How public relation uses Facebook as a social media platform to create awareness
There is no way any a business, small/big can afford to ignore the social media and still thrive in the contemporary market. Close to every customer uses the web to search for commodities and shop for what they want, the web hosts very many customers, both new and old, those looking for new products and those shopping for the frequent goods. Having realized that the social media hosts very many people, it has done all within its reach to enable business or organization to use it to their advantage. Close to all organizations that are flourishing presently have their public relation engaged in the use of social media to secure enough market for their products. It is upon this that the paper is going to elucidate how public relations use Facebook in promoting business and why they have to use social media instead of the traditional media.
Facebook has been so beneficial to the organization’s public relation. Public relation has always used Facebook to their advantage in several ways as discussed below; public relation has used Facebook for outbound media relations. The public relation uses Facebook to promote the organization to journalists and bloggers (Diggs-Brown, 2012). It is very hard to get journalist come to the organization is search for any information about the organization. In the same manner, it is very hard to get bloggers elsewhere to notify them about the business. It is only in Facebook where such people would be found. Hence, if an organization’s public relations does not utilize Facebook, then it can be assured that they may not entice such people who will help the organization to be publicized. By updating the profile of the organization together with other relevant information about the organization, you get to encourage more people to your account among them who are the bloggers and journalists (Taulli, 2012). It is by attracting then to your Facebook account that these journalists and bloggers can get back to you and looking for stories to write. One other thing is that, the organization’s public relation must understand it that, very creative bloggers and journalist look for information from the social media Facebook being one of them. It, therefore, works to the advantage of the public relation to strategically create awareness of the business.
Facebook is also used by the public relation for promoting the organization. A Facebook group is a very good strategy for public relation to promote the organization. Awareness is always created through such groups, for example, it is very easy to transfer information through a group on Facebook than calling individuals to give then information about something important. The public relations has realized that it is also cost effective to use a Facebook group to pass information about the organization other than using the alternative means which may be slightly expensive and not as effective as a Facebook groups (Elefant,& Black, 2010). There are several activities that an organization may want to undertake like for example a new product that the organization has come up with that is supposed to be known by the public. Advertisement through other means other than social media was the best alternative sometimes back, but with the information of the number of people who are on Facebook, the public relations presently uses the Facebook groups to promote such a commodity until it is well known to the general public. It thus shows how the public relations have used Facebook to their advantage.
Facebook is also used by the public relations for community outreach. It is very hard to mobilize supporters for specific events of the organization as the public relations group if you cannot use Facebook. The creation of Facebook groups and pages enables the public relations to garner big groups to perform some activity since very many people are harbored in Facebook and can always get interested in such activities (Brown, 2012). It is also used for developing brand affinity. An organization would wish to get the customers feedback of the services and the goods they offer to the public, the old use of suggestion box can take a very long time for the organization’s public relations to get the customers feedback. For an organization working or operating across borders, it becomes very hard to get customers feedback through any other alternative other than the social media (Ray, 2013). Facebook in this case has had a big impact on the same. It will only take a very short time to get the customers feedback on a commodity that is introduced into the market through Facebook when you create a Facebook fun page. It is through this that the fun will like or dislike the commodity and through that, you will have created the brand’s affinity. It is through this that Facebook has strategically enabled the public relations to take advantage of the social media in developing organizations.
Very many organizations have come to realize the benefits of using social media over the traditional means of communication. It is upon this that many companies have resolved to use the social media in making the organization known rather than the traditional means, some of these reasons that make organizations invest much of their time and resources in the social media include; the cost of delivering the information of an organization (Scott, 2010). The costs involved in social media are relatively low compared to the costs involved in the traditional forms of communication. For example, it only costs the organization an account and internet to be able to communicate to billions of people across the globe. Engaging the traditional media for communication becomes very expensive for example when making an advertisement, an organization will have to pay heavily for the same costs.
Social media with the burst of technological advancement is never a problem, very many people can access important information and not limited to a specific area. Social media captures all the people far and near the organization. Traditional media on the other hand becomes very limited to certain people and within a particular sphere of influence. Take for example a radio station advertising some commodity in a local language; this will prevent all those that cannot get that very language from getting that information (Duhé, 2007). It is for this reason that very many organizations prefer the use of social media to traditional media. Information given through social media is simple. The equipment required to transmit information using the traditional media like newspapers among others is just too complicated compared to the modern mean through social media. If the information is not understood, there is always room to ask for clarification in social media other than the traditional media.
Flexibility of social media encourages many organizations to prefer it to traditional media. Information on social media can be given different shapes unlike that on radio or on newspaper. An update on Facebook can be altered to suit the customers’ needs and the feedback help the organizations to respond so fast to the demands of the customers, unlike the traditional means that never change (Newsom & Haynes, 2011). They only follow a specific order that is never altered. The social media is measurable compared to the traditional media. There are instant feeds that are received when it comes to Facebook and the like in social media. Traditional media waits over a very long period of time for the information to be monitored making a delay of the whole process of communication. These among other reasons make social media better to use compared to the traditional media.
Finally, Facebook has done great to the public relations in a bid to create awareness about the organization. It is based on real time an application that enables one to get the information immediately it is posted (Ray, 2013). For a matter of information that is to be publicized fast enough, there is no other media that can enable that. Since Facebook has the ability to deliver information immediately, the public relation has been able to use it to deliver immediate information to its customers. Organizations that have embraced the social media have experience the real benefits of using it thus challenging those that do not want to leave the traditional media and integrate to the changing world.
Reference
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Elefant, C., & Black, N. (2010). Social media for lawyers: The next frontier. Chicago, Ill: American Bar Association, Law Practice Management Section.
Newsom, D., & Haynes, J. (2011). Public relations writing: Form and style. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Ray, R. (2013). The Facebook guide to small business marketing. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Scott, D. M. (2010). The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Taulli, T. (2012). How to create the next Facebook: Seeing your startup through, from idea to IPO. New York: Apress.
