Community Management on Closed-Media Platforms

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Community management has become established in communications practice as a response to the changed conditions created by digital networking. Companies no longer address their messages to the public, but to communities. Many users as well as companies are withdrawing from public platforms and increasingly moving to semi-public or non-public platforms.

Research period: March 2022 – May 2023
Scientifc lead: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Röttger, Lennart Rettler

Goals

Communication in social media is often chaotic. The latest development in social media communication is that many users and companies are withdrawing, at least in part, from public platforms and increasingly moving to semi-public or non-public platforms (= closed-media platforms).

The project examines four central research questions:

Which closed-media platforms are used in external corporate communications, for what reasons and with what goals?
What influencing factors facilitate and/or impede community management on closed-media platforms from the perspective of community managers?
How do community managers assess the opportunities and risks of closed-media platforms?
Which topics and tonalities can be observed on closed-media platforms?

Approach

A qualitative survey of 10 to 14 community managers using semi-structured expert interviews.
A content analysis of the communication of 10 to 14 different companies on closed media platforms. The aim is to find out which topics are covered and what the predominant tonality is.