Journal Review 15: How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practised

by: Azran Haji Awang

 

This article reports on a three-year-long international survey of public relations practitioners examining the impact blogs and other social media are having on public relations practice. Findings show these new media are dramatically changing public relations. Results indicate blogs and social media have enhanced what happens in public relations and that social media and traditional mainstream media complement each other. The study also finds the emergence of blogs and social media have changed the way their organizations communicate, especially to external audiences. Findings suggest social media complement traditional news media, and that blogs and social media influence coverage in traditional news media. The study reports blogs and social media have made communications more instantaneous by encouraging organizations to respond more quickly to criticism.

Summary and Conclusion of the Study

The third annual (2008), international empirical examination of public relations practitioners on the impact blogs and other social media are having on public relations practice once again finds new media are dramatically changing public relations and the way it is practiced. Results of this year’s (2008) study find about two-thirds believe blogs and social media have enhanced what happens in public relations and that social media and traditional mainstream media complement each other. More than half of the study’s respondents (61%) believe the emergence of blogs and social media have changed the way their organizations (or their client organizations) communicate.

**Percentage is based on 328 samples of respondent. (2008)

Findings suggest these changes are more prominent in external than internal communications. Many (72%) believe social media complement traditional news media, and an even higher number (89%) think blogs and social media influence coverage in traditional news media. Most (84%) believe blogs and social media have made communications more instantaneous because they encourage organizations to respond more quickly to criticism. Results clearly show traditional news media receive higher scores than blogs and social media in terms of accuracy, credibility, telling the truth and being ethical. Findings also show 75 percent expect traditional news media to be honest, tell the truth and be ethical, but only 44 percent hold these same expectations for blogs and other social media.

This study also asked a number of questions that had been included on the questionnaires in previous years (2007 & 2006). Results of these annual measures find:

      I.        Approval continues to decrease each year when the subjects are asked if it is ethical for employees to write and post on blogs negative statements about the organizations they work for. While 49 percent said this was ethical two years ago, only 29 percent agreed last year and only 25 percent agree in the current study.
    II.        There is significantly more agreement this year than last year on the question asking if organizations should permit their employees to communicate on blogs and other social media during regular working hours. Agreement on this measure was 38 percent last year and 44 percent this year.
   III.        Survey respondents continue to disapprove more each year when asked if it is ethical for organizations to conduct research about or monitor information that their employees are communicating via blogs and other social media. Three years ago 89 percent of the respondents agreed conducting such research was ethical. This approval figure was 73 percent in 2007 and is 63 percent this year.
  IV.        The number of companies actually conducting this kind of research appears to be increasing. Only three percent of the respondents said their organizations (or their client organizations) were conducting this research three years ago. That figure increased to 11 percent last year and is at 15 percent in the current study.

Highlights of responses to the study’s open-ended questions include a recurring suggestion that blogs and social media have had a huge impact moving public relations into the direction of facilitating more two-way communication by opening up direct channels of communications between organizations and their publics. Others pointed out these new media create additional information channels thus making it more difficult for those who practice public relations to help organizations manage and control information dissemination.

Several suggested the emergence of social media has dramatically reduced the turn-around time when organizations are communicating with certain target publics. Others said the need to communicate more quickly has lessened the impact lawyers used to have forcing organizations to withhold information. Several respondents suggested blogs and social media provide excellent opportunities for public relations practitioners to build relationships with strategic publics. And, as one wrote, social media “have provided an opportunity to truly put the public back into public relations by providing a mechanism for organizations to engage in real-time, one-to-one conversations with stakeholders. Additionally, they serve as a focus group of thousands, allowing offline communications to be more relevant”.

(By: Donald K. Wright & Michelle D. Hinson)

Source: prsa