Abstract
The main purpose of this article is to explore the social media policies of financial institutions in South Africa. Owing to the advances in technology, businesses are exposed to many opportunities but also risks in social media platforms. For the study, a thematic framework was considered to analyze social media policies, which included risk and relationship building, brand image and reputation, stakeholders and communities, disciplinary action and compliance as well as professional and personal guidelines. A qualitative document analysis of social media policies of select South African Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed financial institutions was then conducted. For the data analysis, a thematic document analysis using a consensual qualitative research process was applied. The results showed that all the financial institutions appreciated the value and opportunities provided by social media and ensured strict compliance to their social media policies. However, there were some financial institutions that did not focus on relationship building, did not mention brand image and reputation, did not include all stakeholders, and did not suggest personal guidelines in their social media policies.
Highlights
Social media as an ever-changing communication and collaboration channel of platforms, services, and applications has profoundly influenced all structures of society including individuals, experts, public figures, scientists, institutions, and businesses (Lomborg, 2015; Matesic et al, 2013)
The population sample included all the respective financial institutions listed on the South African Johannesburg Stock Exchange (Sharenet, 2015)
This study has contributed toward the limited debate on how social media policies in the financial sector have been developed and employed to manage the organization’s—and to some extent their employee’s—social media use with the aim of promoting their organizational communication, stakeholder management, and reputation
Summary
Social media as an ever-changing communication and collaboration channel of platforms, services, and applications has profoundly influenced all structures of society including individuals, experts, public figures, scientists, institutions, and businesses (Lomborg, 2015; Matesic et al, 2013). The advent of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have led to the affordable dissemination and retrieval of information, which has added improved functioning of the public sphere (Steenkamp & Hyde-Clarke, 2014). These web-based applications enable users to exchange information, create relationships, and communicate information (Linke & Zerfass, 2013). The current popularity of social media continually creates opportunities for organizations as it opens new channels of interaction with consumers and other important stakeholders. Social media has the potential to be a valuable source or benefit to organizations and is growing exponentially (Zhang & Moe, 2017)
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