Examining the role of social media in Public Relations

Examining the role of social media in Public Relations: An exploratory study of the effect of twitter as a communication tool for building relationships with key audiences.

Abstract:

Relationship Building is one of the most important and common functions of public relations. This research paper focuses on understanding the impact of twitter on communications methodologies for building relationships, and analyses how public relations practitioners are using Twitter as a tool to communicate key messages to their key audiences.

Introduction:

Public Relations (PR) is an important branch of any business. The way a business communicates with its audience and the way a business projects itself among its publics can impact the overall brand image and how a business is seen by the general public. Public Relations is not only important for businesses for sales but also for building up relationships between the organizations and their audience (Daniels, 2018). The practice of public relations, just like any other industry, has been largely affected by the advancements in technology. The way the general public likes to access information has entirely been changed by technology. The social/new media tools have taken over traditional tools and have made the process of transferring information much faster. The use of technology has become an imperative part of how PR practitioners reach and maintain a relationship with their publics. Twitter is one of the tools that is used by PR practitioners every day to monitor the messages being shared regarding their organization and also to impart information to its key audiences, most importantly, media. 

Discussion:

Use of twitter in building relationships with the general public

Twitter is one of the most important and influential social media tools available to communicate with key audiences. However, it is not an appropriate social media tool for every organization, which is why it is important for every business to understand their key audiences and stakeholders. There are several organizations that need to communicate with their audience consistently and twitter, for such organizations, is a tool that allows them to do just that, directly and effectively. (Evans, Twomey, and Talan, 2011) Twitter is a valuable tool and not just a passing fad. It allows organizations to reach their audience easily and impart messages effectively. It is, however, important to know that’s how the audience likes to receive information. There are several communicators who believe in the power of Twitter as a tool in connecting with the audience but the opinions in terms of its value vary. The article “25 Facts about Twitter Marketers Need to know in 2020” by Hootsuite suggests even though the return on investment seems risky from Twitter, but the brands who have understood the platform, have been able to successfully reap benefits. Twitter allows organizations to understand the way the audience is interacting with the brand, helps understand the views of the public and also provides a platform to directly engage, whenever necessary. This makes it easier for brands to develop and maintain relationships with key audiences. (Evans, Twomey, and Talan, 2011) Twitter is a valuable asset in directly communicating with the audience and in creating “social connections” as it allows PR professionals to understand what topics are important to the public, which overall results in a stronger connection with the audience. 

Not only Twitter acts as a valuable tool in building and maintaining relationships but also in controlling the damage. Every organization fears a crisis and the loss of credibility that comes along with it. Crises in the current era attract a lot of attention from traditional media, the general public, and other key stakeholders on social media. It only takes a few hours, sometimes minutes, for a crisis to spread to a global audience. (Terpstra, 2012) People use twitter to share information, opinions, and feelings with others especially during a crisis. The information being shared across social media is important for organizations as this allows communicators to understand the message being shared among the audience and eventually act on it. They can communicate messages to their audience directly and start taking control of the message before it ruins the brand image. Twitter also helps provide communicators with an always updated situational analysis, which means PR pros always know what the general viewpoint regarding the brand is, among the key stakeholders. This allows professionals to impart targeted messages to control the damage caused by a crisis. 

Use of twitter in building relationships with traditional media

Twitter is an important tool for organizations that consistently interact with journalists from traditional media. According to the article “Who are Twitter’s Verified Users?” by Haje Jan Kamps of Medium.com, 25 percent of twitter’s verified users are journalists. Journalists like to receive information using twitter and many consistently stay active on the platform in search of news stories. Michael Ingram of The Media Today in the article “Do Journalists Pay Too Much Attention to Twitter,” suggests that journalists often spend too much time on Twitter and rely on the platform for news stories. Most of the communicators, who understand traditional media as one of their key audiences, impart information to and engage with journalists using Twitter. 

Twitter has provided both the professions with a platform to exchange information directly, efficiently, and promptly. Moreover, the new media including social media has provided a channel for public relations practitioners as well as journalists to have a more personal relationship with each other (Supa, 2014) and the continuous evolution will continue to provide grounds for more enhanced integration of personal and professional relationships between the two professions. In addition, several PR professionals and journalists also credit new media for improving communication for mutual benefits and media relations integrated with the new media will potentially unlock more avenues to increase mutual benefits for both. However, the boundaries of professionalism shall not be crossed and the integrity of both the professions must be maintained at all times. 

Public Relations specialists and journalists rely on each other for the exchange of information and PR pros rely on Twitter for building relationships with the media. However, the success of this exchange has almost always been a “hit or miss” situation. The emerging technology (twitter particularly) has not had any major impact on the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists (Wilson & Supa, 2013).

Challenges faced by PR practitioners while building relationships with their audience

The continuous evolution of new media technologies and increased demand from emerging media will become a challenge for the public relations practitioners as the demand from the traditional media has not yet reduced (James, 2007). The technology has provided PR pros with several tools to communicate with their audiences, however, it has also led to an increase in demand for communication needs from the key stakeholders. Different organizations have different audiences, which are spread across different social media channels. Communicating a message through one channel doesn’t ensure effective communication to all the key stakeholders, which makes it important for PR practitioners to be receptive to new technologies and incorporate them as communications tactics. (Flynn, 2014) Public relations practitioners are facing challenges, in current times, that they have never come across in the history of the profession. If the public relations practitioners do not integrate new media technology into their practices, it will be taken over by some other specialist areas within the organizations, as the new media continues to “cut across disciplines” (James, 2007). To overcome such a threat, it is important that public relations practitioners realize the full potential of emerging technologies and make use of them for their benefits. 

Practitioners, apart from having exceptional communication skills, command over the growing technology, and professional ethics, should also understand the importance of strategic planning, cultural awareness, and measurement/evaluation for effective and efficient two-way communication with their publics (Flynn, 2014). The public relations practitioners are no more communicating to the public in a controlled atmosphere, it is a dynamic world where active listening, engagement, building relationships (online and offline), and being able to communicate to “many” through many channels are the traits of a successful practitioner. It is important for PR pros to understand the fact that key audiences are not only on one particular platform but they have different needs and like to access information differently. In order to successfully reach key publics, it is important to incorporate new methodologies and failing to do so, will result in the loss of key publics.  

Future of Public Relations

  “Technology is helping PR pros be more effective by cutting out unnecessary steps. For example, in the past, press releases were developed and distributed individually. Now, they’re distributed through programs like Business Wire and Constant Contact” (Shapiro, 2018). The public relations in the future will not be robots with artificial intelligence taking over public relations jobs. It’s going to make the lives of the practitioners much easier as most of the work that used to take several hours or even days, will now be done in a matter of minutes. Advancements in technology have helped practitioners build better relationships with their audience, reach many people at once, pitch ideas to media in seconds, etc. Websites now have chatbots that respond to a customer’s query in seconds which helps organizations build better relationships with their audience (especially customers). The evolution of Public Relations as a field has been parallel to the evolution and advancements in the technological sector. Newer technologies and advancements have always meant newer and advanced ways for practitioners to control and impart information to their stakeholders. According to Abbi Whittaker, a reporter for Forbes said that AI will help PR companies and professionals analyze their data more efficiently, which will help them provide better service to their clients. She added that understanding the needs of and receiving detailed insights into what customers need will help practitioners reach wider audiences. 

Conclusion:

Twitter is one of the most important tools while building and maintaining relationships with key audiences, especially during a crisis as it provides communicators with an always updated situational analysis. This helps PR pros to better direct and impart messages to their key audiences. Also, twitter help practitioners build more personal and professional relationships with the media, and the general public and help develop long-lasting relationships. With the continued advancements in technology, the field of Public Relations will keep on evolving and keep on providing PR professionals with newer communications tools. The PR practitioners must be receptive and adapt to the changes in technology and incorporate the new tools as communications tactics. The continuous emerging technologies will keep on defining the standards of public relations as a tool to build relationships for organizations with their publics. While new methods and tools will keep on emerging to communicate with audiences, Twitter will continue to be an important tool for communicating and building relationships with the key audiences. This research paper highlights the impact of Twitter as a new media tool on the field of communications and Public relations to a certain extent, however, more focused research is required in order to make generalizations, which cannot be done based on this paper. 

References

1. Evans A., Twomey J. & Talan S. (2011). Twitter as a Public Relations Tool. Public Relations Journal Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter 2011. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265278938_Twitter_as_a_Public_Relations_Tool

2. Terpstra T (2012). Towards a real-time Twitter analysis during crises for operational crisis management. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Teun_Terpstra/publication/260123055_Towards_a_realtime_Twitter_analysis_during_crises_for_operational_crisis_management/links/00b4952fa3bfc58ca2000000/Towards-a-realtime-Twitter-analysis-during-crises-for-operational-crisis-management.pdf

3. Wilson D. & Supa D.W. (2013). Examining Modern Media Relations: An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Twitter on the Public Relations – Journalist Relationship. Public Relations Journal 7(3). Retrieved from: https://prjournal.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013_SupaWilson.pdf

4. James M (2007). A review of the impact of new media on public relations: Challenges for terrain, practice and education. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 8(1), pp 137-148. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9206/7e21b352252224269aae37e2febbae58abf0.pdf

5. Flynn T. T. (2014). Do They Have What It Takes? A Review of the Literature on Knowledge, Competencies, and Skills Necessary for Twenty-First-Century Public Relations Practitioners in Canada. Canadian Journal of Communication, 39(3), pp 361-384. Retrieved from: https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2775/2573

6. Shapiro J. (2018). Impact of Technology on Public relations. Retrieved from Critical Mention: https://www.criticalmention.com/blog/public-relations/impact-of-technology-on-pr/

7. Supa D. W. (2014). A Qualitative Examination of the Impact of Social Media on Media Relations Practice. Public Relations Journal 8(2). Retrieved from: https://prjournal.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014Supa.pdf

8. Cooper P. (2019). 25 Twitter Stats all Marketers Need To Know in 2020. Retrieved from Hootsuite: https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-statistics/

9. Daniels J. (2018). Examining the role of technology in today’s public relations. Retrieved from Agility PR Solutions: https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-news/public-relations/examining-role-technology-todays-public-relations/

10. Ingram M. (2018). Do journalists pay too much attention to Twitter. Retrieved from Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/journalists-on-twitter-study.php

11. Kamps H. J. (2015). Who are Twitter’s verified users? Retrieved from Medium.com: https://medium.com/@Haje/who-are-twitter-s-verified-users-af976fc1b032

12. Whitaker, A. (2017, March 20). How Advancements In Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Public Relations . Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2017/03/20/how-advancements-in-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-public-relations/#37b4ac6941de