CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This section introduces the study by looking at its background. It gives a general overview of who stakeholders are, as well as what social media and stakeholder engagement are. It provides a background of social media’s usefulness to organisations and stakeholders’ perceptions and expectations of contents and activities on corporate social media platforms. It states the research problem; the purpose of the study; objectives of the study; research questions; and significance of the study. It finally presents the organisation of the dissertation.
Background of the study
The view that organisations have stakeholders is recognised within the corporate and academic worlds (Freeman, 1984; Fassin, 2009 as cited in Sedereviciute and Valentini, 2011). These stakeholders generally range from customers, employees, local communities, suppliers and distributors, through to shareholders (Freeman, 2004). There are several definitions of who stakeholders of an organisation are. Eden and Ackermann (1998) defined stakeholders as “people or small groups with power to respond to, negotiate with, and change the strategic future of the organisation (p.117).” Bryson (1995) also defined stakeholders as “any person, group or organisation that can place a claim on the organisation’s attention, resources, or output, or is affected by that output (p.27).” Lastly, Freeman (2004) referred to stakeholders as “any group or individual who can affect or can be affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives
(p.6).” Following Freeman’s (2004) definition, it could be inferred that individuals and groups may be considered as stakeholders of an organisation whether they directly or indirectly influence, or are influenced by the organisation’s activities. Since corporate brands work to create accounts on social media and engage with their followers on these platforms, these followers could be identified as their stakeholders. Also, since followers have the power to influence an organisation’s activities on social media, and are able to get the attention of the organisation, these followers of corporate brands could be identified as stakeholders.
Social media and stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement is a powerful tool which enhances stakeholder participation. It also offers interactive mutual learning processes between organisations and their publics. It is further capable of causing social change in the organisation (Brown and Dillard, 2013).
In recent times, social media have become important vehicles for stakeholder engagement. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 61) defined social media as “internet-based applications built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0.” Mangold and Faulds (2009) asserted that consumers were increasingly using used social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter in their quest for information instead of just traditional media, such as television, radio, and magazines.
Corporate organisations in Ghana engage with their stakeholders on social media for different reasons. Social media are sometimes used to promote organisations’ products or services through advertisements. They also serve as tools to gather first-hand experience and insights from various
stakeholder groups. Organisations also use their social media platforms to manage their reputation by explaining issues their stakeholders need clarifications on.The use of social media as a stakeholder engagement tool comes with some advantages to corporate communicators. Firstly, it helps address the needs of the 21st century stakeholders whose expectations and perceptions are driven by today’s global technology through the transition from organisations’ one-way communication into a multi-dimensional communication (Berthon, Pitt, and Campbell 2008; Diga and Kelleher, 2009). Social media are playing a pivotal role not just as a communication tool but increasingly, organisations are using the different dimensions to build lasting relationships with their publics. Also, social media use has become relevant not only for communication, but for improving relationships with organisations’ stakeholders (Verhoeven, Tench, Zerfass, Moreno and Vercic, 2012; Sallot, Porter and Acosta-Alzuru (2004).
