You Might Be Reputable But Are You ‘‘Liked’’? Orchestrating Corporate Reputation Co-Creation on Facebook
Date Issued
August 26, 2014
Author(s)
DOI
10.1108/S1877-6361(2013)0000011009
Abstract
Purpose — This chapter expands traditional approaches to Corporate Reputation
Management by employing postmodernist approaches to value co-creation in order
to identify how Facebook Features can be used to facilitate company–consumer
Corporate Reputation co-creation.
Methodology/approach — Using content analysis of Facebook Fan Pages, the chapter
explores how 29 of the world’s most reputable corporations use Facebook Features.
Findings — To a surprising degree, the corporations in the sample, despite having
virtually limitless access to marketing communications resources, fail to make full use
of the opportunities Facebook offers them. It appears that they have not yet fully
adapted to this novel medium.
Research implications — Facebook together with the locus has also shifted the focus
of corporate communications from one-way company-controlled transmission of
information to multiparty user-controlled conversations. Thus, Corporate Reputations can no longer be managed. Instead, by offering consumers experiences and
emotional triggers, corporations can engage them into willingly marketing the
corporation and its products to each other.
Originality/value of chapter — This is the first systematic analysis of the practices the
world’s most prominent corporations utilize (or fail to employ) on Facebook. It illustrates that companies that adapt to the Social Media ecology can successfully
orchestrate customer experiences that foster the co-creation of the desired Corporate
Reputation.
Management by employing postmodernist approaches to value co-creation in order
to identify how Facebook Features can be used to facilitate company–consumer
Corporate Reputation co-creation.
Methodology/approach — Using content analysis of Facebook Fan Pages, the chapter
explores how 29 of the world’s most reputable corporations use Facebook Features.
Findings — To a surprising degree, the corporations in the sample, despite having
virtually limitless access to marketing communications resources, fail to make full use
of the opportunities Facebook offers them. It appears that they have not yet fully
adapted to this novel medium.
Research implications — Facebook together with the locus has also shifted the focus
of corporate communications from one-way company-controlled transmission of
information to multiparty user-controlled conversations. Thus, Corporate Reputations can no longer be managed. Instead, by offering consumers experiences and
emotional triggers, corporations can engage them into willingly marketing the
corporation and its products to each other.
Originality/value of chapter — This is the first systematic analysis of the practices the
world’s most prominent corporations utilize (or fail to employ) on Facebook. It illustrates that companies that adapt to the Social Media ecology can successfully
orchestrate customer experiences that foster the co-creation of the desired Corporate
Reputation.