Social media has not only evolutionized how public relations is being practiced and researched – it has caused a complete and total revolution in both the academic and professional community. Public relations professionals are looking at social media and seeing how it is really changing how we communicate, share, connect, and conduct business with others online. It is very exciting to see – both as a researcher, professional, and student.
Mashable discussed in a recent post on the future of public relations and social media. This is appropriate timing since this is going to be one segment of my PR Principles class I will be focusing on this upcoming semester. This was a very insightful and engaging article that discussed what public relations professionals across the country are saying are some of the major evolutions and changes happening as we speak in public relations, thanks to social media. There are so many to choose from – from how we write and pitch our own press releases to how we monitor what others are saying online, to deciding which social media platform to have a presence on.
Social media has transformed and turned the PR world on its head – but in a good way. With the technology increasingly changing and evolving each day, it forces the public relations professional to adapt, evolve, and grow as a professional and person. In addition, we are constantly learning something new each day that can benefit our clients for the better, and incorporate into our own research. By being aware of these current trends and being active in how these are used, public relations as a field continues to grow. This is probably one of the reasons why there are still many jobs available right now in the field. The public relations professional that not only understands public relations, but knows what are some of the current trends and issues to be aware of and form strategies around them – will be the ones still standing and who will be fabulously successful.
The only thing that I felt that this article did not present was the other side of the coin when it comes to public relations – what about what happens if something goes wrong? What about the way that it has changed how public relations professionals address issues and crises that occur online? How has social media transformed current crisis and issues management practices? Also, is it easier today to manage a brand or person’s reputation online with social media? Finally, to bring it back full circle, how has social media transformed the public relations field, and what does that mean for emerging young professionals? Do they need to have these skills when they graduate from their undergraduate and graduate degree – and what do professors need to do to make sure that they have this experience in their PR courses?
These are just some of the questions that I wish the article would have explored further. I do believe that there are so many ways that social media has created new opportunities, challenges,and issues for public relations professionals – the author did a good job in talking about how it has transformed the evolution of the press release and making sure that you are using the right social media platform to target the right audience and stakeholder group. However, I do believe that it would have also been beneficial to have some discussion and dialogue about how this is transforming other areas in public relations (ex. employee relations, customer relations, cause marketing, non-profit public relations, etc) as well influencing researchers and others to evaluate current best practices and tweak them to fit the new medium (ex. crisis communications, reputation management, issues management). These are just some of my thoughts on the subject.
On another note, I would like to congratulate Nicole VanScoten for her quote in the Mashable article – Nicole is a innovative and strategic PR professional for Pxyl and co-founder of the Social Media Club – Knoxville. Congrats and way to go, Nicole!!! 🙂
Hope you all are having a wonderful day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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