Brian G. Smith

Terms of engagement

We examine a social-media user perspective of engagement using interviews and focus groups.Engagement is an informative, personal, present and social experience.Millennials engage organizations via social media to facilitate social interactions.Engagement may be as much a spontaneous activity as a premeditated one. Despite the growth of research on social media engagement over the last five years, studies have failed to define exactly what engagement is. While many studies equate engagement with the broad array of social media activities, this study argues that engagement is conceptually distinct, and involves cognitive and emotional immersion that may not characterize all social media usage. This study addresses the need to clarify the concept of social media engagement in both communication research by exploring drivers of this immersive state of social media engagement from the perspective of those who are among the most active in social media: Millennials. The study also explores Millennial consideration of engagement with organizations online. In-depth interviews and focus groups suggest that engagement is driven by information consumption, interest immersion, sense of presence, and social interaction. Furthermore, findings point toward the need to consider the spontaneous nature of online sociability, the relationship between online engagement and the organization-public relationship, and the concept of engagement itself.

Integrating Power? Evaluating Public Relations Influence in an Integrated Communication Structure

The emerging integrated environment for communication functions has put public relations in a potentially compromising position. In particular, literature reviews reveal scholar concerns about an inferior technical role for public relations practitioners. The question of integrating communications may be a question of power: whether the public relations function enacts influence, authority, or capacity to affect decision-making within an integrated organization. This study explores perceptions of 20 public relations professionals in an integrated communication structure. Results show that public relations may gain the ability to enact influence through social media acumen and the interconnected structure of communications, in which practitioner expertise, information, and knowledge may lead to more influence.

The Internal Forces on Communication Integration: Co-Created Meaning, Interaction, and Postmodernism in Strategic Integrated Communication

Communication integration, a priority in strategic communication management, is at a crucible in its development. Until now, most research has considered integration a program of centralized control and has explored the impact of messaging and media that are coordinated for strategic impact. Underexplored are the internal implications of a concept that requires organizational change and stands to redefine functional boundaries. This study identifies the social, cultural, and interpretive influences of communication integration in a case of integration.

Organic integration: the natural process underlying communication integration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to progress research on integrated communication management from its current debates on definitions and normative models to research‐based understanding of how integration works and is implemented at an organisation with a high level of integration. Also, the paper seeks to provide insights for communication managers on implementing successful integrated communication programs.Design/methodology/approach – This research incorporated a qualitative single case study of an exemplary organisational case of integrated communication, using three data sources: depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis.Findings – Communication integration operates organically, through cross‐functional connections and knowledge sharing and facilitated by an open organisational structure whereby integration occurs naturally.Research limitations/implications – Though other configurations may exist in high‐functioning integrated programs, this study provides a new directio...

Tweeting Taksim communication power and social media advocacy in the Taksim square protests

Influence from the perspective of the social media user has been under-examined.This study content analyzes 770 Tweets from the Taksim Square Protests.Information dissemination and personal commentary were more common than calls to action.Results suggest content ownership is a central consideration for influence on social media. The extent to which social media empower individuals represents a fruitful yet untapped area of communication research. This study explores the phenomenon whereby individuals exert their influence and seek change in a particular case of social media engagement-the Taksim Square protests in Turkey in 2013. Building from literatures in social media engagement and empowerment, and using Banduras theory of self-efficacy, we content analyzed 770 Taksim-related messages on Twitter. Results suggest that efforts to seek change in social media are realized through information dissemination more than through calls to action and social organization. Namely, social media users seek influence through vicarious experience-representation of the experience of others-than direct personal experience. From these findings, we argue that social media is used to effect change from a distance, and that content ownership and online reputation are driving forces of online participation in an issue.

Empowering Engagement: Understanding Social Media User Sense of Influence

ABSTRACT For all the hope and hype hailing the democratizing effect of social media, few studies have explained public influence as an element of social media engagement. Insight into how and why individuals attempt to exert influence over organizations online is particularly underdeveloped. This study takes the first step in understanding sense of influence online through in-depth interviews with social media users. Findings call into question assumptions in research about the motives and meanings underlying individual efforts to exert influence via social media. The data from 19 in-depth interviews with active social media users suggest that sense of influence is enacted for social relationships rather than to influence organizations or society, and information is the driving force of that effort. Findings also place the imperative on strategic communication to emphasize the value of the organization’s role on social interaction toward a fully functioning society.

Exploring Social Media Empowerment of Public Relations: A Case Study of Health Communication Practitioner Roles and the Use of Social Media

Much has been written on the influence of digital media on public relations. Scholarship purports that an investment in digital media (including online communication and social media) stands to improve public relations practitioners’ power and management responsibilities (Porter, Sweetser, & Chung, 2009). And yet, the context of digital media innovation — Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) — may limit the role of public relations in management, rendering it a marketing support function (Hallahan, 2007). Exploratory research is necessary to reconcile this dichotomy: the empowerment of public relations via use of digital communication on the one hand, and the potential subservience of public relations to marketing in an IMC structure on the other.

Situated Ideals in Strategic Social Media: Applying Grounded Practical Theory in a Case of Successful Social Media Management

For as many theories about why using social media works in communication management, there are few studies that analyze how it actually works, leaving communicators with few standards beyond gut-instinct and “what’s working for now” management. This study explores social media management empirically on an in-depth level, using grounded practical theory principles and in-depth interviews with strategic communication professionals to uncover the strategies, processes, and situated ideals that underpin successful strategic communication via social media. Findings demonstrate the importance of communicator expertise and communication integration in managing social media communication.