ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses worlds, identities, and publics as relationship and content production and co-production connect creatively. Connections seems to be facilitated by social media, they encounter numerous stumbling blocks. By their very nature, social mediated networks are fluid, contingent on many factors that predict access, relationship development, consensus, shared identity, and aligned interests. As much as alignment is often conceptualized as a public relations outcome, it may well be a vital predictor of access to strategic publics. It is the currency of admission to the social media show. Such relational conditions are influenced by the communication styles of those who seek to gain access to and participation in discourse arenas. But more important than relationship management styles alone, discourse conditions supply the power publics use to determine the conditions of social media engagement. As is the case for individuals, organizations encounter the ROI challenge of calculating and addressing the return on investment for working to gain access to social media.
