↔ PR

The field of Public relations (PR) has changed so much since the beginning of social media and it will continue to change as social media keeps evolving. Understanding how much social media has changed the PR profession will help us put together better communication programs that put both parts in a way that intensifies your messages. With that said, I would like to share a few areas of how social media has impacted the world of PR

Communication consistency

It used to be that PR was a one-way message program. You put out the information that you hope is relevant and wish that it will reach everybody. With Social media, your target message is transformed into a conversation that just about anyone can start, converting the one-way message into a constant discussion. Social media makes it possible to enter this discussion anywhere, but the discussion cannot be controlled.

Target Audience

The old model of PR is to send a specialized message to a single message source. But in today’s world of social media infused PR model, you target audience is now a community. The main difference now is that with a community of friends, many conversations take place socializing the message.

Channel Reach

With social media, your audience is motivated to pay attention to each other making it very powerful. The engagement from the audience boosts your message leading to more shares, and making certain conversations go viral. Engagement, in social media and PR, is a key achievement.

Source credibility

User-generated content in PR groups has always been a point of concern mostly surrounding bloggers and journalists. In today’s social communication platforms, a message could become very potent when there’s an exchange between sources. For instance, the journalist using social media to investigate stories or the stories in a traditional publication gets shared on social platforms.

PR uses many communication programs and social media is just one of them which allow us to interact directly with our customers. Social media also allows us to be to communicate with our consumers and hopefully gain a positive action. And understanding how social platforms have changed the PR world, it can help us make better use of it in our campaigns.

Source: Social Media Disruptors of PR and social PR

Anybody hoping that Social Media 101 will lead to one day being a Social Media Manager for an organization may want to rethink this decision. These jobs are on the decline. That’s according to Hoot Suite CEO Ryan Holmes’ blog. He writes, “Once touted as the next big thing, the social media job market has undergone a marked slowdown.” Holmes’ research shows much as 50% from previous years when growth reached triple-or-quadruple-digit growth.

One reason I surmised, and later confirmed through my research, is that tweeting and posting is or will be everybody’s job. This means I get to be the Social Media Manager of my own universe for now. Apparently, I work for cheap because I haven’t seen a paycheck yet, but the experience is something I’m putting on my resume.

That’s a good thing, as every marketing, public relations, and communications job description I have seen lately requires or prefers candidates with social media skills or to be social media savvy. But it doesn’t stop there. Holmes says customer service and research and development departments are using social media channels for their tasks.

These aren’t the only departments. I listed “social media” as the keywords search on minnesotaworks.net . Fifty job descriptions from the last 30 days contained the search phrase. A bank, healthcare company, and law office were among the employers. My HR friends tell me being skilled in social media is not an option in their arena, so why should it be any different for me.

My skills teeter closer to novice than savvy, but I feel fortunate to have Social Media 101 teaching me the ropes. While Social Media Managers jobs are declining, the skills certainly are not. I predict we’ve only seen a glimpse of how social media will impact our lives. Besides, who needs to a Social Media Manager of an organization when your own universe is waiting! CRJ

sample job descriptions