Examining social networking site narratives between government and youth on entrepreneurship : the case of relationship development in Egypt

Analysis of the ways in which SNS (Social Networking Sites) are used by governments, organisations and everyday users has over the past ten years been of significant interest to academic researchers. Part of this analysis of use has included understanding how in the Middle East, SNS were used in the series of anti-government protests known as the Arab Spring. Specifically, in Egypt, during the January 25 Revolution, a large number of youth users went on SNS such as Facebook to disseminate information, create conversations and raise awareness of their perspectives and concerns. Whilst use in protest and demonstration may result in aspects such as a drop in public trust of government agents, SNS could also contribute to significant relational outcomes such as relationship development and trust.This study takes Egypt as its foci in investigating the outcomes of SNS interaction between Government agencies and Youth users. This study aims to understand the role of the topic about which conversations are occurring in communicating with the citizens. Additionally, this study places emphasis on the role of the government agency in changing the perceptions of the Government through SNS interactions.This study contributes to the burgeoning domain of SNS studies by providing a non- traditional approach to its theoretical background. It specifically achieves this by adopting three areas of focus; first, SNS which includes a site and user perspective. Second, the political context which includes Marketing theory and government studies. Third, relationship development and trust which includes a multi theory lens into theorising the outcomes of SNS interactions. Therefore, it is the first study to apply Political Marketing Theory in Egypt in a non-electoral context. Using novel applications of Relationship Marketing and Public Relations theory, this study presents an understanding of the relationship orientation in the interaction between GOFE and Youth on SNS. Furthermore, the analysis regarding trust development in this study is developed through a framework that highlights both the users’ perspective of trust and the organisations' efforts towards achieving trust.This study adopts a social constructivist approach. Therefore, this investigation embraces qualitative inductive methods. Due to the rich culture and high interaction of the context investigated, the research problem at hand was addressed through the application of netnography. The Netnographic package includes; firstly, an online observation of Facebook pages followed by textual analysis. Secondly, it includes two sets of interviews with a sample of the users (i.e. Youth) and the organisations (i.e. GOFE). Using Thematic Analysis ten different themes were extracted from the three sources of data (i.e. Facebook data, GOFE interviews and Youth interviews).The findings from this study suggest that GOFE SNS representation is not yet mature. However, findings demonstrate that GOFE are in the process of becoming a generalisable model of government SNS representation. This could occur with the drop in control over engagement and movement to engagement strategies beyond those targeted primarily at publicity alone. Indeed, this study confirms the significant influence of SNS in fostering positive relational outcomes between the Government and Youth, while confirming the role of the topic and agency. These findings are discussed in light of theoretical contribution and practical implication to the government sector. Whereas previous studies have focused on one aspect of the communication process, this study is the first conducted in the public sector domain in Egypt that focuses on the observed behaviours of GOFE on SNS, perceived behaviours of GOFE by Youth and the strategic intent of GOFE by being present on SNS. This study concludes with limitations incurred and recommendations for practice and future studies. Finally, this study argues that with a further optimised SNS representation, there is indeed hope in developing relationships and achieving trust between Government and citizens in Egypt through SNS interaction

Flaunting it on Facebook: Young adults, drinking cultures and the cult of celebrity

Copyright © Antonia Lyons; Tim McCreanor; Fiona Hutton; Ian Goodwin; Helen Moewaka Barnes; Christine Griffin; Kerryellen Vroman; Acushla Dee O’Carroll; Patricia Niland; Lina Samu Print publication available from: http://www.drinkingcultures.info/Young adults in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) regularly engage in heavy drinking episodes with groups of friends within a collective culture of intoxication to ‘have fun’ and ‘be sociable’. This population has also rapidly increased their use of new social networking technologies (e.g. mobile camera/ video phones; Facebook and YouTube) and are said to be obsessed with identity, image and celebrity. This research project explored the ways in which new technologies are being used by a range of young people (and others, including marketers) in drinking practices and drinking cultures in Aotearoa/NZ. It also explored how these technologies impact on young adults’ behaviours and identities, and how this varies across young adults of diverse ethnicities (Maori [indigenous people of NZ], Pasifika [people descended from the Pacific Islands] and Pakeha [people of European descent]), social classes and genders. We collected data from a large and diverse sample of young adults aged 18-25 years employing novel and innovative methodologies across three data collection stages. In total 141 participants took part in 34 friendship focus group discussions (12 Pakeha, 12 Maori and 10 Pasifika groups) while 23 young adults showed and discussed their Facebook pages during an individual interview that involved screencapture software and video recordings. Popular online material regarding drinking alcohol was also collected (via groups, interviews, and web searches), providing a database of 487 links to relevant material (including websites, apps, and games). Critical and in-depth qualitative analyses across these multimodal datasets were undertaken. Key findings demonstrated that social technologies play a crucial role in young adults’ drinking cultures and processes of identity construction. Consuming alcohol to a point of intoxication was a commonplace leisure-time activity for most of the young adult participants, and social network technologies were fully integrated into their drinking cultures. Facebook was employed by all participants and was used before, during and following drinking episodes. Uploading and sharing photos on Facebook was particularly central to young people’s drinking cultures and the ongoing creation of their identities. This involved a great deal of Facebook ‘work’ to ensure appropriate identity displays such as tagging (the addition of explanatory or identifying labels) and untagging photos. Being visible online was crucial for many young adults, and they put significant amounts of time and energy into updating and maintaining Facebook pages, particularly with material regarding drinking practices and events. However this was not consistent across the sample, and our findings revealed nuanced and complex ways in which people from different ethnicities, genders and social classes engaged with drinking cultures and new technologies in different ways, reflecting their positioning within the social structure. Pakeha shared their drinking practices online with relatively little reflection, while Pasifika and Maori participants were more likely to discuss avoiding online displays of drinking and demonstrated greater reflexive self-surveillance. Females spoke of being more aware of normative expectations around gender than males, and described particular forms of online identity displays (e.g. moderated intake, controlled selfdetermination). Participants from upper socio-economic groups expressed less concern than others about both drinking and posting material online. Celebrity culture was actively engaged with, in part at least, as a means of expressing what it is to be a young adult in contemporary society, and reinforcing the need for young people to engage in their own everyday practices of ‘celebritising’ themselves through drinking cultures online. Alcohol companies employed social media to market their products to young people in sophisticated ways that meant the campaigns and actions were rarely perceived as marketing. Online alcohol marketing initiatives were actively appropriated by young people and reproduced within their Facebook pages to present tastes and preferences, facilitate social interaction, construct identities, and more generally develop cultural capital. These commercial activities within the commercial platforms that constitute social networking systems contribute heavily to a general ‘culture of intoxication’ while simultaneously allowing young people to ‘create’ and ‘produce’ themselves online via the sharing of consumption ‘choices’, online interactions and activities

Better Left Forgotten: An Argument Against Treating Some Social Media and Digital Assets as Inheritance in an Era of Platform Power

Restraining technological platforms’ power has become one of the main concerns of our era. The control over cyberspace and data ownership are among the key issues addressed in the literature. Yet, the ongoing vigorous debate surrounding the inheritance of digital assets remains surprisingly oblivious of the platform’s involvement in shaping memory and continuity. Current legal scholarship and legislation ask whether social network profiles are inheritable property; they balance the user’s privacy and wishes against family members’ interests, without addressing or even considering the corporate power at play. This article argues that we are constantly asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking whether profiles are property, we need to ask how to protect the agency of the user considering this balance of powers. This article adds this important consideration to the current debate on inheriting digital assets, promoting the counterintuitive argument that under certain circumstances social network profiles should not be considered as inheritable property, but rather be deleted at death

You\u27re Fired: Pack Everything but Your Social Media Passwords

The global proliferation of social media has transformed these online platforms—once used almost exclusively by young, tech-savvy Millennials—into transcontinental mediums of communication and expression. Through social media, dictatorships have been overthrown, human rights abuses have been exposed, and the oppressed have been given a voice. The social and cultural impact has been truly prolific. But until recently, social media’s economic impact was less clear. Now, though, myriad evidence—ranging from studies focusing on revenue generated from a single Facebook “Like,” to commentary positing that trillions of dollars in value have yet to be realized—indicates the potential commercial advantages stemming from social media’s use. With over one-billion users worldwide, the small percentage of companies not using social media to market and maintain relationships will likely face difficulty competing with companies that adequately utilize these inexpensive platforms. But while social media’s place in commerce is now established, the legal consequences of its misuse in the workplace are nebulous. Courts and legislatures have struggled to balance the competing interests of business autonomy and employees’ privacy rights, ultimately resulting in a patchwork of judicial holdings and reactive legislation. And with little guidance from courts, companies have struggled to adapt to the ever-changing social media landscape. Thus, companies are attempting to navigate the legal thicket by drafting explicitly restrictive social media policies that protect business interests. This legal ambiguity has prompted a recent trend in employment-contract drafting that threatens to disrupt social media’s market potential. These new provisions effectively force employees to turn over social media passwords to their employers upon termination of employment. At first blush, this practice might seem innocuous. This Comment argues that it is anything but. Coupled with a balancing of the equities approach, an analysis of pertinent principles of contract, privacy, and tort law shows that employees’ rights should prevail. As a matter of law and equity, an employee’s right to retain access to her social media accounts post-termination should be assured through a judicial prohibition of these overly intrusive employment provisions

Building trust from Afar : the impact of CEOs visibility and communication on social networking sites on trust among their remote working teams

This dissertation examines the impact of Chief Executive Officers CEOs)visibilityand communication on social networking sites (SNS) on trust in them among remote working teams.The research aims to address two main questions: (1) Does CEOs visibility on SNS increase trust in them among remote employees?; (2) What specific context of CEOs posts on SNS has a more significant impact on the development of cognitive-basedtrust and remote employees' perceptions of CEOs' trustworthiness? A mixed methods approach was employed to answer these research questions. An online surveywas conducted, receiving 358 responses and yielding a 96%completion rate. Additionally, open-ended questions were included in th esurvey, resulting in 55 responses. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with CEOs. The findings reveal that CEOs visibility on social media positively influences trust among remote teams. Employees agree that CEOs visibility on SNS contributes to increased trust. The study also highlights the significance of context in shaping employee perceptions.The professional contextdrives trust in CEO competence, reliability, and commitment,while the private context influences perceptions of honesty and openness. CEOs’ opinions regarding this matter varied, with some emphasizing alignment with company values, authenticity, and context, while others recognized potential positive and negative effects. This research intends to contribute to the fields of organizational communication, interpersonal organizational relationships, leadership communication, andbehavior. The implications of the findings suggest that trust is multifaceted, with attributes such as honesty, competence, reliability, and openness playing key roles. CEOs should prioritize these attributes to build and maintain trust among remote employees. Furthermore, CEOs should be mindful of how they present themselves in both professional and private contexts. lEsta dissertação analisa o impacto da visibilidade e da comunicação nas redes sociais (SNS) dos Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) na confiança depositada neles pelas equipes de trabalho remoto. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivor esponder a duas questões principais: (1) A visibilidade dos CEOs nas redes sociais aumenta a confiança depositada neles pelos funcionários remotos? (2 ) Qual contexto específico dos posts dos CEOs nas redes sociais que têm um impacto mais significativo no desenvolvimento da confiança, baseada na cognição, e na percepção dos profissionais remotos sobre a confiabilidade dos CEOs? A abordagem seguida para tentar responder a estas perguntas de investigação assentou em métodos mistos foi levado a cabo um inquérito online, recebendo 358 respostas e alcançando uma taxa de conclusãode 96%. Além disso, foram incluídas perguntas abertas, as quais receberam 55 respostas. Foram também realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas a CEOs. Os resultados da investigação revelam que a visibilidade dos CEOs nos media sociais influencia positivamente a confiança entre membros de equipas remotas. Os profissionaisemcausaconcordamqueavisibilidadedosCEOsnasSNScontribuiparao aumentodaconfiança.Esteestudotambémdestacaaimportânciadocontextonaformação das percepções dos membros das equipas. O contexto profissional gera confiança na competência, confiabilidade e comprometimento do CEO, enquanto que o contexto privadoinfluenciaaspercepçõesdehonestidadeeabertura.AsopiniõesdosCEOssobre esse assunto variaram. Alguns enfatizaram a harmonia com os valores da empresa, a autenticidade e o contexto, enquanto outros reconheceram potenciais efeitos quer positivos quer negativos. Esta investigação pretende contribuir para os campos da comunicação organizacional, nomeadamente na área dos relacionamentos interpessoais organizacionais, bem como comunicação e comportamento de liderança. As implicações dos resultados obtidos sugerem que a confiança é multifacetada, sendo que atributos como honestidade, competência, confiabilidade e abertura desempenham papéis-chave. Os CEOs devem, por isso, prioritizar esses atributos para construir e manter a confiança entre os profissionais remotos. Além disso, os CEOs devem estar atentos à forma como se apresentam tanto em contextos profissionais como privados

Segmenting the social networking sites users: An empirical study

The growth of social networking sites (SNS) presents businesses and marketers with risks and challenges. Customers become sophisticated, empowered and increasingly involved in shaping of the marketing offer. Marketers are becoming aware of the threat of losing control over their message but also begin to realise the potential of SNS as marketing tools; understanding the nature of the SNS users and the way they interact online is a vital step in developing business strategies targeting and engaging the networked consumer. The paper presents an explorative survey on the demographics, background, adoption motives and behaviour of SNS users as bases for the identification of segments in this market. The survey, held among SNS users in The Netherlands, identifies four distinctive user profiles of social networking users. The paper presents the results of the survey, discusses the management implications of the findings and identifies areas of future research

Promoting Corporate Philanthropic Efforts through Social Media

Corporations face the challenge of creating awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts while avoiding the appearance of being overly self-congratulatory or self-serving. The low cost and less obtrusive format of social media may make it a useful communication option for creating awareness of philanthropic activities. Content analysis was used to examine how three types of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) were used to provide information on corporate philanthropic activities. Forty corporations from the Fortune 100 were sampled to address three research questions. The first two research questions pertained to the availability of social media tools and the specific locations of access to those tools. Results revealed 82.5% of the 40 corporations provided links to at least one social media platform and 22 provided at least one type of link to at least one type of philanthropic activity. The third research question examined how social media platforms were used to report the eight types of philanthropy identified by Kotler and Lee (2005). In all, 140 philanthropic activities were reported. The most frequently reported types of philanthropic activity included donating cash (n = 72, 51.40%), donating products (n = 27, 19.30%), donating services (n = 15, 10.71%), offering grants (n = 13, 9.29%), and awarding scholarships (n = 5, 5.71%). Other types of philanthropy were infrequent. Results suggest these social media platforms offer a viable option for brief reports of philanthropic activities

Leveraging Online Social Capital: How the German Red Cross Uses Social Networking Sites

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that focus on humanitarianism, such as the Red Cross, provide services that make the world a better place. To do so, they are highly dependent on a network that generates goodwill, volunteers, and donations. Social Networking Sites (SNS) are a vital channel for NGOs to pursue their organisational objectives. However, how NGOs utilise SNS to tap into resources for social action is insufficiently understood. In this paper, we investigate how the German Red Cross builds and fosters online social capital via SNS. We conducted semi-structured interviews with five SNS experts from regional units of the German Red Cross and analysed their corresponding Twitter and Facebook profiles. Our findings help identify crucial areas of social capital management via SNS for practitioners in the non-profit sector. Moreover, our research contributes to the conceptualisation of organisational online social capital by classifying SNS constituents with respect to structural, relational, and cognitive dimension

From Ideas to Practice, Pilots to Strategy: Practical Solutions and Actionable Insights on How to Do Impact Investing

This report is the second publication in the World Economic Forum's Mainstreaming Impact Investing Initiative. The report takes a deeper look at why and how asset owners began to include impact investing in their portfolios and continue to do so today, and how they overcame operational and cultural constraints affecting capital flow. Given that impact investing expertise is spread among dozens if not hundreds of practitioners and academics, the report is a curation of some -- but certainly not all -- of those leading voices. The 15 articles are meant to provide investors, intermediaries and policy-makers with actionable insights on how to incorporate impact investing into their work.The report's goals are to show how mainstream investors and intermediaries have overcome the challenges in the impact investment sector, and to democratize the insights and expertise for anyone and everyone interested in the field. Divided into four main sections, the report contains lessons learned from practitioner's experience, and showcases best practices, organizational structures and innovative instruments that asset owners, asset managers, financial institutions and impact investors have successfully implemented