The Influence of Social Media on Corporate Reputation

Abstract

Public, private and other types of organizations, recognize the important role corporate reputation plays in ensuring good relations with stakeholders because it presents a favourable image of the organisation. In the recent past, the increased use of social media has resulted in both positive and negative reputational risks and the key question in regard to this becomes: What is the perceptions of stakeholders on the organisation or what it offers to the market?  To answer this question, a literature review was undertaken under the title; An examination of the influence of social media on the corporate reputation of organisations in Kenya. An analysis of various case studies and empirical research done by other scholars led to a set of proposals that organisations can employ to build on their online corporate reputation. The study adopted content analysis of the existing literature and data was collected from published peer-reviewed online articles authored by Kenyan authors through online publications found in databases of ResearchGate and Google Scholar.  The abroad review eventually narrowed down to 10 articles published between 2015 and 2024. Relevant keywords guided the search and established that social media has become an integral part of organisational communication with potential positive or negative impact on corporate reputation. In some instances, social media causes a loss of customer loyalty or organisational legitimacy, amongst other things. On the other hand, it may be a platform for the publication of organisational achievements and customer attachment to the products sold to them. Additionally, the review offered insights into the importance of employees as key organisational brand ambassadors, analysing social media content to enable organisations to make informed decisions and retain a positive corporate reputation. The findings led to the recommendation that social media can be used to improve corporate image as long as there are policies and strategic engagements with stakeholders. Additionally, future researchers can investigate and bridge the gap in the role of social media influencers on corporate reputation.