The other perspective on stakeholder relationships

In this blog I would like to elaborate on the blog Emanuela published on September 16th, titled "Owned media as the way to create successful relationships with stakeholders". First, I will explain briefly what owned media are, as Emanuela did not do this in her blog: Owned media are all media of which an organization itself controls the content (own social media accounts or pages, their own websites, and other own media outlets). This blog explains more about this subject.

I believe Emanuela makes a good point when stressing the importance of using owned media for organizations - she writes about the role of owned media for maintaining a relationship with the stakeholders. However, in her blog Emanuela also argues that owned are a means for organizations to "control communication factors" ,"affect stakeholders' agenda" and are a "key influential tool". This choice of language, in my opinion, undermines and contradicts her earlier arguments concerning owned media being there for an organization to communicate with, rather than to, its stakeholders.

Megaphone (Source: Getty Images)

Although I do not completely agree with all the points this article discusses, Valentini (2015) points out that organizations often unfairly see social media as being a tool, rather than a means to maintain stakeholder relationships (something I do agree with). This is the distinction I see reflected in Emanuela's blog: She is actually contradicting herself. Additionally, Valentini (2015) points out that by understanding better how technologies could change public behaviors, PR professionals will be able to assess their social media actions better and provide more ethical and responsible advice to the organizations they work for.

Social media (Source: Unsplash, by William Iven)

What do you think should be the role of owned media with regard to stakeholder relationships? 

Are social media mainly a tool, or should PR professionals be more aware of its characteristics and effects on stakeholders? How important are social media actually when it comes down to stakeholder relationships? 

Please let me know in a comment.

If we rely on a study by Moreno et al. (2015), your answer to the previous questions might depend on the extent to which you use social media. The study found that the more PR professionals use social media, for both professional and personal purposes, the more importance you give to social media and its influence on stakeholders as well as to its relevance. In this sense Emanuela , a PR professional, could have a blurred vision when it comes to this subject.  She might overly stress the importance and relevance of owned media for organizational stakeholder relationships.

I feel like as PR professionals we have to take these matters into account. PR professionals working with social media might have a blurred vision on the effectiveness and importance of social media for organizations, and PR profession's 'colored view' on social media might overlook the fact that social media aren't necessarily only beneficial for organizations and public. Yet, on the other hand we should not let these ideas predominate the PR profession and also keep the organizational goals in mind. 

Please let me know what you think about this subject in the comment section!

  

About the author:

Frédérique van Gijn enjoys sports,  travelling, and good food. Being a BSc in Communication science, she has been working in corporate communication and marketing. She is currently a Master student Corporate Communication at the University of Amsterdam.