The Possible Risks of Using Facebook in Corporate Communication

Corporate reputation is the value that brands give the most importance as it forms the perception of their stakeholders towards the brands, enables the brands to be separated from their rivals and to be respected. Therefore, brands try to shape the perception of their stakeholders in a positive way with the messages that they send through the traditional media continually. However, with the common usage of social media today, brands have to manage their corporate reputation on the online platforms, as well. Nevertheless, the usage of social media platforms possess some possible risks because social media has given the control to the consumers who can easily create user generated content in these platforms. Discontent consumers can express their negative experiences to brands directly on online communities such as Facebook brand fan pages and can prepare a basis for the outburst of a crisis with the support that they gain from other consumers. Therefore, brands should be prepared in advance for crisis scenarios and should maintain an effective complaint management on their Facebook brand fan pages. This paper aims to discuss what makes consumers powerful on social media and the possible risks that brands can come across on social media. Moreover, it examines how complaint management should be handled on Facebook to prevent the emergence of an online crisis. This paper will contribute to the literature of crisis communication from the aspect of social media.