When organizations are enthusiastic about regularly capturing the impact that their work has in the community, they work toward improving their visibility both online and in their immediate communities. This is particularly so when engaging with the public through participatory online initiatives via social media and Social Value (or CSR) campaigns. This is where participatory media begins to create a platform and connection with the organization’s audience. As more engagement and outreach initiatives are created, a global movement of interested audience members begin to read, follow, volunteer or even advocate for the organization’s goals and vision.
In essence, participatory media platforms are those technological online spaces in which the online communities actively generate and disseminate content in the form of opinions, images, videos, designs, and audio. The purpose for organizations that engage in participatory media communications is audience participation as well as active and inclusive involvement of the community. This is achieved through involving the Creatives, engaging on Social Media and establishing Social Value.
Creative Industry Involvement
Most success has been seen where corporate, public, and private organizations partner with the creative industry. The involvement of creatives—these are musicians, poets, artists, designers many more, generates a cohesive advantage in communicating the organizations goals. This should not be devoid of the specific context of the community they are involved with or where they hope to develop a brand presence. Understanding context-specific needs enables organizations to share stories that are influential to both children, youths, and adults, and that are also relevant for social justice, healthcare, social care, education, entrepreneurship, etc. Thus, organizations that engage in a participatory approach to communications through engaging with the creatives industry can break barriers to accommodate healthy relationships and deeper connections within the community.
It’s important to note that this is the basic premise of participatory approaches to using media for development. As Jan Servaes (1990) explains, "…each society must attempt to delineate its own strategy to development, based on its own ecology and culture. Therefore, it should not attempt to blindly imitate program and strategies of other countries with a totally different historical and cultural background.”
This implies that participatory communications is not only about focusing on the outcomes of the organization in the community, but rather emphasizes the process and dialogue that leads to achieving their goals. This can only be achieved by treating communication as an ongoing, inclusive and multidirectional exchange between equals (the organization and audience), rather than as a one-way system for delivering information. Thus, promoting dialogue is key to the success of most participatory media projects that organizations launch.
Social Media Use
Organizations that choose to engage with creatives require the application of supplementary publicity that comes easily with Social Media use. Those organizations that do not have or have dormant Social Media accounts are losing out on growth and online community engagement. For example, Instagram is a popular and easy place to post activities but is yet to get fully utilized as a social network platform in many organizations. According to Mintel (2015) Instagram is used to share, "daily illustrations, artistic endeavors and life moments, Instagram provides their users visuality and impression management. The content and types of the photographs posted are often used as indicators of the user's personality and taste.”
Additionally, Social Media content is popular because it is "accessible when and where the audiences want it. Social media content is portable, quotable and ‘grabbable’” (Jenkins, Ford and Green, 2013). Through employing visually based networks, an organization’s brand can grow in popularity. It is also necessary to improvise with a multimedia approach to storytelling. The most common form of social media content is photos, graphic designed images, and videos. These provide new variations to the traditional static posts and would incorporate new ways to maintain visibility. Organizations that utilize their YouTube channel as a platform for sharing short videos benefit from increased online engagement.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives
Additionally, the participatory nature of social value is realized through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This is the responsibility that an organization or company has to its society and stakeholders. This is indicative of their engagement and contribution to specific sections of a demographic where they aim to have a positive impact.
The importance of the concept of social value for social businesses is generally linked to ‘social capital’ and the social good of citizens. Social value goes beyond the monetary benefits that an organization engaged in CSR can provide. Additionally, the contribution to society can be aggregated to the additional needs that improve the conditions of living in a community through providing general benefits that appeal to the population they are engaged with.
These benefits that go beyond monetary contribution speak to ‘Henley’s Seven Dividends’ that are identified as, "creativity, learning, feel-good, innovation, place-shaping, enterprise and reputation.” These are pointed particularly to the arts where an "investment of public funds for the good of citizens” is realized through financial support. According to Henley, the significance of these ‘Seven Dividends’ is based on the concept that the arts, "stimulate imagination, facilitate diversity, help children learn and develop, keep us happy and safe, promote creativity and entrepreneurship, revitalize urban and rural areas, foster a sense of community, and even generate revenue.”
Therefore, organizations would benefit in the continuous development of their social value with their publics through establishing collaboration with creatives and having vibrant multi-media online platforms. When these are well managed and funded, participatory media empowers different members of the community through providing a platform for collaboration, dialogue, and development as the organization grows.
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