Online Stakeholder Targeting and the Acquisition of Social Media Capital

Abstract

The diffusion of social media has opened new possibilities for targeted stakeholder communication and, with it, new forms of organizational resources. This paper examines the nexus between social media-based stakeholder communication and the acquisition of social media-based resources, referred to here as "social media capital." After laying out a conceptual mapping of both targeted stakeholder communication and social media capital, the paper turns to an inductive analysis of the relationship between the messages 117 US community foundations are sending to their core stakeholders on Twitter and subsequent levels of social media capital. The paper thus contributes to the existing literature by elaborating new forms of targeted stakeholder communication, a new type of organizational resource, and the relationship between the two.

Keywords: stakeholder communication, new media, social media, Twitter, nonprofit organizations, social capital

JEL Classification: L31