There was a time, when marketing and PR professionals could take their time, having hours until daily newspaper deadlines. Today, however, it is a completely different story and minutes can make the difference between being part of the buzz of the latest headline or being yesterday’s fish and chip paper. This development caused PR professionals to adopt a new method of communication – social media.

The power of social media has given public relations specialists and journalists a myriad of choice when deciding how to connect with their target audience. As a result they’ve been seen to be some of the first people to embrace social media and have become leaders in the field.

1.It Takes Two
For PR professionals it is no longer a case of blasting out PR releases or information about their brand and expecting them to be successful. Today two-way communication has become the norm with listening, engagement and thought leadership expected from all PR professionals.

2.A Wealth of Information
Social platforms provide PR professionals with masses of information on target markets, customer service and the media outlets they may be interested in, creating many more opportunities and insight into the target consumer.

3.Move Faster, Think Quicker
In our 24/7 customer-centric world social media has increased the potential for our complaints and gripes to become more visible to the wider world. The fast paced nature of social media means a crisis can develop quickly and the response needs to be made equally quickly to extinguish the flames. It is important for brands to create an online personality and be ready for the negative as well as the positive.

4.Measurable Success

For the first time in the history or PR Social Media has provided professionals with the ability to track their investment and calculate the return through measures such as website traffic and sources as well as staff time spent on tools. This means PR campaigns are becoming more specifically targeted and strategic in their approach.

5.The News is Changing
Traditional media is no longer the go to source when a big news story breaks. Twitter is increasingly being described as a personal news source with many news agencies updating news events in real time. News spreads across the site within minutes with a concentrated amount of activity views and comments from across the global. For example news about the Japanese tsunami disaster and more recent London riots was spread around the world in minutes via Twitter…

The Future of PR?
PR will continue to expand it’s capabilities for highly personalised creation, recommendation and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices and social media is the ultimate content sharing tool.

The changing role of social media in PR is one of the hot topics on this year’s #SMWF agenda and will be held on day 2 at 1500. Hear from brands such as Hershey’s, Lewis PR, mBLAST and Four Seasons and how the role of PR is changing in the social environment.   To view the rest of this year’s exciting agenda please click here.

To secure your pass to SMWF N. America, please click here.