U.S. Public Diplomacy in Korea Through Social Media: An Analysis of Embassy Facebook Messages and User Reactions

Abstract

Social media are becoming one of the most important tools in today’s public relations strategies because their participatory, open and sharing nature enables two-way communications needed in public relations. As a result, there is an increasing number of studies on how companies, governments and non-state actors use social media to build and maintain relations with their publics. Studies on their effectiveness are also growing. However, these studies tend to focus on social media activities carried out domestically by organizations. Yet the power of social media lies in their abilities to transcend national boundaries as they allow organizations to communicate instantly with anyone anywhere in the world. For that reason, it is meaningful to examine how social media are used in international relations. Particularly, the use of social media in public diplomacy, which is to communicate and build positive relations with foreign publics for the purpose of national interests, deserves much attention. Against that backdrop, this paper attempted to see how Facebook is used in public diplomacy with what kind of effects. More specifically, this paper analyzed the Facebook postings of the U.S. embassy in Korea and the reactions (like, share and comment) of their users. The embassy was found to send mainly informational messages, but users were more reactive to relational messages.