“The term social media typically refers to the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships. This may sound like the ‘same old thing’ but its the advance in technology and the changing behavioural norms that have brought a whole new meaning to these activities, supercharging the volume of exchanges among people and extending their reach to every corner of the globe.” This is the definition of social media by Arthur L Jue et al given in their book Social Media at Work, p4. But what exactly is all the hype about? And what does it have to do with public relations?
You are most likely to be signed up to or have, at least used one of these social media tools such as; Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, Hi5, LinkedIn for social networking, Flickr and Snapfish for sharing photos, Wikipedia and Wikispaces for collaborating to share knowledge and Blogger or Wordpress for sharing ideas through blogs. These are just some of the social media gaining momentum through viral marketing and PR.
It seems that we most definitely are the Facebook generation-but what does that mean for public relations? The success of the Wispa campaign was due to the Facebook phenomenon. 
Hundreds of thousands of us joined the Facebook group to ‘bring back Wispa’ in our droves, until Cadbury finally adhered to our demands. Was this due to the power social media has given us? Where we, everyday people were victorious in bringing back our beloved Wispa? If we could do this with relative ease, is the work, therefore, of public relations practitioners in jeopardy? Or is it in fact an extension of PR? Another tool available for public relations officers to utilise?
Scot M Cutlip et al, in their book Effective Public Relations, p253 state that “there was virtually unanimous agreement (98%) when the public relations professionals were asked if recent advances in technology such as email and the internet have had an impact on ow they do their jobs.” Furthermore “the average public relations professional surveyed in this study spends between 15 and 19 hours online each week, and goes online 5.8 days during an average week…one third (33%) say they are online seven days each week.” These results were published in 2006 and so these results will almost certainly have increased over the past 4 years.
It is clear that social media is taking PR in a new undiscovered territory, it is allowing a faster, more efficient way of communicating with audiences at large. It provides a “direct and immediate access to specific target audiences, thus by passing journalists and traditional news media” - Scott M Cutlip, Effective Public Relations, p 253. As social media becomes more and more dominant, PR professionals are having to branch out in their skills and how they communicate. “Public relations practitioners are increasingly turning to these new media players to reach Web-savvy publics”- Scott M Cutlip et al, Effective Public Relations, p253. They are now more interested in gaining coverage through social media such as blogs. In turn they are also creating their own blogs to generate a buzz.
The change in interaction between public relations practitioners and their audiences is fast changing. This change is taking public relations is adding new dimensions to the industry and its professionals.
As for the issue of PR becoming redundant due to the rise of the ‘citizen journalist’; I do not believe this to be the case. PR professionals have a set of communication skills which are unique to them. Anyone who owns or as access to a stethoscope is not a doctor, the same principle applies to PR. Just because we all now have access to the internet and social media, it does not make us PR experts. PR practitioners simply now have more tools to deliver their message.
Links
Exploring Social Media in PR; Engaging webcast by Nisha Pawar 2010
