Building Relationship with the Public from Different Cultural Backgrounds on Social Media: A Case Study on Estée Lauder's Social Media Communication Strategies in the United States and China

With the proliferation of social media in corporation–public communication, this chapter aims to introduce and apply the recent theories in corporation–public relationship building on social media by developing an integrated framework to examine intercultural public relations on social media. Specifically, the study examined the case of Estée Lauder’s relationship cultivation with social media users from the United States and China on social media. The results revealed that different strategies in relation to the content topic, communication style, functional interactivity features, and responsiveness have been adapted by Estée Lauder in their social media communication with social media users from the two countries, reflecting cultural adaptation strategies. The findings also identified different driving factors for public engagement on social media platforms in the United States and China: responsiveness was positively associated with public responses in the United States while collectivistic communication style, functional interactivity features, and responsiveness were positively associated with public responses in China. Results of this study inform practitioners on the use of relationship building strategies via social media communication with social media users from different cultural backgrounds.