The rise of social media

As I told you all in my previous blog post, I began my internship at Devahasdin Public Relations after I worked there in 2010 and found my love for PR.

I've completed 15 days of my internship and after looking back at my time from 2010 and the past few weeks, there is one significant change I have noticed: The rise of social media.

Of course, I'm aware social media was around in 2010, but the ways in which it was used has now changed dramatically.  Although social media does not replace traditional media and the importance of a good media release or news coverage, I believe pairing traditional PR practices with new technologies and social media is the most powerful way to get a message across.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with my supervisor and we devised a social media plan for the month of May for their client Queens Riverside. You can view some of the things that I helped to plan here.
Here's a version of a previous social media plan done by Devahasdin so you understand what they look like, but I can't show you the one being currently used before the plan is carried out, sorry everyone!

A social media plan didn't even exist when I last worked in this office.  I was shocked at how much work is actually put in to posting on social media on behalf of a client.  Even though the tone used is conversational (number one rule when posting on social media!), the effort put into deciding exactly how to seem casual when communicating to the client's stakeholders is crucial.  You must include important events happening in Perth during the month but also making sure events used throughout the month aren't similar to one another.
For instance, Wicked The Musical is beginning to show at The Crown in May, which means that it would be best not to use any other theatre events in the rest of the plan.
It is incredibly important to make use of plenty of hashtags, most importantly the few that are essential to that certain client, and as I have stated, the tone in which you post is vital.
I learnt all of these things in Techniques and Media Relations, so it was nice to be able to put some of what I knew to good use.

The social media plan covers what should be posted on many platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Facebook post for Queens Riverside posted by Devahasdin.

Instagram was only established in 2010 and not even on anybody's radars when I last worked at Devahasdin, now, it is becoming one of the first ways in which clients can directly communicate with stakeholders.

We have discussed the rise of social media and its uses in PR many times during class, but seeing the social media plan mapped out in front of me for an entire month really did give a lot of insight to what we have been talking about for the past few years.

The use of social media allows for direct two-way communication and real-time feedback between an organisation and its stakeholders.  Through the use of these platforms, many of Devahasdin's clients have been able to develop a stronger relationship with their clients, as there is ongoing communication mapped out for each month.  Stakeholders involved with Queens Riverside are able to see ongoing updates of construction via pictures (the staff at Devahasdin, including myself are also in charge of taking these pictures) and posts on these platforms.

Ongoing construction at Queens Riverside taken by Lauren Sydoruk (Account Support) and myself

Although social media allows organisations to engage proactively with their publics and the speed of information has significantly increased, there is a negative to using social media and that is in the form of complaints etc which can be seen not only by the organisation itself, but by the general public as well which can severely effect an organisation's reputation.

As we are all aware by completing this part of the assessment, blogs are also a large part of PR practice nowadays.  While being at Devahasdin I have been asked to compile media distribution lists for a number of different clients.  Another thing I've noticed about the rise of social media is that blogs and different bloggers are now targets for PR practitioners when reaching out to the media.  This also wasn't a large occurrence the last time I worked for Devahasdin.

Has anyone else been highly involved with social media during your placement?
Were you shocked at the large amount of work that is involved to post on social media on behalf of a client?

Let me know guys! :)

Claudia x