Look Who's Co-creating: Employer Branding on Social Media

Web2.0 changes the way information, services and products are created. Companies engage with consumers in a process of co-creation to invent, shape and generate added value. This trend has been labelled Enterprise 2.0. This interdisciplinary study joins the fields of Infor-mation Systems, Marketing and Human Resource Management and provides an insight into how the models of value-, product- and service co-creation can be applied to the domain of employer branding. Based on the DART-model of value co-creation a qualitative multi-case study investi-gates how social media usage contributes to co-creation of employer brand. The study reveals unexpected trends, paradoxes and potential conflicts, and provides suggestions for further re-search. The paper highlights the lack of Dialogue between employer and employee; new ways of Accessing information by employees outside the control of the employer; the uncertainty of ben-efits and Risks of employee involvement in brand creation; and increased Transparency through inclusion of new participants in the employer brand creation process: alumni and customers. The study identifies an emergent shift of power to control and create information from the or-ganization towards employees and consumers and links this power shift to social media use by organisations and their employees.

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