Using Social Media in Building and Managing Corporate Identity: Study on Real Estate Companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Purpose of the Research: This study aims to understand the use of social media in building and managing corporate identity in Bahraini real estate companies. It will be based on the qualitative approach and aim to reach a deeper understanding of the perceptions adopted by Bahraini real estate companies in developing identity-building strategies and management methods. Design/Methodology: The study will focus on a sample of Bahraini real estate companies. It will also rely on semi-structured interviews as a data collection tool with managers, decision-makers or public relations managers of these companies. Results/Findings: Most of the real estate companies (8 out of 11) agreed that traditional media, such as newspapers, radio, and television, were unable to promote the company's services because of its narrow scope. New media should be used to target wider audiences. Practical Implications/Conclusion: The authors argue that managers should adapt to the new form of communication and take advantage of the power of consumer chatter in these ways and amplify them to influence other consumers. The interviews revealed that the use of the Internet has changed the behavior of consumers, and the marketing methods of products and services, as it created a new marketing environment in these media. Corresponding author: Kamel Gharbi Email addresses for the corresponding author: kgharbi@uob.edu. bh First submission received: 24th October 2019 Revised submission received: 6th December 2019 Accepted: 19th December 2019 Introduction With the emergence of social media, individuals can communicate with each other and discuss everything related to a company and its products and services. Thus, the communication between consumers has expanded, facilitating the exchange of information and evaluation of various products and commodities. Therefore, some consider this to be a hybrid element of promotion (Mangold & Faulds, 2009) because it allows the company to address its customers on the one hand, while allowing customers to communicate with each other on the other. In this sense, social media works like electronic word of mouth (eWOM ( Goodrich & De Mooij, 2014). Therefore, the company loses its full control over the communication process as in the traditional model. Several studies have shown that the consumer is becoming much more confident in opinion leaders among his relatives, friends, co-workers, and others (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Kotler & Keller, 2010). This interest has been a catalyst for innovative communication strategies. Many modern studies (Stuart, 1999; Mangold and Faulds, 2009) agree that modern communication technologies and social media have inevitably changed perceptions and paradigms and have driven small, medium, and large enterprises to review strategies for building and managing their identity through virtual space. Since identity and reputation are fundamental factors of their success and competitiveness (Cornelissen & Elving, 2003), companies of various sizes and activities seek to optimize Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 14 Issue 2 April 2020 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER) 16 the use of social media to build their identity and manage their reputation. This study focuses on how social media can be used to effectively build and manage corporate identity in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Literature review Corporate identity The concepts of corporate identity, corporate image and corporate reputation are often confused, and some terms are even used to denote the other. Stuart Albert and David A. Whetten (1985) developed the foundation for the concept of corporate identity. It has also recently been developed in the field of organizational communication studies by Charles Fombrun and Cees Van Riel in their joint book "Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Best Practices for Effective Reputation Management" (2007) and in Wally Olins "Brand New: The Shape of Brands to Come" (2014). In various literature (Olins 2008, 2014 ; Melewer, 2008 ; Fombrun & Van Riel, 2007 ; Barnett, Jermier & Lafferty, 2006), the corporate identity is seen as a set of visual aspects and symbols that distinguish a company from its competitors (such as brand name, logo, advertising symbol, distinctive color, etc.). It is a system of fundamental beliefs and values presented to the company’s internal and external audience, through behavior, communication and the symbolic system. (Balmer & Van Riel, 1997). It is defined by Wally Olins and others as how the organization presents itself and demonstrates its distinctiveness towards stakeholders. According to Melewer (2008), the concept of corporate identity is linked to the intrinsic characteristics of organizations in terms of personality, individuality, excellence, meaning, substance and behavior. Originally, corporate identity programs target external stakeholders or audiences (such as customers, investors, and the public), but more recently, target groups have been expanded to include employees (e.g. internal stakeholders). Accordingly, the corporate identity depends on an integrated media strategy that includes both traditional and new media. With the advent of social media, the tools and strategies used to communicate with customers and stakeholders have changed, creating new concepts related to the consumer and its role in the communication process. The consumer is able to produce and disseminate information, data and experiences about the brand, product or services Social media and marketing According to Zarella (2010), social media and marketing are best known in the context of the traditional media model, such as television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. They are one-way, with fixed broadcasting technologies. Web technologies make it easy for anyone to create pages and, more importantly, distribute that content in several types of platforms, such as blogs, tweets, or YouTube and show it to millions for free (Zarella, 2010). Kaplan & Heanlein defines it as "a group of Internet-based applications that built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content" (Kaplan & Heanlein, 2010, p.61). Since the advent of the second and third generation of the web, social media applications and platforms have been growing and evolving, giving organizations greater opportunities to communicate with the customer. At the same time, it allows customers to communicate and share experiences (Gillin, 2007). Christopher Vollmer and Geoffrey Precourt noted that consumers now have full control over the social media space and have greater access to information and thus media leadership than ever before (Vollmer & Precourt, 2008). Most social media experts and scholars emphasized the importance of integrating social media into a comprehensive marketing strategy. It is therefore important for companies to recognize that social media is not just channels for disseminating information about companies. Therefore, it is important that the company make use of social media to serve its goals and objectives (Kaplan, 2015; Doorley & Garcia, 2011). Conceptual Framework Helen Stuart’s model of the corporate identity management process (1999) (Figure 1) is a revision of Russell Abratt’s model, which was drafted in 1994 and updated in 1998. Stuart has added corporate culture and the structure of internal and external communications to the model. Employees were also considered with key stakeholder groups because their opinion about the identity of the company is Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 14 Issue 2 April 2020 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER) 17 particularly important. However, this model did not include social media, which didn’t become widespread until the first decade of the 21st-century. Figure 1. Towards a definitive model of the corporate identity management process (Stuart, 1999, p 206). This study, therefore, took advantage of a complementary model presented by Glynn Mangold and David J. Faulds) 2009(, (Figure 2). This model discusses the impact of social media on consumers, as the individual communicates with other consumers about companies and their products. “In the new communications paradigm, marketing managers should recognize the power and critical nature of discussions being carried on by consumers using social media” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p 360). Companies have always been in control of the flow of communication with the target audience. However, the emergence of new media has greatly reduced this control. The new changing communication landscape is, therefore, different from the traditional Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) model, which was characterized by a high level of communication control by the company. Therefore, companies realized the importance of achieving the requirements of this new form of communication by taking customer discussions into account, thereby benefiting from them in developing their marketing strategies. Figure 2. The new communications paradigm (Mangold &. Faulds, 2009, p 360). Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 14 Issue 2 April 2020 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER) 18 Research approach and data analysis The current research raises the following question: How do real estate companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain use social media to build and manage their corporate identity. To answer this question, the researchers used a qualitative approach and relied on the semi-structured interview tool for data collection. A semi-structured interview helps to get ideas, opinions, representations, and determinants of behavior by asking good questions (Berger, 2011). Because of the different representations about the role of social media in building and managing corporate