Master Thesis defense of Dilara ADAYLAR

1. The Importance of Social Media on
Corporate Reputation
Master Thesis Defense
Dilara ADAYLAR
May.2011

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Structure of Thesis
3. Summary of chapters
4. Conclusions

3. Objectives & Methodology
The main goal:To analyze and to emphasize the
importance of social media on corporate reputation,
considering both positive & negative aspects
To realize this goal:
▫Conceptual study + Examples from different
companies
▫ Qualitative research on young consumers in Turkey

4. Structure of master thesis
%11 • Introduction
%24 • Concept of Corporate Reputation
%27 • Concept of Social Media
%35 • The Importance of SM on CR
%3 • Conclusion

5. Concept of Corporate Reputation (I)
Corporate Identity
Names, Self-Representation
Customer Community Investor Employee
image image image image
CORPORATE REPUTATION
Fombrun, C. J. (1996) Reputation: Realizing Value from the Corporate Image, p.39.

6. Concept of Corporate Reputation (II)
• Relationships with other terms
▫ Perception
▫ Communication
▫ Brand
▫ Innovation
▫ Trust
▫ Transparency
▫ PR
• Measurement of Corporate reputation

7. Concept of Social Media (I)
Types of Social Social presence / Media richness
Media Low Medium High
Self- Forums,Blogs Social Virtual
presentation High
and microblogs networks social worlds
/
Self- Collabarative Content Virtual game
Low
disclosure projects communities worlds
Kaplan, A.M & Heinlein, M. (2010) Social media-Theoretical Module.

8. Concept of Social Media (II)
Engaging Listening Intreacting Measuring
• Corporate functions of social media
▫ Marketing function
▫ Online Sales function
▫ Advertising function
▫ Communication function with consumers
▫ Public relations function

9. Importance of Social Media on Corporate
Reputation
• SM is important for corporate reputation
because…
▫ Changes in consumer behavior
▫ SM enables stakeholders to communicate among
each other without time & geographical
restrictions.
• But there are also some risks:
• Cyberactivism, Cyber rumor& online defamation,
Cyber quoatting, Cyber Terrorism & Hacking,
Phishing

10. Analyzing the importance of Social media
• Online survey has two main parts:
▫ Behaviors & Opinions towards SM in general
▫ Behaviors & Opinions towards Corporate SM
activities
• 553 young consumers between 16-35 years old
in Turkey

11. Conclusions (I)
• High involment with social media platforms
• To get information about companies is
thirdly important activity
• Opinions are influenced by the
information/comments shared in social
media.
• No doubt that SM is an effective tool to
influence large groups

12. Conclusions (II)
• High percentage for following companies & get influenced
by information/comments shared by companies.
• Trust more in corporate information
• Companies use SM for Increasing awareness
• Consumers want  Communication function
• Traditional WoM keeps its power on consumers
• Big tendency to comment about companies
• 3 clusters: Nonbelievers, Conscious users and Suggestible
users

13. Conclusion & Suggestions
• In general, companies must exist in SM with a consistent
strategy, based on honesty.
• Most popular corporate platforms in Turkey: SN,
Forums, Microblogs.
• Corporate platforms for customers’ pleasure &
complaints
• Suggestible users: 54% Huge Potential for
strengthening corporate reputation
• Suggestion for further researches: Analyzing the point of
view of different stakeholders & companies

14. Thank you very much for your
attention!

15. Any questions?

16. Appendix

17. Analyzing the importance of Social media
• Online survey has two main parts:
▫ Behaviors & Opinions towards SM in general
▫ Behaviors & Opinions towards Corporate SM
activities
• 553 young consumers between 16-35 years old
in Turkey
• Difficulties:
• To reach people younger than 20 years old
• Lack of similar previous researches to make
comparison

18. Sample Selection
% of people use internet 2008 2009 2010
Age 16-24 59% 64% 66%
Age 24-34 44% 49% 54%
Age 35-44 31% 32% 37%
Age 45-54 21% 20% 24%
Age 55-64 7% 7% 9%
Age 64-74 2% 2% 3%
Eurostat (2011) Individuals - Internet use, Available at:
http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=isoc_ci_ifp_iu&lang=en

19. Behaviors & Opinions towards SM in general

20. Behaviors & Opinions towards SM in general
Max.
Values
Min.
Values

21. Behaviors&Opinions towards Corporate
Social Media activities

22. Cluster Analysis (for Corporate Social Media)

23. Cluster Analysis (for Corporate Social Media)
CLUSTERS