Write a paper to describe social media’s impact on PR and how professionals are adopting and using social media

Social Media’s impact on PR and how professionals are adopting and using social media

Main Academic Discipline and subject area: Public Relations/ Social Media

Broad Aim: social media has changed the way PR professionals operate. Several studies conducted into the role of social media in PR have shown that social media have revolutionized the media landscape. This study aims to gain an insight into the impact of social media on the activities of PR professionals.

Study Objectives: social media use has increased among consumers around the world, as a result the increase in the adoption of social media as tactics for many public relations professionals. Social Media, the new form of communication is growing at such a rapid pace, it is important to analyse the impact it has on the overall public relations practice as well as on how professionals are able to adopt this new method. Furthermore, what is important to mention in my individual study, is how social media is changing the face of public relations, looking whether the role of PR has become synonymous with social media and whether the PR’s toolbox lends itself to leading the way in social media campaigns. Social Media force PR agencies to become much more integrated. This happens because a thread on a consumer forum can quickly become headline news. Based on that PR professionals need to have an understanding of how a brand’s reputation online and offline is linked. However, PR can also affect media organisations which are now in search of unique and engaging content which will drive traffic to their websites. Even if social media and PR have become much more integrated that does not necessarily make them synonymous. The impact of new communication technologies has not changed the purpose of public relations, or its strategic value to organizations, it has caused a significant shift in how public relations is practiced in particular areas. Specifically, the proliferation of social media has allowed public relations practitioners to more directly communicate with various stakeholder groups. New communication tactics have emerged in this era of information, and many practitioners have adopted social media as an integral aspect of their communication campaigns. It is important to understand these new channels of communication in order to effectively utilize them as means to communicate with the public as well as to know what implications they may have for the public relations practice.