PR and the Social Network

For the last portion of my research, I chose to examine an article I found entitled "An Updated Examination of Social and Emerging Media Use in Public Relations Practice". The article itself is an analysis performed by Public Relations professors and PRSA board members on how social media is affecting the industry of public relations and changing the way it is practiced. The study focuses on what I like to refer to as the "core four", or the four main social media outlets,: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The study found that, over the past nine years (2006-2014), emerging technology has made communication with a certain public more dynamic and sufficient.

The study goes on to discuss how expansion of the Internet has affected not just public relations practices, but also how publics communicate with each other. The evolution of tablets, IPods, cell phones and other technological devices has made it more convenient to access not only the Internet but any social media outlet desired by the client. Technology has managed to put social media directly at our fingertips which makes for better communication. The change in technology has also brought strategic communication and public relations into the age of new media, where now the focus of marketing and advertising and promotion is on a Tweet or a Facebook status whereas befor it was centered around newspaper coverage. Ethics has played a bigger role in the field as well because organizations want to make sure that they are correctly portrayed and represented online and on social media.

I chose to use this article as part of my research because social media plays a huge role in my world and the world of  public relations as far as promotion goes. I am hoping to have social media coverage of my event using the department of communication's accounts. Learning about how social media is re-shaping public relations has helped me to come up with new and interesting ways to promote/cover the event and how to maximize social media usage to the best of my ability.