Social Media and PR

After Meredith mentioned in class last week about Wal-Mart and Edelman PR’s fake blog, I did some research. What I found, basically, is that public relations is learning social media rules the hard way.

There is a new phenomenon called Web 2.0 (the live web), which gives the average person the power of voice. Nowadays, people can publish anything online, set up podcasts and videocasts, create blogs, syndicate their thoughts and ideas in an RSS feed, and unlike print, it’s there to stay. With this Web 2.0 comes PR 2.0, and there are immense implications for public relations.

With PR 1.0 (old school PR), it was all about getting content out to get attention. Practitioners created press releases, case studies, white papers, VNRs and media pitches. It was a one-way broadcast for sharing a message. Although this may still work, with technology on the rise, it does not work nearly as well as it used to. PR 2.0 (new school PR) is all about pulling attention in using content, and here lies a huge opportunity for the PR industry. People are using the internet more and more, whether it is for news or information, and it is our job as practitioners to know how to effectively reach them.

Some universities are adapting their public relations courses to reflect the advances in social media. With the social media growing and expanding, wouldn’t it be important to incorporate some sort of online communication courses here at UF? We need to keep up with the changing times and I believe that we must be trained in social media if we are to be successful at our jobs.