Relational cultivation strategies and community building on Fortune 500 company corporate blogs

PurposeAs the number of corporate blogs has continued to increase over the years, this study examines the use of relationship cultivation strategies of Fortune 500 companies on their corporate blogs. Moreover, it focuses on how companies use corporate blogs as interactive online communication channels to create a sense of community among their publics.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of Fortune 500 company corporate blogs was conducted to examine the use of relational cultivation strategies and their methods of promoting a sense of community.FindingsFindings indicate that networking and sharing tasks are used most frequently among all relational cultivation strategies on corporate blogs, and that there are statistically significant differences among industries for using relationship cultivation strategies on corporate blogs. The most frequently used dimension of sense of community on corporate blogs is shared emotional connection.Originality/valueStudies analyzing social media as public relations tools have not yet focused on community building. In fact, few studies have examined the community building aspect of corporate blogs in the public relations field. To fill this gap, this study focuses on community building and analyzes how companies use corporate blogs as an interactive online communication channel to create a sense of community among their publics.

Impacts of brand familiarity and brand responses on perceived brand credibility, similarity, and blog recommendation intention: a study of corporate blogs

PurposeAdopting the theory of parasocial interaction (PSI) and schema theory, this study proposes that a brand’s personalized response and brand familiarity on a corporate blog will lead to higher perceived brand similarity, credibility and blog recommendation intention.Design/methodology/approachA 2 (brand familiarity: high, low) × 3 (brand responses: none, automated and personal) experimental design was developed to test the hypothesized relationships. A total of 474 qualified data were collected using an online survey. ANOVA was utilized to test the research hypotheses.FindingsStudy results revealed that personalized messages lead to stronger perceived brand similarity, credibility and blog recommendation intention than those exposed to automated and no response. Brand familiarity also significantly influenced perceived brand similarity, brand credibility and blog recommendation intention. Further, the study analysis revealed an interesting interaction effect between brand awareness and brand response on recommendation intention.Originality/valueThe study provides meaningful implications and suggestions for the effective corporate blogging strategy to influence consumers’ attitudes and image toward brands and establish strong brand equity and relationships with customers.

BUILDING EMPLOYER BRANDING IN THE LABOR MARKET

The article notes that today the concept of «employer brand» has become firmly entrenched in the professional vocabulary of many HR professionals. Moreover, not only foreign but also domestic companies have begun to develop programs to form a positive brand of the employer. This function of personnel management specialists has occupied an important place along with other personnel functions. The concept of brand as a set of all human experience, his perception of a thing, product, company is defined. Brands exist in the minds of either specific people or society as a whole. It is established that HR-branding is not only work with the company's reputation as an employer, but also a targeted long-term strategy for managing the awareness and perception of employees, candidates and all stakeholders. HR-branding includes all aspects of work in the company, all HR-processes and practices that shape the perception of employees and candidates. The main stages of employer brand formation are outlined: search and study of the target audience of HR-brand, identification of problem areas of the employer brand, formation of EVP, development of strategy for promoting the employer brand, evaluation of the result. The main components of the value proposition of the employer are given. The concept of EVP is defined as a value proposition of the employer, which includes both emotional and rational benefits. It is important that the real work environment and processes in the company correspond to the proposals of the HR-brand: you can promise only what can be provided in reality. A dishonest offer not only destroys the company's HR brand in the labor market, but also weakens employee loyalty and involvement. It is established that all tools of employer brand formation can be divided into two groups: external and internal. External tools include: employment websites, media; advertising; conferences, seminars, open days; competitions for the title of the best employer; cooperation programs with recruitment agencies, educational institutions; social networks, forums, corporate blogs, etc. Internal tools include: corporate website; corporate magazine, digest, news block; seminars and trainings with employees; corporate events.

INDIVIDUALIZATION OF LEARNING IN CANADIAN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE AND WAYS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The corporations perceive human capital as the greatest potential for competitive advantage, and staff training as a prerequisite for achieving the company’s strategic aim since business success and market competitiveness directly depend on the ability of employees to provide life long learning. In the context of searching the ways of optimizing this process, the aim of our study is to determine the features and opportunities for the development of individualization of learning by means of information and communication technologies in multinational corporations in Canada in order to use their experience in Ukrainian higher education. The set of interrelated general scientific research methods was used to achieve this goal: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, systematization, which were used to study the scientific literature, programs and corporate training courses in multinational corporations in Canada. Analysis of training in Canadian multinational corporations shows that the use of the advanced information and communication technologies in independent non-formal learning, including mobile learning, social networks, Massive Open Online Courses, electronic coaching, corporate blogs, gamification, wikis, etc., contributes to the deepening of individualization of training, and the practice of employee’s independent planning and implementation of his/her learning process is becoming more common. The study concludes that individualization is an important aspect of training in Canadian multinational corporations. The basis of individualization of learning is self-direction, autonomy of students, their willingness to take responsibility for planning and implementation of all stages of their learning.

"You Don't Have Time to Think Up There. If You Think You're Dead" – A Corpus-assisted Study of Discursive Strategies to Engage Readers in Corporate Blogs

This study investigates recurrent language resources employed in corporate blogs to connect with readers and (to a lesser extent) express authorial positions. It is based on the premise that constructing identity and enhancing image underpins most, if not all, corporate discourse and blogs are no exception. Based on a corpus of 500 different posts (totalling 318,296 words) from the Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology sectors, we use standard Corpus Linguistics (Partington et al. 2013) techniques (keywords, cluster analysis, concordancing) to identify linguistic features associated with the expression of engagement: reader pronouns and their co-occurrence with selected modal verbs, questions, adverbs marking shared knowledge and directives. These are then interpreted in in terms of a model of textual interactions proposed in Hyland (2005). We argue that the communication found in this relatively new and underresearched genre is essentially effected one-way establishing a pseudo-dialogue, with virtually no or very low level of interactivity between blog writers and blog readers.

CONCEPTS OF RECRUITING IN LABOR LAW OF UKRAINE

The article explores the nature and characteristics of the processes of recruitment and staff development as a factor of safety of personnel. Proved that the recruitment and staff development should take into account the need to ensure the safety of personnel of the enterprise, and the formation of human resources in the enterprise security is closely linked to the processes of recruiting and staff development. The lexico-semantic analysis shows that the word "recruiting" comes from the French "recruit", "to recruit", ie to recruit anyone, to recruit, to recruit anyone, to hire for money. Recruiting is based on elements such as search, selection, selection of employee incentives to work. In general, there are various HR-branding channels through which employees are recruited, from which the following main channels can be distinguished: social media (social networks, forums, corporate blogs) - a universal tool for building an HR-brand; a career site is an extremely effective tool in the hands of a skilled employer; Job search sites are very popular due to the ability to reach a large target audience; brand advocates are a strategic channel for building an HR brand within the company through interaction with internal and external clients, which can serve as employees of the company as well as external candidates, clients, partners, contractors, etc .; referral programs are designed to accelerate the closing of vacancies and find candidates with the help of company employees. Everyone who invites or recommends a candidate; HR-branding as a tool for promoting the employer brand in the labor market - media, conferences, seminars, competitions.

Reputation Anxiety: Consumer Background Checks and the Cultivation of Risk

This article examines the role consumer background check companies play in the construction of reputation anxiety. Through an examination of corporate blogs and sponsored stories, this article argues these companies cultivate risk along two related axes: (a) fear of dangerous others; and (b) fear of the threat posed by personal information available to others. Through sponsored stories and promotional material, these companies encourage people to mitigate risk by using consumer background check services to seek out information about others and review available details about themselves. Consistent with other forms of risk anxiety in modern cultures, the advice offered by these companies encourages the acceptance of personal responsibility around the acquisition of and response to this information. This article concludes by arguing the cultivation of reputation anxiety around digital skeletons—belonging both to others and to oneself—is rooted in gendered notions of safety and personal responsibility.