3 way social media has influenced Public Relations

The advent of social media has greatly influenced the way that Public Relations practitioners build and support relationships with publics and stakeholders.  This is a grand statement, but not surprising when we consider the effect social media has had on society as a whole.

The way people communicate with family members, friends, colleagues and even organisations and brands have rapidly changed with social media.  We have become a society hooked on instant messages, sharing our every thought, photographing the amazing and mundane while developing painful text claw.

As social media platforms become more ingrained in our lives as an essential tool of communication we look at the 3 ways that social media has influenced PR and ways that practitioners build and support relationships.

1. GLOBAL AUDIENCE

Social media has brought the world a little bit closer.

The below image was taken in Sydney and captioned “what is this guy looking at, the world?” and posted on social media.  It has since been shared around the world to thousands of people that can easily relate to the scenario of waiting for transport while glued to their phone.

Similarly, images and text from organisations around the world are spread from one person to the next regardless of language, country or context.  This unification of the world, this truly global audience, allows PR practitioners to build stronger networks within their community and beyond.

2. INSTANT NEWS

Social media, as opposed to traditional media, is fast.

We all remember hearing the news of Whitney Houston’s untimely death.  It was a sad occasion but what made this news so controversial was that the first tweet about Whitney’s passing was on Twitter more than 20 minutes before official confirmation.

What news of Whitney Houston’s death showed us about PR is that social media has changed the way people collect news.  Good and bad news stories are circulated at an alarming rate.  Social media has changed the way PR practitioners respond to publics and stakeholders as users expect fast replies and are just as happy to share communication failures as much as successes.

3. TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION

Social media is designed for two-way communication.

The concept of social media is the exchange of information and ideas through an online platform allowing PR practitioners the opportunity to connect with the community in two-way communication.

Recently, Pantene encouraged over 5,000 Australian women to cut their hair in a masterful PR campaign, however fell short on their social media offerings.  While they had created a multi-platform approach to social engagement their communication was all one-sided.  PR practitioners are offered insight and a direct line to their publics and stakeholders through social media platforms enabling them the tools and opportunity to build and support relationships.

Pantene encourages 5,000 Australian women to cut their hair in PR best practice

A hair care supplier enticing 5,000 woman to cut off their hair is an unusual sign of success.  However this is what Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths campaign by Saunders & Co achieved and ultimately lead to their recognition at the 2013 Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) Golden Target Award winning in the consumer marketing category.

The concept behind the Beautiful Lengths PR campaign involved women cutting off their hair and sending it to Pantene to be converted into a wig and gifted to women with cancer.

What made this campaign so successful was its ability to connect with publics. What made publics connect to this campaign was its integration with social media.

The Pantene social media connection:

• Viewers could watch YouTube videos such as Brittney Davis’ cancer survival story in addition to uploading videos of cutting their own hair
• Audiences could learn about the campaign and comment on ambassador blogs including Zoe Foster’s mamamia contribution
• Participants created tweets on Twitter using the hashtag #BeautifulLengths
• Publics could interact with the Pantene Facebook page
• Images could be shared on Instagram
• Microblogging and pledges were made on the Beautiful Lengths website
• Individuals blogged on their personal accounts such as ninetypercentdelicious

This campaign demonstrated best practice in PR as it successfully built upon the relationship between Pantene and their publics.  Women jumped on board this campaign as they saw the opportunity to contribute to a worthwhile cause whilst using social media to share their story and subsequently extend the campaign to a broader audience.

The Beautiful Lengths campaign successfully demonstrated PR best practice in stakeholder engagement yet somehow fell short in effective social media use.

The missing link:

The key feature of social media is its ability to facilitate two way communication.  Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogger, Pinterest or one of the other hundreds of social media sites, the one thing they all have in common is the capacity for conversation.

The Beautiful Lengths campaign encouraged social media use among participants.  However it seems that the goal was simply to reach participants and not engage in the more personalised manner that social media allows.  In Australia only one of the Twitter hashtags seems to have been used and the @panteneANZ account has no recorded tweets.  The dedicated Beautiful Lengths Google+ account has had just 2 posts since May 2013.

Social media has seen a change in online users from passive to interactive; from viewer to creator.  Pantene has shown an effective way of building a relationship with publics however without the two way communication that social media thrives on, they have missed out on the opportunity to engage their audience on a deeper level.