Change Process in the Context of Corporate Communications: Stages for Exploiting the Potential of Social Media

Many companies waive even to its use of social media, because they are afraid of losing control over their communications and their benefits concerned. It must be admitted honestly that companies have already lost this control by the various possibilities of Web 2.0. The messages of the sender as well as the reactions of the recipient on the given messages cannot or only partially be controlled. The reactions of the people in the social web can thus be neither controlled nor purposefully reliably predicted. To trigger and use viral effects, the control must be issued. Thereby is some unpredictability because of the fundamental properties and forces of social media: the relationship and exchanges between people. The loss of control is new and unfamiliar to businesses because the media Social Media sets itself apart from the previously used controllable communication channels. The implementation of a change management is a requirement that companies can succeed utilize the potential of social media. Established thought-, action- and organizational structures need to be reconsidered, given to the power shifts in the dialogue between companies and their stakeholders.