The use of social media in the PR world

This past Wednesday we received a guest speaker, Prof. Christy Tuohey, in our digital writing class. Prof. Tuohey is in charge of the web development at Newhouse, as well as teaching journalism classes. Our subject of interest was social media.

As PR students and future practitioners, social media are platforms that we need to know and master so as to reach publics in an entirely different way that it used to be. Prof. Tuohey gave us an overview of all the existing social networks, their functions and their use. 

She mentioned an important point when she said that organizations need to be coherent on their different social media accounts.  I think this idea is essential and should be a guideline in our professional use of social media. Being present on several social media platforms for an organization, is part of their reputation and their image. They can’t act or spread messages without thinking of the logical link to their values and usual way to proceed. As social media are a new tool undergoing rapid changes, it is important to use them carefully. Among all the existing platforms, an organization has to thing first of which one is going to be the most useful to reach its audiences and spread its messages. Once this is done, an organization has to think of the content itself. What kind of messages is going to be more efficient toward the targeted audience?

Through this presentation, I will point out and remember that PR practitioners have to deal with social media with as much carefulness as any other media. Messages on Internet have as much impact as they would have on TV, radio or printed press. Therefore the use of social media, as useful as it could be for an organization, has to be done with professionalism and consistency. Although the urge to be present on every social platform is significant, these useful new tools need to be managed attentively.