Whenever you look at the news today, it appears that people are speaking to social media’s praise with how it has transformed and evolutionized the business community with its social media networks, fabulous mobile applications (ex. iPhone), and reinvented how corporations and PR agencies implement their campaigns and strategies. Yes – social media has been a very fun and exciting technology that has been wonderful to be part of – but with all of the benefits of social media, public relations professionals also have to be honest and look at social media realistically and admit that there are some negatives that come with the territory.
There are several challenges that public relations professionals have to deal with. Jeremiah Owyang on his blog mentions the different issues that might arise for businesses though social media, such as addressing rumors, corporate and personal brandjacking, and how it is difficult to measure the ROI on social media. I do agree that these are challenges that have to be recognized and addressed, but I also believe that there are some that have to be considered especially in crisis communications.
One in particular that I think that is crucial to address is group think. Group think first was defined by Irving Janis in 1972, and can be defined as being a phenomenon in which each person in the respected group agrees with what the group says, even though it may be different from their own individual opinion. Even though group think has been studied heavily especially in the psychology fields, in many ways – we as public relations professionals need to also look at these issues as well since it relates how individuals are forming attitudes and impressions on certain issues, individuals, and corporations that they are invested in their daily lives.
In relation to social media, understanding group think among online stakeholders could be an interesting issue to focus in on. Whether it is what people are writing about on Twitter and to their followers or appoint themselves as a “leader” and speak for the group on discussion boards (definitely saw this a lot when I was a track and field athlete on various discussion boards and web sites) and to only providing people with an online persona that they “ideally” want to have and present to their friends / target stakeholders – these are all elements that public relations professionals have to consider in their role as a PR professional for their client, and how they manage their own personal reputation online.
Even though I believe that there is a lot of groupthink present on social media, there are a lot more individual comments and outlets out there than ever before. People are taking the opportunity to create their own web site, social networks, write their own blogs, and bypass some of the gatekeepers in their respective industries. This will be an issue that I think will evolve in the next couple of years, but I believe that public relations professionals need to look at this issue in more detail and see if groupthink is occuring among their key stakeholders.
Anyway, these are just a few of my thoughts on the subject. Hope you all are having a great day. 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
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