Public Relations and Facebook

The growing relationship between Public Relations and Facebook

My interest in this topic stems from my communication technologies class I am currently taking at Mohawk College. This class has opened my eyes to the importance of the role of public relations within social media. Entering into my public relations post graduate certificate at Mohawk College, I did not have a twitter account, a LinkedIn account, a personal blog and I only used Facebook on a personal level. As public relations have become my area of expertise, so has the world of social media. I believe the explosion of Facebook worldwide has benefitted the public relations industry but has also pushed practitioners to learn a new form of communication.

As the social media world grows at rapid speed public relations practitioners discover themselves learning a new technique to reach their audiences. One of the key elements of public relations is being able to reach your target audience. There are many different traditional strategies and tactics public relation practitioners frequently use however, I believe that many modern techniques surround the aspect of social media.         

Facebook can aid a public relations practitioner in the following ways:

• Facebook Page: creating a Facebook page for a company, an organization, a service or even a product can be used as a communication tool.
• Understanding your audience: Researching your “Likes” on Facebook. Those that “Like” your Facebook page, “Add you as friend”, or “Join your cause”, can be deemed as one your target audiences.
• Receiving feedback: Facebook is an excellent source for feedback. Feedback represents success, positive feedback ensures the public relations plan is effective, negative feedback suggests improvements must be made.
• Advertising on Facebook: Facebook can be used as a source of raising awareness of your client, product or service.
•  A research tool for future customers: When someone wants to know more about a company, organization, product or service, they use the world of social media to do so. Making Facebook an accessible tool for them increases the rate of future business.

Please check out this interesting analogy I discovered about the relationship between public relations and Facebook. This party analogy is fun and very relevant;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOzylUcfUeQ&feature=related

If you are interested in joining the world of public relations, you should also consider joining the world of social media and discover how it can become a tool to communicate your message!

Also, if you would like to read more about my adventures through the world of public relations, visit my blog!

http://smunzy.blogspot.ca/