PR & New Media Today – An Introduction
“New Media.”
You hear the term every day. It seems like every time you turn on the news, there's a new 'platform' that has the nation in awe, with it's immense popularity, intuitive design and groundbreaking features. Sound familiar?
How about if I mention Facebook? Youtube? Apple's iPhone? Foursquare? These names all have three things in common: 1) they're all forms of new media, 2) they've all been become icons in popular culture, and 3) because of this, have a place in the future of public relations and mass communications.
But maybe you haven't yet quite jumped on the 'new media' bandwagon, so to speak. Perhaps you're thinking it's too hard to use, overrated, or simply unnecessary. Perhaps you're overwhelmed with all of the apps out there, and don't know where to start.
Whatever the case may be, I’m here to tell you that now would be an excellent time to 'jump on the new media bandwagon,’ so to speak, especially if you work in public relations, or any of the other fields of mass communications, including journalism and broadcast media. I'll be your guide.
Technology is drastically changing the scope of communications every day, and new media is leading the charge. Since the Internet’s birth to the general public in the early 1990’s, there has been a steady flurry of groundbreaking advancements that continue to change how we think and act. Every day, new applications and platforms are developed and released, and PR specialists must constantly adjust their methods of communication, to stay fresh and relevant in this changing society.
As a PR professional, it is your responsibility to craft strategic and effective communication plans, cultivate strong relationships, and generally, consider your audience in all aspects of your work. If you ignore new media, however, you ignore huge chunks of your audience. If you’re not staying on top of communications media, quite simply, you’re not doing your job.
Losing relevance in a changing society is one of the worst situations that PR professionals can find themselves in. It’s therefore imperative that you use methods of communication that are familiar to your audience. In a lot of ways, PR professionals are bound to crafting messages in the medium that their audience adopts. Even if you don’t embrace new media, it’s your responsibility to learn them. Fifteen years ago, that might have been through print, perhaps newspaper or magazine. Today, however, an increasingly ‘paperless’ society has given rise to the Internet, and with it, innovations such as “Web 2.0” and other new media phenomena.
Today, as a PR professional, you should be prepared to write engaging content and interact with your publics on various new media, including: blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, 'smartphone' applications like Foursquare, and more. If you work in consultancy, you must be prepared to educate your clients on the culture and standards of etiquette, and implement effective marketing strategies through any given medium.
The rising popularity of mobile technology is just one example of new media's importance for communications professionals.
Here’s an example: Most people know that popular social networking service Facebook has more than 400 million users, after only half a decade of existence, which is extremely impressive growth, by itself. But if your jaw hasn’t already dropped, consider this: this past April, SocialBeat.com reported that 100 million of the site’s users access it from their iPhones, via “Facebook Connect” (which, by the way, had only around been around for 15 months at the date of publication). In addition, 50% of all users log in “daily,” according to Facebook’s corporate factsheet. So when you think about, this means that a full quarter of users went mobile with the site by just over a year later, and still use it daily. If that’s not embracing change, then I don’t know what is. And that’s just one example; Social networking, mobile technology, and location-based technology continue to change the field of communications everyday.
New media is essential in today's communications fields.
The point: PR professionals, if you’re not already tapping into the potential to reach your audience, you’re behind the 8-ball. With hundreds of millions of people worldwide using social networks and other new media, there is no excuse not to have at least basic familiarity with such platforms. Not to worry, however; there’s still hope. This blog aims to keep you up-to-date on current trends affecting the field of communications technology, and identify methods that you, the professional communicator, can use to stay relevant to your audience.
While I am a PR specialist, I don’t profess to be an expert. I believe it’s difficult for “experts” to exist in such a rapidly changing technological climate, and so I share away from that term, with exceptions made pretty much only for the actual new media developers. And while I do have a lot of experience with using new media in the field of communications, I have a lot more learning to do as well. So along the way, I invite your feedback. If you disagree with something I have said, share your point of view in the comments section. Respectful debates can be a great learning experience for all involved, especially on the topic of new media.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have an idea you'd like for me to write about? Share your thoughts below.
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