Has Social Media challenged the way Public Relations is practiced or are PR professionals becoming the new medium for the real time age?

Not satisfied with newspapers, magazines and lunchtime news bulletins, people are becoming increasingly aware that information is available through forms of social media…and fast! We’ve moved into a “real time” age where, if an event happens; comment, opinion and pictures are readily available. It’s difficult for some media outlets to keep up with this and so many are looking to twitter, blogs and you tube first.

For PR experts this is something we have had to grasp very quickly. The scope for attaining results for clients is vast as long as we utilise social media correctly. Not only can we reach key influencers but it empowers our clients to engage in communication with their customers. Press releases, promotions and up and coming events can be online within minutes, without the help of newspaper editors or advertising. It is of course important that we understand the new technologies available and use them correctly, it is apparent that a small number of workers in similar industries do struggle to grasp the usage of this new form of managing relationships with the public.

A study carried out by McCann Erikson showed that 3 out of 5 respondents used social media on a regular basis, especially in their line of work but almost 1/4 found the advances difficult to keep up with.

In 2008 just 66 percent of respondents said that blogs and social media have enhanced the practice of PR., however in a dramatic shift, Social Media is now winning over the sceptics, by this year, 81% agreed that it had enhanced the practice.

In conclusion, get to grips with the new ways of implementing social media into your PR campaigns, there is so much information and advice out there. To me, the only real challenge is getting clients to share the vision and communicating to them exactly how social media operates. Once there are concrete ways of displaying value to clients, as opposed to using traditional media coverage, the real benefits will come through.