Early this year, I was working with a group of students who designed a presentation focusing on how to effectively communicate to university students through social media. In their presentation, they included the linked video.
Understanding how to effectively use social media is extremely important to today's PR practitioners, and I believe this video is a good introduction to the importance of social media in our field. The message "Social media isn't a fad, it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate", is a central concept to understanding how technology is impacting the world of public relations. As current and future practitioners, it will continue to become increasingly important for us to understand how to get our message to target audiences. As our target audience continues to become more and more connected through technology, so must we.
So, what do you think? Is this whole Social Media a fad, or is it our future?
The Canuck
- Katie
- Waterloo, Canada
- Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm a lover of all things coffee flavored, travel-related and fashion centred. Currently working on my MSc in Public Relations at the University of Stirling, I'm hoping to redirect my career towards the exciting world of PR in the near future. Welcome to my journey!
4 comments:
I think that social media is not a fad, but neither the future, I think that social media is present.
The video shows us a very interesting data like: "96% of Generation Y have joined a social network" (future costumers of the companies), differences between traditional media and Internet in the number of years neccesary to achieve 50 millions users (Internet achieves more people in few time), "If Facebook were a country it would be the world´s 4th largest (Facebook is an incredible tool to achieve a large number of people in less time, in different countries and in a cheap way). We need to understand all these data to understand how will be the future of the communication.
When the video talks about "do you like what they are saying about your brand?". This could be linked with Toivo´s blog (Digital media and Public Relations) where he wrote the first week about the consequences that the social media could have in the reputation of a company and I also commented.
The video is amaizing and I think that it is clear that social media is a neccesary present tool for the different companies.
I believe today social media is not the present for all. It might or will be the present in the future, if I may say so (personally I hope not; I hope to still feel the paper in 30 years time). But now, imagine a company which selles glue for dental plates. What results would bring a campaign on social media?...Almost zero, because old people don't access internet. It's all about target. You find it on internet, hit it, but if not, search the whole field.
Hmm I thought I commented on this post but it seems to have gone missing...
To call social media merely a fad would be ignorant but to say that it's will be the only form of communication in the future is premature. It definitely has made an impact on the way organisations and individuals communicate with one another but I agree with what Andra says in her comment above about having the right target.
That being said, however, the level of transparency and immediacy introduced by social media will be something hard to go back on now that we've all had a taste of it.
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