ABSTRACT
This chapter, talks about a central problem for organizations that have yet to understand or proactively engage with social media is the growing impact of social media on corporate identity. Social media cannot be managed by avoidance precisely because of the significant risks that it poses for the management of corporate identity. It also considers the ways in which this identity may be played out within social media contexts, and the challenges and opportunities posed for public relations. Through public relations, organizations seek to establish and maintain beneficial relationships with publics which enhance corporate identity and, as Ihlen argues, constitute the organization's social capital. This individual focus may help to explain the neglect of Bourdieu's work within the public relations literature, which is largely concerned with the strategies and activities of organizational actors. In thinking specifically about social capital formation within the context of social media, it is helpful to consider it from both a structural and a relational perspective.
