Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management

This article discusses the role played by social media communication in the development of strategies and management in organizations. It focuses on the communication strategies implemented by companies on social media platforms and highlights the importance of clarity in organizational communication. The article suggests that proper management of communication and strategies is crucial for resolving issues raised by internal and external stakeholders. It also emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between organizational communication purposes on social media.

Running head: STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Macnamara and Zerfass (2012) in the article entitled “Social media communication in
organizations: The challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management” discusses
the role played by the communication over the social media in the development of the strategies
and the management of the organization. The following paper attempts a summarization of the
issues that are presented by the authors in the given article. The paper discusses the contribution
of the article towards the realm of the strategic communication that is maintained within the
companies that are active within the global market.
The article focusses majorly on the communication strategies that are implemented by the
companies within the social media that is utilized by the organization in order to communicate
with the clientele. The article attempts a proper discussion on the interactions that are conducted
by the organization over the various social media platforms. The article suggests that the
concerned organizations tend to communicate with the clientele in a lucid and interactive manner
through the use of the social media (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). The majority of the issues that
are evident within the organization tends to reveal the fact that the online communication
through the social media channels helps in the proper interaction with the stakeholders of the
organization. The incorporation of the social media in the communicational strategies and
components of the organization helps in the implementation of the clarity within the
communications within the organization.
The article helps the concerned readers of the article to have a proper understanding of
the issues that might be resolved with the implementation of the social media as one of the major
mediums for the communication within the concerned organization. The article highlights the
various positive factors that are important in the development of the operations within the
company. The researches that were conducted for the composition of the article are observed to

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be exploratory in nature and not definitive in nature. The questionnaire that was used for the
survey was broad in nature thereby leading to the descriptive statistical analysis of the findings
as well as the comparison of the findings from the survey (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). The
article hints at the fact that the concerned business organizations should implement the proper
management of the communications and the strategies that are required for the resolution of the
issues that are raised by the internal as well as the external stakeholders of the organization. The
article states that the concerned departments of the business organization should be advised to
maintain a proper governance of the communication that takes place on the part of the concerned
business organization. The article further discusses that the business organizations should
maintain a proper balance between the two purposes of organizational communication through
the several social media channels.
The major practical implications that can be derived from the article is the fact that the
organizational communication with the stakeholders of the organization is extremely important
for the development of the overall performance of the concerned organization in the given
markets. The major goals of the communication that is undertaken by the concerned organization
over the social media tends to provide the concerned stakeholders to put forth the issues that they
have been facing as well as allows the company to promote the services and the products of the
company in a proper manner that helps in attracting concerned clients of the company
(Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). The communication that is established by the company over the
social media helps in the discussion on the ways for the development of the company and
thereby gain an increase in the competitive advantage of the company.
The key point that makes the article most interesting is the fact that the social media
communication within the article tends to help the organization to deal with the governance of

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the internal operations within the organization as well as is helpful in the discussion on the
overall impression of the company as is being put forth by the concerned companies in the social
media (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012). The article helps the readers to learn about the effective
usage of the communication in order to find a resolution of the issues that are faced by the
organization in relation to the various stakeholders of the organization.
The article helps the future researchers as well as the readers of the article to gain
knowledge on the various issues and the development of the communication that is undertaken
by the concerned organization over the social media. The readers of the article would help in the
understanding of the importance of the proper communication over the social media as a means
to develop the competitive advantage within the given organization.

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References
Macnamara, J., & Zerfass, A. (2012). Social media communication in organizations: The
challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of
Strategic Communication, 6(4), 287-308. Available at DOI:
10.1080/1553118X.2012.711402