PR툴로써 블로그의 이용은 기하급수적으로 확산되고 있는 반면, PR이론들은 전혀 뒷받침을 하지 못한다. 유명한 PR교수들 중에서는 Web2.0이 뭔지도 모르시는 분들이 분명히 있다. 현실과 거리가 뭔 이론들은 생명가치가 그만큼 줄어든다고 생각한다. 필자는 현재 이런 점들에 관하여 논문을 준비 중이다. 논문을 쓰기 위해서는 수많은 논문들을 읽는 것이 가장 기본적인 방법이다. 논문들을 읽으면서 도움이 되는 논문들을 정리해서 올려보기로 했다. 우선 블로그와 PR이라는 키워드를 검색하여 20여 개의 논문들과 칼럼 등을 습득했다. 오늘 소개할 논문은 Corporate Blogs as a Public Relations Tool이라는 제목의 논문이다. 이 논문은 PR 툴로써 기업 블로그의 전략들과 실체들은 분석했다. 이론은 관계유지 PR이론을 사용했으며, Content Analysis (내용분석)을 이용했다. Fortune 500 개의 회사들 중 Blogging wiki로 검색해서 31개의 조직블로그를 분석했다.
우선 기업블로그가 뭘까? Marken(2005)은 corporate blogs can be an effective and efficient communication tool because of blogs’ unique characteristics that facilitate both one-way and two-way communication, and both mass and interpersonal communications 이라고 정의했다. 블로그의 흥미와 많은 회사들의 블로그 이용에도 불구하고, 현재까지 기업블로그에 관한 연구는 거의 없었다. 이 연구가 기업블로그 연구에 있어서는 최초라고 생각이 든다. 어떤 연구들과 마찬가지로 이론이 필요하다. 이 논문은 Relational Maintenance Strategies in Public Relations 관계유지 이론을 적용했다. 그루닉은 PR의 궁극적인 목표는 조직의 key publics과 관계를 만드는 것이라고 주장했다. 최근 PR이론의 흐름은 PR의 관계 경영에 초점을 맞추고 있다. Ledingham 과 Bruning은 관계를 이렇게 정의했다. “The state which exists between an organization and its key publics in which the actions of either entity impact the economic, social, political and / or cultural well-being of the other entity.” 장기적이고 조직과 공중간의 상호 이익적인 관계는 PR의 가장 이상적인 쌍방 균형모델의 핵심 포인트라고 그루닉은 주장했다. 많은 PR학자들은 어떻게 하면 조직과 공중과의 관계를 유지할까?에 고민을 하고 있다. 요즘 Interpersonal relationship 이론이 핵심으로 떠오르고 있다. 혼과 그루닉(1999)은 PR research에 관계 유지 전략을 적용하기 위해 다섯가지 전략을 제시했고, 나중에 Stafford 와 Canary가 한가지(access)를 추가했다. 여섯가지 전략은 다음과 같다.
“Access” is defined as providing public access to representatives of organizations or organizational decision making processes and at the same providing public relations practitioners with access to members of publics. “Positivity” refers to interacting with each other in a cheerful way and attempting to make interactions enjoyable. “Openness” refers to self-disclosure and free conversations between partners in a relationship. “Assurance” is showing one’s continuation in the relationship and commitment to the partner and the relationship. “Social networks” refer to interacting with or relying on common affiliations and spending time with common friends. “Sharing tasks” is defined as attempts to maintain a relationship by performing one’s shared responsibilities such as household chores in the case of marriage relationships.
다시 한번 강조하지만 Relationship building management는 요즘 PR 실무자와 학자들 사이에서 가장 중심 되는 이슈이다. 기업블로그는 조직과 공중 사이에서 관계를 유지하기 위한 효율적이고 중요한 PR 툴이다. 왜냐하면 블로그는 Interpersonal 과 mass communications에 가장 적용할 수 있는 독창적인 특징을 가지고 있기 때문이다. 이 논문은 관계유지 전력 중 대인관계에 초점을 맞춘 여섯 가지의 요소들을 토대로 연구가 행해졌다. 결론은 말하자면 기업이 블로그를 효과적으로 사용하는 비율은 극소수이고, 조직블로그는 조직의 고객과 공중과 좋은 관계를 유지하기 위한 관계유지 전략에 적용할 수 있는 뛰어난 PR툴이지만 실제로 이런 점들을 활용한 기업블로그를 찾기 힘들었다고 말한다. PR 실무자들은 기업블로그의 독특한 특징들을 활용하기 위한 다양한 방법들을 모색해야 한다고 주장했다. Future study에서는 표본이 너무 작아서 다음 연구에는 더 많은 기업블로그를 주장해야 하고, 또한 한국, 일본 같은 블로그가 발달 된 나라의 특징들도 조사해야 한다고 한다. 블로그는 기업 커뮤니케이션의 핵심이다. 어떻게 하면 기업의 고객들과 공중들에게 블로그를 이용하여 활발한 커뮤니케이션을 하는 방안을 구체적으로 연구, 제시해야 하며, 실질적인 기업블로그 활용에 있어서 전통PR이론의 접목을 위한 연구가 시급히 필요하다고 주장한다.
이 논문은 PR 툴로써 블로그의 전반적인 이해와 특히 기업블로그의 특징들을 내용분석을 통해 자세히 보여준다. 기업블로그에 관한 논문의 시발점이기도 해서 이 논문을 소개하게 되었다. 앞으로 표본을 더 늘리고, 또한 IT강국 대한민국, 일본, 중국처럼 인터넷이 생활화 되는 나라에서 어떻게 기업들이 블로그를 활용하고 있으며, 문제점과, 어떻게 하면 더 전략적인 PR툴로써 블로그를 활용할 수 있는 지에 관한 연구가 필요하다.
필자가 요약한 논문 Key note 첨부한다.
1. Corporate Blogs as a Public Relations Tool
: A Content Analysis Applying the Relational Maintenance Framework
This study analyzed practice and strategies of corporate blogs as a public relations tool. Applying the relational maintenance framework, a content analysis was conducted to examine how major corporations utilize blogs for building and maintaining their relationships with various publics. The study’s findings reveal that among six relational maintenance strategies, Positivity, assurances, and sharing tasks were most frequently applied by corporate blogs. Corporate blogs in service or retail industries are more likely to use relational maintenance strategies than those in a manufacturing industry.
In spite of the growing interests in and adoption of blogs by many corporations, a corporate blog has not drawn much research attention and many questions remain unanswered regarding characteristics of corporate blogs, what companies are using corporate blogs, what specific relationship management strategies are used in corporate blogs, and what effects companies can expect from corporate blogs.
Theory: Relational Maintenance Strategies in Public Relations
A relationship in PR is defined as “the state which exists between an organization and its key publics in which the actions of either entity impact the economic, social, political and / or cultural well-being of the other entity.” A number of scholars have examined how to maintain relationships between an organization and its publics, and impacts of relationships with publics on an organization. Interpersonal relationship theories have been proven to be a useful framework for conceptualizing characteristics of a good relationship and effective relational maintenance strategies. Hon and Grunig (1999) identified six key strategies for maintaining two-way symmetrical public relationships by adding “access” to the original five relational maintenance strategies suggested by Stafford and Canary. “Access” is defined as providing public access to representatives of organizations or organizational decision making processes and at the same providing public relations practitioners with access to members of publics. “Positivity” refers to interacting with each other in a cheerful way and attempting to make interactions enjoyable. “Openness” refers to self-disclosure and free conversations between partners in a relationship. “Assurance” is showing one’s continuation in the relationship and commitment to the partner and the relationship. “Social networks” refer to interacting with or relying on common affiliations and spending time with common friends. “Sharing tasks” is defined as attempts to maintain a relationship by performing one’s shared responsibilities such as household chores in the case of marriage relationships.
RQ1) To what extent do major corporations use corporate blogs?
RQ2) What are key characteristics of corporate blogs?
RQ3) Do corporate blogs employ the six relational maintenance strategies? If so, how the strategies are used in blogs?
RQ4) Are there significant difference in the level of employment of relational maintenance strategies among different industry types?
Method
A content analysis of 31 corporate blogs was conducted to address the research questions. To identify corporate blogs for this study, first, an operational definition of a corporate blog was predetermined. A corporate blog is defined as a blog which is explicitly endorsed by a company and maintained by a person affiliated with the company. Based on this definition, the study sample was created from companies listed on Fortune 500 Companies and Interbrand Top 100 Global brands.
Sampling
The researcher used popular search engines. They found 26 corporate blogs and did cross-checked against a list obtained from “blogging wiki”. From this blogging wiki, the researcher found 11 more corporate blogs, resulting in a total 37 blogs. They did 31 corporate blogs.
Measurements and Coding
The coding scheme was developed based on the relational maintenance research literature. Access, which is defined as providing public access to representatives of a company or to decision making process, was measured by presence of contact information such as physical address, telephone number, and email address of a corporation in its blog. Positivity was measured by the number of different user-friendly navigation tools and presence of multi-media features, because these features can be considered as a corporation’s attempts to make interaction enjoyable. Openness refers to open two-way communication between blog authors and visitors and was operationalized by presence of various two-way communication features including comment and trackback functions. Social networks, defined as networking with common friends and affiliations, were measured by presence of blogroll and the number of links on the blogroll. Assurances, which are conveyed in messages stressing commitment to the partner, were measured by presence of various blog policy statements.
Results
RQ1: Extent to which major corporations use blogs
Only 37 corporations were found to operate corporate blogs and two among them were later found to be closed down.
RQ3: Employment of relational maintenance strategies in corporate blogs
Access was measured by presence of contact information of blog authors and corporations. None of corporate bloggers revealed their contact information including their physical addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers. The results indicate that the “access” strategy is rarely used among corporate blog authors. Positivity of blogs was measured by presence of various navigational features and multi0media contents. Openness was measured by presence of a comment function through which visitors could provide their feedback and respond to entries. Social network; A blogroll function is considered to be used for social network building. Assurance was measured by presence of various policy statements about blogs. Sharing tasks was measured by the frequency of blog postings.
Conclusion and Discussion
Relationship building and management has been a central issue among public relations practitioners and scholars. A corporate blog has emerged as a viable and effective tool for maintaining relationships between a corporation and its publics because its unique characteristics suitable for both interpersonal and mass communication. This study examined the current status and main characteristics of corporate blogs and adoption of relational maintenance strategies by corporate blogs as a relationship management tool. While corporate blogs tend to adopt various relational maintenance strategies to maintain good relationships with their visitors, application of such strategies appears to be concentrated on a certain type of strategies and other strategies are rarely used. None of the corporate blogs showed features that indicate application of the access strategy. On the contrary, the majority of corporate blogs have interactive features enabling easy navigation (Positivity), open two-way communication (openness), and connections to related fields and people (social network). Also, two-thirds of the blogs in the sample have policy statements which assure visitors of protection of their privacy and copyright (assurance). The results of this research suggest that current corporate blogs have only limited contribution to corporate relationship managements. To use blogs as a tool for two-way symmetric public relations campaigns in a truest sense, practitioners have to deliberate various ways of utilizing unique features of blogs, such as comment functions (openness) and blogrolls (social networks).
Implications and future study
This study is the first attempt to explore and to provide a description of the current status of corporate blogs. Although there is only limited number of companies using corporate blogs, as more and more corporations adopt blogs into their integrated marketing communication programs, future research should update the picture of the corporate blogosphere. How consumers and members of various publics interact with and respond to corporate blogs cannot be answered by this study and calls for more research. Future research should explore how consumers and members of publics respond to corporate blogs and whether the blog features and strategies reported in this study can indeed enhance a mutually beneficial relationship between organizations and their publics. Also, future content analysis research may want to analyze content of individual postings as well as blog features to further investigate how corporations use blogs.
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