Facebook as a Corporate Communication Tool: A Case Study of the Church of Uganda

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the contribution of Facebook as a tool of corporate communication and is a case study of the Church of Uganda (Namirembe, Kampala and Mukono dioceses). The study was guided by objectives which included: investigating how the Church of Uganda uses Facebook for corporate communication, establishing the effectiveness of Facebook as a corporate communication tool for the Church of Uganda, examining the opportunities related to the use of Facebook in corporate communication and examining challenges related to the use of Facebook in corporate communication in the Church of Uganda. The study was carried out using a case study research design where qualitative research approach was used. Data was collected using interviews and focus group discussions and during the data collection, purposive sampling methods was used as the sample size of 28 staff from Namirembe, Mukono and Kampala Dioceses of the Church of Uganda was used. The findings of the study indicate that to a large extent, the use of Facebook in the three dioceses has been effective in corporate communication because of the positive feedback received from the users and followers of the Facebook pages of these dioceses. Finally, it can be concluded that there are several opportunities related to the use of Facebook for corporate communication like enabling the dioceses to form alliances with prospective partners locally and abroad and allowing a two-way communication between the institution and its stakeholders. The study revealed that challenges related to the use of Facebook for corporate communication include limited time and resources to create these pages and running them constantly, limited skills in creating and running the Facebook pages effectively, negative feedback as well as trust, privacy and security issues involved in the use of Facebook. Finally, the study recommended that institutions like the Church of Uganda need to invest heavily in terms of time and resources when it comes to setting up and running these Facebook pages. The study also recommends the need to offer training to the staff members tasked with handling these Facebook pages to ensure that they have the right skills of doing so.