Elsevier

Public Relations Review

Volume 38, Issue 5, December 2012, Pages 723-730
Public Relations Review

How companies cultivate relationships with publics on social network sites: Evidence from China and the United States

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.10.006Get rights and content

Abstract

This study advances our understanding of relationship cultivation on social media from a cross-cultural perspective. We examined how companies use popular social network sites (SNSs) to facilitate dialogues with publics in two culturally distinct countries: China and the United States. We employed a content analysis of 50 corporate pages with 500 corporate posts and 500 user posts from each country. Overall, companies in both countries have recognized the importance of SNSs in relationship development and employed the appropriate online strategies (disclosure, information dissemination, and interactivity and involvement), but the specific tactics vary across the two markets. Furthermore, cultural differences among the types of corporate posts and public posts on SNSs indicate that culture plays a significant role in shaping the dialogue between organizations and publics in different countries. Implications for corporate relationship management practice in the global market in the digital era are discussed.

Highlights

► We examined how companies use popular social network sites (SNSs) to cultivate relationships with publics in China and the United States. ► We content analyzed 50 corporate pages with 500 corporate posts and 500 user posts from each country. ► Companies in both countries have employed the appropriate online strategies, but the specific tactics vary. ► Culture plays a significant role in shaping the dialogue between organizations and publics on SNSs in different countries.

Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving media landscape, organizations use an extensive array of interactive media channels to engage with their stakeholders (Avery et al., 2010). Social network sites (SNSs) have become an integral part of many individuals’ daily life, making SNSs an indispensable venue through which companies, nonprofit organizations, and even politicians stay connected with net-savvy citizens (Utz, 2009). Boyd and Ellison (2008) defined a social network site as a Web-based service that allows individuals to construct a public or semipublic profile, build and maintain connections, and display their social connections to other members. SNSs integrate Web-based services and technologies such as blogs, bulletin billboard systems (BBSs), and social games. Thus, they constitute powerful multimedia platforms that provide such utilities as information sharing, entertainment, and social networking.

Because of their unique “viral” power in sharing information and building online communities, SNSs are an important public relations tool with which companies create dialogues with their publics. Social media are characterized by user-generated content, which has been found to be more effective than traditional marketing communications in influencing the attitudes and behaviors of other users (Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, & McKenzie, 2008). As a consequence, organizations are now building and maintaining SNS public pages to improve their social network salience, enhance interest in their organizations, and build relationships with online publics. In response to hypes and speculations regarding the effectiveness of SNSs as a public relations tool, recent studies have investigated how companies cultivate relationships with their publics using SNSs (e.g., Bortree and Seltzer, 2009, Smith, 2010, Waters et al., 2009). However, most of these investigations adopt a single perspective, from the viewpoint of either the organization or the public. Few analyses have incorporated both the corporate messages and the voices of the public to provide a more comprehensive understanding of organization–public interactions in the SNS context. Therefore, this study, as its primary purpose, analyzed messages created by both organizations and publics to investigate how companies use social network sites to engage their online publics and to foster relationships.

Furthermore, the popularity of SNSs has become a worldwide phenomenon. Although American sites such as Facebook have acquired a loyal following overseas, local audiences in many countries have embraced various culturally adapted native sites such as Renren in China, Mixi in Japan, and Orkut in India. Because members of different societies have distinct communication predispositions and Internet behaviors (Barnett and Sung, 2005, Kim et al., 2009), local differences can inhibit the application of Western public relations theories. However, existing literature on international public relations focuses mainly on traditional offline communication. Research has not adequately explored how cultural differences influence public relations professionals’ use of social media to serve audiences in different cultures.

To bridge the research gaps and understand the dynamics of global public relations, we explored the implications of SNSs for corporate relationship management from a cross-cultural perspective. We analyzed messages created by both companies and publics on leading SNSs in China and the United States, two important markets with huge Internet populations but with dramatic cultural differences. For this comparative study, we selected Facebook—one of the most popular SNSs worldwide (Zhang, 2010)—for the American sample, and we chose Renren to represent Chinese SNSs. Established in 2005, Renren remains among the “most popular, most open and best-financed social network” sites in China (Lukoff, 2010, para. 16). Nicknamed the “Facebook of China” (M. A., 2010), Renren is considered to be the Chinese equivalent of Facebook in terms of interface design. Similar to Facebook, Renren gained its initial traction among college students and then began targeting a broader audience of young Chinese professionals.

This study is based on a multifold strategic and theoretical framework, including the online relationship cultivation strategies proposed by Kent and Taylor (1998), the widely adopted uses and gratification (UG) theory for understanding publics’ media participation, and Hall's (1989) cultural context framework for understanding cross-cultural differences. In this study, we first examine the relationship cultivation strategies used by major companies in the two countries to build dialogues with strategic publics on leading SNSs, and then we explore how the patterns of corporate and public SNS posts in the organization–public dialogue project cultural differences.

Section snippets

Relationship cultivation on social media

Because of the enormous popularity and the communal and collaborative nature of social media, recent studies have examined strategies for building relationships with online constituencies (Smith, 2010). Earlier studies provided empirical evidence that because of their interactivity features, blogs are more effective than static Web sites and traditional media for building dialogues with online publics (e.g., Kelleher and Miller, 2006, Kent, 2008, Sweetser and Metzgar, 2007). In recent years,

Methodology

As public relations on SNSs comprise a relatively new development, an exploratory content analysis constitutes an appropriate method for understanding this phenomenon.

RQ1: relationship cultivation strategies on SNSs

This study conducted a Chi-Square test to examine corporate uses of relationship cultivation strategies on Facebook and Renren. All three online relationship cultivation strategies—disclosure, information dissemination, and interactivity and involvement—appeared on the corporate pages on Facebook and Renren, suggesting that corporations in both countries have integrated SNSs into their public relations campaigns. Yet, certain tactics were more commonly employed than others, and there were

Discussion

This study aims to understand public relations on social media and, in particular, to explore how organizations incorporate social network sites in order to cultivate relationships with online stakeholders. We examined the content of communication created by both organizations and publics from a cross-cultural perspective. Findings suggest that companies in China and the United States commonly use the dialogic strategies of disclosure, information dissemination, and interactivity proposed by

Conclusion

As one of the earliest attempts to examine the relationship cultivation strategies employed by companies in their social media from a cross-culture perspective, this study advances our understanding of public relations practice in the Web 2.0 age in the global setting. The innate social, communicative, and interactive characteristics of SNSs provide an advantageous tool for companies to build and maintain relationships with strategic publics. To better utilize SNSs to engage stakeholders and

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