Exploring dialogic strategies in social media for fostering citizens’ interactions with Latin American local governments

Although the benefits of social media for enhancing citizens’ interactions with their local governments are well known in a more global context, few studies have focused on Latin America, or on the MERCOSUR countries in particular. This paper examines the use of dialogic strategies in the social media activities of local governments in MERCOSUR countries in order to generate citizens’ online engagement. Analysis of this question enhances our understanding of the use of social media by local governments in less developed countries and highlights the need for empirical evidence on the use of dialogic communication theory regarding stakeholder engagement with social media. The findings obtained reflect the positive influence of dialogic strategies on citizens’ online engagement, particularly those based on dialogic loop, useful information and generation of return visits, aimed at fostering participation via social media.     

Leaning Out: Exploring Organizational Advocacy Activities From an Open Systems Perspective

This article explores the effect of organizational culture on engagement with advocacy activities, both traditional and electronic. The Competing Values Framework offers a model for understanding how organizations’ culture influences behavior. Using a sample of nonprofit providers from across the country, the author hypothesized that organizations that use electronic advocacy tools are more involved with advocacy activities of all types. A paper and pencil survey was used to collect data on organizational culture, advocacy tools and techniques, perceived effectiveness of the advocacy tools, policy goals, organizational sustainability goals as well as barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy. The study used path modeling to describe the connections between organizational culture and engagement in advocacy activities. The article examines the barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy, the penetration of electronic advocacy use in this sample of agencies and the perceptions of effectiveness associated with using these strategies; lastly, the implications of these findings for managers and organizational leaders are discussed.     

Social media advocacy and gun violence: Applying the engagement model to nonprofit organizations’ communication efforts

Applying the model of engagement, this study tests the effectiveness of social media advocacy strategies, framing, and mobilizing information related to nonprofit organizations’ communication about the issue of gun violence. An online experiment revealed successful social media advocacy strategies within the engagement model. Two key components of social media advocacy were identified: (1) public relations practitioners’ roles in shaping messages and mobilizing publics; (2) the important role of marginalized groups and individuals in issue amplification.     

Developing a multi-level organization-public dialogic communication framework to assess social media-mediated disaster communication and engagement outcomes

Dialogic communication has long been viewed as vital for effective organization-public relations. Yet, it is under-theorized whether and how organizations’ disaster communication messages may embody dialogic communication principles, and how various dialogic features are associated with different public engagement outcomes on social media. Extending the Organization-Public Dialogic Communication (OPDC) framework to the context of social media-mediated disaster communication, we propose a multi-level framework to assess the dialogic capacity of Facebook messages sent by disaster management organizations during a natural disaster. Three levels of dialogic communication characteristics (i.e., message structure-level, topic-level, and linguistic level) are examined using content analysis and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Results identified media richness, correcting, and confirming topics as three consistent predictors of public engagement of all types. Meanwhile, there exhibit greater variations regarding how other topical features and linguistic characteristics are related to public’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement during a disaster.     

Civic Agency in Governance: The Role of Legitimacy with Citizens vs. Donors

Civil society strengthening programs aim to foster democratic governance by supporting civil society organization (CSO) engagement in advocacy. However, critics claim that these programs foster apolitical and professional organizations that have weak political effects because they do not mobilize citizen participation. This literature focuses on how donor programs lead to low legitimacy of CSOs with citizens, limiting the means to develop agency toward the state. Here I investigate the influence of CSO legitimacy with donors and citizens on civic agency. Empirical research was conducted in Bosnia–Herzegovina on CSOs considered legitimate by donors, citizens, and both. I found that different forms of legitimacy were associated with different strategies and agency. CSOs with both forms of legitimacy, which have not received much attention until now, turned out to be of particular interest. These CSOs demonstrated agency as intermediaries between donors, government, and citizens, which enabled greater agency and broader outcomes.     

Advances in Research on Nonprofit Advocacy and Civic Engagement

Nonprofits are collective endeavors that supply a bewildering range of products and services, including some of value to their immediate members only. Many also advocate policy positions on issues of direct interest to themselves, their clients and beneficiaries, and/or the broader community. There is substantial variation in their advocacy strategies, the scope of policy goals they embrace, and the types of individuals they engage in such activities. Consequently, there are also differences in whether and how nonprofit advocacy activities reduce inequalities, enhance civic participation, and promote deliberative democracy. This symposium interprets and theorizes about emerging nonprofit challenges by showcasing research of nonprofit advocacy and civic engagement scholars. Collectively, the papers demonstrate the vibrancy of the field of nonprofit civic engagement and advocacy and identify important areas for future research to capture the complexity of nonprofits as actors guided by both instrumental and normative goals, serving organizational and social missions, and reducing some types of inequalities but creating new ones.     

Engaging publics in the mobile era: A study of Chinese charitable foundations’ use of WeChat

WeChat, the most widely used social mobile application nowadays in China, marks the advent of a mobile communication age that has reshaped Chinese people’s lifestyles. Understanding Chinese nonprofits’ communication performance on WeChat is a nascent field of study that calls for public relations scholars’ attention and investigation. By observing the most transparent Chinese charitable foundations, this study conducted a quantitative content analysis to examine their use of WeChat for dialogic communication with publics. Particularly, this study examined the dialogic features employed on the official WeChat accounts of these foundations as well as the public engagement functions fulfilled by their WeChat posts. The findings indicate that the dialogic potential of WeChat has not been fully utilized by the Chinese foundations. The official accounts have been relatively successful in fulfilling the provision of useful information toward interested publics, but most of them still have not created a dialogic loop with their audience. The WeChat posts primarily act as information sources but also perform the salient function of calling upon actions. In addition, certain communication strategies were identified in the posts to attract audience attention and to promote organizational activities, such as the incorporation of multimedia content and popular online events.     

Beautifully Imperfect: Using Facebook to change a population's attitudes toward marriage

This study uses focus groups and content analysis to understand the dialogic efficacy of Facebook as a platform for a government-initiated public communication campaign to promote marriage in efforts to reverse low birth rates in Singapore. The findings suggest a weak use of dialogic strategies by the campaign organizers who use Facebook as a channel for one-way communication with little realization of the social networking site's dialogic potential.     

Experimenting with dialogue on Twitter: An examination of the influence of the dialogic principles on engagement,interaction, and attitude

Much of the public relations research on online relationship building has examined social media content for the use of the dialogic principles outlined by Kent and Taylor (1998). These studies, using content analysis as the primary methodology, have found that the dialogic capabilities of social media are under-utilized. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these methods. Therefore, the goal of this study is to examine the influence of social media content utilizing these principles on engagement, interactivity, and attitude. Results of this study indicate that usefulness of information can have a significant influence on engagement and attitude.     

A systematic review on the application of dialogue in public relations to information communication technology-based platforms: Comparing English and Chinese contexts

This study aims to systematically analyze and compare studies applying the dialogue approach in public relations to information communication technologies (ICTs) under English and Chinese context. Specifically, we want to investigate the subjects, the adoption of dialogic principles, and the processing of additional valuables of dialogue in selected studies. By identifying 68 relevant peer-reviewed journal articles under English context and 13 under Chinese context, we analyzed different subjects in selected publications, including their research topics, methods, samples and objectives. Moreover, our study also revealed the following results: (1) three dialogic principles were well adopted while the other two were not; (2) public engagement was the most common effect; (3) organizational response was the most common antecedent to dialogue implementation. Future studies are recommended to diversify research methods, topics and relevant technologies. We also call for developing theoretical models for dialogue in public relations and updating dialogic principles and measurements. Based upon the fact that the dialogue approach is less studied under Chinese context, we also offer a path to construct effective and ethical communication between organizations and publics on various ICT-based platforms in Greater China.     

Perceptions about corporate positioning on controversial sociopolitical issues: Examining big pharma engagement with patient advocacy

There is evidence of the perception that business is not doing enough to address societal problems. As a result, some companies have used corporate activism to demonstrate their support for causes and position themselves on specific issues. These positioning efforts are at the heart of public relations activities with the potential to create changes in socially constructed realities. This research examines the relationships between pharmaceutical companies and patient advocacy, focusing on analyzing companies' engagement in controversial sociopolitical issues. An ethnographic study was conducted for six months — including document analysis, 33 interviews, and participant observation — with a Portuguese patient advocacy group. The CSR domains on thhe websites of seven pharmaceutical companies were also analyzed. Findings suggest that despite financial and technical support, the pharma companies do not publicly engage with the patient advocacy group's main struggles for human rights. Changes in the companies' positioning may improve the perceptions of these stakeholders about their engagement with causes and encourage more robust partnerships toward social change.     

The communicative power of nonprofit actions and values: A pilot study of dialogic stewardship

The following study seeks to expand and advance stewardship theory in public relations by incorporating tenets of dialogic and contingency theories to propose dialogic stewardship. Given fundraising trends and a theoretical shift in public relations to reconsider relational outcomes beyond organizational performance, the study re-centers stewardship on donor preferences and highlights the need to co-create stewardship strategies with donors to nonprofit organizations. After defining dialogic stewardship and how it helps to address “negative spaces” in donor-nonprofit relationships, the study puts forth a measurement model incorporating donor perspectives by using quantitative scale development processes. Analysis suggests dialogic stewardship consists of five dimensions: Reporting on Responsibility, Strategic Recognition, Organizational Values, Financial Management, and Engagement. The conclusion explains how these dimensions build public relations theory by deliberately bringing stewardship and dialogue together.     

Perceptual,Attitudinal, and Behavioral Outcomes of Organization–Public Engagement on Corporate Social Networking Sites

This study proposes and tests a conceptual model that not only measures public engagement with corporate pages on social networking sites, but also evaluates the influence of such engagement on important perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes. Study results provide empirical evidence of the positive effects of public engagement on perceived corporate authenticity, organizational transparency, organization–public relationships, and public advocacy. Findings underscore the importance of public engagement via social media on enhancing perceived corporate transparency and authenticity, and thereby cultivating strong relationships. Additionally, organization–public relationships emerged as a deciding factor driving the effects of public engagement on advocacy behaviors.     

Building dialogic relationships through the world wide web

This article provides a theory-based, strategic framework to facilitate relationship building with publics through the World Wide Web. Although many essays on the Web have appeared in professional and technical periodicals, most treatments of the Web have lacked theoretical frameworks. Strategic communication on the World Wide Web can benefit from a consideration of dialogic communication.This article offers dialogic communication as a theoretical framework to guide relationship building between organizations and publics. Five strategies are provided for communication professionals use to create dialogic relationships with Internet publics.     

Social License to Operate in Crowdfunding Campaigns

Organizations and individuals need to engage their communities to gain the social license to operate (SLO). In crowdfunding, SLO is reflected in funding by the members of communities of interest around crowdfunding campaigns. Thus campaign creators’ success relies on obtaining SLO from their communities. This article examines how crowdfunding campaign creators engage their communities to gain and maintain SLO to secure funding for their campaigns. Content analysis of 68 successful and unsuccessful Kickstarter campaigns shows how successful campaign creators build their communities by the use of weak ties and have abundant relational and episodic engagement with their communities to obtain SLO. The results also show how successful campaign creators practice dialogic engagement to maintain their SLO over time. This study expands public relations to crowdfunding by framing crowdfunding as a community engagement practice and operationalizing SLO as tangible funding.     

Dynamics between fragmentation and unity: Identity and nonprofit relationship management in the Asian American Community

Focusing on community-based nonprofits with specific missions of serving the Asian American community, this study examined the dynamics between various layers of identity, including ethnicity and panethnicity, and identified how intercultural relationship management contributed to a sense of community and empowerment among minority communities. Interviews from both nonprofit community organizations and community members revealed the following major findings. First, Asian American community nonprofits needed to manage a myriad of identities within their community, particularly the interplay between diverse ethnic identities and the pan-Asian ethnic identity. To help manage these identities, these nonprofits adopted a dual approach using both segmented outreach and coherent advocacy. Second, these community nonprofits used intercultural relationship management to build a sense of community and efficacy, promoting outcomes such as health awareness, communicative activeness, cultural shift, political engagement, and community alliances. This study contributes to relationship management literature through introducing identity-based relationship building strategies.     

In whose interests? When relational engagement to obtain a social license leads to paradoxical outcomes

Social license to operate (SLO) is typically associated with seemingly positive outcomes for both communities and organizations. Similarly, relational engagement is typically favored over more instrumental or episodic forms. This paper presents a case study, however, of an organization that undertook ostensibly dialogic and relational processes of engagement with its stakeholders to generate social capital and a SLO, yet also to obtain political power. While the organization arguably provided substantial benefit to the local community, paradoxically it also wielded significant power over the community. The findings from the case suggest that the evaluation of SLO – and by extension, normative engagement – should move beyond assessing positive outcomes, to critically asking whether or not the organization contributes to a fully functioning society.     

Diving deeper into shared meaning-making: Exploring the zones of engagement within a single case study

The purpose of this research is to use a case study method to investigate how employees within a specific context experience and make-meaning of Lemon and Palenchar’s (2018) zones of engagement. This is in response to the authors research call to use case study methods, specifically here interviews and focus groups (n = 77), to see how the zones of engagement are operating in a bound context, which in this case is a government contractor. The findings demonstrate the value of using the zones of engagement conceptual model to develop employee-centric engagement tactics rooted in both formal and dialogic communication. In addition, the study cautions an overuse of encouraging discretionary effort, highlighting the potential dark side of engagement. In taking a non-functionalist approach to understand government contractor employee experiences, the findings illustrate the meaning that derives from shared experiences and offer insight into a particular context beneficial to internal communication practitioners.     

Managing relationships on Facebook: A long-term analysis of leading companies in Germany

The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies manage relationships with publics on social media. Based on the concepts of functional and contingency interactivity, the study examines the long-term implementation of three interactive strategies derived from research on organization-public relationships: dialogic communication, transparent communication, and informal communication. The study sheds further light on relational outputs and outcomes. The results of content analyses of leading German companies’ Facebook pages in 2012, 2015, and 2018 indicate the growing importance of dialogic communication and informal communication. There is a constant relation between dialogic communication and the extent of user interaction, with the analysis suggesting that dialogic communication is used to manage critical user comments. Hence, the long-term study contributes to a deeper understanding of professionalization in corporate social media communication. It provides evidence for PR scholars and professionals that there are effective features on Facebook for managing sustainable relationships.