Managing Negative Publicity on Social Media

The Chapter talks about the importance of social media from the view of publicity for an organization. It talks about a few real life situations where organizations have suffered as a result of negative publicity on the social media. That negative publicity can be a disaster for the organization is emphasized. The chapter lists out the causes of negative publicity for an organization in the social media and how it can be tackled as is found in existing literature on negative publicity in the social media. The chapter ends with a series of guidelines to get back on track in the face of negative publicity in the social media.

eWOM Marketing in Hospitality Industry

Due to its intangible nature, hospitality business finds it difficult to market its services. Past customer experiences are one of the best strategies that allow some quantification of the quality of the product. Word of mouth has been a key part of every effective marketing strategy for hospitality businesses. It is widely recognized that word of mouth, both positive and negative, has the potential to influence customer purchase decisions. With the technological advancement, the internet has been widely applied in various areas in the hospitality industry. Social media and the growth of web 2.0 have enabled word of mouth to be shared amongst millions of potential customers, one therefore can argue that electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has been the successor of the traditional word of mouth. Therefore, traditional Word-of-Mouth, which spread from person to person vocally has been replaced gradually by electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM). A growing trust on eWOM for making choices about hospitality products prompted the author to work on the present chapter.

Antecedents and Consequences of Adopting Social Networking Technologies for Knowledge Sharing in Small Firms

This paper examines factors, which affect web 2.0 knowledge sharing and its effect on organizational innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study also investigates whether web 2.0 knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between HR (Human Resource) practices and innovation. The proposed research model and its associated hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modelling on a dataset of 552 SMEs. Results suggest that technological and organizational factors are positively associated with web 2.0 knowledge sharing in Ss, while the contrary is found with regard to vertical competition. In addition, results show that web 2.0 knowledge sharing positively influence innovation and that web 2.0 knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between Human Resource (HR) practices and innovation in SMEs.

Managing Corporate Reputation through Social Media

The primary objective of this chapter is to highlight how social media can be used to strengthen stakeholders' relationships and build social capital for the organization, thereby enabling the organization to build, manage and sustain CR. The chapter begins with a brief overview of existing thought, approaches and terminology related to CR and proceeds to identify the interactions of each stakeholder with the organization through social media. The tenability of various forms of social media as viral videos, blogs, forums and micro blogging websites in furthering CR and the extent of their effectiveness are examined using cases derived from secondary data. Further, the chapter discusses methods of measuring the success of an organization's social media initiatives using different techniques and strategies for restoring reputation post a crisis by using social media. Finally, the chapter demonstrates a systematic process of strategizing and planning CR using social media and creating organizational infrastructure to achieve this end.

How Public Relations Practitioners Perceive Social Media Platforms?

Prior studies on the use of social media by public relations professionals are often descriptive and did not apply communication theories to fully evaluate the richness of this emerging communication platform. These studies did not explain the technology adoption process of public relations professionals. On the basis of Media Richness Theory, the authors assessed the perceptions of 162 public relations professionals from a national sample in the United States to identify emerging media richness dimensions of social media. This study found that these dimensions are not the same as those in other mass and traditional media platforms. This chapter suggests that social media should not simply be compared to traditional media, because they have demonstrated unique medium characteristics. Both theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Social Media and Business

The influence of social media on the various facets of society has attracted a lot of attention of the researchers in the last few years who are probing its multifaceted impact. One important aspect of social media is its role in promoting instant gratification. It has far reaching consequences for evolution of self, which in turn has important implications for society and businesses. Drawing from the conceptual foundations of the theories of identity and social comparison, the researchers tried to develop a model as to how the dual role of social media acts to alter the identity and hence behavior. In this context, the significance of the study lies in exposing the intricate interplay between the attributes of social media and the dynamic self. The study goes a long way in providing a deeper understanding of self-concept in connection to social media, which has immense importance for consumer behavior and can help businesses to fine-tune their strategies with the changing consumer psychology.

Social CRM

The advent of the web 2.0 in general and the social networks in particular has altered the consumer behavior with brands, consumer becoming the protagonist of his relationship with the companies. The consumer is no longer passive, but someone who belongs to an interactive user community, whose opinion influences the decision making of others and the company. And companies, therefore, need to understand how to structure content and branding strategies where clients not only communicate with the company, but each other, in real time: the social media. Social networks, as currently represent the opportunity to get the engagement of customers and prospects in a way that can not be achieved by other means, become a single source of information that must be integrated into the software of the company, allowing the conversion of conversation into a transaction. So having a database of clients with personal information is no longer enough, and is required to obtain qualitative features that enable the company to know more about consumers and provide, as a result, a greater brand value. The Social CRM is a tool that incorporates the information obtained from the social networks to the traditional CRM, to ensure that the company is better informed about its customers and gets a much more solid basis for decision making, customizing the offer and adding value to the customer.

Role of Consumer Engagement and Swarm Intelligence in Management of a Brand at Social Media

The traditional media has its own place and will always be there but the revolution in marketing era will change the thinking of the society as a whole and the various communication channels will always be in flux. The ability to think collectively seeks cognitive architectures of collective intelligence which today from consumer's perspective is to become a human swarm with the use of social media. With the growth of social media, marketing companies need something more innovative to engage and interact with their customers. As the marketplace becomes noisier, with more products being introduced, fight is not just mindshare but share of attention. Various organizations have started exploring the power of such a large user membership to influence the online buyers at social media and are attempting to engage consumers with their brands, which will finally influence their brand image. The chapter explores the extent of consumer experience and engagement, how online consumers are engaged towards a specific brand. The methodology for study is empirical evidence through netnography, and result of this study is through correlation and regression model. Findings confirm the factors contributing to consumer engagement and swarm intelligence in management of a brand at social media.

Country Brand Management

In the recent years the country brand has become a strategic asset for the nations. Rather than showing the culture and traditions of a place, the name of a country acts as a differentiator from everything that comes with the territory, increasing the value perceived by the customer in any product or service by having a specific origin. Because the fact that a product is “typical” of a place allows the name of the place to become a geographical indicator of quality. So Nations use the brand country as a tool to promote their products, attract investments and promote activities like tourism. For this reason, they are developing public policies aimed at the construction, promotion and consolidation of the brand image of the country. This book chapter analyzes how the Spanish Government has used the social media to create and consolidate the Spain Brand image with the aim to establish an image of Spain as an economic and political power among the first countries in the world.

Concept and Importance of Online Reputation Management

Gone are the days when Consumers had fewer product choices and companies had fewer sources of finding the right candidates for their work. Thanks to technology and globalization, things have changed. In this age of technology and speed, it becomes tough to overcome competition and make a successful career or business. One thing that may certainly help in achieving the above is a good reputation. Building a good reputation may take a long time but for maintaining it intact or destroying it entirely just takes few minutes. Online reputation is a newer term which basically deals with the rapport of a person or brand that has been build online. There are several online reputation management firms which earns millions of dollars every year from individuals and organizations just to maintain their good reputation on online platforms. This chapter discusses these concepts and techniques of online reputation management.