Social media: is this the new organizational stepchild?

This paper aims to investigate what activities allow the firm to efficiently and effectively integrate social media into its strategic marketing activities.

As the current research investigates a new area of focus in the literature, an exploratory study consistent with the adoption of new technology in a firm was used to identify salient activities. In-depth interviews with those who oversee their firm’s social media strategies were conducted to discover and assess organizational activities.

Findings suggest that many firms did not adopt organizational activities important for effective social media execution, leading us to the view social media as the “step-child” of corporate functions, not receiving resources more traditional functions would receive; those responsible for the social media function, an exercise in external communications, may be hampered by poor internal communications; and few firms have defined and measured goals for social media where employees are held accountable for supporting an overall marketing strategy.

The findings point the way for future confirmatory empirical research of organizational activities, top management team support and effective internal communication in the rapid-response environment of social media. Findings also provide implications for marketing practitioners for the use and measurement of social media to achieve marketing objectives.

The current research is meaningful and unique in that it approaches social media from the organizational process perspective, which has received little attention in the social media literature.