Empowering Engagement: Understanding Social Media User Sense of Influence

ABSTRACT

For all the hope and hype hailing the democratizing effect of social media, few studies have explained public influence as an element of social media engagement. Insight into how and why individuals attempt to exert influence over organizations online is particularly underdeveloped. This study takes the first step in understanding sense of influence online through in-depth interviews with social media users. Findings call into question assumptions in research about the motives and meanings underlying individual efforts to exert influence via social media. The data from 19 in-depth interviews with active social media users suggest that sense of influence is enacted for social relationships rather than to influence organizations or society, and information is the driving force of that effort. Findings also place the imperative on strategic communication to emphasize the value of the organization’s role on social interaction toward a fully functioning society.

Notes

¹ In this study, the term stakeholders refers to individuals with a vested interest in the organization. Publics refers to groups that form around or are connected by an interest or issue. We use the term “social media user” to refer generally to those who use social media, which may include stakeholders and/or publics.