Sam Tickell - S11764930 - Dissertation

The impact of social media on
university communications
Investigating social media communications on
strategic communications and reputation in the
Australian University sector.
Samuel Tickell - S11764930
MASTERS DISSERTATION
Master of Arts (Social Media) at Birmingham City University

of 82 Samuel Tickell - S11764930
Abstract
This research investigated the impact of social media communications on strategic
communications and reputation in the Australian university sector. The sector is
undergoing transformation through changes in government regulations and a changing
sector for students and staff. Government and peak body stakeholders were
interviewed with their answers being coded and analysed using thematic analysis and
through discourse analysis. The research was brought together using first and second
level agenda setting theory; imagined audience and context collapse.
There were three primary findings from the research that include: why innovation and
investment is important for social media in strategic communications; the importance
and impact on communications planning; and the importance of empowering staff,
especially research staff. Key outcomes included that the stakeholders did not believe
that social media had a high possibility of affecting university reputation. What social
media could achieve is the ability to set an agenda on research or regarding policy. It
can also provide research staff with an additional avenue to communicate the
outcomes and updates regarding their research, providing an important
communication tool for researchers and research bodies.
The research provides information and outcomes that can be used in the strategic
communications profession and for reputation management in the Australian
university sector along with similar sectors and university environments around the
world. It has provided additional information for the theories investigated in this
research and provides a basis for additional research into using social media for
strategic communications purposes.

Acknowledgements
There are a great many people to thank for helping me through the Masters and this
dissertation process. First of all, I have to thank the excellent Birmingham City
University staff, particularly Dave Harte. Without his leadership and tutelage I would
have never been able to complete this dissertation and degree.
A big thanks has to go to my colleagues in the Corporate Communication and Public
Relations office at the University of Southern Queensland. They have been great
sounding boards, kept me on track and put up with me during this process. Equally I
have to thank my family and friends for the same. Particularly to my mum, dad and
my sister who have been a huge support throughout.
There also has to be a vote of thanks to those who were involved in the research for
this project. The research phase was conducted during a very busy and unsettling
time for the University sector in Australia and to those who made time to talk to me –
thank-you. I also appreciate your candour and openness that has helped provide such
interesting outcomes.
It has certainly been an interesting time and I’ve gone through a massive learning
curve to complete this Masters degree. It has been worth every late night, missed
weekend and journal read...

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................3
TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................4
LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................4
1.0 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................5
2.0 THE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT .............................................8
2.1 Social media use in Australian universities .........................................................................10
3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................14
3.1 Agenda setting theory..........................................................................................................16
3.2 Imagined audience, collapsed context - the social media theory ........................................19
3.3 Strategic Communication and Reputation ...........................................................................22
3.4 Conclusion to the Literature Review....................................................................................26
4.0 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................27
4.1 The data collection process.................................................................................................27
4.2 The data analysis techniques..............................................................................................29
4.4 Limitations ...........................................................................................................................32
4.5 Conclusion to Methodology .................................................................................................33
5.0 FINDINGS ...........................................................................................................34
5.1 Investment and innovation...................................................................................................35
5.2 Communications planning ...................................................................................................44
5.3 Empowering staff.................................................................................................................52
5.4 Conclusion to the Findings ..................................................................................................62
6.0 ANALYSIS ..........................................................................................................63
6.1 Agenda setting theory..........................................................................................................64
6.2 Context collapse and imagined audience............................................................................66
6.3 Reputation ...........................................................................................................................69
6.4 Strategic communications ...................................................................................................71
6.5 Conclusion to Analysis ........................................................................................................73
7.0 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................74
LIST OF REFERENCES ...........................................................................................77
List of Figures
Figure 1 – Univeristy Social Meida Accounts………………………………….....……………………………12

1.0 Introduction

Australian universities face many pressures on their communications agendas and
social media has arguably risen to be a major pressure for strategic communication
professionals particularly in areas such as stakeholder communications and reputation
management. The research will seek to determine whether social media
communications can be used for public relations or strategic communications
purposes with a key goal in mind of influencing key stakeholder agendas insofar of
policy, funding and lobbying by organisations that affect the university sector in
Australia.

As the Australian university sector changes, there could be differing pressure to
university communications strategy, areas that this research will investigate. The
Australian university sector, like many in the Western world, is undergoing a change
process to meet the challenges of skilled graduate changes, demographic shifts with
an aging of academic staff as a 2006 survey showing that almost 40% of academic
staff were aged over 50 suggesting retirement within the next decade1
. Importantly,
public spending is under greater scrutiny and there is a risk of decreased government
funding for the sector. Such changes influence university reputation, how universities
communicate with their audiences and how they set their agendas.

There has been some research into the effect of social media communication for
marketing purposes, for learning technologies that offer peer-to-peer communication.
Additionally there has been research into the reputation of organisations and
1
Hugo, G, 2008, The Demographic Outlook for Australian Universities’ Academic Staff, Chass Occasional Papers.

stakeholder engagement. There appears to have been little research conducted
regarding University to government or University to other stakeholder relations and
how social media or online communications can impact those relationships. Issues
including risk and legal liabilities were not included in the scope of the research, as
these could be considered operational and continually changing, requiring specialist
knowledge to be applied to social media usage.

There were two theoretical constructs that formed the basis of the research. The first
was the concepts of collapsed context and the imagined audience. These social media
theories help explain the infinite amount of users that can come into contact with the
message and the impact on the message meaning when it comes into contact with that
uncontrolled audience. Agenda setting theory and second level agenda setting theory
provided the communications theory to underline the research. The agenda setting
theory outlined how the importance of the message goes from one party to another
and second level agenda setting theory outlines how people form the attitude around
that message.

The research was built around the stakeholder groups looking in at the university
sector and assessing what their views, attitudes and expectations are for the university
sector strategic communications and social media. As such, the profession of
stakeholder relations and the function of reputation management provided a base for
the research and the theoretical perspectives. Additionally, strategic communications
formed the base because of its direct relationship with reputation management,
providing more relevance than student communications, brand management or
learning technologies.


The theoretical background and the professional backgrounds came together to see if
universities and a strategy should be investing in social media for strategic
communications purposes. The research sought to further the theoretical perspectives
related to communications and social media. Additionally other outcomes included
whether social media communications can impact reputation of Australian
universities. A key driver of this research was whether social media could be a tool
that would affect change in policy funding from the relevant bodies. Finally the
research sought to determine the attitudes from key stakeholders towards universities
regarding social media communication and innovation on those channels that may
affect strategic communications or the reputation of universities in Australia.

2.0 The Australian University Environment
This research was undertaken in a time of uncertainty and change in the Australian
university sector. The majority of the interviews were held in the weeks following a
federal budget announcement that proposed to cut funding in the sector including cuts
to research and to governance of the universities from external bodies2 3
. Changes
were also announced to deregulate the university student environment to allow
universities to charge students higher fees while at the same time decreasing the
federal funding provided to universities2
.

In 2014, there were 40 universities permitted to operate and teach in Australia4
. All
universities have to meet specific government requirements to be able to operate and
are overseen for quality and other business purposes5
. The federal government
provides the majority of funding for universities in Australia and much of the research
funding is also provided by public sources6
.

The universities belong to a core group of peak bodies7
in Australia. Universities
Australia is a primary peak body in Australia and covers most institutions8
. The
Group of 8 (Go8) University peak bodies represents the oldest eight universities in
2
Federal Budget 2014: Universities to change degree costs as students hit with earlier repayments, News.com.au, available
online: http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget-2014-universities-to-change-degree-costs-as-students-hit-with-
earlier-repayments/story-fn84fgcm-1226916445637 accessed 2 August 2014
3
Knott, M, 2014, Radical Shakeup to university funding budget will see some fees soar, The Sydney Morning Herald, available
online: http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/radical-shakeup-to-university-funding-in-budget-will-see-some-fees-
soar-20140513-3887c.html accessed 21 August 2014
4
List of Universities in Australia, Australian Universities, available online: http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/list/
accessed 21 August 2014
5
Higher Education Standard Framework (Threshold Standards 2011), Australian Government ComLaw, available online:
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2013C00169 accessed 21 August 2014
6
Funding, Australian Government Department of Education, available online: https://education.gov.au/funding accessed 21
August 2014
7
A peak body is an association of industries or groups with allied interests usually brought together for advocacy purposes. They
are member groups with paid memberships established to act on behalf or promote the interests of member organisations.
8
Our History, Universities Australia, available online: https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/About-Us/our-history, accessed
21 August 2014

Australia9
; The Regional Universities Network is a network of six universities from
outside the capital cities10
; the Innovative Research Network operates on behalf of
research intensive universities11
; and the Australian Technology Network works on
behalf of technology focused universities12
. There are also a number of universities
that do not belong to any other lobby groups outside the Universities Australia.
9
About Go8, Group of Eight Australia, available online: https://go8.edu.au/page/go8-indicators, accessed 21 August 2014
10
About us, Regional Universities Network, available online: http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/about_us.php accessed 21 August
2014
11
About us, Innovative Research Universities, available online: http://www.iru.edu.au/about-us.aspx accessed 21 August 2014
12
About ATN, Australian Technology Network of Universities, available online http://www.atn.edu.au/About-ATN/ accessed 21
August 2014

2.1 Social media use in Australian universities
The Australian universities do have social media presences with all, except for one,
having corporate Facebook accounts, corporate Twitter accounts, and corporate
YouTube accounts. Australian universities have, on average 5.5 social platforms used
as corporate accounts. A breakdown of the platforms can be found in Figure 1:
University Social Media Accounts (p12). Many institutions also operated additional
social media accounts and many have social media policies as outlined on p11.

In a study that has been conducted for social media from a marketing perspective,
80% of users that interact with a brand online were already customers of that brandi
(Taylor, 2013, p28). As such, the reliance on the current and future student audience
by marketers became clearer for student retention purposes. Most engaged with
students on Facebook with all universities except Notre Dame having an official
corporate Facebook page, many with more than 10 000 likes and a high rate of growth
(Winkler 2013, p12). However, Winker (2013) continues and raises questions about
these Facebook pages regarding compliance issues, particularly with international
marketing practices (p13); that posts on social media were identified as not being a
factor for students in choosing a university (p34); the pages were useful for event
updates, fun, news and for reminders of key dates (p39).

World wide, universities largely use social media for brand visibility - primarily
through Facebook but also other social channels (Botha, Farshid & Pitt, 2011, p45;
Klamm, 2011). Additionally many universities use it for academic purposes in either
connecting with students while they learn or part of the course content (Wild, Cant &
Neil, 2013, p875; Benson & Morgan, 2013, p46). There is also evidence to suggest
that generally there is maturity in using social media for media relations, financial

reporting, employee relations, government and stakeholder management (Argenti
2006, p376-379). While it appears that much of the social media use is centralised, it
appears that many universities in Australia encourage their staff to use it, providing
they do so within prescribed guidelines - and importantly make it clear that they must
protect the reputation of the university along with their personal reputation13 14 15
.
How universities actively use social media in reputation management or wider
stakeholder engagement is not clear. From the previous research, however it appears
that current students would make up the targeted audience.

13
Position on the use of social media, 2013, University of Adelaide policies and guidelines, available online:
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/its/it_policies/social_media/position/ accessed 9 November 2013
14
Social Media Guidelines, 2013, Flinders University, available online: http://www.flinders.edu.au/marketing-
communications/training-and-support/online-communications-support/social-media-guidelines.cfm accessed 9 November 2013
15
Social Media Policy, 2013, Monash University Policy Bank, available online: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-
bank/management/global-engagement/social-media-policy.html accessed 9 November 2013

Figure
1
-‐
breakdown
of
the
social
media
channels
used
by
Australian

Universities
in
July
2014

Along with diverse usage of social media, Australia has a diverse range of
universities. Some Australian universities rank highly in world University rankings
and are considered quite prestigious while other universities cater for disadvantaged
students or students from overseas backgrounds16
. Most Australian universities
deliver their materials in online or external formats with some universities offering all
the courses in online or blended online on-campus modes16
. It should be noted
16
University Profiles, Universities Australia available online:
http://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/ArticleDocuments/209/An%20Agenda%20for%20Australian%20Higher%20Education2
103_2016.pdf.aspx accessed 21 August 2014
Twi$er,
40

Facebook,
40

Youtube,
40

Instagram,
16

Flickr,
13

Pinterest,
7

Linked In, 31!
Google+, 13!
Other, 10!
Figure 1:University social media accounts
Twitter Facebook
Youtube Instagram
Flickr Pinterest
Linked In Google+
Other

however across the various universities and university structures there was not a
significant difference in the amount of social media channels used.

When looking at a wider group of organisations and their use of social media, out of
the companies surveyed by Eddy (2012) 22% of companies housed their social media
duties with the public relations offices, which 23% were housed within marketing,
with others outsourcing the duties, having a decentralised model or not managing the
duties at all. According to Dorflinger (2011, p3) an increasing portion of the
marketing budget is being spent on social media, with some companies spending
more on social media and other e-communication tools than traditional methods.
Taylor (2013 p29) questions the motivation of companies that spend an inordinate
amount on social media, citing that other methods like television, still provides the
biggest market penetration and brand recognition of any media. The current
university situation in Australia provided a basis to determine university stakeholder
attitudes and awareness current social media use in the sector.

3.0 Literature review
This dissertation is intended to ask whether social media impacts on reputation of
universities in Australia. The research was supported by theoretical and professional
frameworks and informed the analysis of the research.
The professional framework was strategic communications. Strategic
Communications is a profession that can encompass organisational communication
practices that include stakeholder engagement, public relations and marketing
communications (Argenti, Howell & Beck 2005, p84; Official Statement on Public
Relations, 1982). Strategic communications can be defined as a role that is associated
with communicating managerial decisions and is part of management practice
(Overton-de Klerk & Verwey, 2013 pp365-366). While many Australian universities
and stakeholder bodies may not have recognised strategic communication offices, the
term and its implied duties encompass the relevant communication practices of
Australian universities. Additionally, strategic communications has been
institutionalised in some government sectors across the world with one example in
demonstrating the applicability of the profession is in the Danish museum sector. It
was institutionalised to navigate government changes and “to proactively…claim and
retain visibility, competitive position and legitimacy” of museums in Denmark
(Kjeldsen 2013, p225). This reflects that strategic communication is an ideal tool for
sectors that are undergoing government changes like the Australian university sector.
Additionally, many of the interviewees in this study work as strategic communicators
and as a result using strategic communication for this study adds validity and greater
possibilities for meaningful outcomes from this research.

The theoretical perspectives include agenda setting theory is a widely researched
theory for strategic communications and explains the transfer of importance of a
message to another party (McCombs, Llamas, Lopez-Escobar & Rey, 1997, p703). It
is supported by second level agenda setting theory to determine how a message is
framed (Freeland 2012 p5).

The communications theories are supported by collapsed context and imagined
audience – both have been researched with regards to social media usage. They
provide support to how users tailor their messages to who they think is reading their
posts and help explain what happens to the message when the audience control is lost
(boyd 2010, p49).

3.1 Agenda setting theory
One of the key theories to strategic communications has been agenda setting theory.
At its core, agenda setting theory is a social science concept that details the transfer of
importance and prominence about a subject from one group to another (McCombs, et
al, 1997, p703). It has been a key influence in the public relations profession for
media management, insofar as to focus the public’s attention on a story, brand or
organisation, for example, through the mass media (Ragas & Roberts 2009, p48).

Second level agenda setting theory was also explored in this research. It built on the
message transference that is experienced in agenda setting theory where secondary
agenda setting theorists have explored what is being said along with the framing,
comprehension and attitudes of those who are transmitting and consuming the
message (Carroll, & McCombs 2003, p 38; Amujo 2012, p30; Freeland 2012 p5).

With the emergence and popularisation of social media channels agenda setting
theory has been adapted the new, interactive communication trends. Early research
into influences on the digital agenda noted that traditional media continued to set the
agenda (Lenhart & Fox 2006, p5). One study stated that most bloggers who comment
on public affairs don’t conduct independent journalism and information gathering,
rather react to mainstream media content (Newman, Guggenheim, Jang & Bae, 2014,
p193). Other studies concluded that social media and blogs are a legitimate source of
news with 45% of people from a 2008 study regarding blogging as journalism (Hong
& Sheehy, 2010, p38). (Ziniga et al 2011) argues that with more than 100 million
blogs online and growing social media usage (p586), there is a demonstrable

motivation by a significant number of people to gather and disseminate information
(p590).
As social media became mainstream, organisation’s communications agendas have
been impacted by societal, investor and regulatory body use of social media (Besiou,
Hunter & Wassenhove 2013 pp721-22). The transmission of salience via social
media was demonstrated in the 2012 United States Presidential elections where a
study by Vargo, Guo, McCombs & Shaw (2014) found that transmission of
information on Twitter networks positively correlated with the media agenda of the
time and that discrete election messages could be successfully transmitted through the
network outside of mass media interaction (pp310-311). The transmission of the
agenda via Twitter was achieved though both proactive and reactive means by the
presidential nominees (Vargo etal, 2014 p296).

Second level agenda setting theory can also be used in communications in politics
including a focus on agenda setting between policy makers. Delshard (2011)
examined the influences of various non-general public players in the pressures of
agenda setting in the United States of America political scene. It was concluded that
external pressures alter the agenda setting relationships between arms of governments
– in this case the United States of America Congress and President (p194).
Additionally it was noted that political will could be influenced by interest groups or
peak bodies (p196). Other scholars have investigated the agenda setting relationships
in the political scene. While there is some disagreement about who influences whom,
there is a demonstrable relationship between the media and political will; between

political leadership and political factions or pressure groups; and the public mood and
political will.

However, there has not been significant research to draw from for agenda setting
theory’s application to social media. It is assumed in this research that social media is
a tool that can be used in strategic communications. Under the guise of strategic
communications, a practitioner would be seeking to guide conversation and the issues
appearing on social media to a given corporate agenda, message or reputation in the
social media environment, exploring agenda setting theory and second level agenda
setting theory is warranted. Agenda setting theory can provide a useful framework
for a study on social media communications as it provides a way to draw attention to
the framing process in institutional and professional social media accounts.

3.2 Imagined audience, collapsed context - the social media theory
Along with agenda setting theory, the research has been underpinned by the concepts
of imagined audience and collapsed context. The theory of imagined audience helps
to provide context into how a corporate account views those reading and interacting
with the messages outlining that the user cannot be ostensibly aware of their
audiences and they cannot be defined (Blake 2012, p1057). Additionally collapsed
context has been associated with the imagined audience. On many social media
channels, multiple audiences are homogenised into one audience, with little autonomy
of their own. (Marwick & boyd, 2010 p9; Massanari 2012, p403).

Every participant in a communicative act has an imagined audience.
Audiences are not discrete; when we talk, we think we are speaking only to the
people in front of us or on the other end of the telephone, but this is in many
ways a fantasy. (Marwick & boyd, 2010, p115).
Essentially what Marwick & boyd (2010) have outlined with the concept of the
‘imagined audience’ is that any communications have an intended audience but
people outside that sphere can be influenced.

As a result targeted social media audiences can be complicated to target. As Litt 2012
states:
Since social media environments fundamentally obscure actual audience
members, such conditions may provoke or entice individuals who tend to, or
even wish to, ignore the real audience. For better or for worse, the imagination
can then more freely fill in or make up the audience. (p339).
For a corporate entity, it can provide targeting issues and target audiences are blurred
into one. It can also affect the identity of the organisation involved and may also
result in “communication to be tailored to the lowest common denominator.”
(Marwick & boyd, 2010, p122).

While a misalignment between the imagined and actual audiences in more
traditional mediated settings could also be troublesome, such misalignments
on social media are even more dangerous since larger audiences means more
eyes judging and ready to catch social faux pas. (Litt 2012, p333).
As a result social media users tend to self-sensor. This was demonstrated in a
Facebook study, it was found that 71% of individual users self-censored primarily “to
maintain presentation of their self-images across multiple social contexts
simultaneously, may be unwilling to diverge from the community’s perceived social
norms” (Das & Kremer, 2013, p1). Organisations also face the same pressures –
pressure to remain consistent to brand, management and customer expectations
(Driggs & Kasolowsky, 2008, p5).

As outlined in section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40) universities have
reputations of excellence and innovation and this reputation should be considered
when planning social media communications. As outlined by Farnham & Churchill
(2011) social media design assume a “single unified user identity” (p359) where, in
this case an organisation is to assume one identity – for example a student recruitment
role could be taken by a university. However, the reality is more complex as a user
can rarely be boxed into a single identity and different social situations – or in this
case business situations – demand facets of the identity according the situation (p
359).

The phenomena is not new as traditional forms of media have also made it difficult to
target a specific audience, observational users of social media “must rely on
information from an organisation and others (i.e. third parties) as they observe,
evaluate, and act in ways that fulfill their own needs and expectations” (Courtright &

Smuddle 2009 p252). As Goffman (1959) stated people unconsciously take note of
their surroundings and make judgments of those situations. Therefore, at a base level,
it can be assumed that users who do not actively participate in social media can be
influenced by messages communicated on these channels.

At a higher level, context is defined “in terms of role identities and their related
networks. Encompassing space, place, history and situation, context refers to the
identity meanings activated through interaction with a particular social network.”
(Davis & Jurgenson 2014, p477). In a social media environment, audiences can be
considered limitless but individuals and organisations will ‘act as though their
audiences are bounded’ (Davis & Jurgenson 2014, p478). The resulting
communications on social media will involve a desired audience, self-censorship
according to that audience but ultimately, the communications can be uncontrolled
when the wider audience is considered. This fact is particularly important for
organisations when others share their content to an audience outside the original
intent of the organisation. As a result, the concepts of collapsed context and imagined
audience provide a valuable theoretical base for this research.

3.3 Strategic Communication and Reputation
The theoretical perspectives are supported by the profession of strategic
communications, in particular a subset of the profession - reputation management. As
the research has been to determine the impact of social media communications on
reputation, a professional function that takes that responsibility was studied.
Organisational reputation encompasses variables such as trust, standing, relationships
and goodwill amongst other traits (Roberts, 2009, p3). Strategic communications is
“the centralised management of communication on behalf of the organisation’s
reputation—and thereby its competitiveness, productivity, and financial success”
(Meredith, 2012 p3).
The strategic communication function encompasses many different forms of
organisational communication from management, marketing, media, internal
communications and social media in a structured method to support high level
organisational priorities (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, Ruler, Verčič & Sriramesh, 2007,
p4). Argenti, Howell & Beck (2005) argue that, strategic communications is
“communications aligned with the company’s overall strategies to enhance its
strategic position” (p83), demonstrating its fundamental relationship with the highest
levels of organisational planning. It is distinct from publicity and media management
that is to make and maintain relationships with members of the media to assist with
placement of stories and support during a crisis (McAllister & Taylor, 2012, p93).
Additionally, it is not confined to marketing communications - which has been
defined as using communication tools, often paid mass media to reach customers to
communicate brand and product relevancy (Fill & Jamieson, 2011, p29).

Observers like Jones, Temperley & Lima (2009) believe that traditional media
management and public relations have been one-way communications, with complete
ability to control the messages (p930). In reality, however this has not been the case.
As Cunningham (2010) stated, messages sent to the media, were in reality, never
controlled - media outlets and other mediators have always interpreted and reframed
messages for their consumers (p110). In reality, only paid messaging can be assumed
to be completely controlled.

In the new media sphere, Cunningham continued, “the originator may only purposely
attempt to control the initial message inputs, and there by include thematically a
conversation taking place in the new media sphere” (2010, p111). Argenti et al
(2005, p83) continued mentioning the importance of a consistent communications
theme and that taking a purely tactical short-term approach will make it difficult to
compete, an integrated, strategic approach is needed for communications success.
Essentially, this provides a two-fold outcome - that it is important to tailor all
messaging to a company’s strategic priorities and that in the media, this messaging
cannot be controlled, only guided.
From an executive management standpoint, a company’s reputation - and therefore
their personal reputation, is of high importance (Van Der Jagt, 2005, p181, 184). The
concept of reputation has been often debated, however as outlined by Barnett &
Pollock (2012) the concept can have “distinct theoretical constructs such as image,
identity, brand, status and legitimacy...and a plethora of measures” (p1). As a result,
it can be assumed that reputation is of importance to many major companies. As
quoted in Van Der Jagt (2005, p184) companies that have experienced reputation

damage take it seriously but even those who have not are, and are starting to become
more strategic. It was noted too that brand and reputation are not the same with brand
being considered as “potential customers or clients, about a company’s specific
product, service, or line of products or services.” (An Executive View of the Difference
Between Brand and Reputation, 2013). Though it is complex, it can be assumed that
reputation is impacted by communications - either strategic or marketing
communications.

Measurement of strategic communications and reputation has been difficult with
traditional methods relying on volume of media coverage and the equivalent
advertising value of that media coverage (Ross, 2012, p16). Ross (2012) continued to
state that the practice had come under fire, being an inaccurate and untrustworthy
measurement of success (p16). This realisation in the industry has placed a new
importance on establishing an effective measurement regime, one that ties into the
expectation of company executives (Manning & Rockland, 2011, p30).

The Barcelona Principles were established in 2011 as the benchmark reporting
principles for the strategic communications industry (Moyer 2011). As part of these
principles, e-communications and social media reporting has a significant role. As
mentioned by Manning & Rockland (2011, p31) simple measure of impressions and
the equivalent monetary value of those hits are irrelevant. Quality and quantity are
both important - and should align with the overall goals and outcomes as desired by
the organisation (Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles, 2010, slide 11).

As strategic communication professionals can undertake communications on social
media on behalf of an organisation and do so for stakeholders in the university
environment. They also undertake reputation management for organisations. As this
research is investigating the impact of social media on reputation it makes an ideal
professional underpinning aspect for this research.

3.4 Conclusion to the Literature Review
The Literature Review outlines the key concepts that will be utilised in the analysis of
the research conducted for this paper. Reputation and strategic communications
continues to evolve and social media’s impact whole of university communications
plans and on stakeholder attitudes will be researched. The theoretical perspectives of
agenda setting theory along with the imagined audience and context collapse will
provide context into how a corporate message can be framed and communicated to an
audience that may not be known to the organisation. Together the professional and
theoretical perspectives create a framework to analyse this social media research.

4.0 Methodology
The research outlined below will provide data to determine the attitudes and current
positions of key stakeholders to the university sector at a point in time. The research
models used, provided a method to determine the views and how strongly they were
held regarding the impact of social media on reputation in the university sector.

4.1 The data collection process
The primary research method for this paper was semi-structured interviews. This
consisted of five separate interviews held with stakeholders in the Australian
university sector that have an impact on funding policy developments in the sector.
The five interviews held in May and June 2014 with each lasting between 30 and 45
minutes. The majority of questions were the same but with room to explore out into
concepts and areas on an as needed basis.

The interviews contained three distinct parts - firstly the use of social media and the
policy around social media of the stakeholder involved was explored; the attitudes
and expectations of that stakeholder of their public was explored; and finally their
expectations for future development and what that would mean for policy and funding
decisions was explored.

This provided a standard set of questions to ask each participant, with the ability to
provide a set of answers from standard questions, enabling better data comparison,
while at the same time, allowing for more in depth questioning should the need arise
in the interview (Jupp, 2006, p158).

The semi-structured interview, with other supporting research methods have been
successfully used in similar research projects. A key study into the importance of
reputation in the minds of senior executives was Ron van der Jagt’s 2005 study Senior
Business Executives See Communication and Reputation as a Crucial Part of Their
Leadership Role. Additionally, the 2012 South African study The Influence of
Differences in Social and Cultural Capital on Students’
Expectations of Achievement,
on their Performance, and on their Learning Practices in the First Year at University
used research techniques that will be used here. These two studies were instrumental
in outcomes in strategic communications and social media and should provide some
assurance over the validity of the research techniques.

4.2 The data analysis techniques
The data analysis techniques were primarily completed through a coding of the
interviews, which was then analysed. The semi-structured interview outcomes were
coded via thematic analysis as a primary method and discourse analysis as a support
method. The thematic analysis is one of the most commonly used forms of
quantitative analysis in this style of research (Roulston 2001, p280). Research with
similar methodologies to this has successfully used thematic analysis. It is
theoretically flexible in coding language as it is can be used across disciplines and
data sets which enables it to be used to interpret findings of interviews like the ones
conducted in this paper (Clark & Braun 2006, p120). Additionally, using thematic
analysis, relationships between concepts can be compared and interpreted to allow
relevant themes to emerge from the data (Alhojailan, 2012, p10).

Under this approach, the interviews were transcribed and the text was coded to
determine the primary topics found across the interview set. These topics were
further analysed to distil the key themes that provide the outcomes to the interviews.
The coding formalised the dataset into useable information that could be compared
and contrasted against itself, secondary research including market research, case
studies and theoretical perspectives.

To reinforce the data found through the thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis
was also used in a minor way to formalise the themes. As outlined by van Dijk
(1985), critical discourse analysis can be used to analyse written or spoken
communications to determine the relationship between the discourse and the context it
was received; the discourse and the power relationship that informed that discourse
(p353). As van Dijk (1985) suggests, the thematic analysis provides an understanding

of the topics – the content of the text or dialogue (p69). By supporting the thematic
analysis with the outcomes from the discourse analysis, the relevancy of the themes,
power structures between the stakeholders and the universities; and the impact of the
external environment on the answers provided all provided additional context to the
findings.

The discourse analysis was achieved by determining how the respondents framed
their answers. As such, key responses from the themes were analysed to determine
how the respondents viewed social media within their organisation and the sector; and
how they viewed the wider industry response to social media communications. Issues
there were noted throughout were internal importance of social media, the relevant
power structures of the organisation towards universities and whether the respondent
had positive or negative experiences with social media in the past based on the
answers they provided. This analysis provided further context regarding the
importance of the answers provided and the resulting themes that emerged.

As outlined in Guest, Bunce & Johnson, 2005 (p59), there is not a defined number of
interviewees that is needed to for the research style under the methodologies outlined
in section 4.0 Methodology (p27). However, Guest et al 2005 did note that five is
allowable for phenomenological studies to gather suitable outcomes (p61). The length
of the interviews, however provided a depth of data that allowed analysis to take
place. As outlined in Baker & Edwards (2014), “that it may also only take a few
interviews to demonstrate that a phenomenon is more complex or varied than
previously thought.” (p5) and “[that] in order to decide how many qualitative
interviews is enough the researcher must interrogate the purpose of their research.”

(Baker & Edwards, 2014 p5). As the research is able to demonstrate outcomes more
varied than was previously known, the data was deemed to be suitable.
The data gathering and analysis techniques were designed to help gain a better
understanding of how social media is used and can influence strategic
communications and reputation within a university setting. Theories of
communication and social media theories would be applied to provide additional
insight into the research.

4.4 Limitations
This study was not without limitations. Due to the external environment that this
study was undertaken in, the timeframe surrounding the research and researching with
bodies that may have complex organisational processes, not all the interviews that
ideally should have taken place were performed. This research undertook five
separate interviews with government agencies and peak bodies in the sector. Ideally,
additional interviews would have taken place with additional government and peak
bodies to get a more holistic view of the attitude surrounding social media usage.
However, some organisations did not allow the interview to take place.

Additionally, each respondent requested to remain anonymous. While this does not
affect the collation outcomes of the interview, it did provide a challenge to formalise
the themes and provide relevant example to prove themes and adapt the theories
without identifying the organisation involved. The information provided in this report
has been de-identified so the respondents are non-identifiable according to relevant
research council guidelines. An example of those are from the National Health
Medical Research Council17
.
17
Databanks, National Health and Medical Research Council, available online: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/book/chapter-3-2-
databanks accessed 25 August 2014

4.5 Conclusion to Methodology
The research was conducted through the secondary research method of semi-
structured interviews, a technique that has been used by other researches for similar
research. It provided a method to determine the impact of social media
communications in the university sector in Australia. A total of five semi-structured
interviews were held, and while more would have been preferred, five semi-structured
interviews provided reliable data to determine outcomes and attitudes. Additionally,
it proved that situation is more complex than outlined in previous research and this
will be outlined in the upcoming sections – 5.0 Findings and 6.0 Analysis.

5.0 Findings
The research conducted found a number of key themes. Through the analysis three
key themes - investment and innovation; planning; and empowerment were apparent.
In this section, the issues regarding investment and innovation will be delved into as
the interviewees held the view that universities should excel in these areas.
Additionally, with the investment, how social media is used in wider communications
planning was an issue that each interviewee discussed. Finally reputation on social
media was an issue, particularly empowering staff, particularly researchers to be
active on social medial was a theme that emerged from the interviews. This section
will delve into these areas.

5.1 Investment and innovation
The response to the question “Do you support investment in social media for strategic
communication purposes?” was overwhelmingly positive. To demonstrate the
attitude that four out of the five interviewees reflected a very positive sentiment.
Indeed of the four that were affirmative, they were enthusiastic in their answers and
did not leave room to misunderstand with the language used being very resolute.
Yes. yes we do. I think given the important role that is being played by social
media, I think proper investment is crucial for the organisation. If they wanted
to enhance or protect their profile their social media strategy must be given as
much consideration as traditional media in their corporate communication
strategy. (Respondent 3)

One of the primary reasons for the responses was the changing external
communications environment that universities and their stakeholder groups find
themselves in. It is an environment where there are more influences on the external
communications environment and without the investment there will be a greater
chance of the university’s messages getting lost in the noise. Universities also have to
keep up with the changing nature of how their stakeholders communicate.
Social media has grown exponentially over the last half decade and given that
it is becoming such an important tool for communication from an organisation
or even personal perspective - how people communicate with their friends now
through Facebook as opposed to email or in the 1980s when it would have
been a telephone call. (Respondent 3)

This was brought into an organisational context by another interviewee.
The only way of receiving material in those days was via a fax and it would be
a media release, press release or media statement on the fax. Over time emails
became more common to receive media releases…some people weren't into
the email thing as yet but they were using the fax - so we had to do both. Now
we don't issue anything by fax, we send all of our media releases by email to
groups that we've established and set up. Now I think people are moving
away from the media releases changing and using social media to generate or

put out information. So we can't ignore social media. It is the way of the
future, it is what the younger generation are using.
(Respondent 5)

In both of these examples, it is key to note the ever-changing nature of
communications and the ability of organisations to continually adapt to these changes.
In strategic communications there has always been a desire to communicate a
message and that requires continual evolution of communications practices. It was
revealed in the interviews the peak bodies and the government bodies are both
investing in social media communications. While it was noted that they cannot
directly influence the university operations, there is the expectation of investment in
social media and this investment was clearly and unequivocally articulated. Of the
one organisation that did not directly answer the question like the other interviewees,
they do have a presence on social media. They did not comment on the investment in
social media by universities but made it clear that they use it to communicate
community policy positions and promotion - suggesting a tacit approval of investment
in the communications channels.

There is a contrast on the expectation of investment in social media and the outcomes
it can bring. When directly asked if there would be a policy of funding decision made
because of social media communications the answers were plain - “I think the short
answer is no,” (Respondent 5) and “No - not at all” (Respondent 3) were as far as the
conversation went. However, one body had confirmed they had funded research on
social media - but like all publicly funded research, it had to be “shown to be of
benefit to the whole university sector.” (Respondent 4)

However, the investment and behaviour of university social media accounts takes on
more relevance when concepts of reputation are applied to these communications and
communication techniques on social media channels. As outlined by Courtright &
Smuddle (2009):

Every organisation, whether it is for-profit, not-for-profit, government-
sponsored, or non-government-sponsored, constantly addresses to publics and
stakeholders what makes it different and better than other, perhaps competing
organisations. These matters concern the reputation process and message
design’s place within it… In other words, innovation is both communicated
and perceived (p279).
While still largely an intangible concept that is difficult to measure, a positive
reputation will help the organisation in times of crisis or in future decisions by their
stakeholders (Murray & White, 2004 pp7-9).

In this context, appearing to invest in social media is important. Again, the question
on whether to invest in social media is confused in (a) that it doesn’t impact student
recruitment as outlined in section 2.1 Social media use in Australian universities
(p10) but that:
At the moment we use it as a way to engage or speak to universities. We use
it to let them know our core business or a media release, a funding round
opening or closing, or we have announced the results of a funding round or a
call out for people to be on one of our committees. (Respondent 5)
It was acknowledged that direct interaction generally could not occur due to
stakeholder groups’ lack of ability to invest in the infrastructure needed to effectively
manage social media communications. Perhaps interestingly and more telling was the
future vision of some of the interviewees.
We do have social media channels from our department and we are not
interacting at the moment via those channels. We are going to. We are

planning it - we have established an account but we haven’t publicised it yet.
We are finishing up training in our office for our members. (Respondent 4)
While these words represent a desire and the direction that stakeholders are looking to
take their investment in social media, it may impact on the reputation of an
organisation that does have the resources to invest in social media communications.

While there has not been a campaign to interact with universities there has been
investment into monitoring social media communications.
We'd often search the Minister's name to make sure we aren't missing anything
that the Minister may or may not have said about the [the organisation]. So
we do our own checks on our Twitter accounts and we do also have a service
provider through Meltwater who does our social media monitoring for us as
well. It picks up a broad range of things. What we are seeing it that it is
picking up quite a few discussions from university websites...which is
something we have just recently had access to. (Respondent 5)

This underlying visibility is the consequence of modern governing - ensuring that the
government and their departments have the greatest awareness of what is being said
of them and their policies or projects (West, 2013). It is an act that universities would
have to be aware of as it directly monitors their communications. The practice is well
entrenched within in the industry with many organisations and public bodies using
monitoring services. It does bring up an issue of self-censorship for universities,
particularly if they believe their audiences include government departments.
Commenting on policy or happenings that could be seen in a negative light by a
government department could impact on the overall strategic communication
strategies of an organisation even if the message was not intended for a government
department.

Despite the monitoring that was employed, the common attitude was that universities
have the choice to say what they like on social media and any negativity on social
media would not be held against them when it comes to policy of funding decisions.
That being said, one respondent said - “it is a risk and we had to consider that when
we applied to set up an account. We had to provide strategies to deal with that.”
(Respondent 4) Another responded with – “It would be the decision of the university
to contest in public as opposed to potentially contest in private via meeting for
example. Social media is a public forum and at times a private conversation would be
preferable.” (Respondent 3)

The nature of virility and the easy public search-ability of social media
communications ensures that there are risks to social media communication. For
strategic communicators, it has at least two consequences - that social media
communications need to be planned for in context of wider communication strategies;
and that the social media team need to be trained on what is appropriate to post.

One interviewee said that negativity on social media for a governmental body is an
evolution of negativity in the mainstream media and always something that
government bodies have to plan for and deal with. The response is the same, the
platforms have evolved and as a result, it could be assumed that the reaction to the
negativity could be similar to negative comments in the traditional media. From the
interviewees, particularly the fact that each has planned for stakeholder negativity and
experiences it in other forms of their communication practices, it is undesirable, can
impact relationships but like social media itself, is part of the evolving
communications landscape.


At times there will be issues where the universities, the peak bodies and the
government departments will have radically different views. It is at this time that
effective investment and innovation in social media can have the greatest impact.
One of the interviewees was enthusiastic about the possibility of corporate activism in
social media, highlighting that it has already been successful.
The power of hashtags and the power of being able to collectively group
behind an issue...The campaign ended up getting close to 100 organisations
involved…2 million members that all of which were able to express their
concerns through the hashtag. You could imagine the power that had through
social media…The policy was reversed…They adopted the exact terminology
of the hashtag. That was a particularly powerful campaign…That was one
way that advocacy was very much radically enhanced or supercharged through
social media. (Respondent 3)

This example of using social media for activism brings in a number of issues
regarding audience, messaging and reputation. As the audience grew, the campaign
would have lost the ability to control its audience and the message that they would
have been communicating. However, as the purpose of the campaign was to reverse a
government policy decision, the key audience of the government department would
have remained. Through the short, sharp messages that social media allows, the key
messages would have been framed within the agenda that was being set. By having
the message shared by organisations with a high quality reputation, combined with
external influences on the news cycle, the message was amplified through a wide
audience to a point where the government could not ignore the agenda that had been
set and as a result, change was affected. The investment and innovative way that
social media was used helped to bring awareness to an issue, frame the way it was
viewed and bring change in a way that would not have been available to
communicators relying on mass media or other traditional forms of communication.


Along with activism as displayed above, Deakin University displayed innovative
techniques to directly connect with influential politicians, established reputable media
outlets and leaders in digital media and to allow them to build their audience and
enhance their reputation. The 2012 event drew together Deakin University, Fairfax
Media, Google along with organisers OurSay to have a one hour interactive forum
with the Prime Minister of Australia on Google Plus. The forum drew 2058 potential
questions and 8331 comments during the hour online cast. Crucially for Deakin, it
drew mainstream media attention and provided an opportunity for the university to
connect directly with the Prime Minister. (Case Study – Hang out with the PM, 2012)

These examples provide demonstrable evidence to the notion provided by one
interviewee that “…particularly in relation to learning and teaching, to see how those
tools can facilitate that. There is a lot of terrific stuff happening. There is a whole
range of technologies [being utilised.”
(Respondent 4)
The notion of universities
being innovative is in fact a relatively recent construct, with their pomp and
circumstance, their gowns resonate with a “culture that speaks to how profoundly
conservative universities are as institutions” (Udas, 2014). However Udas (2014)
continued to note that “many think of universities as centres of radical politics, this
reputation was earned during a relatively short period of time in the 1960s and 1970s,
principally because the behaviour of students.”

This change could be related to how universities have embraced social media to an
extent where they are called and expected to be ‘innovative’.

Six years ago, universities and lots of organisations were going 'how do we get
ourselves off this'. They were terrified of social media and wanted avoid it.
Now any organisation out there is going 'how do we get ourselves onto social
media’. (Respondent 3)
It helps explain how universities have been successful in using social media in
communications given the research conducted by Winkler (2012) stated that social
media for student recruitment is not successful. This puts universities in an unusual
position given most organisations primarily use social media to drive sales and
generate customers.

It is evident that, through the research there is a desire for universities to use social
media. In fact two examples, hashtag activism and online interactive forums both
display innovation in communications strategy, bringing in large audiences and
affecting change in the industry. While large-scale projects like this may not be the
norm in Australian universities, the successes of these projects go some way to
solidifying the value of social media communications outside student support and
recruitment. These examples also provide tangible outcomes for the organisations
involved. The hashtag campaign resulted in tangible change with a policy position
being reversed. It provided evidence of how agenda setting can be used by
corporations to change attitudes via social media, how audiences can be targeted and
how a message can be targeted to a particular audience despite the organisation not
being able to control who sees or shares the message. It also provided additional
measurables - in the amount of users connecting with the campaign (2 million) and
the number of organisations involved (100). Measurements like this have rarely been
available to strategic communicators in the past with any real time measurement
being limited to “whether messages are being sent, placed, or attended to - such as

counts of press releases or publications issued, media placement and monitoring, and
exposure to or readership of the messages.” (Hon & Grunig, 1999 p6). Hon & Grunig
(1999) maintain that additional evaluation would be needed to provide context to
these figures (pp6-7), social media has opened up additional real time evaluation
methods that in themselves can provide important information on the progress of a
campaign. It also directly aligns with the Barcelona Principles providing
demonstrable outcomes from the communications efforts.

Social media provides a new method to connect with stakeholders and embrace the
communications style in a holistic communications strategy. It provides a new
method for universities to use their reputation to advocate for change and connect
with important stakeholders. In the university sector, the use of social media can
complex, used to maintain stakeholder relationships in a wider way than direct
communication or student communication. Finally, it was apparent from the
interviewees is that social media can be used for stakeholder communications and that
there is a strong expectation for universities to be leading the way with social media
communications.

5.2 Communications planning
Social media has impacted the way strategic communicators plan their messaging. It
was a common element throughout the interviews – social media is a tool and the
pressures are different to other communication tools. Where the conversation on
policy perspectives or need to publish corporate or research findings has remained the
same, the way those messages are delivered has changed. Whether a university, a
peak body or a government department, social media has added another dimension to
communications planning.
It [communication pressure] has certainly changed. The importance of the
issues remains the same but with social media there is a lot more susceptibility
for people to quickly question and respond, and sometimes those responses
can generate their own stories themselves. I think now, the news cycle has
changed dramatically, it is much quicker than it has ever been. I remember
with media releases - in the 1960s they would just be posted. They would get
there a day or two later. The advent of the fax machine - that no longer
existed. Then with email and now with Twitter it can be done in a matter of
seconds. It is progressing - the speeding up of the news cycle, journalists have
to compete with. (Respondent 3)
As social media matures and different tools come in and out of favour, the pressures
on sector continue to change. “Twitter has become more a potent communication
tool. Facebook has lost its effectiveness as I think Facebook has become a bit dated
in a sense - for our purpose.” (Respondent 2) This attitude outlines the pressures that
the university sector faces and that they may be different from other corporate social
media users, like those in high turnover retail markets (Kelleher & Sweetser 2012
p112; Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp 2012, p307). This difference places a need on
universities to plan and innovate in social media communications with stakeholder
groups.

The ability for universities and the sector to adapt to change and innovate in this area
was covered in the section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40). However, when
universities are dealing with the news cycle and forms of reputation management,
social media has unequivocally changed the landscape. Despite any changes to
newspaper circulation, it has not affected the interaction with established news
organisations. As one interviewee said,
... online people go to news websites. They have the masthead, they have the
brand, the trust, the quality that is being offered. People trust it and if they
want to get in one spot nice and quick, from a source they know has certain
prestige, brand and reputation behind it. (Respondent 3)

For example, in July 2014 one of Australia’s most prestigious newspapers – The
Australian had more than 168 000 followers on Twitter and established names like
television’s Nine News carries more than 600 000 followers on Facebook. The
broadcast news had built their reputation on balance, fact checking and long history of
reporting the news (King 2012, p17). For universities in Australia – a group of large,
sometimes multi-billion dollar organisations with established brand visibility and
established reputations, traditional media outlets are important when it comes to
strategic communication planning (Verlee 2011; Dimmock, Li & Chen, 2004 p22;
Flavián & Gurrea, 2006 p326). As such it is important for universities to maintain
their relationships with traditional media, which now can provide the value of
traditional media exposure and exposure in the online space.

When traditional media’s combined social, web and broadcast audience reach is
calculated, it is of vital importance for determining the importance of a message and
delivering a corporate message to a wide audience. This aspect has remained constant
throughout the changes made in communications over the decades. What social

media has done is brought in a new dynamic – the ability for two way
communication, the ability for the collective build and spread a story, for citizens to
become journalists – even if for a short period. As demonstrated with the hashtag
campaign on section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p40), this can be used to great
affect by universities and their stakeholders.

When universities and their stakeholder groups are communicating with each other,
all of the respondents were equally adamant that social media is a tool but it comes in
a tool kit that includes wider avenues of communication like media but also narrow
channels like email, meetings and telephone. On occasion, conferences could be used
to connect with multiple stakeholder groups. Equally, while all mentioned that social
media was a tool, it was apparent from all interviewees that social media had been
disruptive – placing additional pressures on their communications agendas and
strategies. The pressures that strategic communicators deal with in balancing
traditional forms of communication to newer digital forms was perhaps best outlined
by one constant aspect of the news – the expectation of immediacy.

There was a time back before morse code, there might be international news, a
journalist would write something and then it would be posted, go on a ship and
it would take the best part of a month to arrive at the media outlet for them to
be published. You're talking about the speed of that cycle. Even then, speed
was of the essence. (Respondent 3)
As such, from a media relations’ perspective, speed has always been an issue for
journalists. It is also evident that planning for when issues arise or correcting
statements has become more important as there is an expectation and the avenues to
immediately correct information.

...when we want to get a response - it can be quite serious things I am
responding to. People are very quick to approve them. It has always been
treated like a media response and a media response has a very tight
turnaround. More and more, those who were resisting it are embracing it more
and seeing it as, not so much exotic, but as one of our main communication
tools that we use. (Respondent 1)

Such a statement demonstrates that public relations professionals have continuously
adapted to new and changing working environments, constantly adapting to what their
stakeholders have required. The pace of messaging has always been a key component
for the strategic communications industry and the news values has never changed -
the pace of communications have quickened. While these pressures may not be
limited to the university sector, there was consistency across the interviewees for the
viewpoint.

Indeed the pace of communications with some days having high levels of social
media communications might suggest an active consumption of social media
messages is of a short timeframe. This outcome is supported by previous research as
outlined by Ragas & Tran (2013) “Some search-related studies showed that agenda
setting might induce effects in one day, weaken in following days, and vanish in less
than two weeks.” (p482). This provides a short window to correct criticism or
incorrect information – if it deemed necessary. The respondents confirmed that
dealing with universities required a greater strategic vision than just responding on
social media. However, the response was considered important in certain situations.
As Respondent 1 suggested:
We cannot come down too big-brother. If it were factually incorrect we would
endeavour to correct it. We would say 'you have made a mistake, here is the
right information'. It was stridently political, we probably wouldn't engage - I
would make someone aware, but I wouldn't wade in a debate with them on
social media. (Respondent 1)

Respondent 3 continued to say that their responses are behaviour based rather than
platform based – “if we put out a position, it was reported in a newspaper and the next
day a university came out and contested it via the newspaper. Regardless of the
medium, I don't think the response would be any different.”
In fact despite universities being considered innovators, the industry is conservative
when stakeholder groups are taken into account. The formality of “traditional
channels are more effective as we are dealing with more traditional bodies, which are
mainstream newspapers, politicians, government.” (Respondent 2) Often within the
university sector, there are complexities that exist in policy and funding decisions
combined with the fact that the Federal Government departments oversee 40
universities creates a situation where audience is defined in a way of not wishing to
offend an organisation. It was suggested by one interviewee that “we have to be very
careful, we can't be seen to be endorsing anyone…We're very mindful of that.”
(Respondent 1)

Theoretically it lends itself to an explanation of the imagined audience of a
government department or funding body in their social media communications.
When studying why there is a perceived conservativeness in the communications
channels and hesitance in unplanned social communication, one has to be aware of
the context of the answers. Insofar that the respondents know that their social media
communications will be perceived to reflect the opinion of the government minister
ensuring that social media communications will have a significant chance to impact

on the external environment and exude a power for change that is outside traditional
change communication channels.

As a result university strategic communicators can assume that for ordinary social
communications will focus on the industry as a whole.

“Our aim is to promote the network, the interests of our members. Really we
don't have a role of commenting on the policies of individual universities like
that. For us, social media is very important in getting out our political
messages, to promote the network and the issues are important to us.”

(Respondent 2)

The attitudes that came across through the interviews indicate the pressures that
strategic communicators in the sector face in their communications planning. From a
stakeholder relations’ standpoint, it was evident that there are more suitable methods
for negotiating items. The higher education system in Australia, like much of the
world is bureaucratic, with many formal processes to pass through (Graves, Barnett &
Clarke 2013).

However, as outlined in section 5.1 Investment and innovation (p35), there is still an
expectation for universities to invest in social media and that universities are
autonomous bodies being able to post information as they see fit. Additionally
without the ability to use the medium to effectually gain students via social media
communications, social media should be used for reputation purposes as outlined by
the interviewees. While the responses were given with some hesitation, each
respondent acknowledged, “It can enhance or damage a reputation depending on how
that institution engages, reacts or uses social media and the issues that it raises.”

(Respondent 3)

Another interviewee went further to suggest that:

I don't think it has an impact on reputation. I can certainly see a potential to
impact particular situations that can impact on reputation. If we don't craft a
message carefully in a way that won't be misconstrued by the sector there the
potential that will become an issue and will impact on the brand and
reputation. (Respondent 5)

The response of “misconstrued by the sector” suggests that the university sector is an
important key audience. Indeed Respondent 1 suggested that a “reputation unit” had
been established to handle issues when “things go really wrong” for a group of
organisations they represent outside the university sector. This displays an
acknowledgement that social media can have a direct impact on reputation in the
sector and reputation either online or more generally is a facet of operation that is
taken seriously in the sector.

It is evident that for a strategic communicator in the sector the online relationship
with the sector is complex. While social media is monitored it cannot be directly
used to engage with the sector. The medium can be used to convey messages and can
be a tool to engage with traditional media outlets online. What became clear is that it
does have the power to either directly influence the reputation of universities or the
attitude towards a message or event. Additional research would be required to
determine the exact makeup of a university’s audience on social media. In
communications planning, however it is apparent that government bodies and peak
bodies should be considered in an imagined audience even if there is no apparent or
direct interaction with the bodies. Displaying innovation in social media and

carefully planning company messaging can have a positive impact on the overall
communications objectives in the university sector.

5.3 Empowering staff
One of the common elements from the interviews was that employees should not be
excluded from posting on social media about their work and progress in what they are
doing. While there was some debate on the actual impact of empowering employees
to post on social media, there was an expectation this medium would be used to post
messages. It was of greater importance for funding bodies that saw it as a tool to help
them gain additional credit for their research funding.

Some funding bodies interviewed have gone to the extent of including social media
tools in their communication tool kits for researchers, with mandatory
acknowledgement being implemented in some areas, but as yet, not social media -
providing some evidence that this is one area that could change.
When it comes to social media, we don't have any specific guidelines of policy
for researchers should they be mentioning funded research in social media.
However they are requested through their funding agreements to acknowledge
funding if they are promoting their research that is funded - but it is not a
mandate. (Respondent 5)

Other bodies have included social media training for their staff or the staff of
universities to help ensure that key people in the industry are trained in the use of
social media. This act suggests that there is a desire for use of social media by
university employees outside corporate accounts.

Universities are depended upon to “ask questions in pursuit of truth, add value
through…critical discussions necessary for a deliberative and liberal democracy and
engage the disciplines and society” (Udas 2014). Additionally when speaking on
their field of expertise, professors should have “the pursuit of truth and the
dissemination of their knowledge ought to be in ways that are open and maximise the

public good…not curtailed by personal, organisational of commercial
considerations.” (Udas 2014). Equally, for researchers that may be using social media
for self-promotion, there could be an issue of self-censorship (Rayment 2013).
Examples for self-censorship in this context could include corporate objectives being
at odd with research objectives for example (Rayment 2013). The competing interests
of corporate and financial need versus academic freedom may be tested on social
media. It is a balance that strategic communicators will need to be aware of but the
phenomena itself would require further research to fully understand.

These realisations ensure that it is necessary for research staff to be able to speak
freely on social media on topics of their expertise. It exercises their right to academic
freedom, helps enhance the reputation of the university that they work at and
potentially provides the content university audiences are seeking.

A prime example of this mindset was one interviewee’s desire to enable and empower
university researchers to engage readers and audiences through social media. There
have been high-level researchers using it successfully with one example - “You have
people like Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt, he is quite active on Twitter
whether it be about particular research or about research in general.” (Respondent 5)
Equally, other researchers like early career researchers can promote their findings,
their organisation in a similar way to many established researchers, providing a more
efficient way to draw attention to their outcomes and funding as “everyone has the
same tools at their disposal. You know a tweet is 140 character no matter who you
are.” (Respondent 3)

Digital communication channels beyond social media channels like Twitter have
offered researchers with opportunities to extend their publishing resources.
Researcher friendly websites like academia.edu and theconversation.com have
allowed a greater reach and control of message. Theconversation.com is supported by
a Nobel Laureate18
and claims to be “shaping scientific, cultural and intellectual
agendas by providing a trusted platform that values and promotes new thinking and
evidence-based research”19. The website is produced by academics and journalists to
marry academia and journalism to tap into the trustbank of academics and bring
credible information to the public (Shipman 2013). It has the financial support of 39
organisations, mostly universities in Australia and New Zealand20
. Importantly it
allows individual academics access to a dashboard to track the popularity and online
virility of their stories (Trounson 2011).

Like the hashtag activism campaign as outlined in section 5.1 Investment and
innovation (p38) researchers do have the opportunity to set their own agenda, join
with other researchers or other audiences to create an agenda and frame the
conversation around the importance of a type of research.
I guess in one sense, if we were watching commentary on social media and
through social media there was a lot of encouragement for funding solar
roadways - I've just pulled that out of the top of my head, something
mentioned to me the other day - a hypothetical. If we saw a lot of discussion
through social media on solar roadways, and how we need to conduct more
research on solar roadways, we could certainly as an agency, if we thought
that it was valid put a case forward to government that we need to be funding
research in that area.
(Respondent 5)

18
Doherty P. 2013, Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty's message, The Conversation, available online:
http://theconversation.com/au/nobel-laureate accessed 30 August 2014
19
Our Charter, The Conversation, available online: http://theconversation.com/au/charter accessed, 30 August 2014
20
Partners and Funders, The Conversation, available online: http://theconversation.com/au/partners, accessed 30 August 2014

As such there is acknowledgement from the stakeholder groups that a wider
discussion can influence the thinking of government funding bodies. From the
perspective of wider agenda setting, there is possibility of highly shareable content
getting the attention of funding bodies –
how long that attention lasts and whether it
has actual outcomes would require further research. Currently, however research
projects are not based on the online reputation of a researcher rather long held
application processes particular to each funding body. It was a commonly held belief
from funding bodies with the primary perspective being - “Projects have to be well
thought through and shown to be of benefit to the whole university sector. I don't
think we would not fund those things because they do with social media.”
(Respondent 4)

However, the research group, as a collective could also influence wider policy in the
sector, while exercising their right to academic freedoms, setting their agenda and
pushing for change. By empowering academic staff, universities may have additional
messaging power. Arguably this could also be considered a risk given that change
could be not in the interests of the university itself, but as the medium is already being
used, that risk will exist whether or not the staff are supported in their use of social
media.

In that sense it doesn't have a great impact other than to stand back, take note
of what the sector is saying. I guess if there was a campaign around - one of
the policies we have out there at the moment is open access about journals that
have been free and open, reached without paying high fees. Putting that in an
open repository where everyone can see them, rather than having to subscribe
to journals to receive that information. Maybe someone creates a Twitter
account to generate discussion on Open Access. The thing we'd watch quite
closely - if there were researchers that had very strong opinions on it - that is
information I'd take to our Executive. If they had strong views that we need to
investigate or interested in hearing more about - maybe we would then contact
that particular researcher. (Respondent 5)


While there is some hesitation in this answer it appears that if there is a collective
view on social media by concentrated group of academic staff, it can affect policy
decisions. Naturally, other business pressures have an affect on funding decisions.
However, they can include areas where universities have been innovating and where
academic staff are finding challenges in their efforts to remain innovative.
The learning environment for everyone is changing so dramatically and
quickly that we do need additional investment in those areas. Particularly to
look at pedagogy around those things or the way the students or learners can
benefit. (Respondent 4)
Affecting policy decisions, as distinct from funding decisions was outlined in section
5.1 Investment and innovation (p35) but for less emotive policy areas, empowering
academic staff –
can have an impact on an agenda and go beyond social media
commentary.

Universities are facing issues outside policy areas and one of the main pressures is a
demographic shift of researchers as older researchers leave the industry. As a result
young or early career researchers are entering the field. Through the interviews there
was an attitude that this group should be allowed to express professional opinion
online, allow them to set their own agenda and connect with the technology that they
are using throughout their training and careers (Lupton, 2014, p11). As outlined by
(Lupton 2014, p5; Hugo 2008) it will be important to embrace early career
researchers so that, one - there is a supply of academic staff into the future; and two -
that they can get their messages out in a method that suits them. This results in
support in investment in social media but also for new academics to be able to
flourish in an environment they are used to working in.

It is the way of the future, it is what the younger generation are using. If we
don't use it we may eliminate some of the younger researchers in the sector.
Social media is definitely something that we're - that we definitely support
investment in. (Respondent 5)

Indeed as social media pervades the learning space, the early career researchers have
studied with electronic communications and social media, it would be a natural
extension to invest in this space to enable efficient communications for new
academics.

The need to support all researchers no matter what position in their careers they are in
was recognised by the interviewees. They also saw that the support could have
benefits to their organisations –
insofar that they would receive public recognition of
the funding. As was outlined academics are provided with advice:
For everything from sending an invitation for someone to attend the event,
what information they required in a briefing for the CEO of the Minister,
things like photography, media releases, producing materials for that event.
We do provide advice like that as well. (Respondent 5)

As Argenti (2006) states, businesses are increasingly sharing more of their content
online, stakeholders are increasingly online and that companies need to work
carefully to manage stakeholder empowerment (p356-357). The funding bodies are
making tools available to researchers to communicate on several different mediums.
As a result, there is the push to communicate and universities need to be aware and
help manage these communications. As outlined in Soumi et al 2014, university
academic staff can see themselves as individualists or visionaries where academic
freedom is a core facet of the industry (p467). Additionally a 2013 study out of the
United States of America said that 55% of university staff now use social media for

professional purposes and that figure had risen significantly since 2009 (Lupton 2014,
p4).

In Lupton’s own study, it was found that social media was used by early career
researchers to network, research and share information regarding ongoing work
(Lupton 2014, p10). While additional research would need to be completed into how
academics set their audiences while studying on social media, some other professions
have been researched. Journalists for example include their supervisors as part of
their imagined audience (Litt 2012 p339). They are included in the audience partly as
they can affect the journalists’ careers but audiences extend beyond identity to
relationship maintenance, raise awareness about an issue, share projects and,
importantly for empowerment - to self promote (Litt, 2012, p339).

As other professions have included individuals and individual bodies of importance in
their imagined audience it could be assumed that the inclusion of funding in an
academics audience could occur if that audience is crucial to their future career.
While not set in policy, funding bodies have expectations of engagement with
acknowledgement of funding - “There is the acknowledgment section on the website
which has the background information on when we expect them to acknowledge the
funding body”. (Respondent 5) Additionally the stakeholder bodies are moving to
have more open models of communications online. “The issues are intertwined. The
main way we get the message out is via the media, media releases, interviews and
social media. There is relevancy in what we put on social media.”

(Respondent 2)
Included in this openness is responding to relevant social media posts with the
majority of interviewees having recently moved to a social media model with greater

interaction. “Should an individual ask us a question, we respond and we do get quite
a few comments and responses coming through that we manage.” (Respondent 1)

That has resulted in more open encouragement of researchers contacting the funding
body for assistance. Additionally there is a desire
“…to increase the spread of contact with the higher education sector,
individuals and institutions...
to get information out to people about learning
and teaching and quality. It is really important to us. We hope that is one of
the things we hope to get out of our investment”
(Respondent 4)
While full-scale engagement in social media for many of these bodies is limited by
physical resource shortages – a sentiment that was reflected by the peak bodies and
government organisations – each body hopes to have a return on social media
investment that can be assisted with the empowerment of academic staff.

As a result there is an importance to empowering research staff at universities. They
are important to the sector - with learning and research, they make the core business
of a university and without them, a university would cease to function. Additionally
in many nations, without research a university could not operate, rather it would take
on the role of a teaching college, significantly impacting revenue21 22 23
. Regarding
reputation, research is very important for a university and to allow a new
communications streams to be able to enhance reputation for a university is important.
For example, as outlined by major university ranking systems like World
University

Rankings
the QS
World
Rankings,
research comprises a larger part of the judgement
21
About the AQF Register, Australian Quality Framework, available online http://www.aqf.edu.au/register/about/ accessed 10
August 2014
22
Higher Education Standards Framework, Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, available
online http://www.teqsa.gov.au/higher-education-standards-framework accessed 10 August 2014
23
College vs University, Grammarist, available online http://grammarist.com/usage/college-university/ accessed 10 August 2014

than any other form of university engagement. Both of the ranking systems weight
60% of their judgements to research outcomes like citations in peer reviewed journals,
volume of research and reputation of individual researchers24 25
. Therefore
empowering researchers to engage in social media and allowing them to build their
reputation on social media can have positive flow on effects for university involved
including:
• Reputation building and agenda setting - the researcher involved can have
additional options in messaging and setting their agenda;
• Being able to acknowledge their funding bodies and satisfy their needs for
acknowledgement and;
• In extreme cases being able to establish an agenda that influences research
funding.

There is awareness from the industry that academic staff at universities do use social
media and that they should be empowered and supported by the university involved.
Overall it appears that for a university, the academic research staff are the stars, akin
to the athletes of a sporting team. Through this group, a university can build an
audience and set an agenda around their research, building their own profiles along
the way. With news sites being established for researches, academic rankings being
skewed towards research reputation and a strong attitude of university stakeholder
groups to empower research staff to post on social media, it is strategically important
24
World University Rankings 2013-2014 methodology, 2014, The World University Rankings, available online
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking/methodology accessed 10 August
2014
25
Academic Reputation Methodology, 2014, QS Intelligence Unit, available online:
http://www.academicmatters.ca/2013/06/self-censoring-away-from-the-public-sphere/ accessed 10 August 2014

for universities to empower their staff to exercise their academic freedoms in social
media channels.

5.4 Conclusion to the Findings
Three key themes - investment and innovation; planning; and empowerment were
apparent across the interviews. The themes reflect a complexity in the usage of social
media and expectations of how universities can best use social media in strategic
communications.
The findings demonstrated that there is an attitude that universities should be
investing in social media. Investment was seen as important to enhance or protect
their profile their social media strategy must be given as much consideration as
traditional media in their corporate communication strategy.
The investment would also require careful planning to the best results from social
media in a strategic communications setting. Social media provides a tool to allow a
conversation on policy perspectives, corporate or research findings for example.
Whether a university, a peak body or a government department, social media has
added another dimension to communications planning.
Finally, one of the common elements from the interviews was that employees should
not be excluded from posting on social media about their work and progress in what
they are doing. Of note, it researchers could be empowered to post on social media
and would provide an additional way for universities to best use the social media tool.

Sam Tickell - S11764930 - Dissertation

Sam Tickell - S11764930 - Dissertation

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