Social media and public relations

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Foursquare, Myspace, deviantART, Flickr, Google+, Blogger and more. These are all probably social media pages that you’ve stumbled upon during your time exploring the Internet.

In this day in age its almost impossible for someone to be completely offline. The Internet and the way in which we communicate, has drastically changed over the past couple of decades.

The rise of the use of social media has played a vital role in public relations, cutting down the barriers between customer and company. With customers being able to communicate directly with a company and its PR department. This form of communication has both its advantages and disadvantages, allowing organisations with a direct link of communication however it can also open the door for online attacks.

At Harvey’s Cureageous Pride social media played a vital role in raising awareness and support for the cause. It provided the organisation with statistical evidence of the level of awareness that the organisation was having online. 

As a part of the public relations plan which I have devised, one of the objectives is to increase Facebook page likes to 1,500 by September 2014. The weekly updates supplied by Facebook provided the organisation with clear indications of its weekly progress. The updates provided vital information in terms of community engagement and awareness.

At Harvey's Cureageous Pride, Instagram images were posted along side Facebook updates. While the Instagram posts did not achieve as large of a reach as the Facebook updates. At Harvey's Cureageous Pride social media played a vital role in community engagement and awareness, with predominant community engagement strategies focused on the online market. The organisation demonstrates how you can run a successful campaign utilising only online resources. In order to successfully engage the target publics Harvey's Cureageous Pride relied on releasing a consistent flow of information that intrigued the audience.
Social media plays an important role in the development of an organisations brand. The kind of engagement created by social media builds brand loyalty rather than just consumers. Brands which do not engage in social media strategies risk alienating their target publics, damaging their reputations. Furthermore, these organisations miss out on discussions which occur within their markets, missing out on identifying trends and consumer demands. Social media provides brands with the opportunity to better engage with their target audience by communicating with them on a personal level, building genuine relationships with influential online users is an important avenue for public relation practices.
While social media is still a new tool in the public relations tool box it is one not to be ignored.