branding, 2x Complaints handling, 1x Customer feedback, 2x Help, 2x Involvement, 2x Listening, 1x Monitoring, 2x
The explicit mentioning of "accompany customers" and "branding" possibly have the aim to convey values of the organisation. Likewise, organisations want to ensure complaints and feedback of customers are handled in the best way possible, even through social media channels. Organisations want to support clients on social media and if necessary help them. Involvement is also called in three terms: Engagement Listening Monitoring
5.2.3.2 Organisational Impact of Social Media At first sight, Table 10 shows equally distributed options of three answers. While 68% (17) Italian organisations reported a transformation within processes since the use of social media, only 32% (8) Swiss organisations reported a recent change.
# 1 2 3 Answer Yes (please specify) No I do not know Total Response 25 24 25 74 % 34% 32% 34% 100%
Table 10: Experience of Process Transformation
Italian organisations really seem to make an effort in adopting their processes to social media and also communicate this actions to its employees. Logically, Swiss respondents tended to answer more likely "I do not know" or "No". Apparently Swiss companies cope with the existing organisational structures, or have trouble to adopt them to the new circumstances. A respondent specified the transformation within processes since the use of social media as following: "Among other tasks, I'm in charge of searching for fresh, reliable content to update our websites, which I previously gathered through newsletters and web surfing. Currently, I mainly use social networks to find out interesting news and events, having carefully chosen the pages/accounts to follow.". The employee is responsible for the maintenance of the organisational website. Before implementation of social media the employee was looking for content in newsletters or on the web. Nowadays, the employee makes use of social media to fulfil the same task. Other specified reasons for a changing process since the use of social media mentioned by respondents are: Growing process agility, 3x Improved organisational communication, 2x Customer growth, 2x Faster interaction (organisation/consumer), 2x Public awareness, 1x
Respondents reported that side effects using social media are for 50% of all organisations an issue. In both countries expecting the same amount of side effects may be positive but may also have a negative impact. Most respondents specified side effects 64.3% in a negative way. Top answer was rising time consumption which comes with social media. Information overload and more work to do were other concerns that were brought up by respondents. Fortunately, brand diffusion and understaffing has been reported only once. 35.7% expressed positive side effects such as better connection to users, faster communication, improved marketing and more cooperation among different areas. To detect what employees think about social media in their organisations respondents were asked to rate the impact in their organisation. An analysis of the reported answers gives interesting dissimilarities between Italy and Switzerland (see Figure 50 and Figure 51):
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 5 0% 6 7 9 5 4 2 5 7 6 9 5 2 6 3 5 4 5 4 8 6 10 11 6 6 3 3 4 5 4 2 6 3 Easy vs. Difficult Safe vs. Dangerous Powerful vs. Weak Essential vs. Immaterial Effective vs. Useless 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 5 40% 30% 5 20% 10% 4 0% 5 9 4 11 5 5 4 7 6 4 6 4 5 4 2 5 5 5 6 2 2 5 5 3 Easy vs. Difficult Safe vs. Dangerous Powerful vs. Weak Essential vs. Immaterial Effective vs. Useless
8 1 8 4
Figure 51: Rating of Social Media in Italy
Figure 50: Rating of Social Media in Switzerland
Easy and Difficult When it comes down rate the grade of easiness or difficulty respondents in Italian organisations tend to see less difficulties with social media than Swiss organisations. A peak of 10 Italian respondents do more likely rate the impact easy while the Swiss respondents almost build a balanced opinion with a deviation of only 3 points on that issue.
Safe and Dangerous Safety seems to be a big issue in Switzerland, only one respondent from Switzerland reported that he feels safe with social media. Most of the Italian respondents do have no clear position and gave a neutral response. Powerful and Weak Most of the Swiss organisations reported a neutral impact between the answers powerful and weak. No tendency can be seen in this matter with Swiss respondents. Italians did tend to rate social media more powerful for the company. Essential and Immaterial Interestingly, Italian respondents did report an immaterial impact of social media in their organisation. Swiss respondents reported to tend in more an essential impact. Maybe the more culturally extroverted Italian employees think that their organisations may easier deal with the ways of communication and expect less an essential change. Overall, Swiss organisations respondents did more likely report an essential impact. Effective and Useless All respondents in both countries seem to have the same opinion with the effectiveness of social media. 29.7% (22) of all respondents reported that social media are more useless than effective. Only 29.7% of only 12.2% (9) of all respondents reported that social media are absolutely useless. The remaining 70.3% (52) have either a neutral opinion or think that social media are more effective.
The question whether or not a social media strategy is implemented in an organisation helps to understand the behaviour. It is clear that the freedom of the individual is restricted by a strategy, but it may be useful for larger organisations to focus its resources and set limits for employees, especially to have them all under control. Nonetheless, respondents reported a more or less equal number of organisations with and without a social media strategy (see Table 11). This outcome matches the suggestion that bigger organisations do have a strategy for a better control. All reported organisations that have more than 250 employees reported yes to this answer. In addition, it did not matter where the respondents come from, there is no significant difference in Italian and Swiss reports.
# 1 2 3 Answer Yes No I do not know Total Response 22 26 26 74 % 30% 35% 35% 100%
Table 11: Social Media Communication Strategy
5.2.3.3 Operative Impact of Social Media It is difficult to classify the respondents who do not know whether a strategy exists or not. Perhaps the company do not have a strategy. Or the company has one but the respondent just do not know about it. In both cases, if a strategy is in place the employees should know that fact. Therefore it can be assumed that the majority of respondents that reported "I do not know" do not have a running strategy in their organisation. The association of question 14 (social media strategy) and 15 (social media guidance or policy) makes clear that organisations which do not have a strategy, will also not have a guidance or a policy. Table 12 illustrates the reported answers of all respondents to the question about the usage of a social media guidance or policy.
Table 12: Social Media Guidance/Policy
Only one respondent reported that the organisation has no strategy but instead a guidance or policy. This finding is unexpected, because one would think that the minimum requirement is either a social media strategy or a social media guidance or policy. Out of the 23 respondents that reported a social media guidance or policy, the majority of these organisations mention the private usage of social media 57% (13). 26% (6) of the reported respondents did not mention the private usage, 17% (4) did not know. Again, there is no measurable deviation in Italian and Swiss organisations.
Table 13: Private Social Media Usage
Predefined processes or procedures for social media are a useful help in order to exchange information and to control the interaction. Table 14 shows the answers to the question whether a predefined process or procedure for social media do exist in the asked organisations.
Table 14: Predefined Process/Procedure for Social Media
Those respondents in Table 14 who answered yes to this question did have the chance to describe the content of the process or procedure in one or two sentences. While one respondent answered that this question is "too complex" to answer, one respondent called for a separation between private and business. The following answers were reported: Plan, 6x Timetable and Responsibilities, 5x Interaction rules, 5x Rules, 3x Phrase dictionary 2x
In modern world where information is power business secrets must be well protected. Table 15 gives answer to the reported impact of social media on business secrets. The awareness on business secrets was reported more significant for Swiss organisations. The sensitivity for this topic tends to be much higher in Swiss organisations than in Italian organisations. Retro perspective, most Swiss organisations 54% (20) reconsidered the impact of social media in terms of business secrets, while Italian organisations tended to be more unconcerned 26% (9).
Italy # 1 2 Answer Yes No Total Switzerland 1 2 Yes No Total 20 17 37 54% 46% 100% Response 9 26 35 % 26% 74% 100%
Table 15: Impact of Social Media on Business Secrets in Italy and Switzerland
In Table 16 the 29 reported yes on the business secrets from the previous question are taken apart from the results and put into new perspective.
# 1 Answer A policy for social media usage has been created on the work place The access to social media is now restricted on the work place I am more aware of copyright statements on websites/blogs/social media Other (please specify) Total Response 11 % 38%
14%
28%
6 29
20% 100%
Table 16: Changes for Business Secrets
Out of 29 reconsidered impacts of social media on business secrets, 38% (11) respondents reported that "a policy for social media usage has been created on the work place". Only 14% (4) respondents did restrict access to social media at the work place. 8 (28%) organisations are more aware of copyright statements on websites, blogs, social media. The specified answers "Other" did not give any useful input.
Whether or not it is worthwhile for an organisation to be on social media channels is hard to measure. A majority of respondents 43% (31) reported that they have no measurements and 31% (22) stated have no idea. Presently 26% (19) stated they do measurements on social media activities.
Table 17: Measurement of ROI/Value for Social Media
On the one hand, the easiest way to measure value for social media is to count and evaluate the number of interactions and evaluate interactions. In case of positive interactions value for the organisation is rising. On the other hand, return on investment (ROI) is very dependent on how many resources are used for managing the social media channel or channels. It is possible that the maintenance is completely outsourced to external specialised company. The most mentioned measurement techniques for Swiss and Italian organisations are: Followers/Likes, 14x Facebook Insights, 3x Website tools, 3x Interaction, 2x
However, the analysis of participant posts in organisations is not a priority. Respondents reported that 35% (25) do analyse the comments on social media, 38% (27) do not. 28% (20) do not know whether or not it has been analysed. There are many difficulties that come with social media communication. For example the expected response time is lower and more difficult to handle when many comments must be answered. Also the risk of a shitstorm and the lack of understanding by the management was reported by respondents. This answer was astonishing: "It takes more human resources, but we do not get more job applications.". Concluding, the implementation of a social media recruitment is not key to find enough employees. Moreover, social media managers must always learn from continuous changes which are not trivial
to follow unless the person works only for social media. However, higher Internet traffic is produced on mobile devices due to the applications available on the smart phones. Following more points reported the responses: Time expensive, 4x Negative posts, 3x 24/7 workload 3x
5.2.3.4 Prospective View on Social Media The prospect of the future shows the organisations that many people are satisfied with their performance. To the question "What step or point would you do today different before and after implementation?" respondents answered completely diverse. Sorted by countries, Swiss organisations were more reflective, while Italian organisations tended to report nothing. Though, one respondent succinctly described it as following: "A social media strategy and a specialist to interact at least as a consultant are essential to the success of any social account. These are key components that must be involved both before and during implementation." More mentioned issues were: Nothing, 7x Research and Testing, 7x Disable posts, 2x Join earlier, 4x Profile page, 1x Too complex, 1x
In the end only 13% (9) of all respondents reported that their organisation will stop the use of social media in future. The majority of organisations 47% (34) will continue to use social media, 40% (29) do not know, what but rather means that social media will be used further. On the other side the rivalry under the social media platforms is still ongoing. Customer loyalty is really low what makes the whole business vulnerable to competitors. The indication shows that 39% (28) do not know what the feature brings. Since social media can be interesting for organisations 33% (24) will start to use another social media platform. Many "No" 28% (20) and "I do not know" 39% (28) answers indicate that there are no plans to open up another channel.
International alignment is undertaken just by a small group of organisations 28% (20) that is internationally present all around the globe. "No" 33% (24) and "I do not know" 39% (28) answers indicate that there is no need of an international alignment (see Table 18).
# 1 Answer Yes (please specify) No I do not know Total Response 20 % 28%
2 3
24 28 72
33% 39% 100%
Table 18: International Alignment of Social Media
For those respondents who chose yes following results were taken: Centralised account Multinational accounts No competition between own brands One account on several social media One account worldwide One presence Worldwide branding
5.2.4
Conclusion
In the early beginning, it was hard to find respondents for an online survey that asks for organisational understanding of organisations on the subject of corporate social media. What for the author seemed a small questionnaire was for many respondents too long and not very appealing. Serious responses did take time. The fastest respondent took more than 20 minutes to fill out the survey without any specified answers. That is the reason why many participants jumped off the survey after 10 minutes. Despite the small test set interesting results could be identified. To make it short, many things are done the same way in Italy and in Switzerland. The usage of social media in both countries do have a lot in common. The Italians love for mobile phones did not help the Italians for mobile devices; they are used in by both countries in the same amount. Even organisations in both country introduced social media in the same time interval. However, Italian organisations (28) appeared not as restrictive as Swiss organisations (19) and reported to give free access to social media for all employees. Moreover, Swiss organisations (25.9%) reported a slightly higher use of recruitment with social media than Italian organisations (16.5%). Most respondents specified side effects 64.3% in a negative way. Top answer was rising time consumption which comes with social media. Information overload and more work to do were other concerns that were brought up by respondents. Fortunately, brand diffusion and understaffing has been reported once. 35.7% expressed positive side effects such as better connection to users, faster communication, improved marketing and more cooperation among different areas. 34% of the organisations in Italy and Switzerland did report a strategic and organisational transformation of social media. While there is no measurable deviation in Swiss and Italian organisations for strategy and guidance/policy operation, organisations that do not have a strategy will more likely not have a guidance or a policy. The awareness on business secrets was reported more significant in Swiss organisations then in Italian organisations. Retro perspective, most Swiss organisations 54% (20) reconsidered the impact of social media in terms of business secrets, while Italian organisations tended to be more unconcerned 26% (9). On the operative impact the analysis of participant posts in organisations is not a priority for organisations. Respondents reported that 35% (25) do analyse the comments on social media, 38% (27) do not. 28% (20) do not know. To the question "What step or point would you do today different before and after implementation?" respondents answered completely diverse. Sorted by countries, Swiss organisations were more reflective, while Italian organisations tended to report nothing.
Conclusion
This chapter discusses the results of this Master thesis. Section 6.1 summarises the main results, and section 6.2 answers the research questions.
6.1
Summary of Results
This Master thesis presents theoretical and practical research work which aims to be helpful for organisations in the change of social media to understand and apply a framework for corporate social media communication. The results of this research can be summarised as following. Literature and Theory about Corporate Social Media In chapter 2 the theory of corporate social media was explained. In particular elements that play a significant role for social media communication were described e.g. social media marketing, corporate network analysis, corporate monitoring, corporate branding and corporate identity. These findings underline the enormous potential of social media. As a matter of fact, many organisations are learning by doing to improve their practises and sometimes perform very bad. It was shown that organisations are today more independent from traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers than 10 years ago. Moreover, organisations never get in touch with the public so easy before. It was revealed that social media are the most direct way for organisations to publish content today. Definition of the Corporate Social Media Framework Based on the literature and theory, the corporate social media framework was developed in chapter 3. The framework helps organisations with essential instructions how to deal with corporate social media. It was first introduced by Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia (2012) and was adapted in this Master thesis. Although, the framework was extended with external and internal instruments of corporate social media. Finally, these instruments were distinguished from each other and the findings were illustrated on a practical rather than a theoretical way. Chapter 2 and 3 together answer the first research question. Illustration of Changes with Social Media Building on aspects of social media which were identified in literature, chapter 4 illustrated and explained organisational transformation, challenges, success factors, measurements and suggestions for organisations. It was shown that that there are many organisational structures of which organisations can make use of. Nevertheless, the illustrated maturity model helps organisations to know where they are standing in the transformation process that social media forced them to do. A catalogue of challenges described the problems that organisations do face with social media. The
identified success factors will help organisations to sustain their use of social media. In the end, developed suggestions will give organisations the help needed for a healthy future. Chapter 4 thus answers the second research question. Evaluation of Corporate Social Media Chapter 5 showed two practical studies of the Facebook timeline analysis and the evaluation of an own online survey for this Master thesis. It was described that timeline does have an effect on relationships between fans and the analysed companies. As a matter of fact, Facebook timeline forced companies or brands to interact more carefully with their fans and customers. It was shown that the appearance is more inviting and more interactive than it was before. In the analysis, it was observed that companies that have already faced a shitstorm did have learned from their mistakes and were doing a better job. In conclusion, it was observed that all companies in this analysis with such a bad social media experience are in a better position. The online survey discovered that Italian organisations are not as restrictive as Swiss organisations. Most of Italian organisations reported that they give access to social media for all employees. Moreover, Swiss organisations (25.9%) have reported a higher use of recruitment with social media than Italian organisations (16.5%). Most respondents have specified side effects 64.3% in a negative way. The rising time consumption which comes with social media was reported the most. Fortunately, brand diffusion and understaffing was reported only once. 35.7% of all asked organisations have expressed positive side effects such as better connection to users, faster communication, improved marketing and more cooperation among different areas. Chapter 5 thus answers the third research question.
6.2
Research Questions
The motivation of this Master thesis are based on the defined research questions which are concluded in this chapter. According to the first research question Which aspects of corporate communications are undertaken in social media and what are the changes of the last 10 years that companies had to face? it was shown various communications in chapter 2 the communication forms in general theory and in chapter 3 with practical use. The research revealed that organisations must have an aligned social media framework from the strategy, policy, concept and plan to be successful with the implementation of social media. For building an engagement with consumers organisations must make use of external instruments on social media e.g. marketing, monitoring, distribution and human resources.
For collaboration within the organisation internal instruments help to achieve social media goals e.g. communication and knowledge management. Partially in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 the second research questions was answered "Which approach for corporate social media communication is used by companies and how do they evaluate the value of social media? Which parameters/measuring options do companies have and how efficiently can they be measured?". It was explained that social media communication forces organisations to organise themselves with several organisational models. The impact on the value chain and the value of social media were described in detail. By answering the research question number three What are the methods that companies adopt in social media communication, how do customers respond, and what are the differences between Italy and Switzerland? this was accomplished with an analysis and an evaluation. It was a very important task to analyse Facebook timelines in order to observe interaction between customers and organisations. An evaluation of the online survey helped to find out the similarities and differences. With the help of a question catalogue this information could be derived according to the answers of the respondents from Italy and Switzerland. Last but not least, the research problem "What are the benefits and risks that companies should be acquainted with when considering to introduce social media?" could be answered. High and increasing use of social media has led to fundamental changes in organisations. Social media are radically changing capabilities to reproduce, distribute, control, and publish information. The benefits of social media are the immediate availability of more and more consumers while the risks of being a target of e.g. the online mob is rising too. Several more benefits and risks are described in this Master thesis in detail. There is no magic formula to introduce social media in organisations. Every organisation has to find out which model perfectly fits into their organisational culture. But with the help of this Master thesis organisations may have a clue what is important for their businesses and thus find the best solution. According to the evaluation of corporate social media, it is highly recommended to learn from previous mistakes other organisations did before and to draw the necessary conclusions.
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8 List of Figures
Figure 1: Development of Business Communication (Hurd 2010) ....................................................1 Figure 2: Activities during the Master thesis ....................................................................................5 Figure 3: Adapted Research Onion of the Master thesis (based on Saunders et al. 2009, p.108) ...6 Figure 4: Research Approach of the Master thesis ..........................................................................7 Figure 5: Research Methods of Master thesis (based on de Villiers 2005, pp.142151) ..................8 Figure 6: Extended Social Media Promotional Mix (based on Mangold & Faulds 2009, p.360) ...... 13 Figure 7: Corporate Identity House adopted from Kaleta (Kaleta 2009) .........................................21 Figure 8: Levi's Sales Promotion on Facebook (see also Ins Caldern 2010)..............................25 Figure 9: Sales Promotion of GEOX on Facebook (GEOX 2012a) ................................................26 Figure 10: Roger Federer Sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz on Facebook (Federer 2012) .............. 27 Figure 11: Corporate Social Media Framework adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 14) ...............................................................................................................................30 Figure 12: Corporate Social Media Commitment and Competence, adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 16) .........................................................................................31 Figure 13: Development of a Social Media Strategy (based on megantime 2011) .........................32 Figure 14: Social Media Policy Contents (based on Verlee 2011) .................................................33 Figure 15: Different Types of Social Media Participants (von Brockdorff 2011) ..............................37 Figure 16: Social Media Concept Contents....................................................................................39 Figure 17: Social Media Monitoring adapted from Hallett (based on Hallett 2009) .........................43 Figure 18: Human Resources Contents (based on Veluswamy 2009) ...........................................45 Figure 19: Instruments of Internal Communication, adapted from Diebold (Diebold 2009, p.19) .... 46 Figure 20: Social Media Organisation Model (Jeremiah Owyang 2010, slide 6) ............................49 Figure 21: Choice of Companies (Jeremiah Owyang 2010, slide 12).............................................51 Figure 22: Social Media Maturity Model (van Luxemburg 2011) ....................................................52 Figure 23: Porter's Value Chain (Singh 2009)................................................................................54 Figure 24: Analysis Methodology...................................................................................................63
Figure 25: Screenshot of Advertise on Facebook (Facebook, Inc. 2012) .......................................67 Figure 26: Screenshot of Lavazza 's Facebook Page ....................................................................69 Figure 27: Screenshot of a Participant Suggestion ........................................................................70 Figure 28: Screenshot of Nespresso 's Facebook Page ................................................................72 Figure 29: Screenshot of a Critical Posting on Nespresso 's Timeline ...........................................73 Figure 30: Screenshot of Parmalat 's Facebook Page ...................................................................75 Figure 31: Screenshot of Emmi 's Facebook Page ........................................................................77 Figure 32: Screenshot of Emmi 's Statement about Frufoo ............................................................78 Figure 33: Screenshot of Emmi 's Frufoo Panel.............................................................................79 Figure 34: Screenshot of a Negative Post .....................................................................................79 Figure 35: Screenshot of Officine Panerai 's Facebook Page ........................................................81 Figure 36: Screenshot of Swatch 's Facebook Page......................................................................83 Figure 37: Screenshot of Swatch 's National Profiles.....................................................................84 Figure 38: Screenshot of Barilla 's Facebook Page .......................................................................86 Figure 39: Screenshot of Ricola 's Facebook Page .......................................................................88 Figure 40: Screenshot of GEOX 's Facebook Page .......................................................................90 Figure 41: Screenshot of Participant Post on GEOX 's Timeline ....................................................91 Figure 42: Screenshot of Participant Request ...............................................................................91 Figure 43: Screenshot of GEOX Reply ..........................................................................................92 Figure 44: Screenshot of Mammut 's Facebook Page ...................................................................93 Figure 45: Initial Message of a Shitstorm .......................................................................................94 Figure 46: Screenshot of the Online Survey ................................................................................101 Figure 47: Economic Branch of Respondents..............................................................................102 Figure 48: Age of Respondents ...................................................................................................103 Figure 49: Reported Social Media Channels ...............................................................................105 Figure 51: Rating of Social Media in Switzerland .........................................................................110 Figure 50: Rating of Social Media in Italy ....................................................................................110
List of Tables
Table 1: Weather Report for Social Media (based on Graf & Schwede 2012) ................................60 Table 2: Not chosen Companies ...................................................................................................65 Table 3: Chosen Companies .........................................................................................................66 Table 4: Surveys by Countries.....................................................................................................102 Table 5: Gender of Respondents.................................................................................................103 Table 6: Corporate Social Media Access .....................................................................................104 Table 7: Corporate Social Media in Years ...................................................................................104 Table 8: Roles Allowed to Use Social Media ...............................................................................106 Table 9: Purpose of Using Social Media ......................................................................................107 Table 10: Experience of Process Transformation ........................................................................109 Table 11: Social Media Communication Strategy ........................................................................112 Table 12: Social Media Guidance/Policy .....................................................................................113 Table 13: Private Social Media Usage .........................................................................................113 Table 14: Predefined Process/Procedure for Social Media ..........................................................114 Table 15: Impact of Social Media on Business Secrets in Italy and Switzerland .......................... 115 Table 16: Changes for Business Secrets .....................................................................................115 Table 17: Measurement of ROI/Value for Social Media ...............................................................116 Table 18: International Alignment of Social Media .......................................................................118
10 Appendix

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Master Thesis

Master of Science in Business Information Systems Master of Science in Information Technology

Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia and Doctor Nicola Cannata

Alexander Grflin Basel, 09/17/2012

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Theory of Corporate Social Media ......................................................................... 10

Corporate Social Media Framework ...................................................................... 30

The Change in Companies with Social Media ...................................................... 48

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Evaluation of Corporate Social Media ................................................................... 63

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Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Internal instruments o o Social media communication Social media knowledge management

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Traditional Publishing Channels

New Publishing Channels

Social Media Channels

Figure 1: Development of Business Communication (Hurd 2010)

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

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6. Suggestions For Companies And Correction Session

3. Conduct Expert And Company Interviews

Figure 2: Activities during the Master thesis

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

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First Research Question Theoretical Fundamentals

Second Research Question

Third Research Question

Impact on Business Practice

Best Marketing Tool

Figure 4: Research Approach of the Master thesis

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Figure 5: Research Methods of Master thesis (based on de Villiers 2005, pp.142151)

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Goals and Deliverables

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Theory of Corporate Social Media

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

From Web 2.0 to Social Media

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Social Media Marketing

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Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

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Social Media Corporate Network Analysis

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW

Social Media Corporate Monitoring

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Social Media Corporate Branding

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Social Media Corporate Identity

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