Who are we? Analyzing the digital identities of organizations through the lens of micro-interactions on social media

Abstract

Firms' activity on social media may enhance stakeholder engagement and improved communication between firms and their customers through dialogue and interaction. This study fills the information gap related to organizational identity in the digital age, using a mixed-methods approach to explore organizational identity in the digital environment in order to address the paper's research question: How do firms develop their digital identities through social media? Micro-interactions on social media were used to analyze corporate identity at a macro level. Ten firms were chosen randomly from a purposefully selected dataset which included the largest enterprises operating in Poland. The firms had communicated with stakeholders through 113,236 posts collected between January 1st and December 31st, 2021. Considerable differences can be observed in the ways in which corporations communicate with different external stakeholders through social media. The most variance in social media micro-interactions can be seen across four dimensions: control, direction, values, and consciousness. Consumer interaction is confined to quick micro-interactions, disregarding other more permanent factors.