social media and evolution of corporate communications

Social media has revolutionized corporate communications, rapidly changing the way that public relations campaigns or programs are distributed and measured. Rather than the traditional method of pure output, social media has forced corporate communications to shift to a dialogue in which the stakeholders, and not just the companies, have power over the message. Social media is a revolutionary communications tool that has quickly changed the ways in which public relations is practiced, becoming an integral part of corporate communications for many companies and offering public relations practitioners’ new options for every aspect of the corporate communications process.

Social media has revolutionized corporate communications. Social media marketing allows companies to communicate directly and instantly with their stakeholders, marking a shift from the traditional one-way output of corporate communications, to an expanded dialogue between company and consumer. This paper aims to examine the relationship between social media and corporate communications, specifically focusing on the uses of social media for public relations and analyzing the changes that have occurred within the industry as a result of social media tools.

In today’s corporate world, the success or failure of any company hinges on public perception. The opinions of key company stakeholders, such as shareholders, investors, consumers, employees or members of the community in which the organization is based, are all crucial to the long-term success of the company, and should be viewed as such by executives. Social media allows for corporate communications opportunities that a decade ago would not have been plausible.

Public relations is an old industry that has relied on the same tactics and formulas for much of its history, and that has traditionally been measured by the amount of media coverage resulting from output company messages. Social media is rapidly changing the way that public relations campaigns or programs are distributed and measured. Rather than the traditional method of pure output completely company-controlled messages being broadcast to the stakeholders’ social media has forced corporate communications to shift to a dialogue in which the stakeholders, and not just the companies, have power over the message. Social media allows stakeholders to ask questions and have those questions answered directly by corporate executives, and for corporate executives to receive important feedback and even ideas from their stakeholders.

A public relations in the traditional sense has come to be seen by many as “smoke and mirrors,” deceptive messages being created by spin doctors. Because of this, many people have come to distrust media  the traditional means by which the industry is measured  and put more trust in the opinions of their peers, which they have access to on social media sites. Social media not only offers an opportunity for direct and instant corporate communication, but also an opportunity to get back to the ideal basics of public relations building and maintaining relationships and to change some of the negative stereotypes typically associated with the industry.

A number of research studies have been conducted to examine the transition from traditional practices to public relations in the social media age. The majority of these studies aimed to answer a common set of questions regarding the use of social media for corporate communications, involving the most common forms of social media marketing, the time commitment involved for social media marketers, the benefits of social media marketing, the audiences being reached by social media marketers, how the effectiveness of communications are measured in social media marketing and the impact that social media marketing will have in the future. 

    By James Catherine