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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 Gröflin Basel, 09/17/2012
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Information on work
Author
Alexander Gröflin
P.O. Box 156 CH-4009 Basel Switzerland
Mobile: +41 79 788 41 32 E-mail: [email protected]
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: [email protected]
Advisor UNICAM
Dr Nicola Cannata
Università di Camerino (UNICAM) Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica Via Madonna delle Carceri 9 I-62032 Camerino (MC) Italy
Phone: +39 0737 402563 E-mail: [email protected]
Completed
Basel, September 2012
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Table of Contents
A Preamble ................................................................................................................... VIB Authenticity Statement ........................................................................................... VIIC Executive Summary ............................................................................................... VIII1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Motivation .................................................................................................................... 11.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 3
1.2.1 Research Problem ........................................................................................... 31.2.2 Research Questions ........................................................................................ 41.2.3 Research Procedure ........................................................................................ 51.2.4 Research Approach ......................................................................................... 7
1.3 Goals and Deliverables ............................................................................................... 9
2 Theory of Corporate Social Media ......................................................................... 102.1 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 102.2 From Web 2.0 to Social Media .................................................................................. 122.3 Social Media Marketing ............................................................................................. 132.4 Social Media Corporate Network Analysis .............................................................. 162.5 Social Media Corporate Monitoring ......................................................................... 172.6 Social Media Corporate Branding ............................................................................ 192.7 Social Media Corporate Identity ............................................................................... 21
2.7.1 Corporate Design .......................................................................................... 222.7.2 Corporate Behaviour ..................................................................................... 232.7.3 Corporate Communication ............................................................................. 24
2.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 28
3 Corporate Social Media Framework ...................................................................... 303.1 Social Media Strategy ............................................................................................... 313.2 Social Media Policy ................................................................................................... 333.3 Social Media Concept ............................................................................................... 363.4 Social Media Plan ...................................................................................................... 403.5 External and Internal Instruments ............................................................................ 41
3.5.1 External Instruments ...................................................................................... 413.5.1.1 Marketing .................................................................................................. 413.5.1.2 Monitoring ................................................................................................. 423.5.1.3 Distribution ................................................................................................ 443.5.1.4 Human Resources .................................................................................... 45
3.5.2 Internal Instruments ....................................................................................... 453.5.2.1 Communication ......................................................................................... 463.5.2.2 Knowledge Management .......................................................................... 47
4 The Change in Companies with Social Media ...................................................... 484.1 Organisational Transformation ................................................................................ 48
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4.1.1 Organisational Models ................................................................................... 494.1.2 Maturity Model ............................................................................................... 514.1.3 Effects on the Value Chain ............................................................................ 54
4.2 Challenges of Social Media ...................................................................................... 564.2.1 Identified Challenges ..................................................................................... 564.2.2 Identified Success Factors ............................................................................. 574.2.3 What is a Shitstorm? ..................................................................................... 58
4.2.3.1 Showcase Mammut .................................................................................. 584.2.3.2 Shitstorm Scale ......................................................................................... 59
4.3 Suggestions for Organisations ................................................................................ 614.3.1 Definition of Objectives .................................................................................. 614.3.2 Social Media Rules ........................................................................................ 614.3.3 Employee Training ......................................................................................... 614.3.4 Organisational Definition ................................................................................ 624.3.5 Empower Social Media Officials .................................................................... 62
5 Evaluation of Corporate Social Media ................................................................... 635.1 Analysis of Company Timelines on Facebook ........................................................ 63
5.1.1 Company Selection Process .......................................................................... 645.1.2 Analysis Criteria ............................................................................................. 66
5.1.2.1 Timeline Presence .................................................................................... 665.1.2.2 Participant Interaction ............................................................................... 68
5.1.3 Timeline Analysis ........................................................................................... 695.1.3.1 Lavazza .................................................................................................... 695.1.3.2 Nespresso ................................................................................................. 725.1.3.3 Parmalat ................................................................................................... 755.1.3.4 Emmi ........................................................................................................ 775.1.3.5 Officine Panerai ........................................................................................ 815.1.3.6 Swatch ...................................................................................................... 835.1.3.7 Barilla ........................................................................................................ 865.1.3.8 Ricola ........................................................................................................ 885.1.3.9 GEOX ....................................................................................................... 905.1.3.10 Mammut .................................................................................................... 93
5.1.4 Results .......................................................................................................... 965.1.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 99
5.2 Evaluation of the Online Survey ............................................................................. 1015.2.1 Survey Methodology .................................................................................... 1015.2.2 Respondent Characteristics ......................................................................... 1025.2.3 Findings ....................................................................................................... 104
5.2.3.1 Usage of Social Media ............................................................................ 1045.2.3.2 Organisational Impact of Social Media .................................................... 1095.2.3.3 Operative Impact of Social Media ........................................................... 1135.2.3.4 Prospective View on Social Media .......................................................... 117
5.2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 119
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6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 1206.1 Summary of Results ................................................................................................ 1206.2 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 121
7 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 1238 List of Figures ....................................................................................................... 1319 List of Tables ......................................................................................................... 13310 Appendix ................................................................................................................ 134
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
A Preamble This Master thesis finally completes my five year long journey of studies at the University of Ap-
plied 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 al-
ways 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
B Authenticity Statement I the undersigned declare that all material presented in this paper is my own work or fully and spe-
cifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources.
I understand that if at any time it is shown that I have significantly misrepresented material pre-
sented 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 Gröflin
Date 09/17/2012
Signature ………………….....................
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
C 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 organisa-
tions 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 so-
cial media. Afterwards, the development of a corporate social media framework gives organisa-
tions a guidance to bring order into their social media chaos. The extended framework consists fol-
lowing elements:
• Social media strategy
• Social media policy
• Social media concept
• Social media plan
• External instruments
o Social media marketing
o Social media monitoring
o Social media distribution
o Social media human resources
• Internal instruments
o Social media communication
o 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 interac-
tion. Finally, a comprehensive online survey with 28 questions illustrated similarities and differ-
ences of Italian and Swiss companies.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
1 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 communica-
tion 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.
Figure 1: Development of Business Communication
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 is-
sues.
(Hurd 2010)
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 al-
lows 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 ma-
jority of individuals have the ability to communicate wirelessly in seconds with hundreds of peo-
ple.".
1980 1990 2000 2005 2010
Traditional Publishing
Traditional Broadcasting
Personal Publishing
Interactive Publishing
Network Publishing
New Publishing Channels
Traditional Publishing Channels
Social Media Channels
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 so-
cial media potentials, but they do not have any clue how to handle it in this dense jungle (Burson-
Marsteller 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 fol-
lowers. This also means that social media platforms must be monitored by companies; social me-
dia 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 com-
parison 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 perspec-
tive of a company − an introduction of a corporate social media framework is necessary.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
1.2 Methodology
This section explains the methodology used in this Master thesis. Section 1.2.1 introduces the re-
search 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 ap-
proach 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 commu-
nication. 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 in-
troduce 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 numer-
ous 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 re-
searchers.
By comparing corporate social media communication from diverse sectors, it is possible to recog-
nise 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 custom-
ers 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 an-
swered 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 advan-
tage 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 com-
panies 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. There-
fore, 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 differ-
ences and similarities between Italy and Switzerland in terms of corporate social media communi-
cation.
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 ques-
tionnaires 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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.
6. Suggestions For Companies And Correction Session
2. Theory Findings Resulting In A Corporate Social Media Framework
1. Methodology
5. Funnelling Collected Data To Information
3. Conduct Expert And Company Interviews
4. Observe Corporate Activity In Social Media (Italy And
Switzerland)
Figure 2
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.
: Activities during the Master thesis
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Probably the most widespread framework for research methods of business scholars has been de-
veloped 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.
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 sec-
ond 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, re-
search choices state whether qualitative, quantitative or both techniques are used (mixed meth-
ods); 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 cross-
sectional or a "movie" which means longitudinal (cross-sectional). The last layer research tech-
Philosphy: Interpretive
Approach: Deductive
Strategy: Survey, Case Studies,
Grounded Theory
Choice: Mixed Methods
Time Horizon: Cross-sectional
Techniques and
Procedures: Observation,
Questionnaire
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 to-
wards 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
.
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 pub-
lishing in companies e.g. reviewing literature heading towards corporate social media communica-
tion, procedure of dialogs between customer and company.
In the second step, the changes within the last 10 years which are relevant for corporate communi-
cation have to be recognised. This is done by over viewing the state of the art in corporate com-
munication and how companies changed their communication. It also includes an inspection of
each social media channels where corporate communication takes place.
Step 1
•Specific Corporate Communication over Social Media Channels
Step 2
•The Change of Corporate Communciation within the Last 10 Years
Step 3
•Identification and Measurement of Corporate
Step 4
•Social Media Methods and Comparision between
Risks Tasks
Best Marketing Tool
Theoretical Fundamentals
Impact on Business Practice
Third Research Question
Second Research Question
Benefits and Risks for Companies that are using Social Media as a Marketing Tool
First Research Question
Specific Corporate Communication over Social Media Channels
The Change of Corporate Com-munication within the Last 10 Years
Identification and Measurement of Corporate Social Media Communi-cation
Social Media Methods and Comparison be-tween Italy and Switzerland
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 corpo-
rate social media communication. Methods that measure marketing metrics and marketing per-
formance of a social media activity are investigated to provide a feedback on the company's ef-
forts. 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 compa-
nies. 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 ex-
perts 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 quantita-
tive and qualitative methods.
Figure 5: Research Methods of Master thesis (based on de Villiers 2005, pp.142–151)
Observation Surveys:
Questionn-aire
Interviews
Positivist Interpretivist Overlap
Qualitative Quantitative
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 (fo-
cus: 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, com-
ments and linking of different platforms) with respect to marketing and target groups, by explor-
ing 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
2 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 Aris-
totle which was written over 2,000 years ago is still suitable: "human beings are social animals"
(Aristotélēs 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 litera-
ture, but not that much on corporate social media communication.
Social media development and research were always depending on trends in the information tech-
nology 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 fo-
cus 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 me-
dia 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 So-
cial Media, Elsevier, 2010.
• A. Töllinen & H. Karjaluoto, Marketing communication metrics for social media, Int. J. Technol-
ogy 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, Portfo-
lio 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 für Twitter, Facebook & Co., O'Reilly, 2011.
• W. G. Mangold & D. J. Faulds, Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix, El-
sevier, 2009.
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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. In-
teraction 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 O’Reilly Me-
dia web 2.0 conference in 2004 (O’Reilly 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 custom-
ers.“ (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 (Schürig 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 informa-
tion exchange over the Internet. Diverse social media platforms, also known as social media chan-
nels, are open for communication with people around the globe (Geißler 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.
According to Kaplan and Haenlein, social media platforms can be classified in separate groups ac-
cording to their motivation. Each channel has chances and unique opportunities for marketing pur-
poses (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.62):
" (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p.61).
• 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)
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Collective projects e.g. wikis come up with a large degree of collaboration while content communi-
ties 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.62–63).
2.3 Social Media Marketing
Mangold and Faulds (2009) stated that traditional marketing communications have lost its impor-
tance 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 con-
tains five main elements in which each component is extended for social media functions:
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 characteris-
tics 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.358–361).
The most practical goals of social media marketing are focusing on three points (Klein 1998,
pp.195–203):
• 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 communica-
tions. The reputation of a company is strongly influenced by social media (Ind & Riondino 2001).
Advertising
Social Media
Personal Selling
Social Media
Sales Promotion
Social Media
Public Relations
Social Media
Direct Marketing
Social Media
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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.231–244).
Bunting and Lipski (2001) suggest that this is also reflected in a weaker relationship between cor-
porate communications and reputation; the control is slightly moving away from companies to con-
sumers. In addition, Bunting and Lipski summarise that the Internet is a valuable communication
and reputation building tool (Bunting & Lipski 2001, pp.170–178).
The variety of social media platforms is enormous and so are the marketing opportunities for com-
panies. Marketing may have a different appearance on each social media platform, but it has al-
ways 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 fa-
vour 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 follow-
ers. Symbols e.g. "#" or "@" followed by a word help out to spread and classify information accord-
ing 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 try-
ing 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
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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 al-
ready 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 broadcast-
ing 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 knowl-
edge of a brand's existence (Farris et al. 2010, pp.27–64) e.g. publishing of inside information and
promoting new products or services within distribution channels. Blogs do also have the functional-
ity 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 busi-
nesses (Hafele 2011, p.2).
According to Kilian, social media marketing includes all actions of companies on social media plat-
forms 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 mar-
keting is quite an innovative form for branding and marketing, especially with collaboration on so-
cial 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 in-
formation 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.4–27).
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 post-
ings 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
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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
2.4 Social Media Corporate Network Analysis
(Lange 2011, pp.655–659).
Social media corporate network analysis wants to cluster consumers in separate groups. Social re-
lationships 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 analy-
sis is looking for the quantity to know which composition of ties are affected by norms (Kelsey
2010, p.468)
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 re-
searchers 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 speci-
fied target groups are "personal networks" (O. Deji & O. F. Deji 2011, p.78).
. 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.
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 informa-
tion 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 impor-
tant as relationships and ties within networks. This method is very useful to explain phenomena in
the real world (Kobielus 2010).
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Small networks may be not that useful for their participants than networks with a lot of weak con-
nections 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 result-
ing opinions on the social web. The main channels are blogs, micro blogs and social media plat-
forms. 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 moni-
tored what costs a lot of time; this issue should not be underestimated (Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011,
pp.275–282)
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 inter-
preted.
.
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 Köhler defines so-
cial media monitoring even more precisely: "Social Media Monitoring describes the identification,
monitoring, analyzing and interpretation of user-generated content on the Web for different pur-
poses using different methods." (Lange 2011, p.656).
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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.1–12):
• 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 fu-
ture 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 "Moni-
toring" 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 op-
tion 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 con-
sumer advice. Unless companies are monitoring user activities, they are completely blind and can-
not react in any circumstances (Weinberg & Pehlivan 2011, pp.275–282).
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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 fol-
lowers 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 coordina-
tion 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 man-
agement (strategic vision), knowledge and attitudes of employees (organisational culture) and ex-
ternal 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 ex-
amined (Syed Alwi & Da Silva 2007, pp.217–244). Moreover, the same authors stated a proposi-
tion in which corporate brand images are defined by ease of use, security, personalisation, cus-
tomer 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.288–302). 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.270–287).
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
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outcome of corporate blogs (Catalano 2007, pp.247–262). Blogging may also help building a rela-
tionship, 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.84–93). 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.6–10). This gives benchmarks that
allow measurements of social media profiles with different factors such as unique visitors, page
views and time spent.
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2.7 Social Media Corporate Identity
Social media corporate identity is the catchword for corporate identity on company profiles on so-
cial 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 be-
haviour.
Figure 7: Corporate Identity House adopted from Kaleta (Kaleta 2009)
Social Media
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The house originates from Kaleta (2009) which has been adapted to social media on the funda-
ment 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 com-
pany 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 consis-
tent 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 ac-
counts 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 personal-
ity in communities (Abdullah & Cziwerny 2007, p.13).
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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 cor-
porate 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 com-
pany depends on such activities (Wache & Brammer 1993, p.109ff.). It is the most powerful but dif-
ficult 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 communi-
cation.
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). S
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).
imply spoken,
it is a consistent behaviour of a company with all implications and consequences.
Corporate behaviour can be divided into external and internal communications. The aim of com-
munication 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 bene-
fits 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
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2.7.3 Corporate Communication
Corporate communication involves all communication tools and measures a company applies in-
ternally 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 aware-
ness and in the end improves the company image. A social media manager is in charge of all ex-
ternal 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 depart-
ment (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.99–104):
• 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 en-
ter the market and promote sales much better. For instance, Facebook uses an advertising ap-
plication 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 so-
cial 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 prod-
uct 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 & Pförtsch 2008, p.424 ff.).
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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 Inés Calderón 2010)
With such a sales promotion participants are asked to respond. So called RSVP (répondez s'il
vous plaît) are often used: “RSVP ‘Yes’ for 25% off at Levi’s 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 com-
pany 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 rela-
tions. With the use of the term social media relations are two aspects to consider (Jodeleit
2010, pp.23–29):
• Relationships of people: The use social media to reach consumers, customers and organi-
sations.
• Relations of people: Among themselves and with each other. This is often a difference be-
tween 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.
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Figure 9: Sales Promotion of GEOX on Facebook (GEOX 2012a)
Social media relations are taking care of influencers or opinion leaders on social media plat-
forms and it is mainly applied in external corporate communication available to outside partici-
pants.
• 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) finan-
cially or materially. The sponsored person or event must communicate the name of the organi-
sation 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".
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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 spe-
cific 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 corpo-
rate 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).
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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 or-
ganisations 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 nega-
tive 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 par-
ticipants and must make the right statements in the right time. Afterwards an analysis of all re-
sponses 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, cus-
tomers − and potential customers constantly in contact with the company brand. In addition, par-
ticipants do have the ability to be online on social media platforms with mobile devices. This cre-
ates 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 trans-
formed themselves in the past 5 years into important, integrated tools for marketing and communi-
cation. 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-
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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 compa-
nies 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 chan-
nels (Dwivedi 2012).
The future of social media seems very promising; however a unified corporate social media frame-
work 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.
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3 Corporate Social Media Framework This chapter introduces the corporate social media framework including external and internal in-
struments. 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 adjust-
ments. 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 prac-
tises 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 con-
tents of the framework and outlines interfaces that are significant for companies.
Figure 11: Corporate Social Media Framework adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 14)
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
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Soci
al M
edia
Cor
pora
te C
omm
itmen
t
Social Media Competence low
low
hi
gh
high
Social Media Selection
Social Media Entire Portfolio
Social Media Refusal
Social Media Experiment
This concept was first introduced by Prof. Martina Dalla Vecchia and is now extended in this Mas-
ter thesis with external and internal instruments of social media. External instruments include all in-
teractions 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.
Figure 12: Corporate Social Media Commitment and Competence,
adapted from Prof. Dalla Vecchia (Dalla Vecchia 2012, slide 16)
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-
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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 corpo-
rate 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 plat-
forms. This is done by providing relevant information to each social media channel to the right au-
dience. 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.196–197).
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 parame-
ters in common. Figure 13 illustrates the creation of a social media strategy.
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
Social Media Strategy
Define social media objectives Define goals for engaging participants
Define social media platforms and participants
Corporate Social Media Framework
Marketing Plan
Define strategic marketing objectives Define target markets and people
Business Plan
Objectives of the Company
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derived from the existing business plan and its objectives. Strategic marketing objectives are de-
veloped 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 strat-
egy can now be started.
Marketing objectives that support the engagement in social media have to be selected from the ex-
isting 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 com-
pany 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 so-
cial media policy into five key elements.
Figure 14: Social Media Policy Contents (based on Verlee 2011)
Social Media Policy
Achievements Core Values Audience and Platforms Employees Restrictions
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Besides official spokesmen, social media officials are authorised representatives to grant inter-
views 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 descrip-
tions 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 company’s 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 me-
dia 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 be-
haviour e.g. criticise colleagues, supervisors or people in public, ethnic insults, rough jokes and po-
litical statements. The management is allowed to state in the policy that employees are not author-
ised to complain about the company regulations neither clients nor projects on social media plat-
forms, 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.42–43).
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 ap-
prove 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 company’s social me-
dia 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-
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ways adoptable to the strategy, so the risks can be minimised (Verlee 2011). Moreover, social me-
dia officials must set their focus on the content that is permitted by the social media policy. The fol-
lowing 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 partici-
pants. 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.
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• 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 par-
ticipants 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 ap-
proval.
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 cate-
gories are presented (see also von Brockdorff 2011):
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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 motiva-
tion that triggers the action is mostly information which is not accurate on the point of view of
the critic.
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• 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 ac-
counts 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 fo-
rums, 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 web-
sites 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 in-
cludes 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.
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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.
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 plat-
forms. Publishing content e.g. blogs or twitter is timeless and can be used for development of hu-
man resources marketing and even expertise. Search engines will absorb the content and repre-
sent it with an appropriate search query. Likewise, sharing content e.g. Youtube and Flickr are in-
teresting 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 im-
portant 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 in-
stance 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.
Social Media Concept
Publish Share Discuss Commerce Location Network Games
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3.4 Social Media Plan
A comprehensive social media plan depends on the platforms and the information that will be pro-
vided 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 par-
ticipant (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.
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3.5 External and Internal Instruments
Business distinguishes between external and internal use of social media. Already established ex-
ternal 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 re-
sources, research and development (Sten Franke et al. 2009, pp.10–14).
For marketing and public relations an additional element for companies in social media is the de-
velopment 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 advan-
tages. The adoption of Internet based collaboration tools on the corporate landscape is still ongo-
ing (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 in-
teractions 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 ap-
propriate 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 rela-
tions (Parise et al. 2008).
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3.5.1.2 Monitoring
In contrast to chapter 2, section 2.5 "Social Media Corporate Monitoring", this section explains so-
cial 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 al-
low 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
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• 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 organi-
sations is important for the company interest as well. Negative comments should be analysed care-
fully 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.
Figure 17: Social Media Monitoring adapted from Hallett (based on Hallett 2009)
1. Conversation Discovery •Monitoring services •Keyword watch lists •Alerts
2. Conversation Aggregation •Feed readers •Content aggregators •Mail inbox
3. Conversation Escalation •Internal escalation paths •Ticketing system •Mailing lists
4. Conversation Participation •Direct (comments, posts, mail) •Indirect (social bookmarks, tags) •Offline (in-person)
5. Conversation Tracking •Activity tracker •Commenting system •Mail threads
6. Conversation Archival •Conversation outcomes •Influencer engagement histories •Discussion pattern tracking
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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 in-
ternal 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 in-
terested 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 busi-
ness 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
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of their business to show potential customers the benefits. Moreover, Internet based distribution
reduces costs (Cyganski & Hass 2011, pp.101–120).
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 de-
scribes the contents of human resources combined with social media.
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 sepa-
rate 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 intro-
duce on their websites groups of former employees. Career management is performed with e-
learning 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 inter-
ested 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 or-
ganisations. 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
Human Resources
Talent Acquisiton Career Management Engagement and Communication
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Mon
olog
ue
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 infor-
mation flow and sustains the dialogue between the management and the employees.
Organisations were able to expand internal communication with the help of social media technolo-
gies 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 communica-
tion.
Employee Magazine
Newsletter (Mail)
Business Report
Presentations
RSS
Podcasts, Video casts
Intranet
Letters, Mails
Meetings
Events
Videoconference
Forum
Wikis
Social Media Platforms
Micro blogging
Corporate Blogs
Letters, Mails
Newsletter
Seminar, Course
Working Groups, Workshops
Individual Talks (in-person/phone)
Instant Messaging
Team-Blogs
Figure 19: Instruments of Internal Communication, adapted from Diebold (Diebold 2009, p.19)
Dialogue
Large Numbers
Small Numbers
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Besides the classic intranet that many organisations already have implemented as the main me-
dium for employee communication, social media technologies in particular allow new forms of in-
formation 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 communi-
cation, 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 technolo-
gies are being used to solve such business problems electronically. Wikis had and still have a tri-
umphal 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 speci-
fied 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 de-
pends on the requirements and the existing environment of each organisation (Sommergut 2007).
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4 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 company’s 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 company’s 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 devel-
opments. Ten years ago, every few years the mission statement and the organisational strategy
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were revised. Today, every time a social media participant publishes a post organisations will re-
view that post within a short time.
The following sections will introduce models that help organisations in the alignment process of so-
cial media integration. The organisational model proposes several company structures for social
media communications while the maturity model provides information on the maturity of an organi-
sation. 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 us-
ing 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 cul-
ture for an effective collaboration.
Though, social media cross lines between departments and divisions and weaken hierarchical lev-
els within the institution. One option would be a group of experts which is centralised in the organi-
sation. Another option would be a decentralised/distributed approach. A good overview for all op-
portunities is given by the model for organising social media published by the Altimeter Group. It il-
lustrates 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)
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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 implementa-
tion 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 em-
ployee 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).
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Research by Altimeter among 140 corporate social strategists in companies revealed how they ar-
range 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 decentral-
ised 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 organisa-
tion (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
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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 devel-
oped this maturity model to determine where the organisation stands in the implementation proce-
dure 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 Fig-
ure 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 indi-
cated the steps that an organisation must take to reach the next level.
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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. em-
ployee creates Facebook page). Unfortunately, the actions will not take positive effects on the in-
side 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 oppor-
tunities 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 com-
munication 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 intro-
duced a social media policy in which the best practices are described. A social media manager su-
pervises 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
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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 under-
standing 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 Corpo-
rate 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 Porter’s value
chain extended with social media features.
Figure 23: Porter's Value Chain (Singh 2009)
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Primary activities are those that deliver a direct value added contribution to the creation of a prod-
uct 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 pri-
mary 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 buy-
ers. They make up the supply chain system of an industry (Porter 1998, pp.33–52).
The most important value creating parts on Porter’s 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. Im-
portant 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 remu-
nerative, 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 infor-
mation to share on social media, a social media platform could also be used outside an organisa-
tion. An alternative could be the publication of articles about successfully implemented technolo-
gies. 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 or-
ganisation or its brand by keeping the attraction to the products high. The information flow to cus-
tomers 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 interac-
tion 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. Par-
ticularly 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-
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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 interac-
tions. 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 con-
tent 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 Challenges of Social Media
4.2.1 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 chal-
lenges 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 them-
selves 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).
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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, in-
teresting and valuable to engage participants.
One of the biggest challenge is to deal with the enormous amount of time that social media swal-
low. 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 pri-
ority but they also must be done.
After the integration of social media into the organisation, companies are wondering what the re-
turn 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 Corpo-
rate 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 partici-
pants. In the case of Mammut that was the main problem (see section 4.2.3.1 "Showcase Mam-
mut").
It is vital for organisations to keep focus on customers but on no one else. Answered posts of cus-
tomers 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.
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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 to-
gether 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 shit-
storm 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 un-
pleasant 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 un-
inspired 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").
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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 so-
cial 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 pro-
fessionally 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 subjec-
tive 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.
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SSccaallee WWiinndd TTeerrmm SSeeaa SSoocciiaall MMeeddiiaa MMeeddiiaa rreeppoorrttss
00 ccaallmm SSiilleennccee,,
ssmmooootthh sseeaa
NNoo ccrriittiiccaall rreessppoonnsseess.. NNoo mmeeddiiaa rreeppoorrttss..
11 lliigghhtt aaiirr QQuuiieett,, rruuff--
fflleedd sseeaa
OOccccaassiioonnaall ccrriittiicciissmm ooff iinnddiivviidduu--
aallss wwiitthhoouutt rreessoonnaannccee..
NNoo mmeeddiiaa rreeppoorrttss..
22 lliigghhtt bbrreeeezzee SSlliigghhttllyy
mmoovviinngg sseeaa
RReeppeeaatteedd ccrriittiicciissmm ooff iinnddiivviidduuaallss..
WWeeaakk rreeaaccttiioonnss ooff tthhee ccoommmmuu--
nniittyy oonn tthhee ssaammee cchhaannnneell..
NNoo mmeeddiiaa rreeppoorrttss..
33 mmooddeerraattee
bbrreeeezzee
mmooddeerraatteellyy
mmoovviinngg sseeaa
SStteeaaddyy ccrriittiiccss ooff iinnddiivviidduuaallss.. RRiiss--
iinngg rreeaaccttiioonnss ooff tthhee ccoommmmuunniittyy..
DDiissttrriibbuuttiioonn ttoo ffuurrtthheerr cchhaannnneellss..
MMeeddiiaa iiss iinntteerreesstteedd.. FFiirrsstt aarr--
ttiicclleess iinn bbllooggss aanndd oonnlliinnee
mmeeddiiaa..
44 ssttrroonngg
bbrreeeezzee
rroouugghh sseeaa EEmmeerrggeennccee ooff aa nneettwwoorrkkeedd pprroo--
tteesstt ggrroouupp.. TThhee ggrroowwiinngg,, aaccttiivvee
ffoolllloowweerr aauuddiieennccee aaccrroossss aallll
cchhaannnneellss..
NNuummeerroouuss bbllooggss aanndd rreeppoorrttss
iinn oonnlliinnee mmeeddiiaa.. FFiirrsstt aarrttiiccllee
iinn pprriinntt mmeeddiiaa..
55 ssttoorrmm ssttrroonngg sseeaa PPrrootteesstt ddeevveellooppiinngg iinnttoo aa ccaamm--
ppaaiiggnn.. MMuucchh ooff tthhee aauuddiieennccee
ggrroowwiinngg ooppttss ffoorr ppaarrttiicciippaattiinngg..
PPaacckkaaggee,, hhiigghhllyy eemmoottiioonnaall aaccccuu--
ssaattiioonnss,, ccrroossss--cchhaannnneell cchhaaiinn rree--
aaccttiioonn..
FFuullll bblloogg ppoossttss.. FFoollllooww--uupp aarr--
ttiiccllee iinn oonnlliinnee mmeeddiiaa.. GGrrooww--
iinngg nnuummbbeerr ooff aarrttiicclleess iinn
ccllaassssiiccaall mmeeddiiaa ((pprriinntt,, rraaddiioo,,
tteelleevviissiioonn))
66 hhuurrrriiccaannee hheeaavvyy sseeaa SSnnoowwbbaallll eeffffeecctt wwiitthh ccoonncceerrnneedd
ppaarrttiicciippaannttss.. AAttmmoosspphheerree mmoossttllyy
aaggggrreessssiivvee,, aabbuussiivvee,, tthhrreeaatteenniinngg..
NNuummbbeerr oonnee hheeaaddlliinnee iinn
oonnlliinnee mmeeddiiaa.. IInntteennssiivvee ccoovv--
eerraaggee iinn aallll mmeeddiiaa..
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.
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4.3 Suggestions for Organisations
For a lot of companies social media may feel like a stream of endless opportunities to share infor-
mation 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 can-
not 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 so-
cial media in the workplace than their older colleagues (Onyechi et al. 2009, p.1 ff.).
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4.3.4 Organisational Definition
Organisations must align structure of social media. Questions about responsibility and roles of so-
cial 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. Organisa-
tions need social media experts that help through the organisational transformation. Internal in-
struments for knowledge management such as a wiki may help to share expert know-how and in-
formation 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 em-
ployees.
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5 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 de-
velopment (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:
5. Results and Conclusion
1. Select Comparable Companies
2. Analysis Criteria
3. Timeline Analysis
4. Identify Participant Interaction
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
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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 com-
panies were paired and reviewed but not selected for the Facebook timeline analysis:
Italy Switzerland
Alessi (coffee) Kaba Group (doors)
Angelini (Pharmaceutical) Lonza Group
Autogrill Valora
Barilla Pasta Röthlin
Barilla Ricola
Basso (bicycle) Simple.ch (bicycle)
Benetton Group Schild
Bianchi (bicycle) Scott Sports (bicycle)
Brionvega (electronics) ABB
Chicco (toys) Franz Carl Weber
DeLonghi (coffee machines) Jura (coffee machines)
Diesel Manor
Dolce & Gabbana Globus
Ferrari Pilatus Aircrafts
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Ferrero Lindt & Sprüngli
Fiat Auto AG (transportation)
Galbani Emmentaler
Geloso (electronics) Holcim
Geox Mammut
Giorgio Armani Charles Vögele
Gucci PKZ
Italcementi (material) Schindler Group
Lavazza Nespresso
Marelli (electronics) Implenia
Maserati Stadler Rail (train)
Max Mara Feldpausch
Menarini (Pharmaceutical) Nobel Biocare
Merlo (machines) Sika (machines)
Moby Lines (ferries line) Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstättersees
Officine Panerai Swatch
Parmalat Emmi
Pinarello (bicycle) BMC (bicycle)
Riva Group (steel) Von Roll
San Pellegrino Rivella
Sardinia Ferries (ferries line) Zürichsee Schifffahrt
Segafredo (coffee) Blasercafé (coffee)
Technogym (fitness equipment) Shark Fitness (fitness equipment)
Trussardi Jelmoli
Venieri (machines) ABB
Zenith (office accessories) Victorinox
Table 2: Not chosen Companies
The selection of companies is focusing on business-to-consumer (B2C). Understandably, compa-
nies with business-to-business (B2B) do search less contact in social media or do not have a so-
cial media presence. That is the reason why the selection is limited to companies focusing on con-
sumers.
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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 Switzerland
Lavazza Nespresso
Parmalat Emmi
Officine Panerai Swatch
Barilla Ricola
Geox 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 cata-
logue. 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
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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 ar-
chived 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.
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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 follow-
ing 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. Reac-
tions can be undertaken by commenting directly visible to all participants or by a private text mes-
sage.
Average Response Time
The calculation of an average response time to a participant request gives answers to the quick-
wittedness of the maintenance of the Facebook page. For measuring this value the average re-
sponse 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 differ-
ent reactions techniques of each company.
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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 impres-
sion. 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 cof-
fee experience. There are eight tabs that are containing mandatory sections photos, the number of
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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 fre-
quently. With numerous pictures and statements e.g. "Congrats Mr Federer from the Official Sup-
plier 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
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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 Ital-
ian flair in which the milestones in the history of Lavazza is well described on the timeline.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ Fast response time - Cover photo + Allocation of consumer interaction to the right places inside the company
- Time consuming individual answers
+ Underlining great sponsorships + Timeline history
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5.1.3.2 Nespresso
Timeline Presence
Nespresso is the coffee capsules product division of the company Nestlé 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 con-
sumer posts on their timeline. Moreover, every single picture does have a professional look. A visi-
tor 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. In-
terestingly, 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
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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 time-
line with the help of Instagram, a photo sharing social media, which is currently in purchase nego-
tiations 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 Ecolabo-
ration 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 interna-
tional profile other languages are also encountered.
The average response time to a participant is over 3 days. But there are numerous posts of partici-
pants 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 un-
answered 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
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The reaction of Nespresso was a standard answer to all posts replied again and again on the time-
line. This has slowed the campaign of SAH significantly. Nevertheless, a direct dialog was not es-
tablished 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 reason-
able answer, even with more than 1.7 million likes.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ More than 1.7 million likes - Standard answers + Professional design - Response time - Unanswered comments
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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 pan-
els to chose what leaves a clear overview. The timeline comes with professional photographs pre-
sumably 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 na-
tional 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.
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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 per-
sonal 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 an-
swered 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 Weaknesses
+ Personal answers - No timeline history + Fast response time - Cover photo + Benefits e.g. recipes
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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 of-
ficial 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 CAFFÈ 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 commer-
cials. 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.
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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 Face-
book 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 Fru-
foo 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
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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
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Summary
Emmi 's Facebook page "Emmi Murmeli" does have a small number of likes because of several
separate product pages e.g. Emmi CAFFÈ LATTE. The product pages are competing with the
Emmi main page. The reaction on a rising concern is exemplary and prevents more negative reac-
tion.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ Product specific fan pages - Small number of likes (7,000) + Fast response time + Good reaction on criticism
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5.1.3.5 Officine Panerai
Timeline Presence
Officine Panerai is the Italian watch manufacturer which develops and produces watches with Ital-
ian 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 pro-
file 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 pro-
file. 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 Pres-
ence"). 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.
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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 interest-
ing.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ Product presentation - No timeline history + Represents luxury - Unanswered requests
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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 "trend-
setting 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 appli-
cation. 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
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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 pro-
file (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 is-
sue 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 re-
sponse 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.
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Summary
SWATCH truly possesses a fully equipped Facebook page with the maximum panels allowed. Al-
though 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 Weaknesses
+ International and national pages - Suppresses posts + Good timeline history - Low interaction + Information on products
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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 af-
fects 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 Ba-
rilla 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 mile-
stones 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.
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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 Weaknesses
+ Information on products - Presence only in Italian + Timeline history + Benefits e.g. recipes
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5.1.3.8 Ricola
Timeline Presence
Ricola is a herb drops manufacturer located in Laufen, Switzerland. There exists only an interna-
tional 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. Swiss-
ness 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-
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plained in detail, even the story that a bakery wanted to attract more customers during the eco-
nomic crisis back in the 1930s. There is also a download section for a ringtone and a new televi-
sion commercial. Interestingly the official Madonna fan page likes Ricola as well as the Swiss Tour-
ism 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 continu-
ously 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 as-
sumed 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 Weaknesses
+ One international presence - Unanswered requests + Good timeline history - Long response time + Information on products + Only positive posts
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 link-
ing 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 speak-
ing, live in Europe, adventurous spirit, comfortable in front of cameras). One gets the impression
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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, an-
swers 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 mes-
sage 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 unan-
swered 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
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 confes-
sion: "[...] 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 con-
sumer will inevitably ask the question, why GEOX does have a Facebook page when only one em-
ployee 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 par-
ticipants 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 pres-
ence and is not having enough manpower to handle the easiest requests of participants is very dis-
turbing. Such treatment takes a lot of trust from consumers. Moreover, the social media manager
deletes unanswered posts and inhibits completely the interaction.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ One international presence - Unanswered requests + Good timeline history - Long response time (>10 days) + Information on products
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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" sup-
ports 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. Re-
quests 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-
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 − Mam-
mut − tolerates to identify the name of the used tool for social media. The interaction with partici-
pants 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 sustainabil-
ity. Rolf Schmid, CEO of Mammut Sports Group said: "Mammut lives of and for nature.". The be-
ginning of the shitstorm is marked with simple call to participants on Twitter. Figure 45 gives a pic-
ture of the very first comment which created a massive outrage on Mammut 's Facebook and Twit-
ter 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 environ-
mentalist could oppose a law for a healthy environment. That is the reason why participants ques-
tioned 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 re-
move 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 misun-
derstandings and makes it possible to promote products consistently.
Strengths Weaknesses
+ One international presence - Time consuming social media presence + Well designed timeline history + Information on products + Fast response time
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
5.1.4 Results
Timeline does have an effect on relationships between fans and the analysed companies. Interac-
tion 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 partici-
pants do not join a Facebook page just for fun, they want to have certain benefits with the expo-
sure 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 in-
teresting Facebook page with a lot of benefits to discover. Fan gates are decreasingly imple-
mented. The main reason for a fan gate is to show participants that clicked on an advert a wel-
come 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 reus-
ing the same sentences again and again for replies: "We will pass your request on to the appropri-
ate 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 per-
sonal. 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 CAFFÈ
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
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
company history is inexistent on Facebook. On the other side Officine Panerai is having a vital so-
cial 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 in-
stance, 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 in-
come.
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 par-
ticipating 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 im-
portance 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 pic-
tures 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 Par-
malat) but aesthetics is always debatable.
A well thought out social media plan (see also chapter 3, section 3.4 "Social Media Plan") is nec-
essary 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 cam-
paigns 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. Be-
cause there are too many comments (SWATCH) or too little manpower (GEOX) the comment func-
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 interac-
tive page.
Corporate Facebook pages that are putting in a lot of effort in updates and shares of vital informa-
tion 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 applica-
tions 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 chan-
nels, the names stand for themselves and are used without the legal form of a company. Also men-
tioned 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 compa-
nies compete against each other in a even stronger way.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
5.2 Evaluation of the Online Survey
5.2.1 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 col-
leges to fill out the online survey. Moreover, many respondents were invited to this survey with di-
rect requests by mail.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 an-
swered 45 times (53%) and employees of organisations based in Italy answered 40 times (47%). In
total there were given 85 answers (see Table 4).
# Answer
Response % 1 Switzerland
45 53%
2 Italy
40 47%
Total 85 100%
Table 4: Surveys by Countries
The most responses were given by the IT industry followed by services and education. The eco-
nomic branches of Italian and Swiss respondents in Figure 47 are in perfect balance, what makes
a good comparison possible.
Figure 47: Economic Branch of Respondents
There is no significant difference in the set of Italian and Swiss organisations.
2 2 2 3 3 3
4 5 5 5 5
6 7
10 11
12
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Economic Branch of Respondents
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The age of the respondents is spread from under 19 (13) to over 70 (4) years. The most respon-
dents are found in the middle, 30 until 49 years old.
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.
# Answer
Response % 1 Male
40 47%
2 Female
45 53%
Total 85 100%
Table 5: Gender of Respondents
13
22 29
17
4
0
10
20
30
40
<19 20-29 30-49 50-69 >70
Age of Respondents
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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 note-
books 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).
# Answer
Response % 1 PC/Notebook
48 62%
2
Mobile device
(e.g. Tablet-PC,
Smart phone)
29 38%
Total 77 100%
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.
# Answer
Response %
1 Less than 1
year
25 32%
2 Between 1 and
2 years
21 27%
3 More than 2
years
22 29%
4 I do not know
9 12%
Total 77 100%
Table 7: Corporate Social Media in Years
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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 e-
commerce in Switzerland states that in most cases social media are the final steps after organisa-
tions have introduced the mandatory program for building offering and fulfilment as well as estab-
lished online marketing tools (Wölfle & Leimstoll 2012, p.9). That is the reason why so many or-
ganisations 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 re-
spondents. 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).
Figure 49: Reported Social Media Channels
In the category Other respondents specified five times the photo sharing tool Instagram and high-
lights 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 offi-
cer or supervisor" with 49. Followed by "all employees" with 47 hits. On the third place is "Nobody"
6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 17 19
24
36
58
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Social Media Channels
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with 41 counts hits and on the forth place general managers are allowed to use social media for
work-related purposes.
# Answer
Response 1 All employees
47
2 Social media officer or
supervisor
49
3 Managers
33
4 Nobody
41
5 Other (please specify)
23
Table 8: Roles Allowed to Use Social Media
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 mes-
sage 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 organisa-
tions tend to restrict access to their employees more than Italian organisations do. Out of 47 re-
sponses 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 dis-
torted the results may also be excluded. There are only five organisations that declared them-
selves 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
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• Management board, 2x
• Human resources, 2x
In five organisations the marketing division has the lead for work-related social media usage. Fol-
lowed 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 devel-
opment and research is essential for the sustainability of the organisation. Leaking business se-
crets through social media, especially from development and research employees, may be devas-
tating for the success of an organisation. In case of recruitment of employees possibly human re-
sources 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.
# Answer
Response 1 Communication
47
2 Community Involvement
50
3 Consumer Feedback
36
4 Crowd Sourcing
28
5 Customer Analysis
24
6 Customer Service
26
7 Recruitment
36
8 Marketing
48
9 Networking Knowledge Shar-
ing/Creation (e.g. blogs/wikis)
34
10 Other (please specify)
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)
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
• 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 organi-
sations 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 unem-
ployment 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 cus-
tomers 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
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes (please specify)
25 34%
2 No
24 32%
3 I do not know
25 34%
Total 74 100%
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 organisa-
tional 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 follow-
ing: "Among other tasks, I'm in charge of searching for fresh, reliable content to update our web-
sites, which I previously gathered through newsletters and web surfing. Currently, I mainly use so-
cial 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 re-
spondents are:
• Growing process agility, 3x
• Improved organisational communication, 2x
• Customer growth, 2x
• Faster interaction (organisation/consumer), 2x
• Public awareness, 1x
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Respondents reported that side effects using social media are for 50% of all organisations an is-
sue. 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 an-
swer 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 bet-
ter 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 dis-
similarities between Italy and Switzerland (see Figure 50 and Figure 51):
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 re-
spondents do more likely rate the impact easy while the Swiss respondents almost build a bal-
anced opinion with a deviation of only 3 points on that issue.
5 6 7 9
5 2
4
5
9 3 4
6 8 3
6
7
6 5 5
6
3
5
6
2
11 6
2
6
8
4
10
4 5 4 3
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Easy vs. Difficult
Safe vs. Dangerous
Powerful vs. Weak
Essential vs. Immaterial
Effective vs. Useless
4 5 5 11
4 2
5
5 4
9 5
6
2
5
5
5
4 9 5
5
3 1 8
8 6 6
5
2
7 6
4 6 4 5 4
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Easy vs. Difficult
Safe vs. Dangerous
Powerful vs. Weak
Essential vs. Immaterial
Effective vs. Useless
Figure 51: Rating of Social Media in Italy Figure 50: Rating of Social Media in Switzerland
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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 so-
cial media more powerful for the company.
Essential and Immaterial
Interestingly, Italian respondents did report an immaterial impact of social media in their organisa-
tion. 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 com-
munication 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 effec-
tive.
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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, es-
pecially 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 organisa-
tions 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.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes
22 30%
2 No
26 35%
3 I do not know
26 35%
Total 74 100%
Table 11: Social Media Communication Strategy
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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 run-
ning 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.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes
23 31%
2 No
25 34%
3 I do not know
26 35%
Total 74 100%
Table 12: Social Media Guidance/Policy
Only one respondent reported that the organisation has no strategy but instead a guidance or pol-
icy. 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 or-
ganisations mention the private usage of social media 57% (13). 26% (6) of the reported respon-
dents did not mention the private usage, 17% (4) did not know. Again, there is no measurable de-
viation in Italian and Swiss organisations.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes
13 57%
2 No
6 26%
3 I do not know
4 17%
Total 23 100%
Table 13: Private Social Media Usage
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Predefined processes or procedures for social media are a useful help in order to exchange infor-
mation and to control the interaction. Table 14 shows the answers to the question whether a prede-
fined process or procedure for social media do exist in the asked organisations.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes
28 38%
2 No
26 35%
3 I do not know
20 27%
Total 74 100%
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 pri-
vate 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 organisa-
tions. Retro perspective, most Swiss organisations 54% (20) reconsidered the impact of social me-
dia in terms of business secrets, while Italian organisations tended to be more unconcerned 26%
(9).
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Italy # Answer
Response % 1 Yes
9 26%
2 No
26 74%
Total 35 100%
Switzerland 1 Yes
20 54%
2 No
17 46%
Total 37 100%
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.
# Answer
Response %
1 A policy for social media usage has
been created on the work place
11 38%
2 The access to social media is now
restricted on the work place
4 14%
3 I am more aware of copyright state-
ments on websites/blogs/social media
8 28%
4 Other (please specify)
6 20%
Total 29 100%
Table 16: Changes for Business Secrets
Out of 29 reconsidered impacts of social media on business secrets, 38% (11) respondents re-
ported that "a policy for social media usage has been created on the work place". Only 14% (4) re-
spondents 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.
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Whether or not it is worthwhile for an organisation to be on social media channels is hard to meas-
ure. 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.
# Answer
Response % 1 Yes
19 26%
2 No
31 43%
3 I do not know
22 31%
Total 72 100%
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 or-
ganisation 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 respon-
dents. 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
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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 per-
formance. To the question "What step or point would you do today different before and after im-
plementation?" respondents answered completely diverse. Sorted by countries, Swiss organisa-
tions were more reflective, while Italian organisations tended to report nothing. Though, one re-
spondent 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.
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International alignment is undertaken just by a small group of organisations 28% (20) that is inter-
nationally present all around the globe. "No" 33% (24) and "I do not know" 39% (28) answers indi-
cate that there is no need of an international alignment (see Table 18).
# Answer
Response %
1 Yes (please
specify)
20 28%
2 No
24 33%
3 I do not know
28 39%
Total 72 100%
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
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5.2.4 Conclusion
In the early beginning, it was hard to find respondents for an online survey that asks for organisa-
tional 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 af-
ter 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 re-
ported 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 con-
sumption 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 trans-
formation of social media. While there is no measurable deviation in Swiss and Italian organisa-
tions 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 im-
pact of social media in terms of business secrets, while Italian organisations tended to be more un-
concerned 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 so-
cial 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 re-
flective, while Italian organisations tended to report nothing.
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6 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 or-
ganisations in the change of social media to understand and apply a framework for corporate so-
cial 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, corpo-
rate network analysis, corporate monitoring, corporate branding and corporate identity. These find-
ings 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 con-
tent today.
Definition of the Corporate Social Media Framework
Based on the literature and theory, the corporate social media framework was developed in chap-
ter 3. The framework helps organisations with essential instructions how to deal with corporate so-
cial 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 find-
ings 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 ex-
plained organisational transformation, challenges, success factors, measurements and sugges-
tions 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
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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 al-
ready faced a shitstorm did have learned from their mistakes and were doing a better job. In con-
clusion, it was observed that all companies in this analysis with such a bad social media experi-
ence are in a better position.
The online survey discovered that Italian organisations are not as restrictive as Swiss organisa-
tions. Most of Italian organisations reported that they give access to social media for all employ-
ees. 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 organi-
sations have expressed positive side effects such as better connection to users, faster communica-
tion, 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 con-
cluded in this chapter.
According to the first research question “Which aspects of corporate communications are under-
taken 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 implementa-
tion 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.
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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 ap-
proach 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 effi-
ciently can they be measured?". It was explained that social media communication forces organi-
sations 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 It-
aly and Switzerland?” this was accomplished with an analysis and an evaluation. It was a very im-
portant 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 in-
creasing 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 bene-
fits 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.
© Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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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.142–151) .................. 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 Inés Calderón 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
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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
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9 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
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10 Appendix
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