Use Of Social Media Networks Research Articles

The corporate digital footprint: exactly who owns and controls it? The emergence of the digital director

PurposeThis paper aims to address the subject of the corporate digital footprint. The explosion of social media networks has created major opportunities for companies and employees alike, yet many senior executives don't fully understand how to harness its power or, indeed, how to maintain control of it. Mastering the social media tools and creating a meaningful digital footprint can produce significant corporate value. Chief executive officers are beginning to realize that in order to take advantage of the digital evolution, they need someone who can capitalize on the robust and dynamic flow of data, knowledge and information across all business interests and through social media streams. The concept of the digital director is now emerging. The head of digital strategy will have ultimate control of the corporate digital agenda and be accountable for the organization's digital identity, both on a corporate and an individual level.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses some important issues relating to the use of social media networks by employees, and the need for a different set of competencies and business‐related expertise to manage the corporate digital footprint.FindingsMastering the social media tools and creating a meaningful digital footprint can produce significant corporate value. To take advantage of the digital evolution, companies need someone who can control and use the flow of data, knowledge and information across all business interests and through social media streams. The concept of the digital director is emerging.Originality/valueThe issues addressed will benefit senior management by improving their understanding of how best to manage and control their organization's digital identity.

Social media and the social movements in the Middle East and North Africa

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social media in communication discourse in the Islamic Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.Design/methodology/approachBy applying the theory of social networks and a method known as critical discourse analysis (CDA) this study investigates the role of social media in the recent waves of popular unrest in the MENA region.FindingsThis study finds that social media not only played an important role in citizens’ participation in communication discourse and mobilization, but also that these media activities intensified in part because of the authorities’ failing rationales against protesters, as shown in the four‐part CDA validity test.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to a particular time frame covering the recent democratic discourse in the MENA region for the period 2009‐2011. While this research is limited to the case study of the MENA region, the author believes that lessons learned from this case study can be applied to other developing countries across the globe.Practical implicationsSocial media tools available via the internet have provided web users across the globe effective tools and services to share and disseminate information by interactively collaborating with each other in digital communities through blogs, social networking and video sharing sites. In this context, social networks are considered to be effective media for communication discourse. The intensive use of social media networks among citizens’ of the MENA region indicate that the internet has the potential to be a multivocal platform through which silenced and marginalized groups can have their voices heard.Originality/valueWhile the existing literature focuses largely on deploying Habermasian critical discourse analysis to media discourse within the context of democratic and well developed nations, this paper presents one of the few studies that extends the CDA method to non‐democratic countries. As such it contributes to the existing knowledge and understanding of the mobilizing effects of social media in communication discourse.

Antecedents of Early Adoption and Use of Social Media Networks for Stakeholder Communications: Evidence from Franchising*

The motivation for this paper arises from the importance of stakeholder communications for firms and the rapid emergence of social media networks as a means of such communications. Our purpose is to understand the early adoption and use of social media networks for such communications by firms at a point in time when such networks were relatively new. Specifically, we examine the adoption and use of Facebook (the most popular social networking site) by franchisors and focus on two questions: (1) antecedents of early adoption of Facebook by franchisors, mainly in terms of system age, size, organizational form, advertising royalty rates, industry, and internationalization; and (2) variations in use of Facebook (in terms of content) by these franchisors and the way these variations relate to the characteristics of the franchisors and their systems. Our empirical study covers 408 franchisors doing business in the French market. The analysis approach is quantitative, with the use of t‐tests, Pearson chi‐square tests, and a logistic regression model as well as a content analysis of the franchisors' Facebook pages. At the time we collected data, we found that only 21.3 percent of the franchisors had a presence on Facebook. Several characteristics of the system (e.g., percentage of company‐owned outlets, advertising royalty rates, and industry) influence whether a franchisor has a presence on Facebook as well as the nature of content on the relevant Facebook page. We draw on organizational theories and institutional economic theories to offer potential explanations for our preliminary investigation. These research findings can help the franchisors better understand the role of social media networks for stakeholder communications. In particular, our results offer insights for smaller franchisors, in terms of when and how they adopt communication innovations to compete against larger firms.