COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA FOR COMPANY’S IMAGE FORMATION

Abstract

Recently the increasing number of companies uses the social media for creation of positive image. But if the nature of social media communication and the possible risk for company’s image is not assessed appropriately, companies could lose the positive image very quickly and for a long time. Communication in social media is much more complicated than traditional communication, because consumer response and intercommunication limits the possibilities for company to control and manage the content of communication. The success of social media communication for image formation depends on the preparation to communicate in social media. Management of new technologies and communication channels, management of trust and relationship in social media requires new skills.

Participation of companies in social media and integration of social media to image formation only recently have got a particular attention in academic and practical field. There is still a lack of empirical evidences. The authors of the article present the study of the company’s image formation within the context of communication in social media, which allows defining concrete requirements for effective communication in social media in developing the image of the company.

The authors of the article provide the conceptual model for company’s image formation with communication in social media, reflecting the process of company‘s communication in social media. The model involves the following blocks: 1) company’s identity, 2) strategy formation of communication in social media (that defines the way how the company’s identity should be presented to target audience), 3) interaction between audience and the message content, 4) interaction within audience and 5) evaluation of company’s image. Empirical research of the image formation in social media of banks in Lithuania allowed to make some revisions in the conceptual model, adding the stage of resource allocation to the model block of communication strategy formation, and eliminating the stage of message content format selection.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.18.2.4651