Adoption of Social Media for Public Relations

Abstract

Over the last decade, the number of people that read magazines is shrinking and radio is splintered whereas social media forums have grown exponentially. There are millions of Facebook users, bloggers and twitter users. It has become an integral part of the lives of millions of people by allowing them to connect and communicate with others online. The popularity of social media represents a major transformation in the way the world communicates and more importantly in who is doing the communication. As the traditional media is disappearing, PR practitioners are forced to use social media. Social media presents a number of challenges when it comes to managing public relations. It is not possible for organisations to compartmentalise audiences and messages since social media is public and universal in nature allowing all audiences to read communications intended for any one of them.  However, PR practitioners cannot assume that a message through one social media platform will reach all the audiences. Social media is fragmented. There might be a possibility that an individual may or may not see the information in a tweet or on the Facebook page of the organisation or on a blog. To act effectively on behalf of the organisation, public relation practitioners need to monitor and keep track of both traditional and new sources of media for potential use and respond accordingly. The digital revolution has presented a new communication challenge in front of the practitioners: Social Media. This paper explores the trend of PR practitioners adopting social media and the challenges public relation practitioners face with regard to social media.