Abstract
Corporate identity is often defined as “what an organization is”. This concept relates to organizational identity. However, while organizational identity has an internal employee focus, corporate identity has an external focus. As such, it is often used as a synonym to organizational image that organizations project externally. Social media have created a multitude of ways for organizations, as well as for their employees, independently, to develop and disseminate corporate identity. However, although there have already been attempts to explore the role of employees’ personal social media profiles in projecting organizational identity externally, little is still known about how organizations use their social media profiles for these purposes. This empirical research, which is part of a broader doctoral research focusing on organizational identity and social media, aims to address this gap. Building on previous corporate identity and social media research, and adopting an existing framework explaining the relationship between social media and corporate identity, it analyses social media profiles of 12 international HR consulting companies. In particular, it explores the platforms they use, type of content they publish, their approaches for stakeholder engagement and interaction for building stronger organizational image/corporate identity. Diverse off-the-shelf applications were used for collecting social media data for the period between January and December 2017. We expect that the results of our analysis will help to understand how organizations (specifically HR consulting companies) use social media to project and strengthen their corporate identity, and what organizations from other sectors can learn from them.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Facebook analysis
Main company page | Company1 | Company2 | Company5 | Company6 | Company7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of fans | 19 K | 526 | 15 K | 6.9 K | 25 K |
CTA button | Buy now | Call now | Call now | Send message | Call now |
General level of engagement (%) | 0.19 | 0.34 | 0.11 | 0.010 | 0.035 |
Post interaction (%) | 0.24 | 1.3 | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.0047 |
Editorial calendar | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Posts per day | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.07 | 7.5 |
Type of posts in ascending order | Pictures; Videos; Links; Status | Pictures; Links; Videos | Links; Pictures; Status; Videos | Links | Pictures; Links; Videos |
Internal or external content | Internal content | Both internal and external | Both internal and external | External content | Internal content |
Main typologies of internal content | Company news; Tests Promotion; Industry news & research; Events | Team life; Job opportunities; Company news; Industry news & research; Industry articles; Tests promotion; Whitepapers | Team life; Video interviews; Events; Re-posts; Company news; Tests promotion | – | Links from the blog; Team life |
Top 10 posts (total reactions, comments and shares) | Events; Company news; Industry news & research | Team life (pictures); Tests Promotion; Company news | Video-interviews; Events; Tests Promotion; Team life (pictures) | – | Links from the blog Employees’ video-interviews; Team life (video interview); Team life (pictures) |
Related pages | 1 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Appendix 2
LinkedIn analysis
Main page | Company1 | Company2 | Company3 | Company5 | Company6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type of Page | Company page | Company page | Company page | Company page | Showcase page |
Followers (K) | 7.4 | 3.3 | 11.3 | 7.2 | 20.4 |
Posts per month | 2 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 11 |
Likes per post | 12 | 15 | 18 | 4 | 12 |
Editorial calendar | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Internal or external contents | Internal | Internal; External | Internal | Internal | Internal; External |
Typologies of internal posts | Interviews; Promotion and offers | Interviews; Awards and recognitions; Trends; Reports; Tests promotion | Testimonial; Case studies; Awards and recognitions; Webinars; Test promotion; Conferences; Trainings and courses | Case studies; Free ebook; Tests promotion; Workshops and trainings | Webinars; Posts from the blog/website |
Related groups | N.A. | 1 (2.3 K members) | N.A. | 1 (5.3 K members) | N.A. |
Employees on LinkedIn | 46 | 156 | 429 | 126 | N.A. |
Main page | Company7 | Company8 | Company9 | Company11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Type of Page | Company page | Career page | Company page | Company page |
Followers (K) | 209 | 148 | 4.2 | 3.9 |
Posts per month | 13 | 5 | 18 | 7 |
Likes per post | 15 | 20 | 4 | 9 |
Editorial calendar | YES | YES | NO | NO |
Internal or external contents | Internal External | Internal | Internal External | Internal External |
Typologies of internal posts | Pulse written by managers or consultants | Whitepapers; Webinars; Workshops and trainings; Tests promotion; Pulse written by managers or consultants | Pulse written by mangers or consultants; Team testimonials; Trainings and workshops; Tests promotion | Tests promotion; Training and workshops; Case studies |
Related groups | 12.5 K | |||
Employees on LinkedIn | 4.2 K | 4.3 K | 444 | 101 |
Appendix 3
Twitter analysis
Main page | Company1 | Company2 | Company3 | Company5 | Company6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Followers | 1.4 K | 992 | 154 | 18 K | 6.3 K |
Engagement (%) | 0.013 | 0.11 | 0.096 | 0.029 | 0.0028 |
Tweet interaction (%) | 0.061 | 0.18 | 0.34 | 0.034 | 0.020 |
Tweets per day | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
Most used hashtags | #hr #psychometrics | #hr #management #talent | #assessment #human resources #webinar | #leadership #personality #company5 | #hr #leadership #talent #recruitment |
Type of tweets in ascending order | Original Reshare Reply | Original Reshare | Original | Original Reshare Reply | Original |
Main typologies of original tweets | Promotions and offers; Conversations with users | Team Life; Live tweeting; Links to SM and website; Promotion | Industry news & research; Informative and promotional tweets | Team life; Live tweeting; Links to interviews | Team life; Pictures; Live tweeting; Links to SM and website |
10 most retweeted Tweets | Conversations with users; Promotion and offers | Links to interviews; Promotions and offers | Industry news & research | Links to Interviews; Links to SM | Pictures; Info about Events |
Main page | Company7 | Company8 | Company9 | Company10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Followers | 13 K | 20 K | 850 | 320 |
Engagement (%) | 0.012 | 0.29 | 0.059 | 0.056 |
Tweet interaction (%) | 0.0092 | 0.032 | N.A. | 0.22 |
Tweets per day | 1.3 | 9.0 | N.A. | 0.3 |
Most used hashtags | #digital sustainability #career #jobs | #digital sustainability #leadership #career | #hr #management #company9ta lent | #hr #assessmen tupdates #tests |
Type of tweets in ascending order | Original Reshare Reply | Original Reshare Reply | Original Reshare Reply | Original Reshare Reply |
Main typologies of original tweets | Webinars; Team life; Infographics; Promotions and offers | Conversations with users; Links to SM and website; Webinars; Team life | Live tweeting; Team life; Promotions and offers; Mentions (employees); Quotes | Quotes; Live tweeting; Team life; Promotions and offers |
10 most retweeted Tweets | Webinars; Team life | Team life; Webinars | Live events (pictures); Team life; | Team life; live event (Pictures); Quotes |
Appendix 4
YouTube analysis
Main channel | Company1 | Company2 | Company3 | Company5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Subscribers | 503 | 320 | 230 | 1.1 K |
Views (K) | 111 | 134 | 29 | 385 |
Main types of videos | Interviews with authors; Conferences | Informative/ promotional videos; Company videos (stories); Tutorial videos | Informative/ promotional videos; Company videos (stories) | CEO and employees’ interviews; Workshops; Informative/ promotional videos; Tutorial videos |
Main created playlists | Interviews with authors; Tests and tools | Client case studies; Careers at Company2; Products | Webinars; Podcasts; Client testimonials; Company3 education; Company3 culture | None |
Most popular videos (total views) | Interviews to authors | Tutorial videos; Company videos (stories) | Company videos (stories) | CEO interviews; Company videos (stories) |
Main channel | Company6 | Company7 | Company11 |
|---|---|---|---|
Subscribers | 2.7 K | 1.2 K | 70 |
Views (K) | 410 | 160 | N.A. |
Main types of videos | Company videos (stories); Informative/ promotional videos | Company videos (stories); Informative/ promotional videos Video interviews | Workshops; Tutorial videos; Employees presentations; Conference Recordings |
Main created playlists | Success stories; Company6 careers | Company7 careers; Company7 solutions; News | Trainings; Employees presentations; Conference Recordings |
Most popular videos (total views) | Company videos (stories) | Company videos (stories) | Tutorial videos |
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Di Lauro, S., Tursunbayeva, A., Antonelli, G., Martinez, M. (2020). Grasping Corporate Identity from Social Media: Analysis of HR Consulting Companies. In: Lazazzara, A., Ricciardi, F., Za, S. (eds) Exploring Digital Ecosystems. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23665-6_8
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