Most people agree that social media has greatly affected public relations as a profession.
Those who have been in the PR discipline for a long time have seen remarkable improvements and will be able to testify to the fact that, in the new world of social media, people ingest news and engage tremendously. Social networking refers to channels that enable users to communicate with each other (Luo, Jiang & Kulemeka, 2015). Any of the biggest social media sites in the world include Twitter and Facebook.
How social media affect public relations
Public relationship is a great offspring of interpersonal relations and intercourse (Punathambekar & Scannell, 2013). Alastair Campbell, in a speech in Melbourne in the year 2013 once said “There have always been public affairs. There has always been Public Relations. There has always been spin. Read the Bible for heaven’s sake”. In as much as the corporate website as well as chat-rooms and electronic news release are currently seen as much more standard aspects of Public Relations, most Public Relations practitioners are in a real struggle with the impacts new media bring about, especially the internet. Social media has affected who people relate and interact (Wright et.al 2012; Solis& Breakenridge, 2012). Therefore, this research paper aims at finding out how social media has impacted on Public Relations.
According to Neill & Lee (2016) as stated by Wright &Hinson, 2009; Edelman, 1983)
“The world of communication is moving in a more digital direction and those to have a true comprehension of this important transformation will communicate much more effectively than those who do not understand”. Similarly, Jiang, Luo & Kulemeka (2017) note that Public Relations practitioners are meant to communicate to the public and therefore it is important for them to fully understand this important transformation for them to communicate much more effectively. However, Bush (2009) note that owing to the fact that social media is growing at a fast rate, it proves to be difficult for Public Relations practitioners together with institutions training these professionals, to keep current.
Waters, Tindall, & Morton (2010) assert that blogs are turning out to be more popular
because blogs have proved to give independence from media gatekeeping as well as traditional editors. Serini, & Krider (2016) state that the continued use of blogs better places Public Relations officers, in the eyes of the public. Wright & Hinson (2010) note that in the past, Public Relations officers and practitioners had the full responsibility of packaging Public Relations content then go ahead distributing it to the media, all in the hope of being published. However, today, in as much as Public Relations practitioners are still responsible for packaging content, they are now in a position of publishing the Public Relations content themselves through social media and other social media outlets. The social media has today made it possible for Public Relations practitioners to talk directly to members of the public, besides also enabling them to view the publics’ responses thereby enabling them to act accordingly (Eyrich, Padman, & Sweetser, 2008). For instance, if a customer tweets or facebooks about a complain, the company can be in a position to view comments and timely respond to the complaints thereby providing more direct quality services to its customers (Cernicova, 2016; Myers,& Hamilton, 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, I regardless the experiences one has regarding Public Relations discipline, social media has greatly changed how people do things. As change is lie rest, it happens that the only social media’s constant is change. It is therefore evident that in the modern 21st century of technological advancement, social media has greatly impacted on Public Relations.
References
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