There is no longer one truth!: corporate communications and social media management through deferred systems

Web 2.0 technologies promote democracy which poses issues for corporate communications. Corporate communications is orchestrated by companies to promote business strategy and raise brand profile. However, companies’ use of Web 2.0 technologies in the form of social media raises problems for corporate communications departments. Web communities on social media may run campaigns that have adverse effects for companies. This is the emergence effect of Web 2.0 technologies. The Web 2.0 platform is likely to be a permanent feature for corporate communications. In this paper, the theory of deferred action is proposed to promote the positive use of social media whilst managing its adverse effects, or more generally emergence. The deferred systems concept in particular is proposed for conceptualising and developing social media uses for corporate communications whilst managing emergence. Design principles are proposed to develop social media effectively for business use.