Convergent media has transformed our lives.
Isolation and usually a one way communication model of mass media tend to be
replaced by the power of interaction offered by social ones.
Videos, sounds and pictures awake our senses,
while instant messaging, blogging, update information arise our emotions.
Actually, social media developers such as Chris Hughes a co finder of Facebook, identified these
societal needs and focused their research on how to bring people together and
ways to provide faster interaction.
Actually, social media developers such as Chris Hughes a co finder of Facebook, identified these
societal needs and focused their research on how to bring people together and
ways to provide faster interaction.
Therefore, Kevin KC Lee argues, ‘the approach to social media
should social not media’. That’s where public relations come along.
According to Duhe (2007:99), ‘public relations achieves organizational goals
through developing relationships with publics’.
Bearing that in mind, what approach should pr
practitioners have?
First of all they should comprehend the reasons
why users use a specific digital media platform, the reasons that make this
medium of communication the most appropriate one, and then persuade the users
on the added value of the experience. Quoting Bilal Jaffery, “Anyone can tell you …the best
practices for engaging Twitter. A strong strategist …. facilitates the
translation of the brand into the social context, ultimately helping to deliver
the transformation of the brand promise into a social brand state.”
However is this, the existing approach? I don’t
think so. In the practitioner’s attempt to catch up with all the latest
updates, the customer’s needs are ignored and not properly identified. Instead
of focusing in specific social media platform, the notion for presence in all
of them prevails. What’s more? Business models prevail that excuse privacy
intrusion and mess up with our personal data. As a result, once you enter your social
account, you get bombarded with things that don’t interest you, tire you off
and sometimes even make you abandon the page you just logged.
Jaffery goes on commenting that a network that
helps us find friends and share common interests is turning into a noisy and
intrusive place. This is undoubtetly the Golden Era of social media, but is this
era on an edge?
3 comments:
I agree that companies often over-communicate. I think that one mistake that is often made is thinking of social media as a strategy in itself. I seems that people lose sight of their business strategy and, as you say, try to be on all platforms. How do you help your senior management avoid this?
i also think it's important to comprehend the reasons why you as a pr practitioner should use specific digital media platforms. some platforms might be more suitable than other for your purpose, and in that case it's more important to focus on those platforms. otherwise you just end up with a lot of accounts that never are used, which could have the opposite affect since people will think you are not engaging.
Post a Comment