Title: Communicating and developing relationships through Facebook: the case of Greek organisations

Authors: Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Administration and Economics, Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia, Terma Magnisias, 62124, Serres, Greece

Abstract: Facebook can be an effective public relations tool. Through it, an organisation can communicate and develop relationships with its stakeholders. The related research, however, is still limited and confined to US organisations. Moreover, there are no studies comparing Facebook use as between profit and non-profit entities. This paper aims to help fill this gap, drawing insights from the Greek reality. Its purpose is to record the differences in how: a) Greek profit and non-profit organisations; b) Greek and equivalent US organisations, use their Facebook page as a public relations tool. The method used is that of content analysis in 233 organisations, 118 profit and 115 non-profit. The study concludes that the differences between Greek profit and non-profit organisations mainly concern user involvement. It also shows that in general Greek organisations make more efficient PR use of their Facebook page than their US counterparts.

Keywords: public relations; Facebook; Greek organisations; profit organisations; non-profit organisations; communication; relationship development; Greece.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2017.091751

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2017 Vol.12 No.4, pp.375 - 388

Received: 10 Apr 2017
Accepted: 16 Dec 2017
Published online: 14 May 2018 *

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