Social Media and Public Relations - Literature review Example

Social Media and Public Relations Introduction Public relations has now been closely associated with social media since the development of the Internet in late 20th century. According to Evans, Twomey, and Talan (2011, p. 1), social networking sites are considered to be “integral parts of groundbreaking public relations plans” especially during the renowned campaigns of President Barack Obama. As a result, other leading companies and organizations followed the enormous success of the political strategy of Obama as it is the work of Public Relations. With the advent of technology comes the rebirth of public relations. When Web 2.0 prompted the introduction of Social Media, so as the evolution and rise of PR 2.0 which allows the use of multimedia to enhance and improve the way public relations is conducted by the practitioners. As the Internet has transformed into a sophisticated hub for ‘netizens’ so as to the nature of online communication and exchanges of propaganda, campaigns, and information drive (Duhe, 2007).These changes are obviously referring to the significant changes in the way Facebook, Twitter, and blogs provide means of communication outlets that are not available in the early 20th century. For this research, we will focus largely on the use of Facebook in revolutionizing the conduct of public relations in recent times. The Value of Social Media to Public Relations In the past, press releases were an integral component of public relations until online news releases agencies began to appear in the 1990s, creating a halt from too much reliance on fax machines and e-mails. As the years passed, press releases continued to exist but were also modified to fit the changes in the medium used. Press releases are now exchanged at a fast pace and in the most convenient way: using embedded multimedia. Green (2010) calls this as a creativity aspect of public relations that is driven by the swift breakthroughs in Internet programming and online software available as open source. Being creative is part of the trend in public relations, and according to Green (2010), this is an important component in being successful in public relations. According to Grunig (2009), the age of digitalization prompts a turnaround of events in the way public relations is conducted. However, with the greatest help that social media partake to the field of public relations, it is high time to shift the way things are conducted in this kind of specialization. Grunig (2009) mentioned that there is a need to “reinstitutionalize public relations as a behavioral, strategic” field rather than being an obsolete “symbolic, interpretive” field. Social media is regarded by many public relations professionals as an effective tool in “communicating with strategic publics” (Lewis, 2010, p. 1). Lewis (2010) further stated that the use of social media in public relations is also needed in teaching even college students to contribute to the growing success of the renewed public relations in the 21st century. With the latest applications and social media sites available for product branding and advertising, it is also a must to get acquainted with the wise use of social media, which is popularly known as “media literacy” (Lewis, 2010, p. 1). Even Facebook, for instance, has been widely suggested by PR instructors for their students to utilize in order to create an online community (Sutherland, 2011). Furthermore, the study conducted by Wright and Hinson (2008, p. 1) regarding the use of social media in public relations revealed that Facebook is considered the most important social media followed by “microblogging sites Twitter, search engine marketing, YouTube, electronic forums, and podcasts.” The study that started in 2005 was conducted to measure the impact of social media and other communication technologies in public relations. The results of the study show that social media “have brought dramatic changes” to the many aspects of public relations (Wright & Hinson, 2008, p. 2). The developments in terms of the applications and features present in various social media also allow the target public to be “empowered” through the “dynamic new media” that have been introduced to them (Wright & Hinson, 2008, p. 2). Social media is also an important tool in brand involvement and communication. In a study conducted by Noor-e-Hira Naveed (2012, p. 908), 73% of the respondents agreed that social media has changed the way their organizations communicate with the customers, handle external communications “by giving them new schemes, discount vouchers, and details of the products.” Majority also of the respondents believe that social media has enhanced the way public relations is conducted by knowing the feedback from their customers, which can significantly improve their products and services (Naveed, 2012, p. 908). On one hand, almost all of the respondents (84%) also agreed that various organizations promote their products and services using the social media because it is widely accessible, much cheaper, and produces a faster exchange of the message. In other words, social media is an effective avenue in increasing brand awareness, introducing promotional offers, express complaints and receive responses (Naveed, 2012, p. 908). Where Does Social Media Fit in Contemporary PR Working Environment? For one thing, nobody owns social media because everybody probably owns at least an account one can assume his own. Finding a strategy that helps in emphasizing the structure of one’s organization is a basic step in knowing the position of social media in the organization. Solis and Breakenridge (2009) state that the use of social media is campaign-specific, which means that different company goals also need particular social media. Such goals may include corporate branding or product marketing which entails a different approach in the campaign method (Solis & Breakenridge, 2009, p. 16). Social media is now almost equivalent to social media, and its role is almost found in all aspects of the organization. The term integrated marketing communications (IMC) allows the use of virtually all types of social media in order to achieve a coordinated and systematic approach in product and services promotions (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p. 357). Mangold and Faulds (2009, p. 357) describe social media as a “variety of new sources of online information,” all of which are “created, initiated, circulated and used by consumers intent on educating each other about products and services.” In public relations perspective, social media involves a wide range of online forums and social networking sites that are easily accessible to be reached by a particular press release, such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, Piczo.com, and various company-sponsored websites. Moreover, these social media sites are no longer independent of each other. Embedded multimedia allows a content of a specific social media site to be shared to other social media sites, so the exchange of information is achieved at a relatively fast pace. Let us take for instance Facebook. Based on Internet World Statistics, as of March 2012, this social networking site has almost 900 million users in nine continents around the world. In an article published in PR Moment.com dated March 24, 2011, building a positive brand image can be done using Facebook’s ease of access, interactivity, and its multimedia-friendly nature. Reasons for a successful PR also involve a great manning of the features, functions, and goals of using such medium. Facebook is a viable medium for PR because it is free; the response is immediate when one posts an announcement or service launch, feedback is posted on the page in real time, Perfect Avenue for picture sharing, and most of all, it is effective in establishing relationships to customers. Macnamara (2010, p. 8) has reported that Facebook leads the “adoption rate” in terms of media monitoring and analysis. Because of the advances in this site, public relations is now offering a new dimension of communication which is much more accessible. Old-school type of public relations such as writing media releases, interviews, among others are considered already “irrelevant” in the Facebook era that is why there is a strong need for new learning among the practitioners (Macnamara, 2010). In a study conducted by Waters, Burnett, Lamm, and Lucas (2009), almost all organizations now used Facebook in advancing their goals and programs, specifically the not-for-profit organizations. Analyzing the content of the profile pages of these organizations, Waters, Burnett, Lamm, and Lucas (2009, p. 105) found out that they establish their Facebook pages to “disclose” information regarding the organization, reply to comments, link stories, and photos. However, in the course of the study, they found out that still, most of their Facebook pages failed to take advantage of the full feature of the site and rely too much on what has been used. This observation is agreed by Hill and White (2000) that although organizational members acknowledge the role of the latest communication vehicles, they fail to maintain the site and look for resources to improve their use of the site. Moreover, organizations with a specified department also have members who are likely to use social media as an avenue for public relations (Curtis et al., 2010). Essentially, both PR and media relations are now equipped with social media as these two are interrelated and even interchanged. Almost all organizations have their own websites, twitter accounts, and Facebook pages. A department responsible for mediating the feedback and content published in PR firms’ social media sites is now being empowered and enhanced. Public relations professionals in the United States, for instance, acknowledge that as of 2008, one-third of their population rely on blogs for information source (Smith, 2008 cited in Waters, Tindall, & Morton, p. 246). Therefore, it is a must to also use an effective campaign that will reach a large number of audiences using the social media. Conclusion Social media has surely gone too far and further improved the way public relations is done. Various researches proved that professionals in the field of public relations agreed that social media is a great help in creating an effective and fast approach in relating to the public using these tools. Most of these professionals also claim that the use of social media redefines the concept of public relations compared in the past times when PR is often associated with deception and mere strategies to attract the public’s attention. With the phenomenon of the digital revolution, a two-way relationship that includes the building of trust is starting to blossom. The public is now catered with pleasing and believable press releases and other similar things. This could also be attributed to the increasing amount of information that circulates around the web which is very much accessible to people in a matter of seconds. However, there are still organizations which fail to maximize the use of social media to the fullest. It is a great challenge for these organizations to employ full exploration of the powers of the social media in enhancing image and reputation. As a whole, public relations professionals do understand that social media, which encourages proactive relationship to the public yields a positive result not just to their firm, but to the general perception of people towards the public relations industry. References Curtis, L., Edwards, C., Fraser, K. 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Media catching and the journalist-public relations practitioner relationship: How social media are changing the practice of media relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 22 (3), 241-264. Wright, D. K., & Hinson, M. D. (2008). How blogs and social media are changing public relations and the way it is practiced. Public Relations Journal, 2 (2), 1-21. Read More