Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 165–167 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Research in Brief Rules of engagement: Practice what you tweet  Shelley Wigley a,* , Bobbi Kay Lewis b,1 a University of Texas at Arlington, Department of Communication, P.O. Box 19107, Arlington, TX 76019, United States b Oklahoma State University, School of Media & Strategic Communications, 206 Paul Miller Building, Stillwater, OK 74078, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 18 May 2011 Received in revised form 21 August 2011 Accepted 25 August 2011 Keywords: Dialogic public relations theory Public engagement Two-way symmetrical communication Twitter a b s t r a c t This study explored tweets that mention highly engaged companies and compared them to tweets that mention less engaged competitors. Results showed that a highly engaged company received less negative mentions in tweets, but only if the company also practiced dialogical communication. Additionally, less engaged companies received more mentions in tweets and in one instance tweets that mentioned a less engaged company shared more links with others. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Twitter as a PR tool Thousands of organizations, celebrities, and brands are using social media applications such as Twitter, the 140 character microblogging site. Public relations professionals proclaim social media, particularly Twitter, as revolutionary, but has social media changed the practice of public relations? Or is it, as Whitney Eichinger, a public relations executive with Southwest Airlines, stated to a class of public relations students, “...just another tool in the toolbox” (personal communication, 18 November 2010)? A recent study found that one-third of consumers discuss brands on Twitter, 32% make recommendations and 30% seek guidance (Solis, 2010). An industry study found active Twitter users are three times more likely to impact a company’s reputation via social media than the average consumer and that Twitter users are more likely than general Internet users to blog, comment on blogs, and post ratings and reviews (Falkow, 2010). 2. Methods This study content analyzed conversations over a three day period on the microblogging site Twitter. Four companies were selected based on their level of engagement on Twitter. For the purpose of this study, Southwest Airlines and Comcast were categorized as highly engaged companies; American Airlines and Time Warner Cable were categorized as lesser engaged companies. Alterian’s social media monitoring service was used to gather data for the study. Company mentions were assessed by counting the number of mentions of each company. The tone of each tweet was assessed categorically using “negative,” “neutral,” and “positive.” Tweets were categorized into four different types: broad- cast/statement; forward; question; and engagement. Tweets were also examined for the inclusion of hyperlinks and hashtags.  A complete version of this study is available by request from the corresponding author at shelley.wigley@uta.edu. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 817 272 2163. E-mail addresses: shelley.wigley@uta.edu (S. Wigley), bobbikay.lewis@okstate.edu (B.K. Lewis). 1 Tel.: +1 405 744 2970. 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.08.020