We have seen a lot of changes in the public relations and social media professions.  It appears that more people and corporations are jumping on board with the new medium in reaching their key stakeholders.  Why do you think that this is the case?  Well, there are several factors to consider – first, we are in a very tough economy and changing business environment.  More corporations and individuals are focusing their efforts in marketing, public relations, and other business disciplines to reach their target audiences through this new medium. They want to create transparency as well as developing a community in which they can be engaged with their key stakeholders in a proactive and professional virtual atmosphere.

One current trend that I find interesting is how many corporations and large brand names are implementing cause marketing into their public relations campaigns.  From Macy’s “Coming Together” Campaign to Sonic’s “Limeades for Learning” campaign – these are some of the successful ones.  However, one has to ask if these campaigns are representative of the corporation and their reputation – or if they are doing this since this is a current trend among businesses.  Time will tell to see how this impacts their presence among their key stakeholders.

The public relations model has indeed seen a shift thanks to social media – corporations and individuals are not necessarily focused just on communicating specific messages to audiences and hearing feedback from them (two-way communication) or to create a dialogue with individuals – both of these elements are true, but it is all about creating and managing long term relationships.  For those corporations that spend the time and resources in these relationships as well as making sure that they have the best person leading the corporation (ex. CEO, spokesperson, face of brand, etc), the better off they will be in this current economy.  People want to do business with corporations they believe are trustworthy, credible, and have their interests at heart for the long term and not just to make a profit.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen