Question

How do social media offer both opportunities and obstacles for public relations practitioners? answer must be 20 lines

Answer 1

Social media is both a boon and a bane for public relation practitioners when we consider its use, reach, applicability, and its inherent traits and risks. Even though social media represents a platform, it would not be wrong to say that it behaves like a living system showing growth and maturity as well as expanding further than previously thought possible. The fact that it reaches the most amount of people the quickest has provided businesses with unprecedented power when it comes to its customer engagement. Although maintaining a brand image is an ongoing process, most brands form a favorable bond with its customers and are able to extend further to get their message across to more individuals, we can say that it makes it easier for the PR practitioner to control every possible aspect of this interaction. It can be highly doctored from the schedule of posts to the frequency, the message that is being sent and the engagement it shows, combined with data collection and processing power of technology provides unprecedented control to how the PR practitioners can then cater their strategy to serve the purpose better.

However, we have to consider the same reasons that make social media a viable option to consider to improve communication, keep the customers in the loop and reach the largest number of potential customers as possible, the sheer reach it has can sometimes become a daunting task to control. The availability of the internet and the ease of social media has transformed the population from being accepting and understanding to outright being rejecting and disrespectful, the fact that the people are now more easily offended over trivial things such as the font or the color of the text, opens the communication and message to a higher degree of scrutiny. The PR practitioner needs to be careful with what they say, how their communication or message is being projected and it has also become hard to control the narrative if something were to go wrong, especially since the people are now more prone to anger and resist even sound arguments that go against their personal beliefs.

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