CoSIDA E-Digest March 2013 • 1

CoSIDA
Advantages and Disadvantages
of Social Media Use:
Perceptions of College Athletics Communicators
By G. Clayton Stoldt, Jeff Noble, Mike Ross, Travis Richardson, Julica Bonsall Wichita State University
Social media have fundamentally changed the public relations (PR) profession. More than 90% of the PR professionals
working in college athletics agree or strongly agree that social media have changed the way their organizations
communicate (Stoldt, 2012). These changes have been diverse, as social media have simultaneously presented new
opportunities for communication as well as new challenges to be managed. The purpose of this paper is to identify and
describe the primary advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of social media and blogs as perceived by
college athletics PR professionals.
We conducted a benchmark study of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) membership last year,
securing information regarding the membership’s professional use of and perceptions about social media. The online
survey, conducted in partnership with CoSIDA between November 2011 and January 2012, resulted in 529 responses
(19% of CoSIDA’s 2,862 members at the time). It addressed a range of topics, and it was based on an instrument
originally developed by Dr. Donald K. Wright of Boston University and Michelle Hinson of the Institute for Public Relations
(Wright & Hinson, 2009). The general survey results were published previously by CoSIDA and may be accessed here
(Stoldt, 2012).
In addition to the various multiple choice items on the survey, respondents were asked to identify the primary advantages
and disadvantages associated with using social media and blogs to communicate with key publics. Response rates to
these open-ended items were strong with 384 CoSIDA members (73% of respondents) naming advantages and 368 (70%
of respondents) listing disadvantages. The investigators analyzed those responses using an emergent coding process
(Stemler, 2001) in which categories were established following an initial review of the data. One of the steps taken in
identifying those categories was to conduct several electronic content analyses, including the creation of word clouds
using the Wordle application. The word clouds for the advantages and disadvantages are displayed in Figure 1 and 2
respectively.
Ten categories of advantages and nine categories of disadvantages were initially identified. Preliminary coding by the
investigators resulted in one modification to the typology of disadvantages. The final categories for advantages and
disadvantages are listed and described in Tables 1 and 2 respectively.
Table 1. Categories – Advantages of Using Social Media
Category Description
Access Ability to communicate with a wide range of constituents, including new publics
Content Ability to craft the substance of the message
Cost Lack of expense associated with social media
Credibility Perceived credibility of social media messages
Ease Usability of social media for communication
Feedback Ability to secure fans’ perceptions/communication with the organization through social media
Management Ability to drive the message, eliminating media bias
Speed Ability to quickly disseminate information
Student Ability to target social media efforts toward students
Targeted Ability to communicate and build connections with publics in the social media platform they desire
CoSIDA E-Digest March 2013 • 63