An examination of digital diplomacy and reputation management at international organisations

Abstract

Digital diplomacy is being used at many different international organisations to help communicate their messages to a wider public, opening up new audiences outside the governmental stakeholders they do their work with. This new way of communicating has created potential reputational issues that organisations need to be aware of when using social media. This research examines how social media is being used at international organisations in the context of the environment in which they work. It studies how reputation management principles apply to international organisations and how they are managed using the tools available for measuring the effectiveness of social media. It finds that the environment that organisations work in have much working against them structurally and politically to effectively communicate, and the tools that are available to measure social media do not help organisations manage their issues effectively, so many do not engage in this type of analysis.