My Peers Are Into Social Media For PR Too

Over the past few weeks I have been discussing the benefits of using social media for public relations purposes. Whether it be for observational, experimental, or crisis communication purposes, social media is most definitely a tool that could be used at the advantage of public relations practitioners. Apparently my classmates agree with me on the usefulness of social media as a PR tool. Two of my classmates blogged about social media, and they're outlooks were very on point with my same ideas.

Kevin recently blogged about crisis communication and how to use social media in such case. A point Kevin stressed and is very true is that with the growing technology information can travel a rapid speeds. This makes it that much more easier for negative news to get out to the public, and what better way then a social media website to post something negative and allow it to feed through and reach tons of people. This is where we would think social media hurts us PR people, however we could use social media to our own benefit because of its rapid spread of information as well. Kevin explains in his blog that as soon as an incident occurs that could shed a negative light on a company, you could immediately correct it by spreading word directly from the company itself in regards to the incident and allow that information to also spread through the social media outlet.

Laura also blogged on social media, and one of her recent blogs posts focused on experimental research. She gave an example that allowed for us to see how social media could be used to experimental research.  She makes a very valid point that publicists could often use experimental research and social media together to figure out which outlets work best for which celebrity. Experimental research is used often in PR therefore it is important that it can be used with the social media tool as well. Take a look at her blog and see how to do your own little experimental research!

Is Social Media Good For A Company? Experimental Research Could Tell You Why

Experimental research is a great quantitative method because you are able to gain some valuable information that pertains to the population, as opposed to specific publics as you often learn about through qualitative methods. Social media has become more prominent in the professional world, and companies are relying on social media to get word out to the public about all different aspects of the company. Social media is a great outlet because it allows a live connection between the company and the public, making this a great tool for public relations practitioners. Because the involvement of social media as a part of public relations practices is still so new, there is little research to prove if social media is in fact a positive tool for a company's public relations. Here is where experimental research comes in.

I found some interesting research whose purpose was to find out if using social media had some sort of value for "service-based businesses." The goal of their particular experiment was to see how many followers they could gain on social media sites based on a service-based business. The one piece of information this experiment lacks is telling whether the use of social media would help create stronger relationships. This is a good question to pose for an experiment regarding any kinds of businesses, not just service-based businesses. In order to prove whether or not social media is positive for a businesses public relations, an experiment could and should be done in order to test not only increase in followers on the social media outlets, but also the actual relationships that are built as a result of the social media being put into practice.

How Surveys Rank Social Media!

The social media world is a great place to go to when conducting survey research because you are able to post the survey of which you want answers from to a large population, and this large population has the option of whether they'd like to respond to the survey or not, making it voluntary for the participants.

However, it is best to understand the importance of surveys through an actual example. In the example I found I was able to combine the ever-so-present social media into looking at how surveys are a good form of performing quantitative research. In research done by the Pew Research Center on the use of specific social media networks by certain age groups, we are able to see which social media network attracts which demographic, in terms of age specifically. The research done by surveys allowed for the researchers to notice certain trends regarding age and use of specific social media networks. Based on their survey research they were able to determine that social media sites such as Facebook have contributed to the decline in blogging.

Surveys are significant in conducting research because the results could often be grouped into categories making it easier to analyze the results of the research and find answers to the research questions. The downside of using surveys is that you are not receiving the kind of information you would receive when performing qualitative research, where you would gain more knowledge on the opinions behind the answers. This makes surveys good when you are looking for more clear answers and less perceptions and opinions. However, triangulation, the use of both quantitative and qualitative research, is the most beneficial way to perform research because you can gain not only clear-cut answers from research methods such as surveys, but also gain knowledge as to why people feel that way in regards to their answers.