With the rise of the internet and digital age, social media has taken over. People are always sending tweets, checking their Facebook feed, or reading blogs for news. With this technology and the different social media sites, information is at our finger tips. So how does this affect the PR?
It can be argued that social media can make things more difficult for PR professionals because people can say whatever they want. A company or PR professionals cannot control what others say about them on their Facebook, Twitter, or other social media platform. According to an article on Jontus Media, social media has made it easier for customers to complain. Without the face-to-face interaction, people are more comfortable writing reviews. Too many bad reviews, and the company’s reputation could be ruined.
Event though social media can negatively impact a company based on reviews, it is still possible for social media to help a company. The best thing for a company to do is to take a proactive approach by monitoring and responding to reviews. By showing they care and by taking the information their customers give them, they can make a plan to ensure the company is seen in a positively.
Building or rebuilding a reputation is not the only thing social media can be used for. Social media can be very beneficial for a company’s PR because of three reasons:
- Increased News Coverage:
Social media is a great way for companies to show the public what they are doing. News that would originally be given to tradition media sources via press releases can now be posted on a company’s Facebook or Twitter. It also means the news can spread faster. If someone finds a post from a company interesting, they can retweet it or send it to their friends. - Consumer Interactions:
Before the digital age, if a consumer had a question or complaint about a service or product, they’d need to call a company line and wait to speak to a representative. Social media has changed that. It is not possible to tweet a question to a company to have the issue resolved. I myself have done this before. Nike offers a service called Nike+ to track workouts. One day my sensor didn’t record my run, and I didn’t know how to fix that, so I sent them a message on their Facebook page and within minutes I had a response and a fixed product. It’s immediacy with responses that makes social media an important part of consumer relations. - Cheap or Free Advertising:
Social media platforms provide a place for companies to showcase their products or services. It is also a great way to advertise in a less expensive way. One post on a company’s Facebook can spread like wildfire to people’s newsfeeds. Or a company’s product posted on Pinterest can be repinned thousands of times. It is hard to pay for advertising that reaches so many people the way social media does.
Although people believe social media can be negative for companies, the positives it brings outweighs the negative.
Muffy Lavens 