Dialogue Strategies and Social Media: A Managerial Perspective

Web 2.0-based technologies positively affect organizations management and governance and their use in modern companies is increasing progressively, according to both theoretical studies (Hinchcliffe, 2007; Castells, 2010) and empirical research (Bughin, Chui, 2010), In line with these remarks, current debate (Park, Reber, 2008; Nour, 2008; Rybalko, Seltzer, 2010) emphasizes the substantial role of social media in enhancing the organization ability in managing successful relationships with publics. Social networking technologies support complex organizations providing them an interactive space where stakeholders and companies themselves engage in dialogic relationships (Kent et al., 2003; Bortree, Seltzer, 2009). European empirical research (Zerfass et al., 2010) confirms that social media represent a core interactive channel, when it comes to build a symmetrical dialogue with stakeholders. In other words social media, and more generally new digital technologies, help organizations build, maintain and improve dialogue with key publics (Bortree, Seltzer, 2009). This paper offers a conceptual typology of dialogue strategies developed by incorporating managerial and organizational perspectives into public relations research.