Examining the Communication Shared on X-Platform by Member Companies of a Social Impact Forética Cluster

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how companies in a cluster communicate their activities on X-platform (formerly Twitter). Three main tasks were considered in this study: 1) an analysis of Tweet (formerly tweet) level messages according to the subject matter posted; 2) an analysis of the messages at the tweet level in terms of the communication design; 3) an analysis of the affective connotation of the language used in each message. We examined a sample of tweets posted for one year by member companies of a Social Impact cluster. The results indicate that the cluster companies use X-platform (formerly Twitter) to communicate their corporate activities with a weekly frequency that ranges from 5 to 182 posts. The analysis of the messages shows that i) there is a predominance of posts referring to corporate products and services as opposed to corporate social responsibility; ii) companies post to create community; and, iii) graphic and audio-visual resources within the content of the posts are predominant. The results have both practical and academic implications, which can be used to develop strategies for companies to take advantage of the social networking site's capabilities or tools and develop plans for building strong relationships with their audience.