Though business studies of social media are mainly focused on large firms these studies do not prevent firms from the specific pitfalls of social media. Firms are operating densely and simultaneously in several marketing channels. Mainly their message leans on purely commercial purposes, but sometimes, the message contains strategies or values of the company. This study focuses on intentional and unintentional strategic communication on social media (SCSM) emphasizing the role of videos in SCSM. According to found “paradox of videos”, large firms provide videos, that are possible to interpret as “strategic videos”, but their popularity is minor – or even negative - among the audience. This multi-case study considers four companies and their multichannel strategizing and SCSM. Analysis reveals the importance of the attitudes of the “median customer” and the difficulty of having successful videos, which are focused on affecting the values of the customers. Sometimes successful SCSM and ROI of social media investments are even partly in the hands of consumers, consumer coopetition, and the other firm’s stakeholders.
Rusko et al. (Sun,) studied this question.