CSR Communication in Corporate Social Media : An Empirical Investigation of European Top Companies’ Use of Social Media between 2012 and 2020

Abstract

Social media (SM) platforms have emerged as an online arena in which people can have conversations both about and with organisations. They have become a place where organisations inform key stakeholders about their corporate governance and responsibility initiatives and address accountability concerns. However, early public relations (PR) research on SM and stakeholder engagement found that many organisations use SM as a way to push content instead of engaging their stakeholders. This chapter presents a two-wave study (2012–2013 and 2019–2020) investigating large European corporations’ use of SM for communicating their corporate social responsibility (CSR). We selected ten highly reputable European corporations that represent different industries and have different countries of origin. We analysed posts, videos and subsequent threads from the relevant corporate Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts for the studied periods. Reflections and implications for PR managers are offered.