Role of Interactive Social Media in Corporate Social Responsibility Communications

The Role of Interactive Social Media in Corporate Social Responsibility Communications

1. Summary

One of the most significant new marketing platforms to emerge in recent years has been social media in general and more recently, interactive social media. According to the definition provided by Chao and Parker (2014), social media in general are “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (p. 323). By extension, interactive social media are defined as those platforms that feature ways for consumers to directly respond to Web-based content in the form of feedback, comments, testimonials, reviews or other online exchanges (Chao & Parker, 2014). The overarching focus of the proposed study concerns the role of interactive social media in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications. This specific focus has assumed new importance and relevance as growing numbers of companies of all sizes and types have incorporated interactive social media into their CSR communications strategies.

This research proposal describes the conceptual framework that will be used to guide the study, including a description of the problem of interest and the specific aim of the research process. In addition, a discussion concerning the proposed study’s theoretical framework and the guiding research question is followed by a description of the research method that will be used to formulate an informed and timely answer to the above-mentioned research question. Finally, an analysis of the respective scientific and societal relevance of the study proposed herein concludes this research proposal.

2. Conceptual framework

2.1 Problem description and aim of the research.

The problem of interest to the proposed study concerns the growing need to identify optimal communication strategies for interactive social media communications. Although all organizations are unique in some fashion, they all share the need to communicate effectively with their stakeholders, including most especially their customers. While interactive social media platforms offer a wide array of benefits and advantages for businesses, there are also a number of challenges and constraints involved in their deployment and administration that must be taken into account in order to achieve optimal outcomes. In this regard, Castillo and McCallister (2012) emphasize that, “[Corporate social responsibility] programs need to be well run and strategic in scope in order to have an impact; however, to communicate the range and importance of CSR activities, companies must navigate a complex web of diverse stakeholder groups with different needs and motivations” (p. 33). Therefore, the aim of the proposed study will be to develop a comprehensive understanding concerning the role of interactive social media in CSR communications to identify best practices, opportunities for improvement and directions for future research in this area based on the theoretical framework described below.

2.2 Theoretical framework

A study’s theoretical framework is comprised of a general set of statements concerning how the world actually works and how given research approaches conform to these stated realities (Grinnell & Unrau, 2009). Therefore, the first constituent statement for the proposed study’s theoretical framework concerns the reality of social media communication growth in recent years to the point where the vast majority of companies are using these resources for marketing purposes (Bennett, 2014). In addition, another statement about the reality of the current business environment is the increased importance of CSR initiatives from the perspective of consumers who view these efforts as part of a company’s brand and a measure of their trustworthiness (Lee, Oh & Kim, 2013). A final general statement concerning the realities facing companies of all sizes and types today is an increasingly competitive and globalized marketplace that demands continuous innovation, the elimination of waste and a commitment to high quality customer service.

These general statements are supported by a growing body of evidence of the use of social media by companies of all sizes and types in recent years. Given that the vast majority of businesses in the United States are already using social media platforms for marketing purposes (Bennett, 2014), it is reasonable to posit that these trends will continue well into the foreseeable future. Some indication of the future applications for social media for CSR initiatives can be discerned in part from an analysis of their current uses. For example, a survey by eMarketer of organizations with 100 or more employees identified the following uses for social media that involved marketing in some fashion:

· Social networks;
· Social games;
· Blogs;
· Microblogging (i.e., Twitter);
· Photograph and video sharing;
· Podcasting;
· Ratings and reviews;
· Virtual worlds;
· Widgets; and,
· Apps (Bennett, 2014).

Moreover, current projections indicate that these applications will continue to expand and increase in coming years, making the need to identify optimal strategies for using these highly cost-effective resources for communicating CSR initiatives to all stakeholders especially urgent today. Although there is a certain altruistic quality to engaging in otherwise costly CSR initiatives, it just makes good business sense to also communicate these efforts to an enterprise’s stakeholders, particularly its current and potential consumers. Indeed, Lee et al. (2013) emphasize that, “The instrumental benefits of firm’s CSR activities are contingent upon the stakeholders’ awareness and favorable attribution” (p. 792).

Although social media has the potential to create the framework in which companies can generate favorable awareness of their CSR activities through a network of stakeholder relationships, it is also important to keep in mind that such opportunities are not evenly distributed for all businesses (Lee et al., 2013). For instance, in their study of the use of Twitter by Fortune 500 companies, Lee and his associates (2013) found that first movers enjoyed significantly higher CSR ratings compared to companies that entered this social media platform later. In addition, first movers also enjoyed larger numbers of online followers and higher levels of interactivity with these followers in the form of feedback and “re-Tweets.”

While more research in this area is needed, these seminal findings underscore the growing importance of establishing a social media presence at the earliest opportunity and using these resources to create a favorable corporate image. In this regard, Lee et al. (2013) conclude that, “ Our findings also suggest that socially responsible firms can harvest proactive stakeholders’ participation (user-driven communication) without investing more resources (firm-driven communication). As the first study that conceptualizes the social media as a proponent of CSR, this paper contends that being socially responsible makes more practical sense for firms with the rise of social media” (p. 792).

These pragmatic considerations are especially important for companies competing in controversial industries such as oil and gas where environmental pressure groups such as Friends of the Earth are actively campaigning against high profits and the destructive practices used for exploration and extraction. Another seminal study, this one by Du and Vieira (2012), used a case study methodology to evaluate the specific characteristics of CSR communications strategies that are being used by six major oil companies. An analysis of these companies’ Web site content during the period from 2011 through 2012 in these areas showed that all six companies used their Web site content to communicate their CSR activities during this period to a wide range of stakeholders with a specific focus on how these activities addressed stakeholder needs (Du & Vieira, 2012).

One of the more interesting findings that emerged from the Du and Vieira (2012) study was the importance of interactivity in making this Web content more effective in communicating the relationship between CSR activities and the benefits they provided these stakeholders. In this regard, Du and Vieira (2012) report that, “CSR information on these Web sites often involved the use of multimedia technologies and social media platforms [which] utilized a variety of tactics such as factual arguments and two-sided messages” (p. 414). These findings indicate that the extent to which interactivity is included in social media offerings will be the extent to which companies experience higher levels of return on their investments in CSR initiatives.

Finally, a study by Rim and Song (2016) examined the effectiveness of CSR-related social media campaigns by comparing the extent to which interactivity affected the perception of these activities by stakeholders including existing and potential customers. The results of the Rim an Song (2016) study provided additional evidence in support of this study’s theoretical framework concerning the importance of interactivity in social media offerings. Indeed, according to Rim and Song, their findings “revealed that two-sided CSR responses are more effective than one-sided responses in enhancing altruistic motives for CSR, reducing perceived negativity in the public's comments, and eliciting favorable attitudes, especially when comments were negative” (p. 476). It is reasonable to suggest that this growing body of evidence provides significant support for this study’s theoretical framework and the need for additional research in this area as discussed below.

2.3 Research Question

Taken together, the foregoing trends and issues about the use of social media by the vast majority of companies today underscore the need for developing a better understanding concerning the precise role that these platforms play in CSR communications. Therefore, the proposed study’s main research question will be, “What are current best practices for achieving maximum impact and optimal returns from investments in social media for CSR communication applications?”

3. Method (maximum 1000 words)

The proposed study will use a mixed method using both qualitative and quantitative research strategies to develop a timely and informed answer to the above-stated research question. The qualitative part of the mixed method will consist of a systematic review of the relevant juried and scholarly literature concerning the effectiveness of the use of social media platforms in general and the use of interactive elements in these online offerings in particular to communicate CSR initiatives to stakeholders. The quantitative part of the mixed method will consist of the administration of a custom survey to a group of real-world business practitioners with responsibilities for creating, maintaining and responding to social media content for their organizations as described below.

3.1 Participants and study design. In an effort to develop a broad-based analysis that can be used to answer the proposed

study’s guiding research question, as many respondents as possible will be recruited to complete the survey with an objective of obtaining a minimum of 20 participants. In order to encourage as many respondents as possible to participate, the custom survey will be administered online using a commercial survey service such as Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey. The custom survey will specifically focus on the issues of interest to this study concerning best practices in achieving maximum impact and optimal returns from investments in social media for CSR communication applications using the qualitative and quantitative measures described below.

3.2 Measures. The custom survey will include three sections as follows: (a) section one will be used to collect relevant
demographic information from the participants such as length of time in their age, gender, current position, position titles as well as the industry or sector in which they compete; (b) section two will be comprised of a series of Likert-scaled questions that are designed to elicit specific responses concerning best practices in achieving maximum impact from social media offerings and the relationship between this effectiveness and any interactive elements that are included in such offerings; and (c) a final section that will consist of requests for open-ended comments, empirical observations and personal opinions of the participants concerning the use of interactive social media for promoting CSR initiatives to their stakeholders.

3.3 Data analyses. The qualitative data that emerges from the systematic review of the relevant literature will be synthesized with the findings that result from the administration of the custom survey described above. The quantitative data from the custom survey will be analyzed using an Excel spreadsheet to develop percentage responses to the Likert-scaled questions in section two and these results will be presented in tabular and graphic form, together with a narrative analysis.

4. Relevance

4.1. Scientific relevance. Although there are no experimental elements involved in the proposed study’s research design or data-gathering strategies, the proposed study has significant scientific relevance by virtue of its interest in identifying best practices in a rapidly evolving communications platform that is reaching near-saturation levels among small and large businesses. In addition, the proposed study also has some profound societal relevance as discussed further below.

4.2 Societal relevance: The focus and aim of the proposed study have significant societal relevance given the explosive growth in social media use by consumers and private sector enterprises. For instance, Facebook had more than 1.5 billion subscriber accounts by January 2016, with a similar number belonging to Whatsap and QQ (Social media profile, 2018). Indeed, in the United States alone, there were approximately 185 million consumers using social media in 2016 and this figure is projected to exceed 200 million users by 2020 (Social media profile, 2018). Some indication of the meteoric growth in social media usage in the United States can be readily discerned from the clear trends depicted in Figure 1 below.
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Figure 1. Percentage of U.S. consumers using social media: 2009-2017
Source: Social media profile, 2018

Against this backdrop, the societal relevance of developing and administering interactive social media content concerning companies’ CSR activities is apparent. This relevance is further supported by the results of a study by Eberle and Berens (2013) that identified an inextricable relationship between the level of interactivity in social media content concerning CSR activities and the positive views of stakeholders about these efforts. Moreover, Eberle and Berens (2013) also found that interactivity reinforced the positive perception of firms’ CSR efforts and the impact on their corporate reputations. In sum, both social media and the manner in which they are used have a high degree of societal relevance today.

References

Bennett, S. (2014, October 20). 88% of companies are using social media for marketing. Ad Week. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-companies/,

Castillo, S. & McCalister, I. L. (2012, October). When CSR clicks: In a new IABC Research Foundation study, stakeholders rate how well companies communicate their CSR activities online. Communication World, 29(5), 32-36.

Chao, J. T., Parker, K. R. & Fontana, A. (2014, Annual). Developing an interactive social media based learning environment. Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology, 8, 323-327.

Du, S., & Vieira, E.T., Jr. (2012). Striving for legitimacy through corporate social responsibility: Insights from oil companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 110(4), 413-427.

Eberle, D., Berens, G., & Li, T. (2013). The impact of interactive corporate social responsibility communication on corporate reputation. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(4), 731-746.

Grinnell, R. M. & Unrau, Y. A. (2009). Social work research and evaluation: Quantitative and qualitative approaches. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lee, K., Oh, W.-Y., & Kim, N. (2013). Social Media for socially responsible firms: Analysis of Fortune 500's Twitter profiles and their CSR/CSIR ratings. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(4), 791-806.

Rim, H., & Song, D. (2016). ‘How negative becomes less negative’: Understanding the effects of comment valence and response sidedness in social media. Journal of Communication, 66(3), 475-495.

Social media profile. (2018). Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/.