PR and Social Media

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to talk about how the rise of the Internet, in particular of social media, has shaped new ways of doing PR.

It is no doubt true that digitalisation created benefits for PR practitioners and new tasks that have been added to the PR toolkit:

• a new way of communication: first of all, social media allow PR practitioners to communicate with their audiences and to have a ”two-way” kind of communication, because they can connect with people by engaging conversations and getting feedback
• Working with influencers: to improve a brand’s reputation and awareness, PR professionals can collaborate with social media influencers, whose digital following is massive
• Social sharing and press releases: including what people think into a public relations campaign is now possible, by adding social sharing capabilities to press releases
• Crisis handling: PR practitioners, who are also responsible for handling crises,  can address and solve problems more efficiently and quickly thanks to social media

Despite all these benefits PR gained from social media, it seems that digitalisation brought some challenges with it. One of the main threat of the ”social world” is that PR practitioners have less time to deal with deadlines, because they have to keep up with the new rhythm of society and this may penalize the quality of their work.

Overall, I think that the impact that social media have on the practice of PR cannot be avoided any longer, therefore it is important to learn how to handle the threats and use the new opportunities as well as possible.