Social Media & Controlling

Social media leads to substantial adjustments in various business functions, including communication, marketing, human resources, and corporate security. In these functions, existing skills, such as engaging in dialogue with target audiences or managing public relations with critical stakeholders, are often significantly challenged. This results in adaptation and coordination tasks both within and between the sub-functions. In current practice, controllers are rarely involved in these transformation processes. Therefore, it is argued here that controlling is ill-advised to classify social media as an IT issue and thus justify neglecting it. Rather, it is essential to understand the central development lines of the social media dialogue revolution and to assess their impact on business functions.