Social Media and Traditional Media in Engaging With Consumers - Essay Sample

Introduction

Social media and public relations have been associated for decades. The contemporary PR-facilitating concepts like selfies, snapchats, and Facebook have become part of our daily lives. It is fascinating how social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are taking over the role of PR agencies. As a result, PR has been restructured to embrace the contemporary mode of operation and adapt to the risk of being outdated. Subsequently, the current media driven by user-created content is being replaced by the traditional media in relation to how the consumers understand different products and services, to the extent of how they consume the commodities in context. The music industry, for instance, has been a bellwether in this area. It is evident that social media has dominated information sharing related to music and for sharing music itself (Bruhn, Schoenmueller & Schafer 2012). Before the invention of social media, artists engaged with their consumers through radio play or from friends. Currently, music lovers are acquiring music content and information related to it through social media platforms. Despite the prevailing dominance of social media as a mode of engaging with the consumers, there is a need to incorporate traditional media with social media. Social media platforms give maximum exposure and facilitate customer interaction. When blended with the traditional media, the benefits of both help compensate for each other's weakness towards improving public relations. While the contemporary social media concept has worked well in different areas, it is daring to completely substitute the traditional media since each appeals to different customers (Meraz 2009). A combination of the two is an excellent way of reaching the prospective audience and enhancing PR.

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Before assessing the role of social media in PR, there is a need to note that it has significantly changed the face of PR, almost beyond recognition. At the moment, social media provides an opportunity to highlight on the varied sides a brand, and with this concept, the PR has adapted to a platform that facilitates faster response and covers a wider audience compared to the traditional media technique (Couldry 2012). Social media perceives the web as a platform that facilitates multidirectional communication among users to achieve both collaborative and non-collaborative ways. It has been used to allow users to share content online. Despite the unprecedented emergence and use of social media, it is not enough to draft a press release and wait for media coverage. There is a need for the two (traditional and social media) to work together in reaching a wider audience and within a short period. The released content should be monitored regularly to avoid manipulation and misuse (Meraz 2009). The important thing here is to monitor trending topics on social media then create content (using traditional media). This helps create relevant topics and enhances an organization's PR.

By default, social media uses data analytics to understand the dynamic nature of the audience and help send the most appropriate message. Not only do social media platform integrate analytics, but there also exists a wide range of third-party tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite which helps in monitoring progress and success of social media as a tool for improving PR. The analytic-friendly concept of social media is translated into PR and is expected to be influenced by data. Incorporating social media with the conventional media will inform future campaigns and enhance the existing promotions to improve on the existing ones. Tools will help PR understand the organization needs and provide an accurate overview of the success of the campaign approached utilised. At the same time, social media will give a more precise context when reporting back to the audience. In light of this, the traditional media will act as a catalyst for reaching a wider audience and sort any emerging issues in an organization's public relation. For the case of Barack Obama in 2012, both social media and traditional methods were used in determining how the campaign was managed according to different audiences (Blakeman & SAGE 2014). During this time, President Obama's campaign team effectively utilised data collected from Facebook, which facilitated the delivery of targeted messages to rally voters. At the same time, traditional media techniques were incorporated in ensuring the message reach a wider audience.

Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden (2011) states that social media allows customers to collect varied information from other sources and utilise the experience shared by other consumers to prepare and enrich their own experience. At the moment, customers prefer acquiring the information they need through online platforms, online search engines together with the traditional media techniques such as word of mouth. As a result, consumers prefer social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook, packed with User Generated Content (UGC) full of significant popularity with online communities of consumers. Research studies show that social media and the World Wide Web (WWW) have restructured how information is distributed and how this information can be used in influencing the perception of clients. While promoting an organization PR, there is a need for the organization stakeholders to adapt to the changing technology and also include the traditional media approaches and adapt to the changing realities. When organization stakeholders rely solemnly on social media, some management aspects cannot be attended to. Social media cannot help in the development of a strategy for areas without the online presence or in areas with no demographic data. In this case, including both traditional and social media will be fundamental in developing strategies for all regions and ensuring that all clients are attended to. One case study is Casper, a mattress company. In the company, journalists are hired to focus on the editorial content of the company dealing with the science of sleep while at the same time promoting word of mouth marking approach across the conventional advertisement approaches and social media avenues (Castille 2017). The use of the content engine and employment of journalist attracts the storytelling customer base and at the same time consolidates contemporary tactics in improving public relation regardless of the type of media applied. This means that the mattress company has incorporated both the social media and traditional approaches rather than separating them to improve on their consumer base and profit margins. All this point down to the organization's public relations.

According to Bruhn, Schoenmueller & Schafer (2012), Social media has played a critical part towards the success of businesses in the contemporary world but using it to the fullest should not be at the expense of traditional media approach. There is a need for the two to work together in business to realize a holistic success. The fact is that social media has grown to be an important element in business operation and how the business market and promote their brand in the competitive markets. Technological advancement provides a lot that marketing practitioners can use in achieving the set business goal and objectives. Nevertheless, there is limited information on how Facebook and twitter works. There is a need for marketers to understand the underlying concepts of Facebook and Twitter in enhancing organizational PR and instigate measures that measure on how it can be incorporated with the traditional approach and ultimately improve on public relations and direct marketing campaigns. It is evident that the traditional approach has significant weight in achieving the set goals and objectives, but it cannot harness the same buzz that social media creates. There exist numerous ways in which social media and the traditional approach can couple towards enhancing PR. For instance, when the business logo is incorporated in the online advertisement for the business, the social and traditional approaches come together, and this plays a critical part in achieving business goals and objectives.

The concept of integrating social media with the traditional technique is more about creating a framework than about a process. If a framework is created for using social media and traditional media for promoting public relation, the framework in context can be applied repeatedly. After a structure is created, the business managers can do it without the help of marketing professionals. It is a fact that consumers believe in the experiences of other consumers more than business owners. It is for the reason that social media leads to significant sales leads and ultimate success of an organization. Through social media, consumers can engage with each other relative to the products or services offered in the organization. The traditional techniques can operate independently in promoting business, but for the business to achieve a holistic success in public relations, there is a need to work together (Gillin 2009). Collectively, they can complete the picture. Using both the traditional and social media together allows them to feed each other with relevant information towards creating a sustainable marketing campaign. The two complement each other, and together they make up whatever is lacking.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, social media platforms have gained dominance in marketing for the last decade. By default, social media uses data analytics to understand the dynamic nature of the audience and help send the most appropriate message. Though the collected data, it suggests to the marketing team on the possible needs of the consumers and this helps promote an organization appropriately, towards enhancing public relations. Despite this dominance, it is no doubt that traditional techniques are also valuable. When both the traditional and social media techniques are used collectively in promoting public relations, the time taken to achieve the set goals and objectives becomes shorter. This is because they both feed each other to create a reliable and effective public relation campaign. At the same time, there are some marketing operations which cannot be achieved through online platforms. Before incorporating the two, the business stakeholders need to align the communication goals with that of the overall business goals and channel all activities towards one direction. At the same time, management should understand the business target. This should not only focus on the demographics, but there is a need to identify with the market at an individual level. This involves engaging with consumers to understand how they feel and why they are aligned with particular services or products.

References

Blakeman, R., & SAGE Publishing. (2014). Nontraditional media in marketing and advertising. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V., & Schafer, D. B. (2012). Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), 770-790.

Castille, K. (2017). How Casper Created A Cult Following Using Social Media. [online] Social Media Strategies Summit. Available at: https://socialmediastrategiessummit.com/blog-old/how-casper-created-a-cult-following-using-social-media.html [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].

Couldry, N. (2012). Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity.

Gillin, P. (2009). Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business!. Fresno: Linden Publishing.

Hanna, R., Rohm, A., & Crittenden, V. L. (2011). We're all connected: The power of th...