The Power of Social MediaVs PR
- PRofessionals
- Feb 26, 2018
- 2 min read
We live in a hyperconnected world. In a world where information exchange is not limited by physical boundaries. Through satellite signals information can travel and be shared around the globe in a bling on an eye. Technology transformed the way we communicate, we think and how we live. It can be characterized as the driving force that transformed reality itself, tuning the technologically advanced population in communicating at a higher frequencies, keeping up with the accelerated speeds that the modern era is moving.
Social media have brought humans closer than ever before. In this hyperconnected reality, every individual with an internet access and any smart device, can have a voice. The once traditional model of a one way communication from the authorities to the masses has collapsed with the embedment of social media in modern humans’ lives, as the information flow is now controlled by the masses. Therefore Social Media are both a blessing and a curse for PR practitioners, depending on what side of the coin you are looking at.
This radical change in the way information can be created and shared is forcing authorities, governments, entrepreneurs and companies to alter the way they used to form their Public Relations. The tailor made, ready to be served information, created by people in powerful positions is not working as a PR strategy anymore. The masses have the power to drown the biggest players, only with a syntax of a few lines in any online platform, making their PR strategies look pitiful while they disappear in ashes and dust.
Isn’t ironic that Marc Zuckerberg has to face the biggest negative impact on his career, because social media exposed its scandal? With the #DeleteFacebook campaign running online, Zuckerberg’s Net Worth dropped to $5.1 Billion in only hours. Facebook is facing the biggest PR reputation and management crisis as the power of social media exposes everything; no one can escape its impact, dragging any powerful person into a PR black hole.
Marc Zuckerberg is another victim of the social media’s snowball effect, following big names and companies that the online community had a negative impact on their PR strategies (H&M Social Media Crisis, Snapchat stock drop after Kylie Jenner’s tweet).
Would you think Martin Luther King had this in mind when delivering his iconic speech “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. Is Social Media the way to rebuild equality? A virtual place where interconnected people can share opinions, change attitudes and form collective behaviors?
You decide…
Alex Theofanopoulos
I totally agree that today, the power of social media has the potential to change any rule. For instance, the companies and organizations that handle them in the right way may lose everything just by a wrong handling; whereas those that may have a crisis can bright through a right and on time response. This occurs, because any user is a content creator.
There is no doubt, that social media is a place, where individuals, celebrities, companies, freelancers, non-profit organizations, governments can promote products and services, improve reputation, engage target audiences, exchange thoughts and opinions, build relationships and formulate behaviors and emotions.
One might say that, this kind of communication is equal, because the only thing you need to use…