A contribuição das redes sociais online para o relacionamento empresa x comunidade, no que tange aos projetos de responsabilidade socioambiental

Abstract

The growing interest in relation to a responsible online communication, by companies indicates how this aspect has become a necessity in order to remain competitive and at the same time, ethical with actions which they undertake. The web world is evolving and the use of Internet as a fast and economic communication medium has led companies to use it with increasing frequency. Inserted in this context, this study aims to understand how businesses interact with their publics, using online social networking to publicize their environmental responsibility strategies and effectively can provide a greater awareness of the society on these issues, enhancing the positive image of the organization, promoting its competitive edge.The qualitative study was based on several sources of evidence: (i) the Ethos Institute, which were extracted the companies object of this study, (ii) online social networking, specifically the Facebook, from where the content of the posts was analyzed in companie‟s fun pages, (iii) structured interviews with managers responsible for generating the content of of the companie‟s fun pages. The results of this study indicate that the analyzed companies are familiar with the conceptual principles of CSR, although this is still a concept under construction. Furthermore, it was found that the concern for Environmental Responsibility, although recent, has already taken a proportion that exceeds the legal requirements, but this concern does not necessarily translate into actions or projects related to the theme. The three companies consider Facebook an important channel of communication due to its interactive and comprehensive nature, but only two of them disclose their projects, actions and practices of CSR in fun pages. It was evident, too, that most of the posts refer to social issues, in detriment of the environment issues. Overall, the results suggest that companies consider important to adopt CSR practices in their businesses and, equally, share them, whether on websites, social networks or even other media; What is not clear is whether they have the understanding of how to turn sustainability challenges into strategic opportunities. It is hoped that this work may have contributed in some way to a better understanding of the concepts and the association between environmental responsibility, organizational communication and use of online social networking as a tool for this communication.