It’s hard to ignore social media, especially when its global usership is in billions. Its presence is felt in every industry you can think of, big or small. It has arguably made a huge impact on the communication industry and public relations in particular. The emergence of citizen journalism and more people turning to social media for their daily dose of the news, social media has indeed forced PR to adapt or perish. Here are three ways social media has impacted the public relations industry dearly.
Make a big bang
Social media is instant and loud. Users generate about four million likes every minute on Facebook, that’s how loud it can get, and that’s just one of the many social media platforms at our service. The only negative to being able to make news viral with a click of the share button is that news gets old just as quickly as it goes viral. Journalists are always looking for the next breaking news and PR professionals have to keep up.
On the bright side, with instant connections PR professionals can follow journalists on social media and stay in the loop about their writing style, area of expertise and recent work. This works in favor of PR pros as it not only helps build connections but also make an informed pitch to journalists based on what they see on their social media handles.
A crisis could be around the corner
Social media provides brands the easiest way to make a blunder in front of their audiences. It just takes itchy fingers and a click of a button, and your brand could be staring down the barrel of social media backlash. Yet another reason keeping PR pros up at night.
Today’s modern PR is responsible for much more than just scheduling interviews and sending out press releases. They are also responsible for managing a brand’s voice and protecting their its online reputation by promoting additional content, creating engagement and monitoring and measuring media. A failure to monitor social media and have a plan in place to respond to consumer feedback – both negative and positive could be a missed opportunity or a large scale crisis.
Influencers – A media phenomenon
Social media is not just a platform for professionally trained journalists or your everyday citizen journalist, it gave rise to a whole new breed of journalists called, the new influencer. Being represented by a vlogger with millions of followers on YouTube or a travel blogger with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram is considered to be the best way to attract more customers.
The ever-increasing number of social media influencers with tons of followers means more opportunity for PR professionals and the brands they represent.
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