Work

Response strategies for community stakeholder engagement on social media: A case study of a large infrastructure project

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Social media offer new opportunities for project community stakeholder engagement due to its spatial and temporal independency. This study reveals implications for project stakeholder identification, assessment, and response strategies in the social media context. It analysed Facebook communication sequences in two cases related to establishing the Western Sydney International Airport. The analysis showed that existing stakeholder identification and assessment guidelines only apply to social media to some extent. Information about stakeholders and their concerns is limited. We suggest identifying and addressing thematic issues shared across stakeholders. Regarding possible response strategies, the project in the case study surprisingly often refrained from responding to community stakeholder comments, foregoing the opportunity to engage with community stakeholders and acknowledging supportive comments. We suggest that projects consciously apply an ‘always respond’ response strategy on social media and extend response strategies to cover engagement with an 'acknowledgement' response strategy.

Source: International Journal of Project Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102495

Authors: Kon Shing Kenneth Chung, Pernille Eskerod, Anna Lund Jepsen, Jingbo Zhang

Institutions: The University of Sydney, Webster Vienna Private University, University of Southern Denmark

Language: English

Topic: Public Relations and Crisis Communication

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,200