sam tickell - s11764930 - dissertation

The impact of social media on university communications Investigating social media communications on strategic communications and reputation in the Australian University sector. Samuel Tickell - S11764930

MASTERS DISSERTATION Master of Arts (Social Media) at Birmingham City University

of 82 Samuel Tickell - S11764930

Abstract This research investigated the impact of social media communications on strategic

communications and reputation in the Australian university sector. The sector is

undergoing transformation through changes in government regulations and a changing

sector for students and staff. Government and peak body stakeholders were

interviewed with their answers being coded and analysed using thematic analysis and

through discourse analysis. The research was brought together using first and second

level agenda setting theory; imagined audience and context collapse.

There were three primary findings from the research that include: why innovation and

investment is important for social media in strategic communications; the importance

and impact on communications planning; and the importance of empowering staff,

especially research staff. Key outcomes included that the stakeholders did not believe

that social media had a high possibility of affecting university reputation. What social

media could achieve is the ability to set an agenda on research or regarding policy. It

can also provide research staff with an additional avenue to communicate the

outcomes and updates regarding their research, providing an important

communication tool for researchers and research bodies.

The research provides information and outcomes that can be used in the strategic

communications profession and for reputation management in the Australian

university sector along with similar sectors and university environments around the

world. It has provided additional information for the theories investigated in this

research and provides a basis for additional research into using social media for

strategic communications purposes.


Acknowledgements

There are a great many people to thank for helping me through the Masters and this

dissertation process. First of all, I have to thank the excellent Birmingham City

University staff, particularly Dave Harte. Without his leadership and tutelage I would

have never been able to complete this dissertation and degree.

A big thanks has to go to my colleagues in the Corporate Communication and Public

Relations office at the University of Southern Queensland. They have been great

sounding boards, kept me on track and put up with me during this process. Equally I

have to thank my family and friends for the same. Particularly to my mum, dad and

my sister who have been a huge support throughout.

There also has to be a vote of thanks to those who were involved in the research for

this project. The research phase was conducted during a very busy and unsettling

time for the University sector in Australia and to those who made time to talk to me –

thank-you. I also appreciate your candour and openness that has helped provide such

interesting outcomes.

It has certainly been an interesting time and I’ve gone through a massive learning

curve to complete this Masters degree. It has been worth every late night, missed

weekend and journal read...


Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... 4 1.0 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 5 2.0 THE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT ............................................. 8

2.1 Social media use in Australian universities ......................................................................... 10 3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 14

3.1 Agenda setting theory .......................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Imagined audience, collapsed context - the social media theory ........................................ 19 3.3 Strategic Communication and Reputation ........................................................................... 22 3.4 Conclusion to the Literature Review .................................................................................... 26

4.0 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 27 4.1 The data collection process ................................................................................................. 27 4.2 The data analysis techniques .............................................................................................. 29 4.4 Limitations ........................................................................................................................... 32 4.5 Conclusion to Methodology ................................................................................................. 33

5.0 FINDINGS ........................................................................................................... 34 5.1 Investment and innovation ................................................................................................... 35 5.2 Communications planning ................................................................................................... 44 5.3 Empowering staff ................................................................................................................. 52 5.4 Conclusion to the Findings .................................................................................................. 62

6.0 ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 63 6.1 Agenda setting theory .......................................................................................................... 64 6.2 Context collapse and imagined audience ............................................................................ 66 6.3 Reputation ........................................................................................................................... 69 6.4 Strategic communications ................................................................................................... 71 6.5 Conclusion to Analysis ........................................................................................................ 73

7.0 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................. 74 LIST OF REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 77

List of Figures Figure 1 – Univeristy Social Meida Accounts………………………………….....……………………………12


1.0 Introduction Australian universities face many pressures on their communications agendas and

social media has arguably risen to be a major pressure for strategic communication

professionals particularly in areas such as stakeholder communications and reputation

management. The research will seek to determine whether social media

communications can be used for public relations or strategic communications

purposes with a key goal in mind of influencing key stakeholder agendas insofar of

policy, funding and lobbying by organisations that affect the university sector in

Australia.

As the Australian university sector changes, there could be differing pressure to

university communications strategy, areas that this research will investigate. The

Australian university sector, like many in the Western world, is undergoing a change

process to meet the challenges of skilled graduate changes, demographic shifts with

an aging of academic staff as a 2006 survey showing that almost 40% of academic

staff were aged over 50 suggesting retirement within the next decade1. Importantly,

public spending is under greater scrutiny and there is a risk of decreased government

funding for the sector. Such changes influence university reputation, how universities

communicate with their audiences and how they set their agendas.

There has been some research into the effect of social media communication for

marketing purposes, for learning technologies that offer peer-to-peer communication.

Additionally there has been research into the reputation of organisations and

1 Hugo, G, 2008, The Demographic Outlook for Australian Universities’ Academic Staff, Chass Occasional Papers.


stakeholder engagement. There appears to have been little research conducted

regarding University to government or University to other stakeholder relations and

how social media or online communications can impact those relationships. Issues

including risk and legal liabilities were not included in the scope of the research, as

these could be considered operational and continually changing, requiring specialist

knowledge to be applied to social media usage.

There were two theoretical constructs that formed the basis of the research. The first

was the concepts of collapsed context and the imagined audience. These social media

theories help explain the infinite amount of users that can come into contact with the

message and the impact on the message meaning when it comes into contact with that

uncontrolled audience. Agenda setting theory and second level agenda setting theory

provided the communications theory to underline the research. The agenda setting

theory outlined how the importance of the message goes from one party to another

and second level agenda setting theory outlines how people form the attitude around

that message.

The research was built around the stakeholder groups looking in at the university

sector and assessing what their views, attitudes and expectations are for the university

sector strategic communications and social media. As such, the profession of

stakeholder relations and the function of reputation management provided a base for

the research and the theoretical perspectives. Additionally, strategic communications

formed the base because of its direct relationship with reputation management,

providing more relevance than student communications, brand management or

learning technologies.


The theoretical background and the professional backgrounds came together to see if

universities and a strategy should be investing in social media for strategic

communications purposes. The research sought to further the theoretical perspectives

related to communications and social media. Additionally other outcomes included

whether social media communications can impact reputation of Australian

universities. A key driver of this research was whether social media could be a tool

that would affect change in policy funding from the relevant bodies. Finally the

research sought to determine the attitudes from key stakeholders towards universities

regarding social media communication and innovation on those channels that may

affect strategic communications or the reputation of universities in Australia.


2.0 The Australian University Environment This research was undertaken in a time of uncertainty and change in the Australian

university sector. The majority of the interviews were held in the weeks following a

federal budget announcement that proposed to cut funding in the sector including cuts

to research and to governance of the universities from external bodies2 3. Changes

were also announced to deregulate the university student environment to allow

universities to charge students higher fees while at the same time decreasing the

federal funding provided to universities2.

In 2014, there were 40 universities permitted to operate and teach in Australia4. All

universities have to meet specific government requirements to be able to operate and

are overseen for quality and other business purposes5. The federal government

provides the majority of funding for universities in Australia and much of the research

funding is also provided by public sources6.

The universities belong to a core group of peak bodies7 in Australia. Universities

Australia is a primary peak body in Australia and covers most institutions8. The

Group of 8 (Go8) University peak bodies represents the oldest eight universities in

2 Federal Budget 2014: Universities to change degree costs as students hit with earlier repayments, News.com.au, available online: http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget-2014-universities-to-change-degree-costs-as-students-hit-with-earlier-repayments/story-fn84fgcm-1226916445637 accessed 2 August 2014 3 Knott, M, 2014, Radical Shakeup to university funding budget will see some fees soar, The Sydney Morning Herald, available online: http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/radical-shakeup-to-university-funding-in-budget-will-see-some-fees-soar-20140513-3887c.html accessed 21 August 2014 4 List of Universities in Australia, Australian Universities, available online: http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/list/ accessed 21 August 2014 5 Higher Education Standard Framework (Threshold Standards 2011), Australian Government ComLaw, available online: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2013C00169 accessed 21 August 2014 6 Funding, Australian Government Department of Education, available online: https://education.gov.au/funding accessed 21 August 2014 7 A peak body is an association of industries or groups with allied interests usually brought together for advocacy purposes. They are member groups with paid memberships established to act on behalf or promote the interests of member organisations. 8 Our History, Universities Australia, available online: https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/About-Us/our-history, accessed 21 August 2014


Australia9; The Regional Universities Network is a network of six universities from

outside the capital cities10; the Innovative Research Network operates on behalf of

research intensive universities11; and the Australian Technology Network works on

behalf of technology focused universities12. There are also a number of universities

that do not belong to any other lobby groups outside the Universities Australia.

9 About Go8, Group of Eight Australia, available online: https://go8.edu.au/page/go8-indicators, accessed 21 August 2014 10 About us, Regional Universities Network, available online: http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/about_us.php accessed 21 August 2014 11 About us, Innovative Research Universities, available online: http://www.iru.edu.au/about-us.aspx accessed 21 August 2014 12 About ATN, Australian Technology Network of Universities, available online http://www.atn.edu.au/About-ATN/ accessed 21 August 2014


2.1 Social media use in Australian universities The Australian universities do have social media presences with all, except for one,

having corporate Facebook accounts, corporate Twitter accounts, and corporate

YouTube accounts. Australian universities have, on average 5.5 social platforms used

as corporate accounts. A breakdown of the platforms can be found in Figure 1:

University Social Media Accounts (p12). Many institutions also operated additional

social media accounts and many have social media policies as outlined on p11.

In a study that has been conducted for social media from a marketing perspective,

80% of users that interact with a brand online were already customers of that brandi

(Taylor, 2013, p28). As such, the reliance on the current and future student audience

by marketers became clearer for student retention purposes. Most engaged with

students on Facebook with all universities except Notre Dame having an official

corporate Facebook page, many with more than 10 000 likes and a high rate of growth

(Winkler 2013, p12). However, Winker (2013) continues and raises questions about

these Facebook pages regarding compliance issues, particularly with international

marketing practices (p13); that posts on social media were identified as not being a

factor for students in choosing a university (p34); the pages were useful for event

updates, fun, news and for reminders of key dates (p39).

World wide, universities largely use social media for brand visibility - primarily

through Facebook but also other social channels (Botha, Farshid & Pitt, 2011, p45;

Klamm, 2011). Additionally many universities use it for academic purposes in either

connecting with students while they learn or part of the course content (Wild, Cant &

Neil, 2013, p875; Benson & Morgan, 2013, p46). There is also evidence to suggest

that generally there is maturity in using social media for media relations, financial


reporting, employee relations, government and stakeholder management (Argenti

2006, p376-379). While it appears that much of the social media use is centralised, it

appears that many universities in Australia encourage their staff to use it, providing

they do so within prescribed guidelines - and importantly make it clear that they must

protect the reputation of the university along with their personal reputation13 14 15.

How universities actively use social media in reputation management or wider

stakeholder engagement is not clear. From the previous research, however it appears

that current students would make up the targeted audience.

13 Position on the use of social media, 2013, University of Adelaide policies and guidelines, available online: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/its/it_policies/social_media/position/ accessed 9 November 2013 14 Social Media Guidelines, 2013, Flinders University, available online: http://www.flinders.edu.au/marketing-communications/training-and-support/online-communications-support/social-media-guidelines.cfm accessed 9 November 2013 15 Social Media Policy, 2013, Monash University Policy Bank, available online: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/management/global-engagement/social-media-policy.html accessed 9 November 2013


Figure 1 -‐ breakdown of the social media channels used by Australian

Universities in July 2014

Along with diverse usage of social media, Australia has a diverse range of

universities. Some Australian universities rank highly in world University rankings

and are considered quite prestigious while other universities cater for disadvantaged

students or students from overseas backgrounds16. Most Australian universities

deliver their materials in online or external formats with some universities offering all

the courses in online or blended online on-campus modes16. It should be noted

16 University Profiles, Universities Australia available online: http://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/ArticleDocuments/209/An%20Agenda%20for%20Australian%20Higher%20Education2103_2016.pdf.aspx accessed 21 August 2014

Twi$er, 40

Facebook, 40

Youtube, 40

Instagram, 16

Flickr, 13

Pinterest, 7

Linked In, 31!

Google+, 13!Other, 10!

Figure 1:University social media accounts

Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram Flickr Pinterest Linked In Google+ Other


however across the various universities and university structures there was not a

significant difference in the amount of social media channels used.

When looking at a wider group of organisations and their use of social media, out of

the companies surveyed by Eddy (2012) 22% of companies housed their social media

duties with the public relations offices, which 23% were housed within marketing,

with others outsourcing the duties, having a decentralised model or not managing the

duties at all. According to Dorflinger (2011, p3) an increasing portion of the

marketing budget is being spent on social media, with some companies spending

more on social media and other e-communication tools than traditional methods.

Taylor (2013 p29) questions the motivation of companies that spend an inordinate

amount on social media, citing that other methods like television, still provides the

biggest market penetration and brand recognition of any media. The current

university situation in Australia provided a basis to determine university stakeholder

attitudes and awareness current social media use in the sector.


3.0 Literature review This dissertation is intended to ask whether social media impacts on reputation of

universities in Australia. The research was supported by theoretical and professional

frameworks and informed the analysis of the research.

The professional framework was strategic communications. Strategic

Communications is a profession that can encompass organisational communication

practices that include stakeholder engagement, public relations and marketing

communications (Argenti, Howell & Beck 2005, p84; Official Statement on Public

Relations, 1982). Strategic communications can be defined as a role that is associated

with communicating managerial decisions and is part of management practice

(Overton-de Klerk & Verwey, 2013 pp365-366). While many Australian universities

and stakeholder bodies may not have recognised strategic communication offices, the

term and its implied duties encompass the relevant communication practices of

Australian universities. Additionally, strategic communications has been

institutionalised in some government sectors across the world with one example in

demonstrating the applicability of the profession is in the Danish museum sector. It

was institutionalised to navigate government changes and “to proactively…claim and

retain visibility, competitive position and legitimacy” of museums in Denmark

(Kjeldsen 2013, p225). This reflects that strategic communication is an ideal tool for

sectors that are undergoing government changes like the Australian university sector.

Additionally, many of the interviewees in this study work as strategic communicators

and as a result using strategic communication for this study adds validity and greater

possibilities for meaningful outcomes from this research.


The theoretical perspectives include agenda setting theory is a widely researched

theory for strategic communications and explains the transfer of importance of a

message to another party (McCombs, Llamas, Lopez-Escobar & Rey, 1997, p703). It

is supported by second level agenda setting theory to determine how a message is

framed (Freeland 2012 p5).

The communications theories are supported by collapsed context and imagined

audience – both have been researched with regards to social media usage. They

provide support to how users tailor their messages to who they think is reading their

posts and help explain what happens to the message when the audience control is lost

(boyd 2010, p49).


3.1 Agenda setting theory One of the key theories to strategic communications has been agenda setting theory.

At its core, agenda setting theory is a social science concept that details the transfer of

importance and prominence about a subject from one group to another (McCombs, et

al, 1997, p703). It has been a key influence in the public relations profession for

media management, insofar as to focus the public’s attention on a story, brand or

organisation, for example, through the mass media (Ragas & Roberts 2009, p48).

Second level agenda setting theory was also explored in this research. It built on the

message transference that is experienced in agenda setting theory where secondary

agenda setting theorists have explored what is being said along with the framing,

comprehension and attitudes of those who are transmitting and consuming the

message (Carroll, & McCombs 2003, p 38; Amujo 2012, p30; Freeland 2012 p5).

With the emergence and popularisation of social media channels agenda setting

theory has been adapted the new, interactive communication trends. Early research

into influences on the digital agenda noted that traditional media continued to set the

agenda (Lenhart & Fox 2006, p5). One study stated that most bloggers who comment

on public affairs don’t conduct independent journalism and information gathering,

rather react to mainstream media content (Newman, Guggenheim, Jang & Bae, 2014,

p193). Other studies concluded that social media and blogs are a legitimate source of

news with 45% of people from a 2008 study regarding blogging as journalism (Hong

& Sheehy, 2010, p38). (Ziniga et al 2011) argues that with more than 100 million

blogs online and growing social media usage (p586), there is a demonstrable


motivation by a significant number of people to gather and disseminate information

(p590).

As social media became mainstream, organisation’s communications agendas have

been impacted by societal, investor and regulatory body use of social media (Besiou,

Hunter & Wassenhove 2013 pp721-22). The transmission of salience via social

media was demonstrated in the 2012 United States Presidential elections where a

study by Vargo, Guo, McCombs & Shaw (2014) found that transmission of

information on Twitter networks positively correlated with the media agenda of the

time and that discrete election messages could be successfully transmitted through the

network outside of mass media interaction (pp310-311). The transmission of the

agenda via Twitter was achieved though both proactive and reactive means by the

presidential nominees (Vargo etal, 2014 p296).

Second level agenda setting theory can also be used in communications in politics

including a focus on agenda setting between policy makers. Delshard (2011)

examined the influences of various non-general public players in the pressures of

agenda setting in the United States of America political scene. It was concluded that

external pressures alter the agenda setting relationships between arms of governments

– in this case the United States of America Congress and President (p194).

Additionally it was noted that political will could be influenced by interest groups or

peak bodies (p196). Other scholars have investigated the agenda setting relationships

in the political scene. While there is some disagreement about who influences whom,

there is a demonstrable relationship between the media and political will; between


political leadership and political factions or pressure groups; and the public mood and

political will.

However, there has not been significant research to draw from for agenda setting

theory’s application to social media. It is assumed in this research that social media is

a tool that can be used in strategic communications. Under the guise of strategic

communications, a practitioner would be seeking to guide conversation and the issues

appearing on social media to a given corporate agenda, message or reputation in the

social media environment, exploring agenda setting theory and second level agenda

setting theory is warranted. Agenda setting theory can provide a useful framework

for a study on social media communications as it provides a way to draw attention to

the framing process in institutional and professional social media accounts.


3.2 Imagined audience, collapsed context - the social media theory Along with agenda setting theory, the research has been underpinned by the concepts

of imagined audience and collapsed context. The theory of imagined audience helps

to provide context into how a corporate account views those reading and interacting

with the messages outlining that the user cannot be ostensibly aware of their

audiences and they cannot be defined (Blake 2012, p1057). Additionally collapsed

context has been associated with the imagined audience. On many social media

channels, multiple audiences are homogenised into one audience, with little autonomy

of their own. (Marwick & boyd, 2010 p9; Massanari 2012, p403).

Every participant in a communicative act has an imagined audience. Audiences are not discrete; when we talk, we think we are speaking only to the people in front of us or on the other end of the telephone, but this is in many ways a fantasy. (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p115).

Essentially what Marwick & boyd (2010) have outlined with the concept of the

‘imagined audience’ is that any communications have an intended audience but

people outside that sphere can be influenced.

As a result targeted social media audiences can be complicated to target. As Litt 2012

states:

Since social media environments fundamentally obscure actual audience members, such conditions may provoke or entice individuals who tend to, or even wish to, ignore the real audience. For better or for worse, the imagination can then more freely fill in or make up the audience. (p339).

For a corporate entity, it can provide targeting issues and target audiences are blurred

into one. It can also affect the identity of the organisation involved and may also

result in “communication to be tailored to the lowest common denominator.”

(Marwick & boyd, 2010, p122).


While a misalignment between the imagined and actual audiences in more traditional mediated settings could also be troublesome, such misalignments on social media are even more dangerous since larger audiences means more eyes judging and ready to catch social faux pas. (Litt 2012, p333).

As a result social media users tend to self-sensor. This was demonstrated in a

Facebook study, it was found that 71% of individual users self-censored primarily “to

maintain presentation of their self-images across multiple social contexts

simultaneously, may be unwilling to diverge from the community’s perceived social

norms” (Das & Kremer, 2013, p1). Organisations also face the same pressures –

pressure to remain consistent to brand, management and customer expectations

(Driggs & Kasolowsky, 2008, p5).

As outlined in section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40) universities have

reputations of excellence and innovation and this reputation should be considered

when planning social media communications. As outlined by Farnham & Churchill

(2011) social media design assume a “single unified user identity” (p359) where, in

this case an organisation is to assume one identity – for example a student recruitment

role could be taken by a university. However, the reality is more complex as a user

can rarely be boxed into a single identity and different social situations – or in this

case business situations – demand facets of the identity according the situation (p

359).

The phenomena is not new as traditional forms of media have also made it difficult to

target a specific audience, observational users of social media “must rely on

information from an organisation and others (i.e. third parties) as they observe,

evaluate, and act in ways that fulfill their own needs and expectations” (Courtright &


Smuddle 2009 p252). As Goffman (1959) stated people unconsciously take note of

their surroundings and make judgments of those situations. Therefore, at a base level,

it can be assumed that users who do not actively participate in social media can be

influenced by messages communicated on these channels.

At a higher level, context is defined “in terms of role identities and their related

networks. Encompassing space, place, history and situation, context refers to the

identity meanings activated through interaction with a particular social network.”

(Davis & Jurgenson 2014, p477). In a social media environment, audiences can be

considered limitless but individuals and organisations will ‘act as though their

audiences are bounded’ (Davis & Jurgenson 2014, p478). The resulting

communications on social media will involve a desired audience, self-censorship

according to that audience but ultimately, the communications can be uncontrolled

when the wider audience is considered. This fact is particularly important for

organisations when others share their content to an audience outside the original

intent of the organisation. As a result, the concepts of collapsed context and imagined

audience provide a valuable theoretical base for this research.


3.3 Strategic Communication and Reputation The theoretical perspectives are supported by the profession of strategic

communications, in particular a subset of the profession - reputation management. As

the research has been to determine the impact of social media communications on

reputation, a professional function that takes that responsibility was studied.

Organisational reputation encompasses variables such as trust, standing, relationships

and goodwill amongst other traits (Roberts, 2009, p3). Strategic communications is

“the centralised management of communication on behalf of the organisation’s

reputation—and thereby its competitiveness, productivity, and financial success”

(Meredith, 2012 p3).

The strategic communication function encompasses many different forms of

organisational communication from management, marketing, media, internal

communications and social media in a structured method to support high level

organisational priorities (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, Ruler, Verčič & Sriramesh, 2007,

p4). Argenti, Howell & Beck (2005) argue that, strategic communications is

“communications aligned with the company’s overall strategies to enhance its

strategic position” (p83), demonstrating its fundamental relationship with the highest

levels of organisational planning. It is distinct from publicity and media management

that is to make and maintain relationships with members of the media to assist with

placement of stories and support during a crisis (McAllister & Taylor, 2012, p93).

Additionally, it is not confined to marketing communications - which has been

defined as using communication tools, often paid mass media to reach customers to

communicate brand and product relevancy (Fill & Jamieson, 2011, p29).


Observers like Jones, Temperley & Lima (2009) believe that traditional media

management and public relations have been one-way communications, with complete

ability to control the messages (p930). In reality, however this has not been the case.

As Cunningham (2010) stated, messages sent to the media, were in reality, never

controlled - media outlets and other mediators have always interpreted and reframed

messages for their consumers (p110). In reality, only paid messaging can be assumed

to be completely controlled.

In the new media sphere, Cunningham continued, “the originator may only purposely

attempt to control the initial message inputs, and there by include thematically a

conversation taking place in the new media sphere” (2010, p111). Argenti et al

(2005, p83) continued mentioning the importance of a consistent communications

theme and that taking a purely tactical short-term approach will make it difficult to

compete, an integrated, strategic approach is needed for communications success.

Essentially, this provides a two-fold outcome - that it is important to tailor all

messaging to a company’s strategic priorities and that in the media, this messaging

cannot be controlled, only guided.

From an executive management standpoint, a company’s reputation - and therefore

their personal reputation, is of high importance (Van Der Jagt, 2005, p181, 184). The

concept of reputation has been often debated, however as outlined by Barnett &

Pollock (2012) the concept can have “distinct theoretical constructs such as image,

identity, brand, status and legitimacy...and a plethora of measures” (p1). As a result,

it can be assumed that reputation is of importance to many major companies. As

quoted in Van Der Jagt (2005, p184) companies that have experienced reputation


damage take it seriously but even those who have not are, and are starting to become

more strategic. It was noted too that brand and reputation are not the same with brand

being considered as “potential customers or clients, about a company’s specific

product, service, or line of products or services.” (An Executive View of the Difference

Between Brand and Reputation, 2013). Though it is complex, it can be assumed that

reputation is impacted by communications - either strategic or marketing

communications.

Measurement of strategic communications and reputation has been difficult with

traditional methods relying on volume of media coverage and the equivalent

advertising value of that media coverage (Ross, 2012, p16). Ross (2012) continued to

state that the practice had come under fire, being an inaccurate and untrustworthy

measurement of success (p16). This realisation in the industry has placed a new

importance on establishing an effective measurement regime, one that ties into the

expectation of company executives (Manning & Rockland, 2011, p30).

The Barcelona Principles were established in 2011 as the benchmark reporting

principles for the strategic communications industry (Moyer 2011). As part of these

principles, e-communications and social media reporting has a significant role. As

mentioned by Manning & Rockland (2011, p31) simple measure of impressions and

the equivalent monetary value of those hits are irrelevant. Quality and quantity are

both important - and should align with the overall goals and outcomes as desired by

the organisation (Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles, 2010, slide 11).


As strategic communication professionals can undertake communications on social

media on behalf of an organisation and do so for stakeholders in the university

environment. They also undertake reputation management for organisations. As this

research is investigating the impact of social media on reputation it makes an ideal

professional underpinning aspect for this research.


3.4 Conclusion to the Literature Review The Literature Review outlines the key concepts that will be utilised in the analysis of

the research conducted for this paper. Reputation and strategic communications

continues to evolve and social media’s impact whole of university communications

plans and on stakeholder attitudes will be researched. The theoretical perspectives of

agenda setting theory along with the imagined audience and context collapse will

provide context into how a corporate message can be framed and communicated to an

audience that may not be known to the organisation. Together the professional and

theoretical perspectives create a framework to analyse this social media research.


4.0 Methodology The research outlined below will provide data to determine the attitudes and current

positions of key stakeholders to the university sector at a point in time. The research

models used, provided a method to determine the views and how strongly they were

held regarding the impact of social media on reputation in the university sector.

4.1 The data collection process The primary research method for this paper was semi-structured interviews. This

consisted of five separate interviews held with stakeholders in the Australian

university sector that have an impact on funding policy developments in the sector.

The five interviews held in May and June 2014 with each lasting between 30 and 45

minutes. The majority of questions were the same but with room to explore out into

concepts and areas on an as needed basis.

The interviews contained three distinct parts - firstly the use of social media and the

policy around social media of the stakeholder involved was explored; the attitudes

and expectations of that stakeholder of their public was explored; and finally their

expectations for future development and what that would mean for policy and funding

decisions was explored.

This provided a standard set of questions to ask each participant, with the ability to

provide a set of answers from standard questions, enabling better data comparison,

while at the same time, allowing for more in depth questioning should the need arise

in the interview (Jupp, 2006, p158).


The semi-structured interview, with other supporting research methods have been

successfully used in similar research projects. A key study into the importance of

reputation in the minds of senior executives was Ron van der Jagt’s 2005 study Senior

Business Executives See Communication and Reputation as a Crucial Part of Their

Leadership Role. Additionally, the 2012 South African study The Influence of

Differences in Social and Cultural Capital on Students’ Expectations of Achievement,

on their Performance, and on their Learning Practices in the First Year at University

used research techniques that will be used here. These two studies were instrumental

in outcomes in strategic communications and social media and should provide some

assurance over the validity of the research techniques.


4.2 The data analysis techniques The data analysis techniques were primarily completed through a coding of the

interviews, which was then analysed. The semi-structured interview outcomes were

coded via thematic analysis as a primary method and discourse analysis as a support

method. The thematic analysis is one of the most commonly used forms of

quantitative analysis in this style of research (Roulston 2001, p280). Research with

similar methodologies to this has successfully used thematic analysis. It is

theoretically flexible in coding language as it is can be used across disciplines and

data sets which enables it to be used to interpret findings of interviews like the ones

conducted in this paper (Clark & Braun 2006, p120). Additionally, using thematic

analysis, relationships between concepts can be compared and interpreted to allow

relevant themes to emerge from the data (Alhojailan, 2012, p10).

Under this approach, the interviews were transcribed and the text was coded to

determine the primary topics found across the interview set. These topics were

further analysed to distil the key themes that provide the outcomes to the interviews.

The coding formalised the dataset into useable information that could be compared

and contrasted against itself, secondary research including market research, case

studies and theoretical perspectives.

To reinforce the data found through the thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis

was also used in a minor way to formalise the themes. As outlined by van Dijk

(1985), critical discourse analysis can be used to analyse written or spoken

communications to determine the relationship between the discourse and the context it

was received; the discourse and the power relationship that informed that discourse

(p353). As van Dijk (1985) suggests, the thematic analysis provides an understanding


of the topics – the content of the text or dialogue (p69). By supporting the thematic

analysis with the outcomes from the discourse analysis, the relevancy of the themes,

power structures between the stakeholders and the universities; and the impact of the

external environment on the answers provided all provided additional context to the

findings.

The discourse analysis was achieved by determining how the respondents framed

their answers. As such, key responses from the themes were analysed to determine

how the respondents viewed social media within their organisation and the sector; and

how they viewed the wider industry response to social media communications. Issues

there were noted throughout were internal importance of social media, the relevant

power structures of the organisation towards universities and whether the respondent

had positive or negative experiences with social media in the past based on the

answers they provided. This analysis provided further context regarding the

importance of the answers provided and the resulting themes that emerged.

As outlined in Guest, Bunce & Johnson, 2005 (p59), there is not a defined number of

interviewees that is needed to for the research style under the methodologies outlined

in section 4.0 Methodology (p27). However, Guest et al 2005 did note that five is

allowable for phenomenological studies to gather suitable outcomes (p61). The length

of the interviews, however provided a depth of data that allowed analysis to take

place. As outlined in Baker & Edwards (2014), “that it may also only take a few

interviews to demonstrate that a phenomenon is more complex or varied than

previously thought.” (p5) and “[that] in order to decide how many qualitative

interviews is enough the researcher must interrogate the purpose of their research.”


(Baker & Edwards, 2014 p5). As the research is able to demonstrate outcomes more

varied than was previously known, the data was deemed to be suitable.

The data gathering and analysis techniques were designed to help gain a better

understanding of how social media is used and can influence strategic

communications and reputation within a university setting. Theories of

communication and social media theories would be applied to provide additional

insight into the research.


4.4 Limitations This study was not without limitations. Due to the external environment that this

study was undertaken in, the timeframe surrounding the research and researching with

bodies that may have complex organisational processes, not all the interviews that

ideally should have taken place were performed. This research undertook five

separate interviews with government agencies and peak bodies in the sector. Ideally,

additional interviews would have taken place with additional government and peak

bodies to get a more holistic view of the attitude surrounding social media usage.

However, some organisations did not allow the interview to take place.

Additionally, each respondent requested to remain anonymous. While this does not

affect the collation outcomes of the interview, it did provide a challenge to formalise

the themes and provide relevant example to prove themes and adapt the theories

without identifying the organisation involved. The information provided in this report

has been de-identified so the respondents are non-identifiable according to relevant

research council guidelines. An example of those are from the National Health

Medical Research Council17.

17 Databanks, National Health and Medical Research Council, available online: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/book/chapter-3-2-databanks accessed 25 August 2014


4.5 Conclusion to Methodology The research was conducted through the secondary research method of semi-

structured interviews, a technique that has been used by other researches for similar

research. It provided a method to determine the impact of social media

communications in the university sector in Australia. A total of five semi-structured

interviews were held, and while more would have been preferred, five semi-structured

interviews provided reliable data to determine outcomes and attitudes. Additionally,

it proved that situation is more complex than outlined in previous research and this

will be outlined in the upcoming sections – 5.0 Findings and 6.0 Analysis.


5.0 Findings The research conducted found a number of key themes. Through the analysis three

key themes - investment and innovation; planning; and empowerment were apparent.

In this section, the issues regarding investment and innovation will be delved into as

the interviewees held the view that universities should excel in these areas.

Additionally, with the investment, how social media is used in wider communications

planning was an issue that each interviewee discussed. Finally reputation on social

media was an issue, particularly empowering staff, particularly researchers to be

active on social medial was a theme that emerged from the interviews. This section

will delve into these areas.


5.1 Investment and innovation The response to the question “Do you support investment in social media for strategic

communication purposes?” was overwhelmingly positive. To demonstrate the

attitude that four out of the five interviewees reflected a very positive sentiment.

Indeed of the four that were affirmative, they were enthusiastic in their answers and

did not leave room to misunderstand with the language used being very resolute.

Yes. yes we do. I think given the important role that is being played by social media, I think proper investment is crucial for the organisation. If they wanted to enhance or protect their profile their social media strategy must be given as much consideration as traditional media in their corporate communication strategy. (Respondent 3)

One of the primary reasons for the responses was the changing external

communications environment that universities and their stakeholder groups find

themselves in. It is an environment where there are more influences on the external

communications environment and without the investment there will be a greater

chance of the university’s messages getting lost in the noise. Universities also have to

keep up with the changing nature of how their stakeholders communicate.

Social media has grown exponentially over the last half decade and given that it is becoming such an important tool for communication from an organisation or even personal perspective - how people communicate with their friends now through Facebook as opposed to email or in the 1980s when it would have been a telephone call. (Respondent 3)

This was brought into an organisational context by another interviewee.

The only way of receiving material in those days was via a fax and it would be a media release, press release or media statement on the fax. Over time emails became more common to receive media releases…some people weren't into the email thing as yet but they were using the fax - so we had to do both. Now we don't issue anything by fax, we send all of our media releases by email to groups that we've established and set up. Now I think people are moving away from the media releases changing and using social media to generate or


put out information. So we can't ignore social media. It is the way of the future, it is what the younger generation are using. (Respondent 5)

In both of these examples, it is key to note the ever-changing nature of

communications and the ability of organisations to continually adapt to these changes.

In strategic communications there has always been a desire to communicate a

message and that requires continual evolution of communications practices. It was

revealed in the interviews the peak bodies and the government bodies are both

investing in social media communications. While it was noted that they cannot

directly influence the university operations, there is the expectation of investment in

social media and this investment was clearly and unequivocally articulated. Of the

one organisation that did not directly answer the question like the other interviewees,

they do have a presence on social media. They did not comment on the investment in

social media by universities but made it clear that they use it to communicate

community policy positions and promotion - suggesting a tacit approval of investment

in the communications channels.

There is a contrast on the expectation of investment in social media and the outcomes

it can bring. When directly asked if there would be a policy of funding decision made

because of social media communications the answers were plain - “I think the short

answer is no,” (Respondent 5) and “No - not at all” (Respondent 3) were as far as the

conversation went. However, one body had confirmed they had funded research on

social media - but like all publicly funded research, it had to be “shown to be of

benefit to the whole university sector.” (Respondent 4)


However, the investment and behaviour of university social media accounts takes on

more relevance when concepts of reputation are applied to these communications and

communication techniques on social media channels. As outlined by Courtright &

Smuddle (2009):

Every organisation, whether it is for-profit, not-for-profit, government-sponsored, or non-government-sponsored, constantly addresses to publics and stakeholders what makes it different and better than other, perhaps competing organisations. These matters concern the reputation process and message design’s place within it… In other words, innovation is both communicated and perceived (p279).

While still largely an intangible concept that is difficult to measure, a positive

reputation will help the organisation in times of crisis or in future decisions by their

stakeholders (Murray & White, 2004 pp7-9).

In this context, appearing to invest in social media is important. Again, the question

on whether to invest in social media is confused in (a) that it doesn’t impact student

recruitment as outlined in section 2.1 Social media use in Australian universities

(p10) but that:

At the moment we use it as a way to engage or speak to universities. We use it to let them know our core business or a media release, a funding round opening or closing, or we have announced the results of a funding round or a call out for people to be on one of our committees. (Respondent 5)

It was acknowledged that direct interaction generally could not occur due to

stakeholder groups’ lack of ability to invest in the infrastructure needed to effectively

manage social media communications. Perhaps interestingly and more telling was the

future vision of some of the interviewees.

We do have social media channels from our department and we are not interacting at the moment via those channels. We are going to. We are


planning it - we have established an account but we haven’t publicised it yet. We are finishing up training in our office for our members. (Respondent 4)

While these words represent a desire and the direction that stakeholders are looking to

take their investment in social media, it may impact on the reputation of an

organisation that does have the resources to invest in social media communications.

While there has not been a campaign to interact with universities there has been

investment into monitoring social media communications.

We'd often search the Minister's name to make sure we aren't missing anything that the Minister may or may not have said about the [the organisation]. So we do our own checks on our Twitter accounts and we do also have a service provider through Meltwater who does our social media monitoring for us as well. It picks up a broad range of things. What we are seeing it that it is picking up quite a few discussions from university websites...which is something we have just recently had access to. (Respondent 5)

This underlying visibility is the consequence of modern governing - ensuring that the

government and their departments have the greatest awareness of what is being said

of them and their policies or projects (West, 2013). It is an act that universities would

have to be aware of as it directly monitors their communications. The practice is well

entrenched within in the industry with many organisations and public bodies using

monitoring services. It does bring up an issue of self-censorship for universities,

particularly if they believe their audiences include government departments.

Commenting on policy or happenings that could be seen in a negative light by a

government department could impact on the overall strategic communication

strategies of an organisation even if the message was not intended for a government

department.


Despite the monitoring that was employed, the common attitude was that universities

have the choice to say what they like on social media and any negativity on social

media would not be held against them when it comes to policy of funding decisions.

That being said, one respondent said - “it is a risk and we had to consider that when

we applied to set up an account. We had to provide strategies to deal with that.”

(Respondent 4) Another responded with – “It would be the decision of the university

to contest in public as opposed to potentially contest in private via meeting for

example. Social media is a public forum and at times a private conversation would be

preferable.” (Respondent 3)

The nature of virility and the easy public search-ability of social media

communications ensures that there are risks to social media communication. For

strategic communicators, it has at least two consequences - that social media

communications need to be planned for in context of wider communication strategies;

and that the social media team need to be trained on what is appropriate to post.

One interviewee said that negativity on social media for a governmental body is an

evolution of negativity in the mainstream media and always something that

government bodies have to plan for and deal with. The response is the same, the

platforms have evolved and as a result, it could be assumed that the reaction to the

negativity could be similar to negative comments in the traditional media. From the

interviewees, particularly the fact that each has planned for stakeholder negativity and

experiences it in other forms of their communication practices, it is undesirable, can

impact relationships but like social media itself, is part of the evolving

communications landscape.


At times there will be issues where the universities, the peak bodies and the

government departments will have radically different views. It is at this time that

effective investment and innovation in social media can have the greatest impact.

One of the interviewees was enthusiastic about the possibility of corporate activism in

social media, highlighting that it has already been successful.

The power of hashtags and the power of being able to collectively group behind an issue...The campaign ended up getting close to 100 organisations involved…2 million members that all of which were able to express their concerns through the hashtag. You could imagine the power that had through social media…The policy was reversed…They adopted the exact terminology of the hashtag. That was a particularly powerful campaign…That was one way that advocacy was very much radically enhanced or supercharged through social media. (Respondent 3)

This example of using social media for activism brings in a number of issues

regarding audience, messaging and reputation. As the audience grew, the campaign

would have lost the ability to control its audience and the message that they would

have been communicating. However, as the purpose of the campaign was to reverse a

government policy decision, the key audience of the government department would

have remained. Through the short, sharp messages that social media allows, the key

messages would have been framed within the agenda that was being set. By having

the message shared by organisations with a high quality reputation, combined with

external influences on the news cycle, the message was amplified through a wide

audience to a point where the government could not ignore the agenda that had been

set and as a result, change was affected. The investment and innovative way that

social media was used helped to bring awareness to an issue, frame the way it was

viewed and bring change in a way that would not have been available to

communicators relying on mass media or other traditional forms of communication.


Along with activism as displayed above, Deakin University displayed innovative

techniques to directly connect with influential politicians, established reputable media

outlets and leaders in digital media and to allow them to build their audience and

enhance their reputation. The 2012 event drew together Deakin University, Fairfax

Media, Google along with organisers OurSay to have a one hour interactive forum

with the Prime Minister of Australia on Google Plus. The forum drew 2058 potential

questions and 8331 comments during the hour online cast. Crucially for Deakin, it

drew mainstream media attention and provided an opportunity for the university to

connect directly with the Prime Minister. (Case Study – Hang out with the PM, 2012)

These examples provide demonstrable evidence to the notion provided by one

interviewee that “…particularly in relation to learning and teaching, to see how those

tools can facilitate that. There is a lot of terrific stuff happening. There is a whole

range of technologies [being utilised.” (Respondent 4) The notion of universities

being innovative is in fact a relatively recent construct, with their pomp and

circumstance, their gowns resonate with a “culture that speaks to how profoundly

conservative universities are as institutions” (Udas, 2014). However Udas (2014)

continued to note that “many think of universities as centres of radical politics, this

reputation was earned during a relatively short period of time in the 1960s and 1970s,

principally because the behaviour of students.”

This change could be related to how universities have embraced social media to an

extent where they are called and expected to be ‘innovative’.


Six years ago, universities and lots of organisations were going 'how do we get ourselves off this'. They were terrified of social media and wanted avoid it. Now any organisation out there is going 'how do we get ourselves onto social media’. (Respondent 3)

It helps explain how universities have been successful in using social media in

communications given the research conducted by Winkler (2012) stated that social

media for student recruitment is not successful. This puts universities in an unusual

position given most organisations primarily use social media to drive sales and

generate customers.

It is evident that, through the research there is a desire for universities to use social

media. In fact two examples, hashtag activism and online interactive forums both

display innovation in communications strategy, bringing in large audiences and

affecting change in the industry. While large-scale projects like this may not be the

norm in Australian universities, the successes of these projects go some way to

solidifying the value of social media communications outside student support and

recruitment. These examples also provide tangible outcomes for the organisations

involved. The hashtag campaign resulted in tangible change with a policy position

being reversed. It provided evidence of how agenda setting can be used by

corporations to change attitudes via social media, how audiences can be targeted and

how a message can be targeted to a particular audience despite the organisation not

being able to control who sees or shares the message. It also provided additional

measurables - in the amount of users connecting with the campaign (2 million) and

the number of organisations involved (100). Measurements like this have rarely been

available to strategic communicators in the past with any real time measurement

being limited to “whether messages are being sent, placed, or attended to - such as


counts of press releases or publications issued, media placement and monitoring, and

exposure to or readership of the messages.” (Hon & Grunig, 1999 p6). Hon & Grunig

(1999) maintain that additional evaluation would be needed to provide context to

these figures (pp6-7), social media has opened up additional real time evaluation

methods that in themselves can provide important information on the progress of a

campaign. It also directly aligns with the Barcelona Principles providing

demonstrable outcomes from the communications efforts.

Social media provides a new method to connect with stakeholders and embrace the

communications style in a holistic communications strategy. It provides a new

method for universities to use their reputation to advocate for change and connect

with important stakeholders. In the university sector, the use of social media can

complex, used to maintain stakeholder relationships in a wider way than direct

communication or student communication. Finally, it was apparent from the

interviewees is that social media can be used for stakeholder communications and that

there is a strong expectation for universities to be leading the way with social media

communications.


5.2 Communications planning Social media has impacted the way strategic communicators plan their messaging. It

was a common element throughout the interviews – social media is a tool and the

pressures are different to other communication tools. Where the conversation on

policy perspectives or need to publish corporate or research findings has remained the

same, the way those messages are delivered has changed. Whether a university, a

peak body or a government department, social media has added another dimension to

communications planning.

It [communication pressure] has certainly changed. The importance of the issues remains the same but with social media there is a lot more susceptibility for people to quickly question and respond, and sometimes those responses can generate their own stories themselves. I think now, the news cycle has changed dramatically, it is much quicker than it has ever been. I remember with media releases - in the 1960s they would just be posted. They would get there a day or two later. The advent of the fax machine - that no longer existed. Then with email and now with Twitter it can be done in a matter of seconds. It is progressing - the speeding up of the news cycle, journalists have to compete with. (Respondent 3)

As social media matures and different tools come in and out of favour, the pressures

on sector continue to change. “Twitter has become more a potent communication

tool. Facebook has lost its effectiveness as I think Facebook has become a bit dated

in a sense - for our purpose.” (Respondent 2) This attitude outlines the pressures that

the university sector faces and that they may be different from other corporate social

media users, like those in high turnover retail markets (Kelleher & Sweetser 2012

p112; Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp 2012, p307). This difference places a need on

universities to plan and innovate in social media communications with stakeholder

groups.


The ability for universities and the sector to adapt to change and innovate in this area

was covered in the section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40). However, when

universities are dealing with the news cycle and forms of reputation management,

social media has unequivocally changed the landscape. Despite any changes to

newspaper circulation, it has not affected the interaction with established news

organisations. As one interviewee said,

... online people go to news websites. They have the masthead, they have the brand, the trust, the quality that is being offered. People trust it and if they want to get in one spot nice and quick, from a source they know has certain prestige, brand and reputation behind it. (Respondent 3)

For example, in July 2014 one of Australia’s most prestigious newspapers – The

Australian had more than 168 000 followers on Twitter and established names like

television’s Nine News carries more than 600 000 followers on Facebook. The

broadcast news had built their reputation on balance, fact checking and long history of

reporting the news (King 2012, p17). For universities in Australia – a group of large,

sometimes multi-billion dollar organisations with established brand visibility and

established reputations, traditional media outlets are important when it comes to

strategic communication planning (Verlee 2011; Dimmock, Li & Chen, 2004 p22;

Flavián & Gurrea, 2006 p326). As such it is important for universities to maintain

their relationships with traditional media, which now can provide the value of

traditional media exposure and exposure in the online space.

When traditional media’s combined social, web and broadcast audience reach is

calculated, it is of vital importance for determining the importance of a message and

delivering a corporate message to a wide audience. This aspect has remained constant

throughout the changes made in communications over the decades. What social


media has done is brought in a new dynamic – the ability for two way

communication, the ability for the collective build and spread a story, for citizens to

become journalists – even if for a short period. As demonstrated with the hashtag

campaign on section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40), this can be used to great

affect by universities and their stakeholders.

When universities and their stakeholder groups are communicating with each other,

all of the respondents were equally adamant that social media is a tool but it comes in

a tool kit that includes wider avenues of communication like media but also narrow

channels like email, meetings and telephone. On occasion, conferences could be used

to connect with multiple stakeholder groups. Equally, while all mentioned that social

media was a tool, it was apparent from all interviewees that social media had been

disruptive – placing additional pressures on their communications agendas and

strategies. The pressures that strategic communicators deal with in balancing

traditional forms of communication to newer digital forms was perhaps best outlined

by one constant aspect of the news – the expectation of immediacy.

There was a time back before morse code, there might be international news, a journalist would write something and then it would be posted, go on a ship and it would take the best part of a month to arrive at the media outlet for them to be published. You're talking about the speed of that cycle. Even then, speed was of the essence. (Respondent 3)

As such, from a media relations’ perspective, speed has always been an issue for

journalists. It is also evident that planning for when issues arise or correcting

statements has become more important as there is an expectation and the avenues to

immediately correct information.


...when we want to get a response - it can be quite serious things I am responding to. People are very quick to approve them. It has always been treated like a media response and a media response has a very tight turnaround. More and more, those who were resisting it are embracing it more and seeing it as, not so much exotic, but as one of our main communication tools that we use. (Respondent 1)

Such a statement demonstrates that public relations professionals have continuously

adapted to new and changing working environments, constantly adapting to what their

stakeholders have required. The pace of messaging has always been a key component

for the strategic communications industry and the news values has never changed -

the pace of communications have quickened. While these pressures may not be

limited to the university sector, there was consistency across the interviewees for the

viewpoint.

Indeed the pace of communications with some days having high levels of social

media communications might suggest an active consumption of social media

messages is of a short timeframe. This outcome is supported by previous research as

outlined by Ragas & Tran (2013) “Some search-related studies showed that agenda

setting might induce effects in one day, weaken in following days, and vanish in less

than two weeks.” (p482). This provides a short window to correct criticism or

incorrect information – if it deemed necessary. The respondents confirmed that

dealing with universities required a greater strategic vision than just responding on

social media. However, the response was considered important in certain situations.

As Respondent 1 suggested:

We cannot come down too big-brother. If it were factually incorrect we would endeavour to correct it. We would say 'you have made a mistake, here is the right information'. It was stridently political, we probably wouldn't engage - I would make someone aware, but I wouldn't wade in a debate with them on social media. (Respondent 1)


Respondent 3 continued to say that their responses are behaviour based rather than

platform based – “if we put out a position, it was reported in a newspaper and the next

day a university came out and contested it via the newspaper. Regardless of the

medium, I don't think the response would be any different.”

In fact despite universities being considered innovators, the industry is conservative

when stakeholder groups are taken into account. The formality of “traditional

channels are more effective as we are dealing with more traditional bodies, which are

mainstream newspapers, politicians, government.” (Respondent 2) Often within the

university sector, there are complexities that exist in policy and funding decisions

combined with the fact that the Federal Government departments oversee 40

universities creates a situation where audience is defined in a way of not wishing to

offend an organisation. It was suggested by one interviewee that “we have to be very

careful, we can't be seen to be endorsing anyone…We're very mindful of that.”

(Respondent 1)

Theoretically it lends itself to an explanation of the imagined audience of a

government department or funding body in their social media communications.

When studying why there is a perceived conservativeness in the communications

channels and hesitance in unplanned social communication, one has to be aware of

the context of the answers. Insofar that the respondents know that their social media

communications will be perceived to reflect the opinion of the government minister

ensuring that social media communications will have a significant chance to impact


on the external environment and exude a power for change that is outside traditional

change communication channels.

As a result university strategic communicators can assume that for ordinary social

communications will focus on the industry as a whole.

“Our aim is to promote the network, the interests of our members. Really we don't have a role of commenting on the policies of individual universities like that. For us, social media is very important in getting out our political messages, to promote the network and the issues are important to us.” (Respondent 2)

The attitudes that came across through the interviews indicate the pressures that

strategic communicators in the sector face in their communications planning. From a

stakeholder relations’ standpoint, it was evident that there are more suitable methods

for negotiating items. The higher education system in Australia, like much of the

world is bureaucratic, with many formal processes to pass through (Graves, Barnett &

Clarke 2013).

However, as outlined in section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p35), there is still an

expectation for universities to invest in social media and that universities are

autonomous bodies being able to post information as they see fit. Additionally

without the ability to use the medium to effectually gain students via social media

communications, social media should be used for reputation purposes as outlined by

the interviewees. While the responses were given with some hesitation, each

respondent acknowledged, “It can enhance or damage a reputation depending on how

that institution engages, reacts or uses social media and the issues that it raises.”

(Respondent 3)


Another interviewee went further to suggest that:

I don't think it has an impact on reputation. I can certainly see a potential to impact particular situations that can impact on reputation. If we don't craft a message carefully in a way that won't be misconstrued by the sector there the potential that will become an issue and will impact on the brand and reputation. (Respondent 5)

The response of “misconstrued by the sector” suggests that the university sector is an

important key audience. Indeed Respondent 1 suggested that a “reputation unit” had

been established to handle issues when “things go really wrong” for a group of

organisations they represent outside the university sector. This displays an

acknowledgement that social media can have a direct impact on reputation in the

sector and reputation either online or more generally is a facet of operation that is

taken seriously in the sector.

It is evident that for a strategic communicator in the sector the online relationship

with the sector is complex. While social media is monitored it cannot be directly

used to engage with the sector. The medium can be used to convey messages and can

be a tool to engage with traditional media outlets online. What became clear is that it

does have the power to either directly influence the reputation of universities or the

attitude towards a message or event. Additional research would be required to

determine the exact makeup of a university’s audience on social media. In

communications planning, however it is apparent that government bodies and peak

bodies should be considered in an imagined audience even if there is no apparent or

direct interaction with the bodies. Displaying innovation in social media and


carefully planning company messaging can have a positive impact on the overall

communications objectives in the university sector.


5.3 Empowering staff One of the common elements from the interviews was that employees should not be

excluded from posting on social media about their work and progress in what they are

doing. While there was some debate on the actual impact of empowering employees

to post on social media, there was an expectation this medium would be used to post

messages. It was of greater importance for funding bodies that saw it as a tool to help

them gain additional credit for their research funding.

Some funding bodies interviewed have gone to the extent of including social media

tools in their communication tool kits for researchers, with mandatory

acknowledgement being implemented in some areas, but as yet, not social media -

providing some evidence that this is one area that could change.

When it comes to social media, we don't have any specific guidelines of policy for researchers should they be mentioning funded research in social media. However they are requested through their funding agreements to acknowledge funding if they are promoting their research that is funded - but it is not a mandate. (Respondent 5)

Other bodies have included social media training for their staff or the staff of

universities to help ensure that key people in the industry are trained in the use of

social media. This act suggests that there is a desire for use of social media by

university employees outside corporate accounts.

Universities are depended upon to “ask questions in pursuit of truth, add value

through…critical discussions necessary for a deliberative and liberal democracy and

engage the disciplines and society” (Udas 2014). Additionally when speaking on

their field of expertise, professors should have “the pursuit of truth and the

dissemination of their knowledge ought to be in ways that are open and maximise the


public good…not curtailed by personal, organisational of commercial

considerations.” (Udas 2014). Equally, for researchers that may be using social media

for self-promotion, there could be an issue of self-censorship (Rayment 2013).

Examples for self-censorship in this context could include corporate objectives being

at odd with research objectives for example (Rayment 2013). The competing interests

of corporate and financial need versus academic freedom may be tested on social

media. It is a balance that strategic communicators will need to be aware of but the

phenomena itself would require further research to fully understand.

These realisations ensure that it is necessary for research staff to be able to speak

freely on social media on topics of their expertise. It exercises their right to academic

freedom, helps enhance the reputation of the university that they work at and

potentially provides the content university audiences are seeking.

A prime example of this mindset was one interviewee’s desire to enable and empower

university researchers to engage readers and audiences through social media. There

have been high-level researchers using it successfully with one example - “You have

people like Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt, he is quite active on Twitter

whether it be about particular research or about research in general.” (Respondent 5)

Equally, other researchers like early career researchers can promote their findings,

their organisation in a similar way to many established researchers, providing a more

efficient way to draw attention to their outcomes and funding as “everyone has the

same tools at their disposal. You know a tweet is 140 character no matter who you

are.” (Respondent 3)


Digital communication channels beyond social media channels like Twitter have

offered researchers with opportunities to extend their publishing resources.

Researcher friendly websites like academia.edu and theconversation.com have

allowed a greater reach and control of message. Theconversation.com is supported by

a Nobel Laureate18 and claims to be “shaping scientific, cultural and intellectual

agendas by providing a trusted platform that values and promotes new thinking and

evidence-based research”19. The website is produced by academics and journalists to

marry academia and journalism to tap into the trustbank of academics and bring

credible information to the public (Shipman 2013). It has the financial support of 39

organisations, mostly universities in Australia and New Zealand20. Importantly it

allows individual academics access to a dashboard to track the popularity and online

virility of their stories (Trounson 2011).

Like the hashtag activism campaign as outlined in section 5.1 Investment and

innovation (p38) researchers do have the opportunity to set their own agenda, join

with other researchers or other audiences to create an agenda and frame the

conversation around the importance of a type of research.

I guess in one sense, if we were watching commentary on social media and through social media there was a lot of encouragement for funding solar roadways - I've just pulled that out of the top of my head, something mentioned to me the other day - a hypothetical. If we saw a lot of discussion through social media on solar roadways, and how we need to conduct more research on solar roadways, we could certainly as an agency, if we thought that it was valid put a case forward to government that we need to be funding research in that area. (Respondent 5)

18 Doherty P. 2013, Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty's message, The Conversation, available online: http://theconversation.com/au/nobel-laureate accessed 30 August 2014 19 Our Charter, The Conversation, available online: http://theconversation.com/au/charter accessed, 30 August 2014 20 Partners and Funders, The Conversation, available online: http://theconversation.com/au/partners, accessed 30 August 2014


As such there is acknowledgement from the stakeholder groups that a wider

discussion can influence the thinking of government funding bodies. From the

perspective of wider agenda setting, there is possibility of highly shareable content

getting the attention of funding bodies – how long that attention lasts and whether it

has actual outcomes would require further research. Currently, however research

projects are not based on the online reputation of a researcher rather long held

application processes particular to each funding body. It was a commonly held belief

from funding bodies with the primary perspective being - “Projects have to be well

thought through and shown to be of benefit to the whole university sector. I don't

think we would not fund those things because they do with social media.”

(Respondent 4)

However, the research group, as a collective could also influence wider policy in the

sector, while exercising their right to academic freedoms, setting their agenda and

pushing for change. By empowering academic staff, universities may have additional

messaging power. Arguably this could also be considered a risk given that change

could be not in the interests of the university itself, but as the medium is already being

used, that risk will exist whether or not the staff are supported in their use of social

media.

In that sense it doesn't have a great impact other than to stand back, take note of what the sector is saying. I guess if there was a campaign around - one of the policies we have out there at the moment is open access about journals that have been free and open, reached without paying high fees. Putting that in an open repository where everyone can see them, rather than having to subscribe to journals to receive that information. Maybe someone creates a Twitter account to generate discussion on Open Access. The thing we'd watch quite closely - if there were researchers that had very strong opinions on it - that is information I'd take to our Executive. If they had strong views that we need to investigate or interested in hearing more about - maybe we would then contact that particular researcher. (Respondent 5)


While there is some hesitation in this answer it appears that if there is a collective

view on social media by concentrated group of academic staff, it can affect policy

decisions. Naturally, other business pressures have an affect on funding decisions.

However, they can include areas where universities have been innovating and where

academic staff are finding challenges in their efforts to remain innovative.

The learning environment for everyone is changing so dramatically and quickly that we do need additional investment in those areas. Particularly to look at pedagogy around those things or the way the students or learners can benefit. (Respondent 4)

Affecting policy decisions, as distinct from funding decisions was outlined in section

5.1 Investment and innovation (p35) but for less emotive policy areas, empowering

academic staff – can have an impact on an agenda and go beyond social media

commentary.

Universities are facing issues outside policy areas and one of the main pressures is a

demographic shift of researchers as older researchers leave the industry. As a result

young or early career researchers are entering the field. Through the interviews there

was an attitude that this group should be allowed to express professional opinion

online, allow them to set their own agenda and connect with the technology that they

are using throughout their training and careers (Lupton, 2014, p11). As outlined by

(Lupton 2014, p5; Hugo 2008) it will be important to embrace early career

researchers so that, one - there is a supply of academic staff into the future; and two -

that they can get their messages out in a method that suits them. This results in

support in investment in social media but also for new academics to be able to

flourish in an environment they are used to working in.


It is the way of the future, it is what the younger generation are using. If we don't use it we may eliminate some of the younger researchers in the sector. Social media is definitely something that we're - that we definitely support investment in. (Respondent 5)

Indeed as social media pervades the learning space, the early career researchers have

studied with electronic communications and social media, it would be a natural

extension to invest in this space to enable efficient communications for new

academics.

The need to support all researchers no matter what position in their careers they are in

was recognised by the interviewees. They also saw that the support could have

benefits to their organisations – insofar that they would receive public recognition of

the funding. As was outlined academics are provided with advice:

For everything from sending an invitation for someone to attend the event, what information they required in a briefing for the CEO of the Minister, things like photography, media releases, producing materials for that event. We do provide advice like that as well. (Respondent 5)

As Argenti (2006) states, businesses are increasingly sharing more of their content

online, stakeholders are increasingly online and that companies need to work

carefully to manage stakeholder empowerment (p356-357). The funding bodies are

making tools available to researchers to communicate on several different mediums.

As a result, there is the push to communicate and universities need to be aware and

help manage these communications. As outlined in Soumi et al 2014, university

academic staff can see themselves as individualists or visionaries where academic

freedom is a core facet of the industry (p467). Additionally a 2013 study out of the

United States of America said that 55% of university staff now use social media for


professional purposes and that figure had risen significantly since 2009 (Lupton 2014,

p4).

In Lupton’s own study, it was found that social media was used by early career

researchers to network, research and share information regarding ongoing work

(Lupton 2014, p10). While additional research would need to be completed into how

academics set their audiences while studying on social media, some other professions

have been researched. Journalists for example include their supervisors as part of

their imagined audience (Litt 2012 p339). They are included in the audience partly as

they can affect the journalists’ careers but audiences extend beyond identity to

relationship maintenance, raise awareness about an issue, share projects and,

importantly for empowerment - to self promote (Litt, 2012, p339).

As other professions have included individuals and individual bodies of importance in

their imagined audience it could be assumed that the inclusion of funding in an

academics audience could occur if that audience is crucial to their future career.

While not set in policy, funding bodies have expectations of engagement with

acknowledgement of funding - “There is the acknowledgment section on the website

which has the background information on when we expect them to acknowledge the

funding body”. (Respondent 5) Additionally the stakeholder bodies are moving to

have more open models of communications online. “The issues are intertwined. The

main way we get the message out is via the media, media releases, interviews and

social media. There is relevancy in what we put on social media.” (Respondent 2)

Included in this openness is responding to relevant social media posts with the

majority of interviewees having recently moved to a social media model with greater


interaction. “Should an individual ask us a question, we respond and we do get quite

a few comments and responses coming through that we manage.” (Respondent 1)

That has resulted in more open encouragement of researchers contacting the funding

body for assistance. Additionally there is a desire

“…to increase the spread of contact with the higher education sector, individuals and institutions... to get information out to people about learning and teaching and quality. It is really important to us. We hope that is one of the things we hope to get out of our investment” (Respondent 4)

While full-scale engagement in social media for many of these bodies is limited by

physical resource shortages – a sentiment that was reflected by the peak bodies and

government organisations – each body hopes to have a return on social media

investment that can be assisted with the empowerment of academic staff.

As a result there is an importance to empowering research staff at universities. They

are important to the sector - with learning and research, they make the core business

of a university and without them, a university would cease to function. Additionally

in many nations, without research a university could not operate, rather it would take

on the role of a teaching college, significantly impacting revenue21 22 23. Regarding

reputation, research is very important for a university and to allow a new

communications streams to be able to enhance reputation for a university is important.

For example, as outlined by major university ranking systems like World University

Rankings the QS World Rankings, research comprises a larger part of the judgement

21 About the AQF Register, Australian Quality Framework, available online http://www.aqf.edu.au/register/about/ accessed 10 August 2014 22 Higher Education Standards Framework, Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, available online http://www.teqsa.gov.au/higher-education-standards-framework accessed 10 August 2014 23 College vs University, Grammarist, available online http://grammarist.com/usage/college-university/ accessed 10 August 2014


than any other form of university engagement. Both of the ranking systems weight

60% of their judgements to research outcomes like citations in peer reviewed journals,

volume of research and reputation of individual researchers24 25. Therefore

empowering researchers to engage in social media and allowing them to build their

reputation on social media can have positive flow on effects for university involved

including:

• Reputation building and agenda setting - the researcher involved can have

additional options in messaging and setting their agenda;

• Being able to acknowledge their funding bodies and satisfy their needs for

acknowledgement and;

• In extreme cases being able to establish an agenda that influences research

funding.

There is awareness from the industry that academic staff at universities do use social

media and that they should be empowered and supported by the university involved.

Overall it appears that for a university, the academic research staff are the stars, akin

to the athletes of a sporting team. Through this group, a university can build an

audience and set an agenda around their research, building their own profiles along

the way. With news sites being established for researches, academic rankings being

skewed towards research reputation and a strong attitude of university stakeholder

groups to empower research staff to post on social media, it is strategically important

24 World University Rankings 2013-2014 methodology, 2014, The World University Rankings, available online http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking/methodology accessed 10 August 2014 25 Academic Reputation Methodology, 2014, QS Intelligence Unit, available online: http://www.academicmatters.ca/2013/06/self-censoring-away-from-the-public-sphere/ accessed 10 August 2014


for universities to empower their staff to exercise their academic freedoms in social

media channels.


5.4 Conclusion to the Findings Three key themes - investment and innovation; planning; and empowerment were

apparent across the interviews. The themes reflect a complexity in the usage of social

media and expectations of how universities can best use social media in strategic

communications.

The findings demonstrated that there is an attitude that universities should be

investing in social media. Investment was seen as important to enhance or protect

their profile their social media strategy must be given as much consideration as

traditional media in their corporate communication strategy.

The investment would also require careful planning to the best results from social

media in a strategic communications setting. Social media provides a tool to allow a

conversation on policy perspectives, corporate or research findings for example.

Whether a university, a peak body or a government department, social media has

added another dimension to communications planning.

Finally, one of the common elements from the interviews was that employees should

not be excluded from posting on social media about their work and progress in what

they are doing. Of note, it researchers could be empowered to post on social media

and would provide an additional way for universities to best use the social media tool.


6.0 Analysis The research conducted relied on semi-structured interviews combined with existing

data to establish attitudes, trends and aspirations from those in the industry. The semi-

structured interview process was the most appropriate given the theoretical factors

and the number of stakeholders that influence in this arena. There were additional

interviewees that would have confirmed the information that was found during the

research process. However external factors and other pressures that face the industry

at the moment ensured that it was impossible to interview everyone that was desired.

The data that was gained did show some clear attitudes and trends that could provide

outcomes for the research and progress the theoretical and professional backbones

that exist in this paper. Additionally it did also demonstrate that the issues are more

complex than perhaps originally thought and that additional research would be

undertaken to progress both academic and professional issues within strategic

communication and social media.


6.1 Agenda setting theory Agenda setting theory was chosen for this research, as one of its primary indicators is

the transfer of importance of a message from one party to another. Additionally when

second level agenda setting theory is considered how that message is framed and the

message receiver's attitude towards that message is also considered. Despite agenda

setting theory being predominantly aimed at mass media management, it appears that

role within social media communications ensures that remains relevant to the

changing landscape.

There were examples that became apparent throughout the research process of social

media’s ability to affect change within the sector. Two of them regarded hypothetical

situations where universities or academics crafted a message, transferred the

importance of that message to a wider audience through social media. The messaging

influenced key stakeholders and through social media, policy change was achieved.

An important result was that corporate activism could be undertaken with social

media as the key communications component to affect change and in this case

government policies were modified. This was achieved by creating and framing a

message on social media – and ensuring that that the relevant stakeholders knew the

importance message.

These examples demonstrated that social media has the potential to transfer

importance of a message from one party to another. It demonstrated that it was

possible for a corporate entity to communicate with their position and frame their

point of view on social media to a significant audience. If the solar roadways example

is investigated, the message of ‘a new sort of road using solar technology’ was created

and an audience took on its importance, forming an example of first level agenda


setting theory. The example regarding open access journals where the topic was

created and then a position was framed – that journals should be freely accessed. The

position’s framing evolved with issues like freedom of information, ability to learn

and even a need to make education tools available to anyone despite their wealth.

This framing is a prime example of second level agenda setting. Interestingly, the

issue was developed by small but reputable group of people with direct expertise in

the area, rather than a larger, undefined audience.

The larger, undefined audience’s effectiveness for the university industry was

demonstrated with the hashtag activism campaign. It affected change where more

than 2 million users and 100 organisations joined to frame an agenda and importance

of its messages, with the message aimed at policymakers. When agenda setting

theory is applied it is apparent that carrying the hashtag throughout the campaign

created the issue and the issue was framed by the surrounding social media message.

This campaign demonstrated that many different organisations with different

pressures were able to come together and create an agenda despite geographical

differences, value differences or resource differences. A key player established the

initial agenda, the activism grew because the organisations and individuals were

looking for a common outcome either because they believed in the issue or were

affected by the issue. Both large institutions and individual users were able to

participate. As such by its very nature, social media through sharing and small

distinct audience or a larger audience with common attitudes will allow an agenda to

be set. Consequently, agenda setting theory and second level agenda setting theory

can be applied and adapted for the social media landscape.


6.2 Context collapse and imagined audience The concept of collapsed context and the imagined audience proved to be an

interesting theoretical perspective when dealing with stakeholder engagement and

corporate positioning on social media. Much of the existing research into context

collapse has been occurred to individuals, how they connect with people outside their

own demographic and psychographic sphere. However like individuals, corporations

imagine the type of person that they are messaging on social media when they plan

and publish their communications.

As outlined in section 2.1 Social media use in Australian universities (p10),

universities are complex and may have differing pressures on their social media than

organisations in other sectors. Consequently, potential readership that universities

would then find online may vary and have different decision making processes or

reasons for reading university social media communications. It was apparent from the

interviewing process that social media communications cannot be relied on to

influence stakeholder groups rather it is a tool that can be used as part of a wider

communications process.

Under the theory of context collapse, it is not so much if the university has friends

like an individual user, rather it is whether the University can identify and influence

stakeholders or potential stakeholders in online communications. Direct negotiations

for policy or funding do require a more refined audience than you would find on

social media. However an audience that can be found by a university can expand

beyond the intended audience and as such the influence sphere can also expand. This

ensures that an organisation has to imagine the audience that they want to

communicate but also plan for a wider readership. For example, if a university is


targeting a student population with social media communications, they also have to be

aware that a government stakeholder may be aware and influenced by that post.

Throughout the interview process there was a clear desire for negativity to be kept

away from social media and the mass media and be confined to communication

channels like face-to-face meetings, telephone calls or emails. While this may not be a

surprise, the desire when connected to collapsed context it becomes clearer that the

statements can be separated from the original intent, causing greater reputational

damage for an organisation. This is particularly clear that any negative statements

released on social media may be separated from the wider agenda setting process. It

is a clear indication that an audience that cannot be controlled or fully known by the

parties involved can perpetuate the negative sentiment. It perhaps is also one of the

reasons why government departments do not want to undertake two-way

communication with universities on social media. Along with not being seen to be

favouring a particular organisation, when singular comments are taken out of context

the communications may be misunderstood. This concept built on the communication

techniques that each interviewee mentioned – that it is expected that social media

communications is part of a wider strategic communications plan and that care must

be taken in social media communications to avoid unintended endorsements or

message confusion.

There has been little research conducted on how organisations connect with their

audiences in the online space. Additional research could be conducted to determine

whether corporate online messaging can have the same effect to an identity or

networking as individual networking as outlined in the work of boyd among others.


However there is evidence to suggest that concepts of collapsed context and imagined

audience can be applied to corporate accounts in the university sector.


6.3 Reputation It was clear from the interviews that there was a perception that online

communications will not affect the reputation of the Australian universities. This is

perhaps not surprising, as a reputation restraining universities has been built up over

many years, with in some cases more than 100 years of research and teaching26. It was

also clear from previous research completed elsewhere, that social media does not

have a great impact on the selection of universities by potential students when social

media is used in a marketing sense. Therefore it would have been very surprising that

the overall university reputation would be affected by stakeholder communication

online.

Given the apparent lack of impact on corporate reputation, further research was

required to determine whether there could be impact on other aspects of reputation. It

was evident that the respondents believed that there would be gains to be made in

micro level change processes. This would allow individual projects, tasks or areas of

corporate importance to be communicated to audiences, providing platforms for

change or information dissemination.

One major outcome was that there is an expectation of innovation and allowing

academic staff to build their reputation online and for the university to be able to

assist and empower them in the online communications. With this concept, a central

and strict social media approach cannot effectively operate, rather a model of

empowerment and risk management in the online space would allow the growth of

online reputation for the university and individual academic employees.

26 Historical development of the Australian university sector, 2014, Australian Education Network, http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/directory/history-of-australian-universities/ accessed 10 August 2014


Through the research it became apparent that there are multiple reputation benefits for

a university due to the empowerment of academic staff. By allowing academic staff

freedom to post on social media about their expertise, they can acknowledge the

funding bodies, which aids stakeholder engagement. Additionally it also acts as a

function of academic freedom an important value in the sector. It can also boost the

personal online reputation for an academic and that can benefit the wider University

reputation by showing the stars of the university and allowing them to influence

decision-making processes from government organisations looking to fund or

promote particular research projects.

While social media may not be a cover-all communications method it is important

that it be included in the tools that a University users as reputation management

toolkit. The stakeholders interviewed did have an expectation that would be used to

communicate messages even if two-way communication between universities and

their stakeholder groups is not an expectation. From existing research (Pang, Begam

& Chee, 2012, p108), not managing online communications can provide a risk to a

company’s reputation, with commercial sales operations at particular risk. Whether a

similar risk exists for a business in the style of a university is unclear. Similarly, it

was discovered that the interviewees did not see that university reputation could be

enhanced in the online environment, utilising social media in the university

environment can have positive effects for stakeholder relationships and for individual

employees.


6.4 Strategic communications As outlined section 3.3 Strategic Communication and Reputation (p22) university

marketing departments have been using social media with varying results. Part of the

research undertaken was to determine whether social media communications could be

used effectively as part of a wider communications plan.

There was evidence throughout the interviews and research process to determine that

there is an expectation within the university sector that social media should be used as

part of a wider communications plan and not just for student communication and

learning technology. One of the key outcomes from this research for strategic

communications was to empower staff like researchers. This could enable the

university staff to create their own agendas, enhance their reputation and vicariously,

help enhance the university reputation and stakeholder engagement.

The research suggested that stakeholder groups monitored university communications

not as a source for two-way communications but as an awareness tool – for example

to note trends or negativity. Whether this function creates a sufficient reason for

universities to undertake significant financial investment in social media

communications for stakeholder of reputational purposes is unknown. What it does

suggest, however is that a university’s imagined audience for social media

communications may not be as simple as student engagement and these factors may

impact on communications planning.

Determining the need for the measurable outcomes for social media in practices like

this would require additional research. The research would have to be multilayered

determining whether the Barcelona Principles as outlined in section 3.3 Strategic


Communication and Reputation (p24) would be appropriate and achievable for

universities.

What was clear however through each of the interviews was that there is an

expectation that universities will invest in social media, social media will be used

more widely than student recruitment purposes. Given the differing values and

missions Australian universities social media for stakeholder, activism and corporate

messaging purposes may have a distinct and necessary function within universities

and further research will have to be undertaken to determine the evolution of this

process in the future.


6.5 Conclusion to Analysis The research provided individual outcomes to each of the theories involved – strategic

communications, reputation, agenda setting theory and the imagined audience and

context collapse.

There is a place for social media to be part of a university wide communications plan

and that it could be used in stakeholder relations. However it cannot be used to

directly influence reputation but through employee empowerment, it can affect

individual reputation and may influence the importance of individual projects or

company positions.

The influence on these projects and positions suggests that agenda setting theory and

second level agenda setting theory is appropriate for social media. Finally

universities, like individual users, do have a target audience for their messages but the

audience and how they perceive the message may not be fully controlled. What was

evident, however is that university stakeholder groups involved in this research can be

aware of the messaging, even if they do not actively participate in a conversation. As

such, each of the professional and theoretical perspectives provided context to the

research and the provided additional information for future social media

communication studies.


7.0 Conclusions The research undertaken sought to find if social media communications could be used

in a strategic communication framework as a driver for reputation management and

stakeholder engagement. Through a series of stakeholder interviews of government

departments and peak bodies that have a direct relationship with the strategy and

university sector and a number of discoveries regarding social media in the sector

were made.

This research shows that social media communications does have a place in strategic

communications. The research discovered that the relationship between social media

communications and stakeholder engagement is perhaps a more complicated than

initially thought. There is however an expectation from the stakeholder groups that

universities continually innovate in their communications practices. Undoubtedly

social media has allowed the new communication practices to take hold and allow

companies new avenues and opportunities to get their messages out, increasing the

amount of messages that they can send and the different ways they can disseminate

their information. What social media has done has allowed universities, staff of

universities and stakeholders new avenues to create agendas, inform other stakeholder

groups, and to provide increased information for return on investment of funding

bodies.

There was also evidence that University strategic communications cannot rely on two-

way communication over social media with their stakeholder bodies. There are a

number of reasons for this, which included resourcing and need not to be seen to be

favouring a particular organisation. As such universities should to be intelligent with


their communication design and in empowering their staff to ensure that they can

communicate and bring together their messaging and the messaging of their peers in

order to disseminate information important to stakeholder groups.

Social media has allowed new forms of agenda setting insofar that universities and

their associated stakeholders can transfer salience of information and attitudes around

messaging between stakeholder groups and to the wider public. Reputation on the

other hand did not appear to be acknowledged as a pressured by social media

communications. The responses from the interviews matched other information that

had been previously investigated in other papers and confirm that reputation in itself

would not be improved through social media communication. What social media

could do, is influence decision-making of policy and funding bodies through agenda

setting in online communication. It is apparent that within the sector or into the public

realm, funding and policy bodies may be influenced by commonality of opinion

around certain topics.

It was an expectation that university take their position – that reputation as an

innovative organisation and almost proves that position in online communications. It

appears that while the industry and government bodies may be slower to react and

embrace social media change, Australian universities and stakeholder groups have

embraced social media and are using it as far as the resources and strategy will allow.

Social media has become a vital tool in university strategic communications

particularly for the dissemination of information and stakeholder engagement.

Whether or not individual universities or the sector as a whole have institutionalised


its use for strategic communications purposes is unclear and would require further

research. What is clear is that universities are using social media and some of them

are innovative, which stakeholder groups have noted.

The theories behind the research included agenda setting theory, second level agenda

setting theory and collapsed context are appropriate for strategic communications and

university social media. The theories allowed the data gathered from the semi-

structured interviews with University stakeholders to be viewed in context with both

established media communications theory and social media theory that can be brought

together in the ever-changing landscape. Both of these theories can provide a basis for

additional research in the field.

While there does need to be additional research in this field and strategic

communicators need to fully determine how to measure the effectiveness of their

social media strategies, it is clear that social media communications does have an

impact on strategic communications and stakeholder engagement into the future.


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