How Important is Social Media as a PR Tool?

Social media is a term given to a constantly evolving number of networks that have steadily built platforms to exist on the Internet, mobile technology and widgets. These platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace, to name but a few, have built an online community or a ‘global village,’ as McLuhan believed. They bring people from all over the world together with the click of a mouse or button on a phone, allowing them to ‘self publish’ and giving them a voice and a presence on the internet. These social online connections have opened doors for public relations in terms of global and local networking. By building online relationships, a PRO is able to link up with thousands of people in the media industry and learn from them. If influential journalists, bloggers or public relations specialists are writing articles or blogs, giving their opinions or presenting breaking news, interacting with these people allows a public relations practitioner to view what they are writing, what influences them and gain inside knowledge from a number of different perspectives. Sky News has even recently appointed a Twitter correspondent for news sourcing and up to the minute news in our society. Additionally, social media allows people in the public relations industry to interact with the public, which is incredibly important when it comes to branding.

Social media has been proven to attract new customers…and create a solid base of loyal clients and can be useful in terms of building and sustaining their reputations and finding out and changing perceptions of brands. Twitter is especially good at this; customers and fans can follow their favourite brands, see what they are up to, often receive special offers or discount coupons and engage in conversation with the company. This allows the brands to demonstrate two-way communication and transparency, which is important to ensure trust, an integral part of PR. Social media has developed to the point that it is no longer a number of narrow, singular channels but instead a wider construct of communications and interlinking networks. This seismic shift from broadcast models to engaged networks leads me on to Jan van Dijk and his idea of Network Society, translated into English in 1999. This is the concept that our society is shaped a mix of media and online interaction in three main categories; individual, societal and organizational, gradually replacing face-to-face communication and changing how we interact. To put more eloquently,

‘a network structure connects all levels of society, usually called the micro, meso and macro level or the private and the public (spheres and levels). It was noticed that the dividing lines between these abstractions are blurring in reality. On the Internet interpersonal, organizational and mass communication come together. Using this medium we bring the ‘whole world’ into our homes and working places,’ (van Dijk, 1999)

This further supports the idea of McLuhan’s ‘global village,’ and Facebook and Twitter pages allow public relations officers to manage reputations, forge customer relations and link up with people all over the world in what has clearly been demonstrated as relative normality. Fifteen years ago this would not have been possible, and these opportunities have lead to greater understanding between public relations practitioners and the public. As the second most popular website in the world after Google and with over three hundred and fifty million users, it is rare to find someone who doesn’t have Facebook in today’s western society. Given that more than three and a half billion pieces of content are shared on this website per week, it is easy to see how useful this website is as a public relations tool. Only a few months ago, easyJet announced their move to launch a ‘holiday planner’ application that allows consumers to purchase tickets and invite friends on their planned trips. This has shown easyJet’s understanding of today’s network society, where people spent up to five and a half hours on social networking sites in December 2009, up 82% from last year. Today’s younger generation especially have grown up on Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, Facebook and more recently Twitter, so it is important to connect with the consumers of the future and connect with them in the relevant and appropriate way that they have learned to communicate.

In light of this, it has been interesting to see how quickly social networking sites such as Twitter have overtaken traditional types of pr tactics such as press releases. Recently the CEO of Fortune 200 company Sun Microsystems resigned via Twitter in haiku form, declaring:

‘Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more.’

Twitter allows people from all over the globe to have online and tweet conferences, and Google have just updated their search engine to show trends, tweets and Facebook statuses, allowing practitioners to actually monitor public perceptions using Search Engine Optimization. This allowed Dell to discover that:

‘…Twitter has produced $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. People who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products are available at the company’s Home Outlet Store. They can click over to purchase the product or forward the information to others.’

However, it is possible for social media to be a negative thing for the public relations industry. One issue is that it is becoming nigh on impossible to be anything other than transparent; any indiscretions, mistakes or crises can be broadcast within minutes to the world by anyone. Just one example is the recent Southwest Airlines misdemeanor regarding director Kevin Smith. Not realizing who he was, an airline worker ejected him from a flight for being too overweight for his seat. Within minutes, he wrote a tweet complaining about the issue which was seen by his following of over one and a half million. This provoked an outcry and prompted many other dissatisfied customers to share their stories and complain, the internet shortly afterwards seeing a surge in bad feeling towards the company with the press rapidly following suite and reporting widely on the issue. Their delayed apology seemed to have little effect on either Smith or the public. Nestle have also had a very recent social media disaster when they hit back at criticism and were rude to fans on their Facebook page, as well as threatening to censor and remove pictures and members. This, unsurprisingly, provoked widespread bad press and generated much bad PR for the company. The problem with social networking sites is that it gives power to celebrities and brands to do their own public relations, which can be problematic if they are not trained properly and gives the industry a bad name.

Social media is increasingly being used in a viral manner, which can be a useful public relations tool. Triumphs such as Rage of the Machine achieving Christmas Number 1 over the X-Factor winner was born out of a Facebook group, and awareness was raised for Breast Cancer Awareness through women changing their Facebook statuses to the colour of the bra that they were wearing. This was a simple idea which generated much talk and mystery for people who didn’t understand, sparking more internet talk about the cause. The rise of viral videos being shared as well means that public relations officials can take advantage of channels such as YouTube, such as during the public relations disaster for Dominos. A video was released on YouTube of two of their American employees doing a number of disgusting things to their food before appearing to serve it which provoked, understandably, huge amounts of negative press, loss of faith in the brand and a significant loss of customers. Dominos later utilized the same website by uploading their own apology onto this channel in order to reach the same audience that had viewed the original video.

Overall, it is easy to see both the pros and cons of social media for public relations in today’s Information Age. On one hand, these networks ensure transparency, which can only help the public relations reputation in terms of trust, but on the other hand it means that the side of PR that is hiding indiscretions and preventing bad press is over. Similarly, PR is beginning to get worse press from these company spokespeople who are now trying to deal with online crises who are not PR trained and are operating the social media sites for their brands. One of the most important things social media offers the world is the sense of immediacy; anyone can now access any information at any time, so it is vital that companies have an online crisis management response outline which they can put to use immediately if need be. A three-day wait for Dominos to upload their own video resulted in three days of speculation and anger and given today’s fast-paced society, something could have been done sooner.

It is no secret that both Facebook and Twitter played an important role in Barack Obama’s victory, and the sense of belonging to a network and being part of a community is an important one that his campaign team recognized. Any public relations companies, practitioners or brands that fail to take this on board and work with it are limiting their future success tenfold. The immediacy and intimacy of being able to talk to any consumer, business specialist or journalist at any place and time in the world at any point is hugely beneficial, especially during the recession. Companies have had to make cuts in spending, in particular when it comes to overseas business meetings and conferences, but social media still allows the interaction necessary for public relations to be effective. The ever-increasing popularity of social networking may well have contributed to the rise of the online social media release, too. These are slowly beginning to overtake traditional, paper press releases and not only save time, paper and money (and thus the environment) but also allow more information to be transmitted. Sites such as www.pitchengine.com allow a PRO to write a press release and link to Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feeds and other websites, as well as integrating other interactive media and videos.

From this blog, I hope it has been clear that with the correct precautions and understanding, social media can be a most useful public relations tool and helps build, sustain and enhance relationships with the public, industry insiders and stakeholders that would not have been possible fifteen years ago.