Finalversionofintermediatereporttheimpactofsocialmediaoncorporatereputation 110129040851 Phpapp01

The impact of Social Media
on
Corporate Reputation
Intermediate Report for Master Thesis

written by
Dilara ADAYLAR
Submission Date: 25 January 2011
European Master in Business Studies

Master thesis: The impact of social media on corporate reputation 2
DECLARATION
I declare that this intermediate report does not incorporate without acknowledgement
any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university; and that
to the best of knowledge it does not contain any materials previously published or
written by another person except where due reference is made in the text.
Dilara ADAYLAR
European Master in Business Studies
January/2011, Kassel
1 Table of Contents
1 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 3
2 List of figures ................................................................................................................... 5
3 List of table ....................................................................................................................... 6
4 List of abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 7
5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 8
5.1 Relevance of the subject ........................................................................................... 8
5.2 Focus, goals and structure of the report .................................................................... 9
5.3 Major terms ............................................................................................................. 10
5.3.1 Reputation and Corporate Reputation................................................................ 10
5.3.2 Web 2.0 and Social media ................................................................................. 14
6 Concept of Corporate Reputation ................................................................................... 19
6.1 Importance and benefits of corporate reputation .................................................... 19
6.2 Relationship between corporate Identity, image and corporate reputation ............. 23
6.2.1 Corporate Identity .............................................................................................. 24
6.2.2 Corporate Image ................................................................................................ 27
6.2.3 Impact of identity and image on the corporate reputation ................................. 29
6.3 Relationship between corporate reputation and other terms ................................... 31
6.3.1 Perception .......................................................................................................... 31
6.3.2 Communication ................................................................................................. 32
6.3.3 Brand ................................................................................................................. 33
6.3.4 Innovation .......................................................................................................... 34
6.3.5 Trust ................................................................................................................... 36
6.3.6 Transparency ..................................................................................................... 37
6.3.7 Public Relations ................................................................................................. 38
6.4 Measurement of corporate reputation ..................................................................... 39
6.4.1 Analysis of Fortune Magazine ........................................................................... 42
6.4.2 Analysis of Reputation Institute ........................................................................ 42
7 Concept of social media ................................................................................................. 44
7.1 Types of social media tools..................................................................................... 44
7.1.1 Collaborative projects ........................................................................................ 45
7.1.2 Forums, Blogs and Microblogs: ........................................................................ 46
7.1.3 Content communities: ........................................................................................ 49
7.1.4 Social networking sites: ..................................................................................... 54
7.1.5 Virtual game worlds (MMORPG) ..................................................................... 56
7.1.6 Virtual social worlds .......................................................................................... 57

7.2 Life cycle of interaction in social media platforms................................................. 58
7.2.1 Engaging ............................................................................................................ 58
7.2.2 Listening ............................................................................................................ 59
7.2.3 Interacting .......................................................................................................... 60
7.2.4 Measuring .......................................................................................................... 60
8 Conclusion of Intermediate Report and Next steps ........................................................ 63
9 Impacts of Social Media on Corporate Reputation (the chapter to be written in Spain) 64
9.1 Corporate reputation Management through Social media ...................................... 64
9.2 Monitoring & Analyzing the impact ....................................................................... 64
9.2.1 Qualitative research regarding to analyze the impact ........................................ 64
9.2.2 Results of research ............................................................................................. 64
9.3 Benefits ................................................................................................................... 64
9.4 Risks ....................................................................................................................... 64
9.4.1 Cyberactivism .................................................................................................... 64
9.4.2 Cyberlibel and Cybermearing ............................................................................ 64
9.4.3 Cyberquatting .................................................................................................... 64
9.4.4 Cyberterrrorism and Hacking ............................................................................ 64
9.4.5 Phishing ............................................................................................................. 64
10 List of Literature ............................................................................................................. 65
2 List of figures
Figure 1: General and stakeholder-specific concepts of corporate reputation ........................14
Figure 2: Corporate reputation –The interplay of identity and image ....................................24
Figure 3: Interaction between corporate identity formation, reputation, improvement and
organizational performance ....................................................................................................25
Figure 4: From Corporate Identity to Corporate Reputation ..................................................29
Figure 5: Corporate Reputation Chain ....................................................................................30
Figure 6: The Brand&Reputation Connection ......................................................................34
Figure 7: 3 Concepts involved in innovation process .............................................................34
Figure 8: 7 main pillars in RepTrak developed for Global Reputation Impulse.....................43
3 List of table
Table 1: Online activities .......................................................................................................16
Table 2: Frequency of activity per platform ...........................................................................18
Table 3: World's most admirable companies in 2010 : Innovation ........................................35
Table 4: Business outcomes of reputation and their metrics ..................................................40
Table 5: Results of two different reputation analyses done by Fortune Magazine and
Reputation Institute ................................................................................................................41
Table 6: 9 criteria used by Fortune Magazine ........................................................................42
Table 7: Social Media Types ..................................................................................................44
Table 8: Benefits and Measurement of Social Media .............................................................48
Table 9 : Global Social Network Traffic by Feb. 2010 ..........................................................55
Table 10: Gantt chart for next steps ........................................................................................63
4 List of abbreviations
ANON : Anonymous
AVG : Average
CERN : Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
CI : Corporate Identity
CRM : Corporate Reputation Management
CSR : Corporate Social Responsibility
MMORPG : Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
NCSA : National Center for Supercomputing Applications
PDA : Personal Desktop Assistant
PR : Public Relations
QBLOG : Question Blog
R&D : Research and development
ROI : Return on Investment
RQ : Reputation Quotient
SBLOG : Spamming blog
UGC : User Generated Content
VLOG : Video blog

5 Introduction
5.1 Relevance of the subject
As the technology has developed, Internet has become a widely and frequently
used communication and interaction platform. Especially after getting over the
problems related with long time and complicated devices required for the connection,
it is now a very useful and inevitable part of our lives.
Internet and the web platforms are widely used, also the infrastructures have been
changing with the invisible push of users. Especially in last decade, the tendency of
people to use Internet as world for interactions resulted in the invention of Web 2.0
and Social Media. With these two developments, Internet and its platforms have
become a huge galaxy with full of secrets and surprised to be discovered.
Today people are communication and interacting through Internet more than any
time. Not only for individuals, but also for corporations; it is now another channel for
interaction between their stakeholders; besides of being a useful tool for business
life. Because the new generation of consumers want corporations to be more
connected with themselves, as much as they interact among each other.
Recently, almost all organizations are familiar with Internet in different levels.
Some are using it only for daily operations; some are benefitting from Internet more
widely. But mostly, the idea of being interacted with the consumers is not widely
accepted yet. There could be two reasons behind this fact. The first one, most of the
companies couldn‟t keep pace with these inventions and they are not skilled enough
to use Internet and social media platforms. The second one is that this “galaxy with
full of secrets” is seems to be a bit terrifying place for most of the companies. Either,
they don‟t realize the risks and the benefits of it, or they think that it is a fad and the
best way is to wait it to pass.
Whatever the reason behind is; today all companies must follow all advantages of
Internet and improvements and must benefit from them at maximum level; since
keeping a business alive only by producing high quality goods or services has
became a very hard issue in this era, mostly because of the effects of globalization.
There are many ways to use Internet and Social Media platforms by corporations,
besides of operating daily activities or having a business online. The most recent and
beneficial one is to manage the corporate reputation through Internet.
With the invention of Web 2.0 and so Social Media platforms, the level of
interaction and the knowledge sharing has dramatically increased among the
consumers without any geographical restriction. As negative effect of this increase,

the world has been witness of collapsing of big companies as a result of big scandals,
hence the concepts of reputation and reputation management started to be considered
more deeply and frequently. The term of reputation might be very dangerous and
destructive when it is lost or bruised and nowadays, reputation became more open to
be harmed and to be lost easily with the invention of Social Media; this means that
reputation is more valuable today than before.
Hence, companies started to be aware that social media platforms could be useful
as a reputation management tool. Because at a first glance, social media tools are
influential and so more effective; they require less money, effort and time comparing
with other channels.
Consequently, in this thesis, the relationship between the social media platforms
and reputation will be examined; and the fact that “how important the social media
and the interactions in the social media platforms are in the process of building up or
improving the corporate reputation” will be analyzed from different points of view.
5.2 Focus, goals and structure of the report
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how social media impacts on the corporate
reputation.
In general, there are 5 main parts of these thesis, which are : introduction (the
determination of main terms of corporate reputation and social media); concept of
corporate reputation (explanation of the elements of corporate reputation such as
corporate identity and corporate image); concept of social media ( where the tools of
social media are explained); personal contribution part –practical part ( where the
impact of social media on corporate reputation will be examined) and lastly the
conclusion part ( where all the results will be explained and draw the consequences
of this thesis).
The intermediate report contains the theoretical part of this master thesis. For the
theoretical part about social media and corporate reputation, related literatures,
articles and online sources are used to explain the concepts. Especially in the sections
related with corporate reputation, different views about the subject are compared to
explain the concept of corporate reputation clearly.
In the practical part of this thesis, a qualitative method will be used in the research
to analyze the impact. The methodology behind the research would be to apply a
survey on the young consumers and users of social media applications (between the
age ranges of 18-40) about the impact of social media and how affective the social
media is on their thoughts regarding organizations.
The expected outcomes of this thesis is to prove the importance and the risks of
the social media on the corporate reputation; since the impact of social media on the
consumers is still ambiguous and hard to measure, except from measuring the ROI
or increase of sales. Besides of that, another expectation from this research would be
to analyze the changes in customer‟s perception –either in positive one negative way-
about the organization, related with the social media activities of companies. (E.g.
image, identity of corporation/ corporation, buying behavior…)
5.3 Major terms
5.3.1 Reputation and Corporate Reputation
Reputation is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language as “the general estimation in which a person or a thing is held by the
public”1. In other English dictionaries, it‟s also defined as a synonym of
respectability, esteem and fame. ANDERSEN defines reputation as “a bundle of
attributes and the interrelationships among them, shared among a group of
individuals in a socio-cognitive community”2 .
DALTON and CROFT state that “evolutionary physiologists have stressed the
value of reputation as a core component of human behavior and reputation allows us
to measure the risk of interacting with another person”3. In addition to that, “the
evolution of social cooperation has produced special cognitive adaptations of the
mind to facilitate social exchange, which forms the basis of trade; so corporate
reputation is an extension of basic human function of social exchange that people
have engaged in for millennia”4.
Researches on corporate reputation show that besides of product, brand
reputation and knowhow, corporate reputation can be counted as one of the most
important drivers for overall success without a significant difference between sectors
or countries.
Even if corporate reputation is very popular and widely used term both in
business and marketing, there is no one particular definition.
1
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1998)
2
Andersen, P. H. & Sorensen, H. B. (1999) “Reputational Information: Its Role in Inter-organizational
Collaboration”, Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 2, No., p.215.
3
Dalton,J. and Croft,S, (2003) Managing Corporate Reputation: The new currency, p.8.
4
BENNETT and KOTTASZ give a list of definitions for corporate reputation.

According to their article, corporate reputation is defined as: 5
-“The perception of an organization which is built up over a period of time
and which focuses on what it does and how it behaves” by BALMER (1998);
- “A perceptual representation of a company's past actions and future
prospects that describes the firm's appeal to all its key constituents when
compared with other leading rivals.” by FOMBRUN (1996);
-“Reflection of the history of its past actions” by YOON (1993);
-“A set of economic and non-economic attributes ascribed to a firm, inferred
from the firm's past actions” By WEIGELT and CAMERER (1988)
- “A collective representation of a firm's past actions and results that
describes the firm's relative standing both internally with employees and
externally with its stakeholders, in both its competitive and institutional
environments” by FOMBRUN and RINDOVA (1996) 6
-“A synthesis of the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of an organization‟s
stakeholders, employees, customers, suppliers, investors, community members,
activists, media and other stakeholders” by POST and GRIFFIN (1997)
Some authors focus on the companies‟ historical performances like YOON
mentioned above, but this approach does not take into account the subject of how a
company manages its present corporate reputation.
HARRISON defines corporate reputation as “the overall estimation in which an
organization is held by its internal and external stakeholders based on its past actions
and probability of its future behavior”7.
DALTON and CROFT define corporate reputation as “the long term collective
assessment of a corporation‟s integrity”8.
HALL defines reputation as the product of years of demonstrated superior
competence is a fragile resource; it takes time to create, it cannot be bought and sold,
and it can be damaged easily.9
5
Bennett, R. & Kottasz, R. (2000) “Practitioner perceptions of corporate reputation: an empirical
investigation”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol.5, n o.4, p.227.
6
Fombrun, C.J. & Rindova, V. (1996), “Who's Tops and Who Decides? The Social Construction of
Corporate Reputations”, quoted by Fombrun, C.J. & Van Riel, C.B.M. (1997) “The Reputational
Landscape”, Corporate Reputation Review, Vol.1, No.1, p.10.
7
Harrison, K. (N/A) Why a good corporate reputation is important to your organization. Available at:
http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/corprep_important.asp (Accessed: 06 January 2011).
8
9
Hall,R. (1992) “The Strategic Analysis of Intangible resources”, Strategic Management Journal,
Vol.13, No.2, p.143.
Furthermore HALL stated that “reputation, which represents the knowledge and
emotions held by individuals about, say, a product range, can be a major factor in
achieving competitive advantage through differentiation; it also contributes to a
defendable position because of time which can be involved in matching a reputation
which is strong in both fame and esteem; fame can be bought with advertising
spending in the short term, but esteem has to be earned, usually over a long period of
time” 10.
Moreover, BARNETT, JEMIER and LAFFERTY analyzed and wrote an article
called: “Corporate Reputation: The Definitional Landscape” about the definitions for
corporate reputation from different sources between the years 1965-2003. After
giving and analyzing different definitions of corporate reputation, they figured out
that different terminologies have been used in these definitions so they didn‟t reach
to a commonly excepted definition for corporate reputation; in addition, they figured
out that there were big differences in meaning between those definitions.
After analyzing the definitions for reputation, BARNETT, JEMIER and
LAFFERTY identified three distinct clusters of meaning in the definitional
statements: reputation as a state of awareness, reputation as an assessment, and
reputation as an asset.11 According to the cluster that they found:
“Awareness refers that observes or stakeholders had a general awareness of a
firm but did not make judgments about it. In this cluster, corporate reputation has
defined as an aggregation of perceptions” 12.
“Assessment refers that observes or stakeholders were involved in an assessment
of the status of a firm. And in this cluster corporate reputation is defined as a
judgment, an estimate, an evaluation or a gauge” 13.
“Asset refers to reputation as something of value and significance to the firm.
This group includes references to the term as a resource or as an intangible, financial,
or economic asset”14.
10
Hall,R. (1992) “The Strategic Analysis of Intangible resources”, Strategic Management Journal,
Vol.13, No.2, p.138
11
Barnett, M.L. & Jemier, J.M. & Lafferty, B.A. (2006) “Corporate Reputation: The Definitional
Landscape”, Corporate Reputation Review, vol.9, no.1, p.9.
12
13
14
In order to create a sole definition BARNETT, JEMIER and LAFFERTY

suggest to describe corporate reputation as “observers‟ collective judgments of a
corporation based on assessments of the financial, social, and environmental impacts
attributed to the corporation over time” 15.
According to DALTON and CROFT, The factors that help build corporate
reputation are:16
 Financial performance
 Quality of service or products
 Brand values and promise
 Innovation and creativity
 Customer service satisfaction
 Social responsibility- citizenship
 Corporate policy and organizational structure
 Good competitive positioning
 Vision and leadership
 CEO performance
 Full compliance with statutory regulations
 Employee satisfaction and loyalty
 Developing core competencies
 Establishing collaborative networks and alliances
In the “Hesleden-Corporate Affairs”, it is stated that reputation is not solely
function tasked with applying „reputation gloss‟; it must be an inherent and integral
part of the daily life of the organization, the result of values, attitudes and behavior.
It needs to be closely aligned with both long-term vision and short-term business
goals to ensure that reputation management is strategic, tactical and highly
effective.17
As it is mentioned in some definitions, corporate reputation is an aggregate of
perspectives of all stakeholders; and moreover, every stakeholder has their own
opinion by analyzing the corporation with different specific performances of
15
16
Dalton, J. and Croft, S, (2003) Managing Corporate Reputation: The new currency. p.10.
17
Anon, (2004), Hesleden Report on Corporate Affairs . Available at:
http://www.hesleden.com/research2.php (Accessed: 06 January 2011).
company. In the Figure 1 below, the stakeholders of company and the specific roles
that they consider for evaluating the company are showed very clearly.
Figure 1: General and stakeholder-specific concepts of corporate reputation18

It is also stated that every company has a number of reputations, as it is
perceived very differently by different groups of its stakeholders; for instance,
investors base their reputation of company opinions on the economic figures; while
ordinary customers and general public may base it upon their first hand experience
with the company's products or upon its social performances.19
As a sum of all these information, corporate reputation can be described as
collective long term judgments occurred by evaluating performance of the
corporation and comparing with its competitors and by considering all experiences
and information of the corporation. Furthermore, as there are many factors in the
process of establishing corporate reputation, it must be considered as term which
should be taken into account with many aspects.
5.3.2 Web 2.0 and Social media
Since Internet came into our lives, it has become commonplace year by year,
especially after 2000s, and now it is a very useful but an unavoidable part of our
daily lives.
18
Meffert, H. and Bierwirth, A. (2002) Corporate Branding - Führung der Unternehmensmarke im
Spannungsfeld unterschiedlicher Zielgruppen; quoted by Helm, S. (N/A) Common Grounds in the
Perception of Corporate Reputation: A Comparison of Three Stakeholder Groups. Available at:
http://www.reputationinstitute.com/members/nyc06/Helm.pdf (Accessed: 06 January 2011)
19
Anon. (2006) The importance of reputation of company. Available at:
http://www.syl.com/bc/theimportanceofreputationofcompany.html (Accessed: 06 January 2011).
The World Wide Web was invented in 1989 by CERN to provide internal
communication networks which can be benefited by government agencies, university
research teams and for militarily purposes.
In order to make World Wide Web available to the general public, an interface
was needed. In 1992, “Mosaic”, the world‟s first commercial browser, was invented
by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
In 1990s, Internet or World Wide Web was called “Web 1.0”. BORGES states
that it was “an Internet version of primitive corporate communication strategies,
which purposed to offer information about a company, organization, or person,
typically the website‟s owner”20. However, Web 1.0 sites are by static, programmed
in basic HTML code and read-only which people can not engage and limits ability of
people to interact with each other or with the site‟s owner. ARGENTINI and
BARNES state that by 1996, the Web 1.0 was composed of “approximately 250.000
sites and 45 million global users”21.
BORGES state, that “Web 2.0 is an expression coined by Bill O‟Reilly at a
conference in 2004¸and he referred to the next generation of websites where
destinations on the web are interactive, communities is formed online, and the
communities formed online are influential” 22.
TAPP describes Web 2.0 as “a set of new technologies that enable consumers to
interact and influence one another in a virtual environment; and it includes the use of
many familiar technologies like chat, e-mail, and messaging but also many more
recent developments like blogs, voice chat, video and file sharing” 23.
SAFKO and BRAKE states that, in general, “Web 2.0 term doesn‟t refer
physically new version of the World Wide Web (WWW)” 24. Web 2.0 is just a new
method to use web, as a platform in which content and applications are no longer
created and published only by individuals; nevertheless they can be constantly
changed or reformed by every participant users.
BORGES defines “Web 1.0 as a flat world while Web 2.0 is characterized as a
round world” 25. The difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0 is that in the Web 2.0, the
20
Borges, B. (2009), Marketing 2.0, p.35.
21
Argentini, P.A. and Courtney M.B., (2009), Digital strategies for powerful corporate
communications, p.8.
22
23
Tapp, A. (2008), Principles of Direct and Database marketing: A digital orientation, p.298.
24
Safko,L. & Brake,D (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.6-7.
25
web pages are more dynamic and in those web pages, people are able to participate
and have conversations more.
Internet users are enabled to involve many activities with Web 2.0. According to
findings of a research by Pew Internet& American Life Project tracking Survey, the
activities which internet users involved can be seen in the table below.
Activity Participation reported (%)
Send or read email 91
Use a search engine 91
Research a product before purchase 78
Search the Web for fun 62
Watch a video clip or listen to an audio clip 56
Download games, videos or pictures 42
Send instant messages 39
Read a blog 39
Play games online 35
Search classifieds online 30
Rate a product online 28
Use social networking site 16
Download a podcast 12
Table 1: Online activities 26
According to findings of this survey, it can be clearly seen that social media tools
and applications such as videos, online games, and blogs are being used very often
by internet users.
In addition to the term “Web 2.0” there was another term called “Social Media”
which is developed and showed up in the meantime.
SAFKO and BRAKE state, that social media refers to activities, practices and
behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information,
knowledge, and options using conversational media. Conversational media are Web-
based applications that make it possible to create and easily transmit content in the
form of words, pictures, videos, and audios 27.
26
Pew Internet& American Life Project tracking Survey, quoted by Tuten, T.L. (2008) Advertising
2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, p.13.
27
Safko,L. and Brake,D. (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.6.
According to TUTEN, social media is “an umbrella phrase for social-networking

sites, virtual worlds, social news, and bookmarking sites, wikis, and forums and
opinion sites” 28.
Social media enables the online communities to be more actively participatory
and conversational; moreover, they are able to produce, publish, monitor, comment,
and classify online content which is called “consumer generated content.
Consumer generated content is a synonym of user generated content (UGC). In
the encyclopedia of PC magazine, user generated content is define as “the production
of content by the general public rather than by paid professionals and experts in the
field” 29. According to KAPLAN, there are 3 main characteristics of UGC30:
 UGCs are published on a publicly accessible website or on a social networking
site to a selected group
 UGCs show a certain amount of creative effort
 UGCs have been created outside of professional routines and practices
It is the fastest growing and promising type online contents. In 2006, UGC sites
attracted 69 million users in the United States alone, and in 2007 generated $1 billion
in advertising revenue. By 2011, UGC sites are projected to attract 101 million users
in the U.S. and to earn $4.3 billion in ad revenue.31
Regarding with online communities, LI categorizes the participants into six
groups according to the nature of activities in which they are involved: 1-Creators
who are active developers of content; 2-Critics who are commenting on blogs and
responding to video posts and contributing on product ratings and other reviews; 3-
Collectors who consume user generated content actively by using RSS feeds and
tagging sites; 4-Joiners who are participants in one or more social networks, 5-
Spectators who consume media on a more passive level and 6-Inactives who do not
involved in social media.32
28
Tuten,T. L. (2008) Advertising 2.0, p.20.
29
Fortune Magazine (2010) Fortune 500 World‟s Most Admired Companies. Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/full_list/ (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
30
Kaplan, A.M & Heinlein, M. (2010) Social media-Theoretical Module. Available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/studente1000/social-media-theoretical-module-english (Accessed: 28
December 2010).
31
Interactive Advertising Bureu (2008) IAB Platform Status Report : User Generated Content, Social
Media and advertising. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/victori98pt/user-generated-content-
social-media (Accessed: 17 January 2011).
32
Li,C., Forrester Research‟s Social Technograhics report; quoted by Tuten,T. L. (2008) Advertising
2.0, p.21-22
When the social media is considered from companies‟ point of view, MARTIN
states that “it is a tool which can be used in the same way of public relations,
advertisements in television and radio, events, etc” 33. But according to SCOTT,
“social media differ from so called “mainstream media” in that anyone can create,
comment on, and add to social media content”34.
As a marketing tool, use of social media is still new and because of this reason,
many companies think that it is just a fad; hence they hesitate to use it. But social
media has already passed the line of being a fad or a simple temporary trend and it
became a powerful, permanent part of global communication for companies. In other
words, social media is a very attractive and effective tool since it is the first many to
many communication channels in which an average person is now able to
communicate and share his “consumer-generated” content with the rest of the world.
In case a company uses the social media and its tools strategically with high
quality content and with correctly audience targeting, it can accomplish to raise
company‟s visibility to potential and current clients, and media; to stay in touch
easily with people all around the world. And MARTIN states that the best part of
social media is that it may be a cost-effective, highly personal, adaptable, and
relevant way to achieve all of the goals.35
From the companies‟ point of view, a research made by HubSpot with the top
100 companies of Fortune 500 World‟s Most Admired companies; results –can be
seen in Table 2- show that companies are also eager to use Social Media and its
tools.
Social Media Tool Frequency of use Percent with activity AVG # of post
Twitter Multiple times per week 82% 27 Tweets
Facebook At least once a week 59% 3,6 posts
YouTube At least once a month 68% 10 videos
Blog At least once a month 36% 7 Blog posts
Table 2: Frequency of activity per platform36
Mostly, the terms of “Social media” and “Web 2.0” are used as synonymous with
each other. Because the primary goals of these two terms are same: to enable
33
Martin, G.Z. (2010) 30 days to social media success, p.57.
34
Scott, D. (2010) The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs,
Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, p.38.
35
Martin, G.Z. (2010) 30 days to social media success, p.58.
36
Anon. (2011) Social media marketing by the numbers. Available at:
http://holykaw.alltop.com/social-media-marketing-by-the-numbers-infogra?tu3=1 (Accessed: 21
January 2011).
communities to form and interact/ converse with one another. That is why the same
approach would be used in this thesis.
6 Concept of Corporate Reputation

6.1 Importance and benefits of corporate reputation
Actually, corporate reputation is not a new concept that emerges recently. Since
early times, organizations, individuals and even independent groups have been
concerning about how other people see themselves. The only thing has change today
is the change in the mindset of the corporations and the importance level given by
corporations for managing reputation.
Even though there are not many management and organization literature,
intangible values like reputation exist in the articles for many years. For example,
PERROW stated in 1961 that if an organization and its product seem as reputable,
the organization can attract employees easily; it can use its informal power on the
community and it can attract enough customer, shareholder.37
In recent years, there are two main reasons for hearing the term of “reputation”
so often. The first one is related with the big companies such as Nestle, Exxon, and
HP which appear in media with scandals. The other reason is the emergence of
television shows and documentaries which are investigating companies and their
basic activities.38 Therefore, almost all companies‟ ethical approaches started to be
interrogated; the respect to the companies has decreased and a need has occurred
regarding creating and applying new standards and some regulations for keeping an
eye on the corporations. As a result of these problems, many companies have started
to spend more effort to let people and other forces hear about their merits and virtues
actively. Companies started to view their reputation as an investment and their
important asset39. SATIR stated that corporations are aware that they can only
differentiate themselves in society with reputation 40.
37
Perrow, C. (1961) “Organizational Prestige: Some Functions and Dysfunctions”, American Journal
of Sociology, Vol.66, No.4, p.337.
38
ER,G., (2008), Sanal ortamda itibar yönetimi, p.25.
39
Anon (2006) Importance of Reputation,
http://www.syl.com/bc/theimportanceofreputationofcompany.html, 06/01/2011
40
Satir, C. (2006) “The nature of corporate reputation and the measurement of reputation components:
An empirical study within a hospital”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 11,
No. 1, p. 57
DOWLING listed the messages which corporations want to give through

reputation:41
To employees: “Here is a nice and respectful place to work.”
To customers: “We are in the back of our products and services.”
To society: “We are a good citizen of your community.”
To investors: “Our expectations and reports are trustful and correct.”
To government: “You should support us because of our economical and
social contributions.”
FOMBRUN states that reputation carries all these messages and it influences
whether or not these people will support you by buying your products, deciding to
come work for your company or giving you the benefit of the doubt when they hear
something about you.42
JACKSON stated that besides of tangible assets like human resources, capital
and plant; corporations need to have intangible assets such as patents, copyright,
knowhow, brand and reputation to keep going in business. 43
Reputation is a precious and intangible asset. And many organizations consider
corporate reputation as their greatest assets. It makes corporation able to have
significant competitive advantage regarding the main stakeholder groups such as
investors, employees, customers, and communities.
Even if corporate reputation is an intangible asset, if a company has a negative
reputation, it can be seriously harmful for the balance sheet of the company.
HAYWOOD states damage to a corporate reputation can cause an immense collapse
in confidence. This can create a potentially severe decline in sales, share price or
both.44 Related with this, TUCKER and MELEWAR give the example of Nike in
1997. Just after articles and comments on the negligence of Nike regarding rights of
workers in Asia Pacific, Nike‟s market share decreased from 42 percent to 41 percent
and the share price decreased by %50 between 1997 and 1998. Even though there
41
Dowling, G.R. (2006) Communicating Corporate Reputation through Strories, p.82; quoted by
ER,G. (2008) Sanal ortamda itibar yonetimi, p.24.
42
Fombrun, C.J., interviewed and written by Scott Westcott (2005) The importance of reputation.
Available at: http://www.profitguide.com/shared/print.jsp?content=20050222_10 (Accessed: 06
January 2011).
43
Jackson, K. T. (2004) Building Reputational Capital, p.68, quoted by ER,G. (2008) Sanal ortamda
itibar yonetimi, p.25.
44
Haywood, R. (1994), Corporate Reputation, the Brand & the Bottom Line: Powerful Proven
Communications Strategies for Maximizing Value. 3 rd edn., p.xi.
were no change in the quality and prices of Nike‟s products, the negative reputation
affected the wealth of organization and the investors seriously.45
Another example given by HAYWOOD is the case of Coca Cola. When Coca-
Cola mishandled a contamination incident in Belgium, it failed to recognize the
potential damage to the brand and even behaved cavalier manner; the end result was
a massive loss of share value, an immediate decline in sales, and long term damage
to the corporate reputation.46
But on the hand, FOMBRUN disagrees with the idea that reputations are hard to
build but easy to destroy; because that's just not always the case since big companies
like Coca-Cola have taken big hits to their reputations from time to time and have
been able to recover from them.47
Moreover, a research made by Safeguarding Reputation explained that time
estimated to fully recover from a damaged reputation is 3, 5 years. (In North
America: 3, 2 years, in Europe: 3,6; and in Asia Pacific: 3,5 years) In the same
research, findings showed that a big number of companies think that the most
challenging stage reputation management is to recover the reputation (by %66) after
maintaining (by %24) and building (by %10) reputation. 48
In the Hesleden Risk Management Report in 2004, it is stated that “reputation is
an essential contributor to the success of leading companies while it is difficult to
quantify and opinions differ on measurement; and no one can afford not to manage
the risks to such a powerful asset” 49.
According to a research made in US for the years 2006 and 2007 shows that
there is a growing recognition of the value of reputation and equally an
understanding of how „good‟ reputation translates into competitive advantage. Many
companies expressed that their reputation is a critical asset, one that competitors
cannot replicate. Moreover, companies also believe that their individual
organizations‟ reputations, as well as the reputation of „business‟ as a whole, are
45
Tucker,L. & Melewar,T. C. (2005) “Corporate Reputation and Crisis Management”, Corporate
Reputation Review, Vol.7, No.4, p.379
46
Communications Strategies for Maximizing Value. 3 rd edn., p.2.
47
Fombrun, C.J., interviewed and written by Scott Westcott (2005) The importance of reputation.
Available at: http://www.profitguide.com/shared/print.jsp?content=20050222_10 (Accessed: 06
January 2011).
48
Safeguarding Reputation Report. (N/A) Available at:
http://www.corporatereputation12steps.com/Downloads/PDFs/1_WS_Safeguarding_Reputation_exec
_summary.pdf (Accessed on 06 January 2011).
49
Anon. (2004) Hesleden Risk Management Report. Available at:
increasingly and continually at a tipping point, driven by a range of external factors

such as the rise of viral communication; the democratization of media; globalization;
the generational shift; ethical spending and the increased scrutiny and regulation of
business.50
Besides of its importance, reputation, especially a good reputation, provides lots
of benefits to the company.
FOMBRUN states that “a reputation develops from a company‟s uniqueness and
from identity-shaping practices, maintained over time, that lead stakeholders to
perceive the company as credible, reliable, responsible and trustworthy” 51.
ER and HARRISON sum up the list for the benefits of good reputation for
companies as:52 53
To make profit, to strengthen cash flow and to have more stable incomes
To attract new partners and financial capital sources
To cover investments
To receive the support of stakeholders in times of controversy
To attract new customers by word of mouth
To affect political and legal relationships positively
To attract and keep the best employees
To enter new markets easier
To have successful merger and acquisitions
To strengthen relationship with suppliers, distributors and other shareholders
of company
To improve relationships with NGOs and activists who have the potential of
being against to the company and its interests
To experience less crisis and to be able to provide buffer and isolation for
corporation or products in case of crisis (at least for having minimum
damage)
To have more successful product launch
To be sustainable in the market
50
Anon. (2007) Heslenden Strategic Reputation Management: US Research Report 2006-07. Available
at: http://www.hesleden.com/research2.php, p.4 (Accessed: 06 January 2011).
51
Fombrun, C. J., quoted by Harrison, K. (N/A) Why a good corporate reputation is important to your
organization. Available at: http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/corprep_important.asp (Accessed:
06 January 2011).
52
Er, G. (2008) Sanal ortamda itibar yönetimi, p.27.
53
To have potential increase in financial performance

To have the chance for demanding higher prices for products
To pay cheaper price to suppliers
To experience a higher loyalty of customers and employees
Lastly, corporations which give a big importance on corporate reputation must
focus on long term profitability instead of short term profitability. Therefore, they
would be able to operate by taking care about both shareholders and society‟s
interests and also the company‟s own interests. So it can be said that corporate
reputation management is very useful and effective for both corporations and society.
6.2 Relationship between corporate Identity, image and corporate reputation
To understand concept of reputation fully, the terms of corporate identity and
corporate image must be understood.
According to FOMBRUN and van RIEL, image and identity are the basic
components of reputation. 54
DALTON and CROFT state for corporate reputation, identity and image that
“much confusion exists about terminology, and although they do not quite refer to
the same ideas and concepts, they are wrongly used interchangeably”55.
ROBERTS describes corporate image and identity simply as: “corporate identity
is who company really is” and corporate image is how much of that reality people
understand” 56. So he expresses that perfect alignment of corporate identity and
image is “the only certain way to ensure a company is developing the reputation it
seeks” 57.
These terms were defined and used in different ways by different authors. That
is why, among all these different definitions and comments, the most accepted and
used ones can found in this part.
54
Fombrun, C.J. & Van Riel, C.B.M. (1997) “The Reputational Landscape”, Corporate Reputation
Review, Vol.1, No.1, pp.6.
55
Dalton,J. & Croft,S, (2003) Managing Corporate Reputation: The new currency, p.10.
56
Roberts, K.J. (1998) “Managing Corporate Image in a Dynamic Environment”, Corporate
57
Figure 2: Corporate reputation –The interplay of identity and image58

6.2.1 Corporate Identity
In the business dictionary, corporate identity has defined as “combination of color
schemes, designs, words, etc., that a firm employs to make a visual statement about
itself and to communicate its business philosophy” and as “an enduring symbol of
how a firm views itself, how it wishes to be viewed by others, and how others
recognize and remember it.”59
OLINS states that corporate identity introduces who is the corporation, what it
does and how it does.60 It is generally formed by vision, mission and values of
company and characteristics of the organization.
To simply put corporate identity can be defined as a group of employees‟ and
managers‟ common values, principles and behavior within the organization. But on
the other hand, as ABRATT states that despite there are very huge literature about
corporate identity, the concept still remains unclear and ambiguous since no
universally accepted definitions have emerged. 61.
According to BALMER, corporate identity can be found with the question : “
What we are?”; beside of that, also these questions can help to describe the corporate
identity:62
58
Dalton, J. & Croft, S, (2003) Managing Corporate Reputation: The new currency, p.11.
59
Business Dictionary (N/A) Corporate Identity. Available at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-identity.html (Accessed: 17 January 2011).
60
Olins,W. (1990) The Wolff Olins Guide to Corporate Identity, p.108; quoted by Kirdar, Y. (2005)
“Corporate communication forms and interaction process”, University of Manas Journal of Social
Sciences, No.14, p.228.
61
Abratt, R. (1989) “A new approach to the corporate image management process”; quoted by Balmer,
J.R.T. (2001) “Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing”, European Journal of
Marketing, Vol.35, no.4, p.252.
62
Balmer, J.R.T. (2001) “Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing”, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol.35, no.4, p.257.
business?
structure?
strategy?
ethos?
What is our
market?
performance?
history and reputation?
relationship to other identities?
Van RIEL and BALMER states that corporate identity is consist of graphic
design, integrated corporate communication and a multidisciplinary approach which
draws heavily on organizational behavior.63
Figure 3: Interaction between corporate identity formation, reputation,

improvement and organizational performance64
According to KIESSLING and SPANNAGL, there are 4 elements which form the
corporate reputation:65
Corporate philosophy: Corporate philosophy creates a base for corporate behavior
and it is consists of values, attitudes, norms and history of organization which take
their root from corporate culture. KIRDAR states that there are some elements
defined within the corporate philosophy such as “economic structure and
organization‟s public function belief, development, rivalry and attitude towards
63
Van Riel, B.M.C & Balmer, J.R.T. (1998) “Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and
management”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol.31, N o.5, p.340.
64
Van Riel, B.M.C & Balmer, J.R.T. (1998) “Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and
management”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol.31, N o.5, p.342.
65
Kiessling,F. & Spannagl,P. (1996) Corporate Identity Unternehmens Leitbild Organisationskultur;
quoted by Okay,A. (2000) Kurum Kimligi, p.59.
technical development, the role of profit for organization and public, responsibility
against employees and shareholders, activity rules and behavior norms accepted in
the frame of organization‟s economic activity”66.
Corporate behavior: Corporate behavior is a typical behavior model and response
of a corporate in definite decision-making situations. The behavior models are
shaped according to the different situations that company faces. Some of these cases
could be treatments to targeted consumer, distribution and cost strategies for
products, and the treatments in case of any complaint or scandal.
Corporate communication: Corporate communication includes different methods.
According to KIESLLING and SPPANNAGL, it has to be “implemented in a long
term with the aim to create, protect or change an image”67 , so corporation is able to
deliver the means of its own identity. In general, corporate communication is a
communicational practice of corporate identity. There are many method can be used
in the corporate communication such as advertisement, PR, market researches as well
as employee communication.
Corporate design or corporate visual identity: Corporate design is the way of
corporations‟ expressing themselves by visual terms. So it is the concrete indicator of
corporate identity and it can be formed by the architectural design of both inside and
outside design of company, colors chosen, logo and emblems, brands, design of
product and so on.
To be recognized by all stakeholders, a corporation must create its own identity.
Relatively, if a corporation would like to follow successful strategies both in internal
and external environment, it must take their corporate identity into consideration
seriously.
Today, corporations create their own logos, colors, corporate behavior, and
communication models. Thus, corporations may be able to effectively collaborate
internally and to create an image on their target stakeholder by creating new features
that differentiate themselves from their rivals.
Stakeholders know companies with their names or activities, plans and objectives
they present. According to all these elements people have different perspectives and
with these perspectives, they define an image for the company. URAL states that for
66
Kirdar, Y. (2005) “Corporate communication forms and interaction process”, University of Manas
Journal of Social Sciences, No.14, p.230.
67
Kiessling, F. & Spannagl, P. (1996) Corporate Identity Unternehmens Leitbild Organisationskultur,
p.19; quoted by Kirdar, Y. (2005) “Corporate communication forms and interaction process”,
University of Manas Journal of Social Sciences, No.14, p.232.
success in the business, the most important thing is to have a perfect match between
corporate image and corporate identity. 68
6.2.2 Corporate Image
In many resources, corporate reputation and corporate reputation is still being
used in place of each others. To clarify the difference, DALTON and CROFT state
simply that “corporate image can be created but corporate reputation must be
earned”69.
ALVESSON describes corporate image as “a holistic and vivid impression held
by an individual or a particular group towards an organization and is a result of
sense-making by the group and communication by the organization of a fabricated
and projected picture of itself” 70.
According to BALMER, corporate image is related with “immediate mental
perception of the organization held by an individual, group or network” and the
corporate image can be found or described with the help of question: “What is the
current perception and/or profile?”71 .
PELTEKOGLU defines the corporate image as external appearance of
company‟s reflection and the picture of the organizations in various communities.72
Similarly, ROBERTS defines the corporate image as “the sum of all associations
and impressions which the company's various audiences have with the corporate
brand, so it is how the identity is perceived”73.
These impressions and associations can be formed by company and its forces
such as communication tools and experiences of customers regarding the company‟s
products and services. Communication provided by tools such as advertising and
marketing has a crucial effect on creating corporate image and awareness towards the
corporation. Besides of those elements, ROBERTS state that, “impressions and
associations can be affected by the tone and manner of its employees, its pricing
68
Ural, E.G. (2002) “Deger yaratan bir halkla iliskiler calismasi olarak itibar yonetimi”, Istanbul
Commerce University Journal of Social Science, Vol.1, No.2,p.84.
69
Dalton, J. and Croft, S, (2003) Managing Corporate Reputation: The new currency. London:
Thorogood Professional Insights, p.9.
70
Alvesson, M. (1990) Organization: from substance to image?, Organization Studies, Vol.11, No.3, p.
376; quoted by Poncini, G. (2007) Discourse Strategies in Multicultural Business Meetings
(Linguistic Insights) 2nd edn., p.86.
71
Balmer, J.R.T. (2001) “Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing”, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol.35, no.4, p.255
72
Peltekoglu, F.B. (2001), p.359; quoted by ER, G. (2008) Sanal Ortamda Itibar Yonetimi, p.35.
73
Reputation Review, Vol.1, No.4, p.386.
structure, and the quality of its customer service, the publicity it receives from the
media, its social responsiveness and its activities in the community”74.
Additionally, HATCH and SCHULZ states that image is “intentionally
manipulable by insiders for the consumption of outsiders, it is not merely an attempt
to infer outsiders‟ perceptions” 75.
Regarding the different perspectives, DOWLING stated that “these images
formed by a particular group within the external audience can be affected by the
intentions and influences of a wide range of actors including other groups”76.
BARNIES, EGAN and JECKINS state that “since everyone‟s knowledge and
experience of an organization will be subjective and will differ, the corporate image
will vary between one public to another, and even within publics”77.
Also, KOKTURK, YALCIN and COBANOGLU stated that, a company does
not have only one particular image. Related with relationship exists between
corporation and themselves, stakeholders evaluates corporation and its image with
their own perspective.78
But on the other hand, creating and keeping a good corporate image is a tough
issue. The image may be created by the help of several communication tools of
company. But if company tries to create a fake image, different than its identity, then
it means that consumers would have a poor or bad image about the company in their
mind.
According to BARNIES, EGAN and JECKINS, “poor image problem can be
principally twofold: the firm is badly perceived because it is misunderstood or
because it has a deservedly bad image”79. A badly perceived can be corrected with
several PR techniques such as corporate image schemes and corporate advertising;
while the problem of bad image must be solved by the corporation itself by
expressing itself more clearly or by improving its presentation.
Today, evaluation of organizations is done with corporate reputation instead of
corporate image. Therefore, corporations must delegate the responsibility of
74
75
Hatch,M.J. & Shulz, M. (1997) “Relations between organizational culture, identity and image”,
European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31, No. 5, p. 359.
76
Dowling, G.R. (1993) “Developing your company image into a corporate asset”, Long Range
Planning, Vol.26, No.2, p.103.
77
Barnies, P., Egan, J. and Jefkins,F. (2004) Public Relations: Contemporary issues and strategies,
p.356.
78
Kokturk,M.S. & Yalcin, M. & Cobanoglu, E. (2008) Kurum İmajı Oluşumu ve Ölçümü, p.29.
79
Barnies, P., Egan, J. and Jefkins,F. (2004) Public Relations: Contemporary issues and strategies,
p.355.
corporate communication not only on marketing department or PR department but on

the whole departments and every the employees inside of the corporation.
6.2.3 Impact of identity and image on the corporate reputation
Corporate identity, image and reputation are all abstract terms and they are
defined in many different ways in the literature which often creates a big confusion
about these terms. But it may be easy to understand more and to see the relationship
between these terms by FOMBRUN‟s figure that shows the relations between
identity, image and reputation:
Figure 4: From Corporate Identity to Corporate Reputation80

All corporations have their own corporate identity, even if they are aware about
it or not. Names are for individuals to recognize the organizations. And corporations
affects to their images with their self-representations which is a key element to create
an image for a corporation. Sometimes, image might not be reflected totally or
correctly by the company itself. Forasmuch as, there are other elements which affects
the corporate image besides of identity, such as advertisements or commercials that
does not represents the corporation or the false rumors. As it is already mentioned in
the corporate identity part, more matches have the corporations between its image
and identity, more success full it is. The corporations which try to create different
image than its identity, when the differences are figured out by the stakeholders, they
cause to disappointments. Consequently, presentation of your real identity can be
considered as the rule for being successful in the business. Because the corporations
80
Fombrun, C. J. (1996) Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image, p.39.
that has the perfect harmony between its image and identity, are believed to be more
trustworthy, coherent and honest by their stakeholders.
As it may be seen in Figure 4, different images from different stakeholders affect
the corporate image generally. But as a result of this figure, it cannot be said that
corporate reputation is the sum of images shaped by stakeholders‟ perspectives. In
the following section, other elements, besides of these images, which affect and
shape the corporate reputation would be explained. The aim of this figure is to see
more clearly the relationship between corporate image, identity and corporate
reputation.
Related with this case, DOWLING states that in case that corporation gives
more importance on the parts of corporate identity, which company believes that they
could have a better image than their competitors with those parts or elements; they
could establish a good reputation either.81
DAVIES, CHUN, Da SILVA and ROPER consider this topic within the
corporate reputation chain82. According to them, corporate reputation managers must
take into account two important elements: image and identity. In this context,
managers have to harmonize and match these two elements. For this harmonization,
both emotional and logical aspects would complete the chain. The relationship could
be clearly seen in the Figure 5 below.
Figure 5: Corporate Reputation Chain83
81
Dowling, G. R., (2004), “Corporate Reputations: Should you compete on yours?”, California
Management Review, Vol. 49, No.3, p.21
82
Davies, G. & Chun, R. & Da Silva, R.V. & Roper, S. (2003) Corporate Reputation and
Competitiveness, p.75.
83
Davies, G. & Chun, R. & Da Silva, R.V. & Roper, S. (2003) Corporate Reputation and
Competitiveness, p.76.
In the corporate reputation chain, there are two important stakeholder,

employees and customers, who can affect all the process. While the view and
perspectives of employees about the corporation would be effective on the corporate
identity, the customer views shape as corporate image. Moreover, the satisfaction of
employee and good corporate identity would lead to retention; and customer
satisfaction would lead to have more loyal customers, thus provide an increase in
sales. The parallelism between the views of both employees and customers about
corporation-which equals to the parallelism between corporate identity and corporate
image - is a very desirable situation. The main objective for corporate reputation
should be to take the satisfaction of both employees and customers into account with
same level of importance and keep the satisfaction at the highest level. After all,
making the reputation of a company stronger will be enabled.
6.3 Relationship between corporate reputation and other terms
As it‟s already mentioned before, there are other elements which affect and
shape the corporate reputation, except from corporate image and corporate identity.
In this section, the terms, which are mentioned mostly with corporate reputation in
the literature, are explained briefly.
6.3.1 Perception
As it is mentioned in the introduction part, reputation is formed by all
perceptions of the external and internal stakeholders of the company, such as
employees, customers, suppliers and so on.
GOULD defines the perception as “the subsequent selection, organization, and
interpretation of sensory input--it is the process of obtaining information about both
the external and internal environments, which results, via integration utilizing
memory, in the conscious experience, recognition, and interpretation of objects,
object relationships, and events”84.
According to DENCHEV and HEENE states that effective reputation
management ensures that information signals are sent out on purpose and are
perceived by all stakeholders as they were intended to be perceived”85.
BRONN stated that measuring the relationships with stakeholders built by
corporate communication, and analyzing whether the perceptions about these
84
Gould, J.E. (1990) What is perception?. Available at:
http://uwf.edu/jgould/documents/WhatisPerception_000.pdf (Accessed: 17 January 2011)
85
Dentchev, N.A. & Heene, A. (2004) “Managing the reputation of restructuring corporations: send
the right signal to the right stakeholder”, Journal of Public Affairs, Vol.4, N o.1, p.61
relationships is positive or not, shows whether the corporation is successful of

creating its own reputation86. So for strengthening the corporate reputation, the
effective method could be to turn perspectives of stakeholders into positive. Because
the partly changes of perceptions which are occurred in the past or new perception
formations is possible due to obtainment of new experiences, knowledge, believes
and opinion.
6.3.2 Communication
In the “Guidelines for Meeting the Communication Needs of Persons With
Severe Disabilities” which is developed by National Joint Committee for the
Communicative needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities, communication is defined
as “any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person
information about that person‟s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge or affective
states”; moreover in the same guideline it is stated that communication may be
intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals,
may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other
modes”87.
On the other hand, Van RIEL and FOMBRUN defines corporate communication
as “the set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and
external communications aimed at creating favorable starting points with
stakeholders on which company depends”88.
Communications held by the corporation help to establish better relationships
among employees and managers internally and between the external stakeholders
and company. Again according to Van RIEL and FOMBRUN “all communications
influence to some extent the perceptions of participants and observers about the
organization and its activities, and so affect the organization‟s image, brand and
reputation”89.
86
Bronn, P.S. (2007) “Relationship outcomes as determinants of reputation”, Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, Vol.12, No.4, p.376.
87
Anon. (1991) Guidelines for Meeting the Communication Needs of Persons. Available at:
http://www.asha.org/docs/html/GL1992-00201.html (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
88
Van Riel, B.M.C. & Fombrun, J.C. (2007) Essentials of corporate communication: Implementing
practices for effective reputation management, p.25.
89
Van Riel, B.M.C. & Fombrun, J.C. (2007) Essentials of corporate communication: Implementing
practices for effective reputation management, p.13.
For example, results of an annual research called Fortune 500- “Most Admired
Companies” showed that, in 1999, companies which invested in corporate
communication experienced a better reputation than companies which didn‟t”90.
Considering this fact, the corporations must define and apply their
communications strategies carefully by presenting the relevant and needed
information to stakeholders, being transparent and being eager for communicating
with them; since these are very crucial cornerstones for having a better and a strong
corporate reputation.
6.3.3 Brand
ETTENSON and KNOWLES define brand as “a customercentric concept that
focuses on what a product, service or company has promised to its customers and
what that commitment means to them”91.
ER defines brand as is remarkable sign regarding a corporation‟s identity that
makes possible to differentiate products or services of corporation from the ones
belong to their competitors”92.
ARGENTINI and DRUCKENMILLER state that brand provides consumer with
expectation what the company will deliver; and “the strength of a brand depends on
how well it has fulfilled its promise to customers over time”93.
In the Figure 6 below, SCHREIBER shows the tight relationship between brand
and reputation.94
So in case that, a corporation meets the expectations - regarding with brand- of
its customers or any other stakeholders, it would be a great opportunity to strengthen
reputation. That is why brand and reputation is tightly and unavoidably linked with
each other. That means any damage occurs in one of these term leads to a negative
effect on the other one.
90
91
Ettenson, R. & Knowles, J. (2008) “Don‟t confuse reputation with brand”, MIT Sloan Management
Review, Vol.49, No.2, p.19
92
Er,G. (2008) Sanal ortamda itibar yonetimi, p.41.
93
Argentini, P.A. & Druckenmiller, B. (2004) “Reputation and the Corporate Brand”, Corporate
94
Schreiber, E. S. (2008) Brand & Reputation: A leadership Perspective, Reputation Conference.
Availabe at: http://www.instituteforpr.org/files/uploads/Schreiber_Henley_Presentation.pdf
(Accessed: 18 January 2011).
Figure 6: The Brand&Reputation Connection
6.3.4 Innovation
SCOCCO defines innovation as “new concepts or products that derive from
individual‟s ideas or from scientific research” and it is “the commercialization of the
invention itself”95.
In the business dictionary, innovation explained more broadly; as it is
“process by which an idea or invention is translated into a good or service for which
people will pay”. So to talk about an innovation, there must be a plan which is
“replicable at an economical cost” and which meets a specific need. 96
SMITH states that there are 3 concepts that involved into the innovation process
which can be seen in the figure below.
Figure 7: 3 Concepts involved in innovation process97
95
Scocco, D. (2006) The definition of innovation. Available at:
http://innovationzen.com/blog/2006/11/17/the-definition-of-innovation/ (Accessed: 19 Januart2011).
96
Business Dictionary (N/A) Innovation. Available at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/innovation.html (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
97
Smith, B. (2010) It‟s never too late to innovate. Available at:
http://www.innovation.org.nz/blog/333-its-never-to-late-too-innovate (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
According to the worldwide research made by Fortune called World‟s Most

Admired Companies 2010, there are 9 companies inside of top 50 world‟s most
admirable companies which are voted for the best innovative companies. As it can be
realized from Table 3 below, that means innovation is a key element which affect
corporate reputation.
Company Ranking Overall
according to Ranking
Innovation
Apple 1 1
Google 2 2
Nike 3 24
Amazon.com 4 5
Goldman Sachs Group 5 8
Procter & Gamble 6 6
McDonald’s 7 14
Intel 8 31
UPS 9 33
FPL Group 10 N.A
Table 3: World's most admirable companies in 2010 : Innovation98
So it can be said that innovation is very effective tool to create a positive image
and reputation, especially, on the new generation who gives a big importance on
changes and developments.
But on the other hand, it does not mean that companies must to focus only its
R&D activities and not to do anything else. In this age, in which Internet has become
indispensable part of our lives, companies should expand their R&D activities.
Regarding this objective, the Web 2.0 and so social media help and provide many
opportunities to companies. A successful example would be the website of Starbucks
for its customers. This website called “My Starbucks Idea99” offers a platform that
enables customers to share, vote and select innovative ideas with the company and
other people. By January 2011, there are 32.694 innovative ideas submitted
regarding beverages sold in Starbucks. It is a huge number of ideas which Starbucks
98
Fortune Magazine (2010) Fortune 500- World‟s Most Admired Companies. Available at:
99
My Starbucks Idea. Available at: http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
could never reach by itself at the same period of time. Thus Starbucks is happy to
receive support with new ideas of its customers; and the customers are happy to buy
the products that they invent or, at least, to be listened and to have the chance for
sharing their own idea with public and the company.
Besides of those idea-sharing platforms, there are types of tools that enable
people to innovate collectively such as wikis and open source software, programs.
Thus with the improvement of technology and Internet, it is expected that there will
be more tools and opportunities for consumers and companies to conduct in the
innovation process together.
6.3.5 Trust
Reputation and trust are two terms which have very tightly correlated meanings.
But trust has been defined in many different ways as well. GAMBETTA defines trust
as “a peculiar belief predicated not on evidence but on the lack of contrary
evidence”100. MAYER, DAVIS and SCHOORMAN defines trust as "the willingness
of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation
that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of
the ability to monitor or control that other party”101.
PUULSA and TOVANEN state that “trust is often ensured by the rewards of
being trustworthy and by the threat that if trust is violated, ones reputation can be
hurt trough the person‟s network of associates and friends”102.
HAYWOOD states that trust is shaped by six factors which are the quality of
products, the business performance, the treatment of employees, environmental and
social responsibilities and the quality of the leadership, on the other hand, “factors
such as ethics, integrity, visions are also of relevance, though these can be considered
subsets of the main factors”103.
As reputation consists of perspectives of stakeholders, trust could be considered
as a way of perspective. That is why trust is very important element for good
100
Gambetta, D. (1988) Can we trust, p.234; quoted by Boyd, J. (2003) “The Rhetorical Construction
of Trust Online”, Communication Theory, Vol.13, N o.4, p.392.
101
Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H. & Schoorman, F.D., (2007), “An Integrative Model of Organizational
Trust”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, p.347.
102
Puusa,A. & Tovanen, U. (2006 ) “Organizational Identity and trust”, Electronic Journal of
Business Ethics and Organization Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, p.31.
103
reputation. According to FISCHER and REUBER, “a good reputation is beneficial

because, in building trust, it reduces uncertainty about an organization”104.
On the other hand, according to the results of a research done by KEH and XIA,
it is stated that “companies with favorable reputations benefit from building trust and
identification among customers, which, in turn, positively influence customer
commitment” Again, they state that customers tend to expect highly regarded
companies to be more competent and act honestly in their daily operations; moreover
consumers assume that these companies take into account interests of both parities
during decision making process which contributes to the trustworthiness of these
firms105.
According to the ER‟s comments on this research results, there are 3 ways to
gain the customers‟ trust. The first way is the effect of positive reputation on
reducing risk and ambiguity during the customers‟ evaluation process of the
companies. The second one is that the expectation of customers due to positive
corporate reputation about that company could provide high quality goods & services
and meet their needs. The third one is the expectation that companies with good
reputation tend to avoid the negative actions which could damage the reputation
since reputation is very hard to establish but easy to harm and needs time and capital
for establishing or recovering.106
6.3.6 Transparency
Transparency is another key element which is effective on corporate reputation.
BUYTENDIJK defines the transparency as “competitive weapon to differentiate
from the competition in attracting capital, informing customers about the value
proposition (not only price) and in cost efficiencies by driving down the transaction
costs in the value chain”107 Relatively, the lack of the transparency are explained by
ER as the restriction to accessibility in purpose, or presenting information differently,
or the irrelevance between the information and the subject.108
104
Fischer,E. & Reuber, R. (2007) “The Good, the Bad and the Unfamiliar: The challenges of
reputation formation facing new firms”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Leadership, Vol.34, N o.4, p.56.
105
Keh, H.T. & XIA, Y. (2009) “Corporate reputation and customer behavioral intentions: The roles of
trust, identification and commitment”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 38,N o.7, p.739.
106
ER, G. (2008) Sanal ortamda itibar yönetimi, p.44.
107
Buytendijk, F. (2008) Corporate Transparency Is a Great Thing. . . Or Is It?. Available at:
http://blogs.oracle.com/frankbuytendijk/2008/02/corporate_transparency_is_a_gr.html (Accessed:20
January 2011).
108
Er,G., (2008), Sanal ortamda itibar yönetimi, p.44.
Although some of companies still think that transparency could lead to

dangerous situations, the stakeholders do not think the same thing. According to the
Edelman Global Trust Barometer 2010, results showed that “transparency and trust
are as important to corporate reputation as the quality of the products and
services”109. So it could be said that transparency became a huge power in the
business world.
Especially with the growth of usage of Internet and social media, companies are
forced to be transparent; because otherwise, they must be aware that they could lose
the corporate reputation and the customers‟ trust when the truth about themselves
comes up sooner or later. This subject will explained more detailed in the following
chapters.
6.3.7 Public Relations
HAYHOOD defines PR as “the discipline responsible for creating the optimum
environment within which the organization operates, through evaluating the attitudes
of those upon whom it depends for success, then developing both the policies and the
supporting communications to earn their understanding and support”110.
According to this definition, “discipline” refers to the management function;
“policies and supporting communications” refers that PR is a management function
and that communication is a part of the process.
FLYNN, GREGORY and VALLIN defines the public relations as “the strategic
management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics,
through the use of communication, to achieve understanding, realize
organizational goals, and serve the public interest”111.
Public relations play an unique and important role to promulgate the actions held
by company regarding corporate reputation. On the other side, the actions held by PR
could also be very useful to strengthen the corporate reputation. That is why there is
a strong interrelationship between corporate reputation and PR.
109
Anon. (2010) Edelman Global Trust Barometer 2010. Available at:
http://www.edelman.com/trust/2010/docs/2010_Trust_Barometer_Executive_Summary.pdf
110
111
Flynn, Gregory & Valin (2008), Seaman, P. (2009) Definitions of PR: Keeping it Honest.
Available at: http://www.ipra.org/detail.asp?articleid=1381 (Accessed: 20 January 2011)
HAYWOOD states that “public relations must not just create an atmosphere,
mood, attitudes, or even reputation; it must also produce some sort of action, as
support identifies” in his definition at the beginning112.
As it is mentioned in the section for corporate reputation, to create and
strengthen the corporate reputation, elements such as quality of products and
services, performance, employees, and innovations are crucial. The thing that must
be accomplished by PR is to communicate and share the activities of companies
regarding these elements with the stakeholders in a convenient way.
On the other hand, there are some challenges or the risk related with the PR. As
it‟s explained in the previous sections, company must present its realities not the
images that it would like to have. Because trying to create a cursory and fake image
by PR without improving the corporate identity and company‟s performance,
especially in Internet era in which people are enabled to share the truth they know
about companies, create even worse image and so reputation for the company.
Related with this topic Mevlana- a Turkish philosopher- said that: “Either seem as
you are; or be as you seem”. So the most important thing is that organizations and the
PR departments mustn‟t involve with some operations that do not present the
corporations truly without considering their corporate reputation.
Consequently, it can be said that, corporate reputation and PR are not substitutes
of each other; instead, as it‟s mentioned in the beginning, they are mostly
complementary terms.
6.4 Measurement of corporate reputation
As reputation is a precious asset that can damages the balance sheet and trading
performance of the company, it turns into a very valuable activity to measure the
company‟s reputation.
There are many different views and many different criteria adopted by different
authors or organizations. That is why it is really hard to find one commonly accepted
metrics or methods for reputation measurement. For instance, STERNE sums up the
business outcome of reputation and the method of measurement related with these in
the table below.
112
Communications Strategies for Maximizing Value. 3rd edn., p.22.
Business Outcome Measurement Method

Increases likelihood to purchase/ Benchmark reputation / relationship
consider your brand(s) metrics via survey prior to a campaign,
repeat every 3-6 months
Minimizes the effects of a crisis Correlate attitudinal studies with
customer purchase attitude and behavior.
Reinforces communication of Map conversations (and tone) in
organizational values traditional and social media to web
analytic data (e.g. registrations, request
for information, sales leads, etc.)
Rebuilds trust after a crisis Map conversations / reputation to
financial analysts‟ opinions and stock
price volatility
Establishes credibility of new Correlate share of thought leadership
products / companies; ease of visibility to adoption of policy positions
market entry
Commanding higher prices, lower
costs, premium on stock price
Enhances recommendations/ word-
of-mouth leading to faster adoption
Increases customer loyalty/
renewals/ satisfaction
Improves the attracting/retaining of
talent
Lowers legal costs
Table 4: Business outcomes of reputation and their metrics113
The biggest problem in the measurement of reputation is differences among the
result lists published by the corporations make the measurements. It is possible to see
same company with different ranking and different places in two survey results in the
Table 5 below.
113
Sterne, J. (2010) Social Media Metrics, p.193-194.
Ranking Fortune 500-World's most admired The World’s Most Reputable

companies'10 Companies'10
1 Apple Google
2 Google Sony
3 Berkshire Hathaway The Walt Disney Company
4 Johnson & Johnson BMW
5 Amazon.com Daimler (Mercedes-Benz)
6 Procter & Gamble Apple
7 Toyota Motor Nokia
8 Goldman Sachs Group IKEA
9 Wal-Mart Stores Volkswagen
10 Coca-Cola Intel
Table 5: Results of two different reputation analyses done by Fortune Magazine

and Reputation Institute114 115
There could be several reasons behind this fact. Firstly, selected sample for
research could create these differences in the results. For example, the annual
research made by Fortune Magazine called “World‟s most admired companies”
considers investors and the top level managers as sample while the research made by
Reputation Institute called “Reputation Impulse” takes the sample of general public.
Naturally, the perspectives of these two different samples could differ from each
other.
Secondly, the questions and the criteria considered in the survey would
definitely affect the results. Again, Fortune magazine uses 9 criteria in its search
while Reputation Institute considers 23 criteria under 7 main subjects.
Thirdly, timing of the researches is also another factor which leads to
differentiate the results. Because conditions such as political, economical,
international relationships at the time that survey applied, is a matter that could
change the results.
114
Fortune Magazine (2010) Fortune 500- World‟s Most Admired Companies. Available at:
115
Reputation Institute (2010) Global Reputation Pulse 2010 report. Available at:
http://www.reputationinstitute.com/advisory-services/global-pulse (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
As a last point, which is most important one, is that these kinds of reputation
measurements surveys shows the perceptions of the sample which is likely to change
over time.
Consequently, it can be said that there are 2 main facts which must be
considered for measuring the reputation:
 The criteria which shapes the reputation
 The sample selected for the measurement
In this section, the criteria and the sample selected by Fortune Magazine and
Reputation Institute, which are the most famous and commonly accepted two
researches on reputation measurement, are explained.
6.4.1 Analysis of Fortune Magazine
There are two annual researches done by Fortune Magazine: “America‟s Largest
Corporations” and “World‟s Most Admired Companies”. But since “World‟s Most
Admired Companies” is a global research on reputation, it‟s better to examine it.
Fortune magazine applies the World‟s Most Admired Companies list regarding
the corporate reputation with the partnership of Hay Group. In 2010, 667 companies
from 33 countries were surveyed by 4,170 executives, directors, and securities
analysts116.Nine criteria are used to measure the reputation of companies. These are:
Innovation Financial soundness
Global competitiveness People Management
Long-term investment Social responsibility
Product/Service quality Quality of management
Use of Corporate Assets
Table 6: 9 criteria used by Fortune Magazine117

6.4.2 Analysis of Reputation Institute
The measurement method and criteria developed by Reputation Institute is
called “Global Reputation Pulse”.
The research conducted by Reputation Institute is used to be called “Reputation
Quotient” until 2006 and in RQ there were 6 main pillars and 20 indicators
116
Fortune Magazine (2010) Fortune 500 FAQ. Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/faq/ (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
117
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/faq/ (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
(attributes) for measuring reputation. But Reputation Institute uses currently the
“Global Reputation Pulse” with 7 main pillars and 23 key indicators (attributes) to
measure reputation of companies from all around the world, except from South
Africa.118
In Global Reputation Pulse 2010, people from general public in 24 countries are
surveyed by a web based survey developed with the partnership of Survey Sampling
International.
In the figure below, the 7 main pillars and the main stakeholders define by
Reputation Institute which shape reputation, could be seen:
Figure 8: 7 main pillars in RepTrak developed for Global Reputation Impulse 119
118
Reputation Institute (N/A) RepTrak. http://www.reputationinstitute.com/advisory-services/reptrak
119
Reputation Institute (N/A) Key Stakeholders. Available at:
http://www.reputationinstitute.com/advisory-services/key-stakeholders (Accessed: 21 January
2011).
7 Concept of social media

7.1 Types of social media tools
As Web 2.0 is a huge world, there are several ways of classification. While some
people prefer not to classify social media and its tools in main titles, some prefers to
divide into several main titles. For instance, according to BORGES, Web 2.0 sites
can be classified into three categories which are: Shared content web sites, Published
content sites, Social networking sites.120 On the other hand, KAPLAN classifies
social media into 6 main types; and to define these six categories, he used 4 major
terms which are social presence, media richness, self-presentation and self-
disclosure.121In this thesis, this classification method has been adopted.
KAPLAN stated, that social media differ in the degree of “social presence” (i.e.
acoustic, visual, and physical contact that can be achieved) and in the degree of
“media richness” they possess (i.e. the amount of information they allow to be
transmitted in a given time interval)122.
Secondly, social media differ in the degree of “self-disclosure” it requires (i.e. the
conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information that is consistent with
the image one would like to give) and the type of self-presentation it allows (i.e. the
desire to control the impressions of other people form of oneself)123
Social presence / Media richness
Low Medium High
Forums,Blogs Virtual social
Self-
High and microblogs Social networks worlds
presentation /
Collabarative Content Virtual game
Self-disclosure
Low projects communities worlds
Table 7: Social Media Types124
120
Borges, B. (2009) Marketing 2.0, p. 40.
121
December 2010).
122
December 2010).
123
December 2010).
124
December 2010).
7.1.1 Collaborative projects

Collaborative projects are joint creation of contents by many participants. These
types of social media can be explained in 2 main classes.
The first class is called wikis. The word of “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word
for “fast” or “quick” but Wikis are also referred to as “What I Know Is” which came
after the original naming. SAFKO and BRAKE define wikis as a browser-based web
platform that lets volunteers contribute information based on their expertise and
knowledge, and permits them to edit content within articles on specific subjects. This
material creates an encyclopedic-type knowledge base that is founded on the
integrity of the contributor‟s additions.125 That‟s why wikis are seen as an extremely
valuable, easy-to-use, and free resource tool in the Internet. The easiness of wikis is
coming from the fact that they allow contents to be collaboratively written. A wiki
page consists of user-generated-content (UGC) and hyperlinks to other contents such
as articles, other wiki pages and external web sites.
Wikis can be open to the all people around the world or restricted to a group of
people such as members or employees. Today many organizations are benefitting
from wikis by creating knowledge management systems to establish corporate
information for collaboration and also for trainings.
The most famous wiki is Wikipedia126 which is the free encyclopedia that anyone
can edit. It contains more than 17 million articles in over 260 languages.127 And
according to ALEXA, it is ranked as the 8th in the top most visited sites on Web with
365 million readers. 128
The second class is the social bookmarking sites (e.g. Digg129, Delicious130, and
StumbleUpon131) which enable to share links to articles and online contents such as
video, photos, audio that users find useful and interesting, then other members or
participants from all around world can vote these shared contents in order to raise
them to the top. However the social bookmarking websites differentiate due to their
rating system, in common, the main goal is to send users contents which are relevant
125
Safko, L. & Brake, D (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.181.
126
Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
127
Anon. (N/A) Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia (Accessed: 11
January 2011).
128
Alexa-Web Information Company (N/A) Wikipedia. Available at:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org?p=&r= (Accessed: 11 January 2010).
129
Digg. Available at: http://digg.com/news (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
130
Delicious. Available at: http://www.delicious.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
131
StumbleUpon. Available at: http://www.stumbleupon.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
with their references or preferences of other users who have similar preferences,
tastes and profiles.
7.1.2 Forums, Blogs and Microblogs:
If this type of social media is considered in a chorological order, the idea of
“blogging” started with forums then continued with conventional blogs and
microblogs.
As the predecessor to blog, forum is one of the oldest web site applications that
manages and provides a medium for ongoing online discussion on a particular
subject. The members who converse and share their ideas in forums mostly gather
around a common interest. Some of these include technology, computers, pets,
sports, trends, politics, hobbies, questions & comparisons and so on.
Forums are created, managed and maintained by an individual or a group of
people so called “administrators”. Every forum has its own guidelines and all
participants are required to obey these rules. Forum members who are called
“Moderators” monitor the conversations or “threads” ongoing in the forum to be sure
that they adhere to the rules and regulations defined by owners of forum.
According to SAFKO and BRAKE, a forum is intended to promote an ongoing
dialogue on a specific subject, which differs from the idea of a blog, since the owner
of a blog is the one who posts a thought and allows comments – and then moves on
to another thought.132
During the mid-1990s, blogs- especially personal blogs became popular after
online communities and forums.
The term of blog had derived from “web blog” which is firstly coined by
American blogger and author Jorn Barger in December 1997. SAFKO and BRAKE
define blogs as web sites that are maintained by an individual or a corporation with
regular entries or posts that include commentary, thoughts, and ideas, and may
contain photos, graphics, audio, or video.133
The earliest blogs were based on HTML coding which is difficult and
complicated process and requires a certain level of technical knowledge. However,
with the recent developments in browser-based blog platforms, users are enabled to
post and to edit their posts by easy-to-use personal content management systems.
Blogs can be hosted on personal server; or can be easily used on a hosted service,
132
Safko,L. & Brake,D (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.147.
133
such as Blogger.com134. That is why, today, people who has average internet skills
are able to blog in one of these web sites.
Posts are the date-stamped entries which often present in reverse chronological
order. Moreover, to make the blog more interactive, bloggers may allow their readers
to comment on the post.
Blogs can be personal or focused on business. Even though blogs have the image
of “personal diaries”, in reality, most popular and influential blogs are based on
specific topics. Blogs regarding sales, marketing, branding, PR, and communicating
with customers and prospects are mostly classified as corporate blogs.
“Blogsphere” is a term which represents all the blogs on the Internet while
“bloghood” is used for blogs which are located in the same geographical area.
There are a number of types for blogs. The exact number may vary in each
source since some authors are created their own classification. According to GILLIN,
most blogs fall into one of four main categories which are online diaries, topical
blogs, advocacy blogs and link blogs.135
Online diaries are the oldest type of blogs. They mostly focused on sharing
personal experiences, often with a lot of details from blogger‟s perspective. Topical
blogs are most popular and commercially successful blog type. Topical blogs are
mostly written collectively by many authors who are experts or highly passionate
with the subject. Advocacy blogs is a term which is used by GILLIN, means that
blog type which is written by individuals and is intended to reflect a point of view on
a variety of topics.136 Lastly, GILLIN defines link blogs as another popular type
which are essentially collections of commented links to other information on the
Internet, but their distractive voices can make them hugely influential.137
Additionally, SAFKO and BRAKE divide blogs into several categories such as:
Qlogs, Vlogs, tumbleblogs, blawgs and Splog.138 Qblogs is an abbreviation of
“Question Blog” in which readers can submit query or questions on the commentary
part of blogs and bloggers are responsible for answering these queries. Video blog
websites are called Vlogs in which primarily shared contents are videos on those
blogs. Blogs that consist of shorter posts and a variety of rich media content are
134
Blogger. Available at: http://www.blogger.com/ (Accessed:24 January 2010)
135
Gillin, P. (2009) The new influencers,p.7.
136
137
138
called tumbleblogs. Blawgs are the blogs which aim to give information about legal
issues or another topic. Lastly Sblogs are an abbreviation of spamming blog.
The first formal social media expert, Forrester Research analyst Charlene Line
has defined some benefits of blogs and their measurement ways.
Benefits Appropriate Measurement
Consumer self education Higher conversion rate for blog visitors
Greater visibility in search results Increased traffic from search to blog
Lower the cost of public relations Generate the same level of awareness as
PR
Reach an enthusiastic community Lower cost communication tool
Address criticisms on other Measure the slowdown of bad news
blogs/news stories spreading
More responsive to consumer Track customer satisfaction and
concerns retention
Improve employee innovation and Track employee satisfaction and
productivity retention
Improved stock price with greater Connect improved investor sentiment to
visibility into the organization blog readership
Table 8: Benefits and Measurement of Social Media139
Lastly, microblogging is a new way of blogging. After people spent some time
with writing detailed and long posts in blogs, bloggers began to post more
condensed, short but convenient versions of their blog posts into something that is
called microblog. As blogs, microblog is able to send messages, audio, video, etc. but
with a limited number of characters, mostly in 140 characters or less.
Microblogging has become popular because of its easiness, speed and
accessibility from everywhere: from any computer, smart phone, PDAs or cell
phone. SAFKO and BRAKE state that microblogs are also significantly less
complicated to digest than conventional blogs, especially when users want to follow
many people‟s posts.140
139
Sterne,J (2010) Social Media Metrics, p.25.
140
Safko, L. & Brake, D (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.266.
There are several microblog providers but as one of the very first microblog
providers is called Twitter141 which was born in March 2006 as a result of a R&D
project of an American company called Obvious.
Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service that allows its users to
send and receive brief (up to 140 characters) text-based, microposts which are called
Tweets. Since Twitter has the first-to-market advantage with around 190 million
users by 2010142. That is why, Twitter and “Tweets” are almost became a synonym
for the term of microblog today.
Most important feature of Twitter is to enable users to choose whose tweets or
posts they will follow. This feature is based on the approach of permission-based-
marketing, where the user also can choose who is allowed to market and
communicate with him or her.
Even thought, microblogs are easy-to-use and less complex comparing with
conventional blogs, SAFKO and BRAKE state that, the most common criticism of
microblogging is the trivial nature of most post 143 which means that a big portion of
microblog users still tend to create and share posts about the most mundane
occurrences in their daily lives. That problem results in social media overload that
refers to feeling “too” connected.
7.1.3 Content communities:
KAPLAN defines content communities as websites which offer the possibility of
sharing media content between users. They exist for a wide range of different media
types including text sharing, photos, audios, videos, and documents such as
presentations. 144
When text sharing is considered inside of social media platforms, text sharing is
provided mostly by around blogs, social networks, and microblogging. But there are
other types of text sharing web sites which enables people interact with each other.
KAPLAN gives BookCrossing145 as an example for text sharing.146 BookCrossing is
141
Twitter. Available at: http://www.twitter.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
142
Schonfeld, E. (2010) Costolo: Twitter Now Has 190 Million Users Tweeting 65 Million Times A
Day. Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/08/twitter-190-million-users/ (Accessed: 21 January
2011).
143
144
December 2010).
145
Bookcrossing. Available at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/ (Accessed on 06 January 2011).
146
December 2010).
a web site in which people send and share marked books. As they can follow who
has the book, they have the chance of making new connections with other readers.
However text sharing is the most popular information shared, it is followed by
photo sharing.
SAFKO and BRAKE states that photograph sharing dates back to the very first
web page at CERN in early 1991. But the boom of photograph sharing web sites
occurred with the popularization of digital cameras in the late 1990s. Digital cameras
enabled people to take photographs easily and put them directly into the folders in
computers.
In early years, photograph sharing started with emails by sending them to other
people. But then, a demand of online personal photograph gallery, in which users and
other people could access and share their photos anytime that they want, has
increased dramatically. Today, there are currently many online photo sharing
websites which offer different kinds of additional services such as online photo
finishing, subscription based sharing, peer-to-peer, peer-to-browser,-peer-to-server
and web photo album generators.
People can easily use the photo sharing websites. Only thing they need to
become a member and upload their photos on the website. After that, if they want to
present in the searching engines more, they can add organize their photos into sets
and albums, and add captions, titles, descriptions, and tags/keywords.
Besides of individual users, organizations and businesses started to benefit from
that kind of photo sharing web sites in recent years. Companies may use photo
sharing websites to share images of their products, technical support, employees,
assembly lines, inventory and even, satisfied customers.
There are a number of web sites in which you can upload and share your
photographs, but they also differ from each other according to their additional
services, features or targeted groups. Some of the providers are: Flickr147 –which is
currently the most popular one, KodakGallery148, DeviantArt149 and so on.
Before explaining audio and video sharing, the concept of “podcasting” must be
explained. As a word, “Podcast” is coming from combination of two terms: “iPod”
and “broadcast”. BORGES defines podcast as digital format files created to be
147
Flickr. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
148
Kodak Gallery. Available at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/welcome.jsp (Accessed: 21
January 2011).
149
DeviantArt. Available at: http://www.deviantart.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
listened to, or watched, on a PC or portable media player such as an iPhone, iPod, or

another portable MP3 player.150 But recently, podcasting is mostly used only for
audio broadcasting.
Podcasting is an effective, portable and free way for both individuals and
organizations or corporations and it became an increasingly important part of the
marketing mix of them today. According to a research which Knowledge Storm151
and Universal McCann in 2006, out of 3900 people, 71% of them states that they
downloaded and listened to a podcast on business related topics; and 27% of them
expressed that podcasts influence their purchasing behavior152.
A podcast might be length from one minute to longer than one hour due to the
content it includes. Creating successful podcast in a specific subject may lead to
build up a loyal group of audience and give the chance of expressing expertise of
publishers‟ in a specific field or an industry.
Therefore, after giving brief information about podcasting, audio sharing would
be explained as a part of podcasting. SAFKO and BRAKE define audio sharing as
the distribution of digitized audio recordings through Internet.153
The concept of audio sharing on the Web is not new, but until recent years,
audio files wasn‟t used in Internet because of the difficultness of locating, browsing
and receiving regular updates.
The first audio files used on the Internet were Waveform Audio (.wav) – and
audio format for DOS/ Windows computers. Later, the format has transformed into
highly compressed file called an MP3 (MPEG 3) which takes less place in form of
megabyte in the computer. Meanwhile, Internet became also a widely used tool by
the years. Hence audios are become an easy-to-share contents.
Even though videos tend to be most popular media content in the Internet, audio
files has still a remarkable place inside of all media types since audio sharing is by
far the easiest and relatively cheaper way to create of all rich media and people can
listen these type of podcast on any MP3 player, at any time.
According to SCOTT, the transformation from static audio downloads to radio-
station-like podcasts occurred because of two developments:
150
Borges,B. (2009) Marketing 2.0, p.220-221.
151
Knowledge Storm. Available at: http://www.knowledgestorm.com (Accessed: 08 January 2011).
152
Knowledge Storm (2006) Emerging Media Series:The Influence of Podcasts on B2B Technology
Purchase Decisions, Available at:
http://www.knowledgestorm.com/shared/write/collateral/ANL/48979_04911_98330_Podcast_Survey
_Results_FINAL.pdf?ksi=1828290&ksc=1395785039, (Accessed: 21 January 2011)
153
Safko, L. & Brake, D. (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.208.
1) “The ability to add audio feeds and notifications to RSS. This enables
listeners who subscribe to an audio feed to download new updates soon after
they are released.”
2) “The second major development was the availability of those podcasts feeds
through iTunes.”154
Besides of sharing the audio files, publishers also are able to receive comments
of audiences like other social media types. This feature is an opportunity to have
direct interaction between both parties.
In addition, there is one another very useful function of the audio sharing web
sites for businesses or organizations. Today, marketers have the opportunity to
deliver the audio content created by them that targets their buyers‟ personas and can
also deliver updated versions of content regularly.
The most famous audio sharing websites are iTunes155 and PodBean156. Except
from these two web sites, there are number of web sites which differ according to
their contents and additional services.
Videos are also considered inside of podcasts. SAFKO and BRAKE state that
video sharing is one of the easiest and fastest ways to start building social media
portfolio for business.157 Video sharing tend to be the best medium after face-to-face
approach for communicating with customers since it enables companies to share their
expressions; and comparing with other types tone of voice and body language help to
establish a bridge of trust and sincerity between audience and publisher.
For video sharing, there are two main ways: video sharing web sites or Vlogs
(video blogs). 158 As Vblogs are already explained in the “Forums, Blogs and
Microblogs” section, only video sharing websites would be explained in this section.
Since Internet and technology has developed and improved very fast, it also
enhanced the quality of video formats while reducing file sizes. These resulted in
increase the desire of sharing videos with other people, communities and
organizations in Internet. In June 2004, Peter Van Dijck and Jay Dedman launched
Yahoo! Videoblogging Group which was the first of its class and became one of the
most popular web sites till today for vloggers‟community. In May 2005, YouTube159
154
Scott, D. (2010) The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs,
Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. p.79-80
155
iTunes. Available at: http://www.iTunes.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
156
PodBean. Available at: http://www.Podbean.com (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
157
Safko, L. & Brake, D. (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.251.
158
Please see p.46 for the explanation of video blogs in the “Forums, Blogs and Microblogs” section.
159
http://ww.youtube.com
which is the biggest and most popular video sharing web site today was presented to
the public. Today, YouTube‟s over 3 million members upload 24 hours of video
every minute and more than 1 billion video downloads per day.160
Beside of uploading and watching videos through video sharing web sites, most
of them have the function for commenting on video posts. So audiences are able to
comment back and interact with the publisher. And almost all video sharing web
sites has the function of “meta tagging” which enables publishers to tag their videos
according to their contents for being more visible in the search engines. Lastly in the
video sharing web sites like YouTube, users are able to create their own channel
which gives the ability of displaying videos in a organized way, even if the videos
are not belong to the user.
From the business point of view, many organizations tend to use audio sharing
web sites SCOTT states that a big number of companies encourage their customers
or fan bases to produce videos for them. These customer generated video efforts
often take the form of contests and can be successful, especially for a product or
service that has a visual impact.161
Except from YouTube, there are many international or local providers for video
sharing web sites. For example: Google Video162, MSN Soapbox163, MySpace164,
Yahoo! Video165, and so on.
Lastly, the document sharing web sites in which people are able to share their
file such as PowerPoint Presentations (PPT) or other text files (Word or PDF files),
are become very popular in recent years.
In this kind of web sites, people or organizations can easily share their files with
other users from all around the world. And users can find files like presentations on
their topic of interests since the files have meta tags. Most of file sharing websites
allows creating groups or communities for common interest inside of the web site.
The most popular example for document sharing web sites would be
SlideShare166. SlideShare was established in 2006. SlideShare describes itself as a
160
Finch, S. (2010) YouTube by Numbers: Facts and Figures from Launch. Available at:
http://crenk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/youtube-facts-and-figures.jpg (Accessed: 21 January
2011).
161
Scott, D. (2010) The new rules of Marketing &PR, p.76.
162
Google Video. Available at http://video.google.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
163
MSN Soapbox. Available at: http://soapbox.msn.com/mobile/ (Accessed: 19 January 2011).
164
MySpace. Available at: http://www.myspace.com (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
165
Yahoo! VideoBlog. Available at: http://www.yvideoblog.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
166
Slideshare. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net (Accessed: 22 January 2011).
“business media site for sharing presentations” 167, in document formats of

PowerPoint, PDF or Open Office; and SlideShare has over 25 million monthly
visitors. Besides of sharing files, users can add their audio on their presentations.
7.1.4 Social networking sites:
According to SAFKO and BRAKE, a social network, trusted network, virtual
community, e-community, or online community is a “group of people who interact
through newsletters, blogs, comments, telephone, e-mail, and instant messages, and
who use text, audio, photographs, and video for social, professional, and educational
purposes” 168.
Social networks are communities of individuals or organizations directly or
indirectly linked, who are gathered according to common interests, such as musical
tastes, passions or professional life. KAPLAN defines social networking sites as
applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information profiles,
inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles and sending e-mails
and instant messages between each other.
Frankly, idea of social networking is not a new phenomenon. It is just an
Internet extension of what people have done in communities for centuries. But
anyway, social networks are becoming more and more popular every day, and more
than 350 ones are commonly used around the world.
The explosion began originally among students, artists, and generally younger
demographics. According to BORGES, social networking has become popular
largely due to three drivers: 1) technology advancements; 2) easier access to the
Internet; and 3) social and cultural shifts, which includes work/personal
convergence.169
The two big, widely-used social networks are MySpace and Facebook170. On the
other hand, business social networking is still young and emerging, but it improves at
a fast pace. As the largest social network, LinkedIn171 can be considered as a good
example. Some sources also consider Twitter as a hybrid social networking platform.
The common feature of all social networks is that they are open to the public,
free of use (except from private social networks) and they offer the ability to get in
167
Slideshare. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/about (Accessed: 22 January 2011).
168
Safko, L. & Brake,D. (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.46.
169
Borges, B. (2009) , Marketing 2.0, p.193.
170
Facebook. Available at: http://www.facebook.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
171
LinkedIn. Available at: http://www.linkedin.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
touch and network with people virtually. Beyond that, they are slightly differentiated
due to their own characteristics.
Social networking can be divided into two classes which are public social
networking web sites and private social networking web sites. The basic features of
public social networking web sites are mentioned above. They are open to anybody
in the world, only requirement is to become a member after filling basic information
about you. Private social networking web sites are generally the same as a public
ones, only difference is that they are developed and serving for targeted/selected
group of users. A common example would be a social network developed for an
industry, such as ITToolbox172 in IT sector. Private social networking web sites are
similar to private clubs or associations that require a membership, along with criteria
or rules for membership.
The private social networks might be formed either by creating a private group
inside of a public social network by taking the advantage of “group” function; or
establishing a new social network web-site with a totally separated and private
hosting. And, despite of its cost and complexity, trend of building up a new private
social network among businesses and associations is increasing dramatically
nowadays.
Here some statistical data about social networking websites can be found to see
more clearly how widely used they are.
WebSite Unique % Reach of Session per Time per
visitors per Active Social Person Person
month173 Users (hh:mm:ss)
Facebook 133,623,529 52% 19,16 05:52:00
MySpace 50,615,444 15% 6,66 00:59:33

Twitter 23,573,178 10% 5,81 00:36:43
LinkedIn 15,475,890 6% 3,15 00:12:47
Classmates N/A 5% 3,29 00:13:55
Online
Table 9 : Global Social Network Traffic by Feb. 2010174
172
Toolbox for IT. Available at: http://www.ittoolbox.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
173
Anon. (2010) Social Networking Statistics 2010. Available at:
http://www.graphicsms.com/blog/877-social-networking-statistics-2010/ (Accessed: 23 January
2011).
174
Van Grove, J. (2010) Social Networking Usage Surges Globally [STATS]. Available at:
http://mashable.com/2010/03/19/global-social-media-usage/ (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
In the table above, it could be understand that social networks such as Facebook
and LinkedIn are using widely with high traffic. That is one of the reasons that most
of companies prefer to present in these social networking web sites. According to
most recent data, “more than 1.5 million local businesses have active pages on
Facebook”175.
7.1.5 Virtual game worlds (MMORPG)
Online gaming is another Internet phenomena which tends to grow and become
more popular every day. SAFKO and BRAKE stated that worldwide revenues for
these types of games exceed a half billion dollars in 2005, with U.S. revenues
exceeding $1 billion in 2006. 176
MMORPG is an abbreviation for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Game” which is a video game type that enables a huge number of people to interact,
compete and collaborate with each other in an online virtual world. There are
currently over 400 different major MMORPGs available today.177
MMORPG servers are accessible at any time, only thing which users should do
to download the software in order to connect and run the game in their computers.
Moreover, as almost all MMORPGs have their own “Game Master” or “Moderator”,
users require behaving according to rules defined by the owners.
Common features of MMORPG are themes, progression, social interaction,
culture, and customization of the user‟s character. In a MMORPG, themes and
characters of players are mostly based on science fiction and fantasy.
Despite many people still think those online video games as a waste of time in
which only teenagers participate; according to SAFKO and BRAKE, only 25 percent
of online gamers are teenagers; the average MMORPG player is approximately 26
years old. Fifty percent are employed full-time, 36 percent are married, and 22
percent have children. They include high school and college students, professionals,
homemakers, and retired individuals. Additionally, they spend 22 hours per week
playing these games, 178
Cretors of World of Warcraft (Wow) – one of the most popular online games-
announced that as of October 2008 is played by more than 11 million gamers around
175
http://www.graphicsms.com/blog/877-social-networking-statistics-2010/ (Accessed: 23 January
2011).
176
177
MMORPGs list. Available at: www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?bhcp=1 (Accessed: 21 January
2011).
178
Safko, L. & Brake,D. (2009) The Social Media Bible, p.325-326.
the world179. And as of May 2009, XboxLIVE had more than 20 million
subscribers.180
7.1.6 Virtual social worlds
SAFKO and BRAKE defines virtual social environments as an Internet-based
simulated environment inhabited by avatars or graphic representations of its
interactive users. These avatars might be in form of image, logo or three-
dimensional cartoonlike person, animal or object181. Virtual worlds may appear to be
simulated versions of real world or they may be in the form of fantasyland where the
reality has no place. In virtual social worlds, people or “avatars” are able to interact
with each other via instant messaging, voice chat or e-mails.
Even if most of people misunderstand virtual social worlds and accept them as
MMORPGs with full of fantastic characters, they are developed for people from all
around the world to enter into, navigate, and interrelate by engaging in personal, one-
to-one communications. Their main aim which makes the virtual social worlds a part
of social media, is to enable users to explore, learn, interact, do business, meet and
make friends with new, multicultural people.
There are several providers for virtual social worlds in Internet, but the most
popular one is the web site called “Second Life”.182 Second Life was launched in
2003 by an American company called Linden Lab and now it has more than 6
million users.183 Besides of individual users, many businesses and organizations
presents in Second Life including Dell, Cisco, Toyota and MTV.
Since the concept of doing business in a virtual social world is still new and
emerging, it is still not widely used by small and medium sized enterprises. But still,
virtual social worlds have the presence of many global organizations and
corporations.
Some enterprises or individuals are using these virtual worlds only for making
money which is also called micro-commerce; but some use them also for meeting
with their customers, prospects, and even employees. Many companies which present
179
180
Monty, C. (2009), XBox 360 Sales Hit 30 Million, LIVE Subscribers Hit 20 Million. Available at:
http://www.blippitt.com/xbox-360-sales-hit-30-million-live-subscribers-hit-20-million (Accessed: 21
January 2011).
181
182
Second Life. Available at: http://www.secondlife.com (Accessed: 23 January 2011).
183
Scott, M.F. (2007) How Many Users Does Second Life Really Have?. Available at:
http://www.betanews.com/article/How-Many-Users-Does-Second-Life-Really-Have/1178573043
(Accessed on 21 January 2011).
in the virtual worlds, have special employees who can represent them 24/7 & 365
days and can answer questions of customers in these virtual social worlds.
7.2 Life cycle of interaction in social media platforms
According to BORGES, there are four stages of interaction in social media.
These stages are not always linear. Rather they are iterative and dynamic.
Nonetheless, there are distinct stages of interacting in social media: 184
7.2.1 Engaging
The interaction stages start with engagement with online communities in social
media. Engagement refers to connecting with communities and giving some effort as
well as time and talent.
Connecting is the easiest part of this stage. The only thing which an individual or
an organization should do, is to go to social media platforms and to find other
individuals and groups around common interests and get in touch with them. But the
point which must be kept in mind is to be careful which social media platforms
would be chosen. Because the popularity and usage of social media platforms might
vary due to industries or geographical locations. For example, if we consider social
networking web sites, LinkedIn is a very popular and widely used web site in United
States while European people tend to use Xing185 more.186Or if industry is taken into
account, there are many industry-specific social networking web sites such as
ITToolBox which operates as a private social network for members interested in
information technology (IT). So examining these two basic criteria could be very
useful for choosing right social media platforms and also for connecting with “right”
people on the web.
Secondly, giving time, effort and talents is a very important part for engagement.
It is a point which let differentiate traditional and new approach of marketing. In
traditional marketing, or Marketing 1.0, many marketers used to deliver their
message to consumers, and after, to receive for the consumer response in form of a
lead or some other conversion that can be measured. But in the new marketing
approach, in other words, in social media marketing, this habit has changed: to get a
response, first marketers have to give some time and effort and share their talents
184
Borges, B. (2009) Marketing 2.0, p.97.
185
Xing. Available at: http://www.xing.com (Accessed: 22 January 2011).
186
Jamsa, P. (2010) Professional Networks in Europe: LinkedIn, Viadeo or Xing?. Available at:
http://digitalgoesinternational.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/professional-networks-in-europe-linkedin-
viadeo-or-xing/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
with communities. This is the only working way for building relationships between
sellers and buyers in social media platforms.
To sum up, engagement in social media is working closely related with giving
and sharing. And this results in having a good relationship with individuals and
communities. Besides, it is also very useful for building up a good reputation.
7.2.2 Listening
Listening is another crucial element of social media. In a first glance, engaging
and listening seem very close terms to each other. But of course there is a distinction.
Listening activity in social media platforms can be very informative since in the
chosen online communities, mostly, there are thought leaders who share good
insights. This means that conscious and effective members in the online communities
are mostly sharing some other blogs, articles, and other possible contents which can
be very useful to give valuable insights.
On the other hand, listening also lets tap into market intelligence. For instance, a
company could get some very powerful ideas regarding launch strategy of a new
product in social media platforms.
However, as it‟s mentioned in the top of this section, listening and engaging
work together. Once comments from community are received, it enables to engage
the members in conversations about these comments. These comments might differ
from your point of view, but still, the correct approach would be not being
argumentative. Conversely, defense should be done in a good way with positive
feedback and guidance. Because in social media platforms, if an organization has a
problem, it‟s better to admit it and share with people how you are dealing with this
problem.
One remarkable example for this approach would be the case of Dell. In 2005,
customers of Dell were complaining about low quality products and customer
services. They even created a blog called “DellHell”187in which they shared negative
experiences and comments about Dell product and services. At first, Dell didn‟t
listen and react in an appropriate way to these negative comments, but then, this
approach cost them very high regarding reputation. Finally they had to respond and
set up online platforms and communities for customers to engage with them directly.
Consequently, listening is very crucial stage. Corporations are able to get
valuable insights in social media platforms regarding market in which they are
187
DellHell. Available at: http://dellhell.net/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011)
operating, competitors, consumers and customers, their products and services, their
employees and so on.
7.2.3 Interacting
Interacting can be considered as final step after both engaging and listening
activity. Because first individuals or corporations need to engage with online
communities and then they listen to communities‟ insights, ideas and opinions. After
these stages, when they involve into discussions, it can be said that they are
interacting with the community.
Interacting is very effective stage in social media but at the same time it must be
used very carefully. There a few ways to interact with communities. One of them is
the proactive approach in which people may ask to the users in the community for
their opinions on specific topics. Another way to interact is posting links to blog
posts or articles and then asking community for their reactions. Lastly, giving your
own reaction and sharing your ideas about contents of other people is another
effective way to interact in social media platforms.
But as in the real social communities, there is one very key rule for the
interaction in social media platforms: You have to get the right to interact with the
community. That means if you are not a loyal and long-standing member of that
community and sharing some contents about your company‟s new product would be
very critical and unacceptable mistake in the social media platforms.
7.2.4 Measuring
In this section, only measurement of marketing results in social media will be
examined. Because in the next chapter, measurement the effect of social media on
corporate reputation will be explained regarding with corporate reputation.
As a result of social media has created a new approach for marketing function,
marketers want to see how effective social media is for marketing. That is why the
ways of measuring the effects of social media is became a hot topic in recent years.
The results of social media marketing can be divided into two parts. The first
part is related with the quantitative measurement. Measuring quantitative results has
become less complicated through tools and technique. Fortunately, there are some
tools and web services which make this process easier such as Google Analytics188,
Google Webmaster Tools189, Google Alert190, Grader191. Moreover there are some
188
Google Analytics. Available at: http://www.google.com/analytics/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
189
Google Webmaster tools. Available at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=tr
other services provided only for specific social media platforms. For instance, there
are many blog monitoring tools such as Blogpulse192, and Trendrr193.
These are the free tools which are most used for tracking, measuring and
monitoring contents in social media platforms. Besides of those mentioned above,
some other services provided in charge of fee can be found for measuring more
detailed quantitative results of social media marketing.
There are also qualitative results to measure in social media marketing. As the
most important is the measuring brand equity and reputation. In this section,
measurement fro brand equity will be explained. Reputation and impact of social
media on it will be discussed in the following chapter.
Brand Equity is defined by AAKER as “a set of brand assets and liabilities
linked to a brand, its name and symbol, that add to or subtract from the value
provided by a product or service to a firm and/or to the firm's customers‟194.
There occur some positive effects and new opportunities to measure brand
equity when people in online communities start to interact actively with corporations.
The person who is getting interacted with might be directly the corporation or one
employee of corporation who engage in social media platforms. But eventually,
brand equity could be measured with the tools mentioned above. If the company or
the employee engages, listens and interacts actively in the social media platforms, it
will bring an unavoidable increase in number of visits. And this ends with increasing
awareness of company and its brands.
Besides of these tools, buzz can be very useful for qualitative measures.
BORGES defines buzz as “unsolicited chatter about something, usually a brand or
story” 195.
BORGES stated that positive buzz is one of the qualitative attributes that is very
desirable but hard to measure, at least in conventional means, such as spreadsheet
report. 196If the company receives positive buzz in general, that means people show
more interest for their products and brands as well as for their job positions, sales
190
Google Alerts. Available at: http://www.google.com/alerts (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
191
Grader. Available at: http://grader.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
192
Blogpulse. Availabele at: http://www.blogpulse.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
193
Trendrr. Available at: http://trendrr.com/ (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
194
Aaker, D.A. (1991) “Managing Brand Equity”; quoted by Erdem, T. et al. (1999) “Brand Equity,
Consumer Learning and Choice”, Marketing Letters, vol.10, no.3. p. 302. [Online]. Available at:
http://leeds-
faculty.colorado.edu/Chakrava/Published%20Articles/Brand%20Equity,%20Consumer%20Learning,
%20and%20Choice.pdf (Accessed: 21 January 2011).
195
196
representatives and so on. On contrary, negative buzz affects badly the reputation of
the company and also all these functions mentioned above.
One of the best ways to measure buzz is to monitor the volume of conversations
about corporation itself and its brands in social media platforms. The regularity of
mentions in online platforms, besides of the influence of the people sharing contents
about the company, might have a remarkable financial effect on the results through
buzz.
To summarize this part, even if most CEOs and executives are still insisting on
measuring results of social media only with some data such as market shares, profit,
sales revenue, number of new customers, retention rate for customers, employee
turnover; measuring the results both in qualitative and quantitative methods tends to
be more convenient and confident way since companies have so many options and
tools to apply these methods.
8 Conclusion of Intermediate Report and Next steps

In the intermediate report for master thesis, the expected 2/3 of final version of
thesis was completed. As it is already mentioned in the focus of this report, the
chapters related with corporate reputation and social media are written with the
theoretical information provided by literature and online sources available.
In light of the foregoing information, the studies for the practical part of this
thesis will be completed until May 2011. This chapter, which is planned to be equal
to the 35% of whole thesis, will be based on the personal contributions. The main
structure of the practical part and the point which are going to be discussed can be
found in the following page. But these points are the primitive version which is to be
improved and to be enriched with possible additional points.
In the table below, the gantt chart could be seen for the next steps of master
FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY

1st-15th 15th-28th 1st-15th 15th-31th 1st-15th 15th-30th 1st-15th 15th-30th
of Feb. of Feb. of Mar. of Mar. of Apr. of Apr. of May of May
CRM through Social
media
Preparation for survey
(criteria, questions, etc.)
Design of survey
Collection of contacts
Delivery of survey to the
contacts
Analysis of the results
Writing the results of

survey ( +benefits &
risks)
Conclusion of thesis
Review of Thesis and
Preparation for
presentation
Table 10: Gantt chart for next steps
thesis.
9 Impacts of Social Media on Corporate Reputation (the chapter

to be written in Spain)
9.1 Corporate reputation Management through Social media
 Explanation of CRM through Social Media
 Cases of companies who uses social media actively
9.2 Monitoring & Analyzing the impact

9.2.1 Qualitative research regarding to analyze the impact
 Survey to be applied on young customers and social media users
 To analyze both positive and negative impacts of social media
 To analyze if social media presence and activities of company really matters

regarding reputation of company perceived by consumers. To analyze this,
questions could be used related with awareness of company, image on
consumers mind, transparency, trust, purchasing behavior, loyalty and etc.
 Analyzing the opinions of consumers towards companies which uses social

media
 An additional objective is to see which social media is more effective and

useful regarding corporate reputation
 So questions related the social media tools to be asked (crossing)
9.2.2 Results of research

9.3 Benefits
Explanation of benefits of social media for corporate reputation from other sources,
literature, previous researches, cases; combining with the results of survey applied
9.4 Risks
Explanation of risks of social media for corporate reputation from other sources,
literature, previous researches, cases; combining with the results of survey applied.
Also the following points will be discussed in this section:
9.4.1 Cyberactivism
9.4.2 Cyberlibel and Cybermearing
9.4.3 Cyberquatting
9.4.4 Cyberterrrorism and Hacking
9.4.5 Phishing
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The impact of Social Media

Intermediate Report for Master Thesis

Submission Date: 25 January 2011

European Master in Business Studies

7.1.6 Virtual social worlds .......................................................................................... 57

CERN : Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire

CRM : Corporate Reputation Management

CSR : Corporate Social Responsibility

MMORPG : Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

NCSA : National Center for Supercomputing Applications

PDA : Personal Desktop Assistant

QBLOG : Question Blog

R&D : Research and development

ROI : Return on Investment

SBLOG : Spamming blog

UGC : User Generated Content

VLOG : Video blog

consumers without any geographical restriction. As negative effect of this increase,

BENNETT and KOTTASZ give a list of definitions for corporate reputation.

In order to create a sole definition BARNETT, JEMIER and LAFFERTY

Figure 1: General and stakeholder-specific concepts of corporate reputation18

According to TUTEN, social media is “an umbrella phrase for social-networking

6 Concept of Corporate Reputation

DOWLING listed the messages which corporations want to give through

increasingly and continually at a tipping point, driven by a range of external factors

To have potential increase in financial performance

Figure 2: Corporate reputation –The interplay of identity and image58

Figure 3: Interaction between corporate identity formation, reputation,

corporate communication not only on marketing department or PR department but on

Figure 4: From Corporate Identity to Corporate Reputation80

Figure 5: Corporate Reputation Chain83

In the corporate reputation chain, there are two important stakeholder,

relationships is positive or not, shows whether the corporation is successful of

Figure 7: 3 Concepts involved in innovation process97

According to the worldwide research made by Fortune called World‟s Most

reputation. According to FISCHER and REUBER, “a good reputation is beneficial

Although some of companies still think that transparency could lead to

Business Outcome Measurement Method

Ranking Fortune 500-World's most admired The World’s Most Reputable

Table 5: Results of two different reputation analyses done by Fortune Magazine

Innovation Financial soundness

Global competitiveness People Management

Long-term investment Social responsibility

Product/Service quality Quality of management

Use of Corporate Assets

Table 6: 9 criteria used by Fortune Magazine117

7 Concept of social media

7.1.1 Collaborative projects

listened to, or watched, on a PC or portable media player such as an iPhone, iPod, or

“business media site for sharing presentations” 167, in document formats of

Facebook 133,623,529 52% 19,16 05:52:00

MySpace 50,615,444 15% 6,66 00:59:33

8 Conclusion of Intermediate Report and Next steps

FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY

Writing the results of

9 Impacts of Social Media on Corporate Reputation (the chapter

 Cases of companies who uses social media actively

9.2 Monitoring & Analyzing the impact

 To analyze both positive and negative impacts of social media

 To analyze if social media presence and activities of company really matters

 Analyzing the opinions of consumers towards companies which uses social

 An additional objective is to see which social media is more effective and