Abstract:
Various case studies highlight the negative effect corporate social media communication risks have on
organisations. In this study, the risk associated with corporate social media communication in organisations is
investigated. The extent of internal auditing’s involvement to assist management in evaluating and mitigating
the risks that such communication poses is also explored. The study revealed that organisations’ brand and
reputation is the most important risk. A significant number (33%) of respondents indicated that risk of social
media communication were not included in their organization’s internal audit universe. The majority indicated
that internal auditing did not evaluate or was not trained to evaluate the effectiveness of corporate social
media communication controls. The results of this study revealed that there are opportunities for internal
auditing to focus its efforts on becoming involved in evaluating risks relating to corporate social media
communication.
