Social media can truly be a double edge sword for any organizations.
It can bring unprecedented success through its infinite reach while at
the same time can destroy brand and organizational trust in minutes.
As quoted by Bown (2019), Pete Knott, a digital consultant at
reputation management consultancy explains “social media is the
most immediate threat to your company’s reputation” (p.1). You can
only prepare for threats by understanding them and being proactive
in their mitigation. Just like when conducting a SWOT analysis, lying
opposite to threats are opportunities that organization should be
using to their advantage.
A significant portion of trust is credibility. As shown by Cardon
(2021), credibility is made up of three components; competence,
caring, and character. Social media allows all three pillars of credibility
to be demonstrated to both internal and external stakeholders. An
organization can self-promote the attainment or accomplishments of
knowledge and skill through real world examples. They can generate
caring through public relations and effective two-way
communication. Lastly charter-based traits as shown by research
highlighted by Cardon (2021) of “honesty, ethical behavior, and
willingness to exchange information” are ranked at the top of
“important determinants of trust” in the workplace (p.9). Social media
facilitates this by giving all stakeholders that insiders transparent
view, forming relationships through connections.
As explained by Cardon (2021), “PR is fundamentally about building
relationships” and this is in respect to all stakeholders (p.245). As
showed by Charest et al. (2016), a listening strategy can be an
effective mechanism for building relationships through two-way
communication and interaction. By actively monitoring utilized
platforms organizations can directly reply to individuals and treat
them as a valued relationship instead of use a mass audience. Charest
et al. (2016), describes this as a promoting intimacy between an
organization and audience which increases affinity and influence.
Social media can be utilized to promote the values and reinforce the
organization culture. Externally, a Cardon (2021) emphasis the power
of blogs for branding. A company can utilize this method for calls to
action that are in alignment with their corporate ideals. This speaks to
the public reputation a company wants to build. Internally, social
media can be used to build cross-functional teams, collaborative
discussion forums or simple open lines of communication to all levels
of the organization that otherwise would not be available in a
hierarchical format.
Bown, J. (2019, July 8). How social media could ruin your business. BBC
News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48871456
Cardon, P. W. (2021). Business communication: Developing leaders
for a networked world (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Charest, F., Bouffard, J., & Zajmovic, E. (2016). Public relations and
social media: Deliberate or creative strategic planning. Public
Relations Review, 42(4), 530–538. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.pubrev.2016.03.008
