i think the time has come for public relations practitioners to fully implement and embrace the usage of social media in their work. it is high time the usage of social media employed across the organization with PR owning the responsibility of managing its implementation and internal education.
Traditional methods of PR are still effective but social media is highly so. Take for instance twitter and facebook. These are the leading social networks in the world catering to millions and millions of people. so if public relations practitioners use this to do their work it would save them time and i believe it is very cost effective, also it will reach millions across the globe.
The beauty about social networks is that they allow for personal interaction between an organization, customers and potential key public's.
Instead of wasting paper sending out media releases/media invites/post releases and the like, one can just tweet about it to the different media outlets or put it as a status on facebook and to ensure that it has been seen, a quick phone call would do the trick. And also twitter for instance allows one to update people on the go as information comes, this is very helpful because you do not have to sent out media releases every time there is a new development.
Social media would also be great especially in time of a crisis. One does not have to deal with the brutality of the media in a press conference. they can just tweet and feed people the information they want.
A recent digital readiness report states 18% of marketing decision makers have no interest whatsoever in traditional marketing. This shows a good percentage are already embracing digital fully and is a potential harbinger of the future. Other data in that survey adds to this: a majority agree that knowledge of social networks (80%), blogging, podcasting and RSS (87%), and micro-blogging (72%) is either important or very important when it comes to PR and marking hiring.
Embrace Technology to make public relations less dull and highly effective
BAATILE
LUCT
4 comments:
I think you are right here to a certain extent. Social media is the way of the future, and I think all aspects of business need to embrace it. However I also believe it does depend on who you are trying to reach. For example if you are trying to promote an event to a Gen Y audience, facebook and twitter would be the way to go. However if you were trying to promote an event to senior citizens, social media probably wouldn't be that effective. It also would be interesting to get a journalists point of view on this. Do they prefer to be notified on Twitter or would they rather recieve a traditional media kit?
Hope you're enjoying your placement!
hi!!
I am Tavinia from the CTI campus (Mauritius) and am doing my internship at Four Seasons resort Mauritius.
Social media is in fact becoming a highly efficient tool for PR practitioners. As you mentioned, it is quick, cost effective and actually helps to safe trees (really important with the Go green phenomenon)! And the social networking sites have already identified their potential for businesses and are adapting accordingly to cater for the rising popularity of the new media as a professional networking tool.
One of my main duties at the resort involved creating a Four Seasons Mauritius fan page on Facebook and an account for my Director of Public Relations. I have to show her how to use it since she is not familiar with this social networking site yet. The aim all along has been to add her professional contacts (including journalists), be it local or international, to her account to enable her to send information quickly world-wide.
Moreover, media kits and invites are already being set via emails, so social media would be adding to the personal interaction here.
The main challenge is however to build momentum and ensure visibility on the networks. Twitter e.g. works on the basis on having 'followers' and building a strong network can actually take time. And it also requires extensive background research to understand how to maximise the efficiency of various networking sites!
The other challenge is the digital divide. Not everyone in every country has easy access to the Web and some people are still wary of new media preferring to rely on traditional ones. Hence, I guess that for now, a combination of traditional methods and new media is still the best option. But with the fast-paced technology, constant time constraints and globalisation, all this will no doubt change in the coming years to make, as you say, public relations less dull and highly effective! ;)
Enjoy your placement!
Cheers
Hello!
I’m Shehzana from CTI Campus (Mauritius) and I did my internship at AfrAsia Bank Ltd.
It’s true that in today’s Web 2.0 traditional methods of communications may not reach your audience nowadays but then as Sinead mentioned it depends upon your target audience and as Tavinia revealed, digital divide remains also remains an influential factor to be considered. Nevertheless the newly unleashed power of social media such as social networks, blogs, online newsrooms, podcasts, RSS are changing the face of PR in terms of online presence.
I was asked to come up with a report outlining social media recommendations for the bank to increase their visibility and enhance their banking solutions to a wider range of audience. Basically I focused on LinkedIn, Facebook and the advertising platform Google Adwords. Much research had to be made to understand how these different networks can be used as advertising platforms and all. And since I had to estimate a budget for the strategies, I had to understand the pay per click, pay per impression options. lt was really a great experience working on this project.
It’s true the unparalled access social media can offer to public relations is colossal and undeniably breathtaking. The challenge remains how all communication professionals can use the cyberspace to communicate differently especially when all professionals are anticipating the onset of Web 3.0.
I fully agree with you that organizations should start looking at using social media tools to reach out to the public. Research figures will show that with the advancement of technology, more people around the globe are getting connected. This should form a new and crucial part of the integrated marketing tools to reach out to the public and markets.
As I am currently doing a project on social media, I have recently come across some research data to show that social networking sites like Facebook have overtaken search engines like Google. Facebook has not only become the most popular website, but also a site to launch their searches. This is because people derived more value and trust in friends’ or relatives’ recommendations to certain sites, than the non-personal searches that pop up in the search engines.
However, I feel that in time of crisis, it is still crucial to have the conventional press conference. This allows organizations to ‘put a face’ to the situation, and to give the public the impression that they are willing to come forward to face the media and the public.
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