A SUMMARY OF TWITTER AS A PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOL

By

Angelica Evans; Jane Twomey; and Scott Talan

Objectives: This paper sought to explore the effect of the most popular micro blogging site, Twitter in communication campaigns through social media strategy and to ascertain the role it would play in future public relations campaigns.

Introduction: It is no gainsaying that the internet and social media sites have changed communication drastically since they emerged, sites like  face book, LinkedIn, MySpace, e.t.c. have over the years been utilised greatly by prominent individuals and big organisations as tools to reach their target audience; e.g.  Face book and LinkedIn, were used during President Obama’s 2008 campaign, while the World Bank uses social media sites heavily to reach its target audience. Despite the popularity and heavy usage of these sites, some media traditionalists believe they are only a fad that has no lasting value.

The global reach of the internet is very useful for public relations practitioners both efficiently and rationally as it makes reaching one’s target audience easier. Research has proven that the integration of internet is necessary for success in public relations and frameworks have been developed and tested, buttressing this fact. Be that as it may, there is the need for constant monitoring and evaluation in order to avoid situations such as hackers having access to privileged communication. Internets do not on their own affect relationships but the manner in which practitioners use it does.

Social Networking sites helps communication and manages relationships which in reality is what public relations is created to do and as such it serves as a vital tool for that should be utilised by PR professionals. Blogs on the other hand, offers opportunity for collecting information from a target a demographic of likeminded audience, a viable tool for PR practitioners to sway opinions towards their clients. The limitation lies in the fact that responses on a blog cannot be generalised most times.

Micro blogging is the most recent information technology innovation which allows users to describe current states in short posts. The most popular is Twitter, which allows for quick updates, opinions, and ideas called tweets in 140 characters. Although Scholarly research on the effect Twitter has on communication is scant, it is believed that people turn to it for breaking news, reviews and opinions, a place for companies to sell discounted products and for local businesses to inform consumers of deals and theme nights.

Over 2 million people used twitter in 2008 and the number has very well tripled. It allows people voice internationally e.g. Iranians used it to voice their opinion about the election and support for opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. It is against this backdrop that the authors of this article decided to explore the following questions, in order to ascertain the role twitter plays in public relations communication campaigns:

1.      What do PR executives think about the current use of Twitter?

2.      How is it used in modern PR campaign and the costs?

3.      What is the future of Twitter in PR campaigns?

Body:  12 participants were interviewed who occupied positions as MD and above from top 50 PR firms. 4 chose a phone interview which lasted about 25 minutes, while 8 answered their questions via email. Responses were grouped by themes such as: real time, instant, media e.t.c.

Results: Many of the respondents believed twitter is a valuable asset to daily practice, fearing that although the popularity may diminish with time but micro blogging will continually be a significant component for campaign as it allows for micro-target communication, one-on-one communication with media and instant communication. The ability to keep people updated on current topics is a huge plus and the relationship it helps foster with media practitioners who respond instantly to tweets rather than traditional means such as email or phone calls is also a big bonus. This opens a door that was not available in the past for PR practitioners and the media.

On the issue of costs , many respondents agree that the major expenses with using twitter is the fact that it is time consuming, tracking the right people and getting them to follow you. Others say they charge clients monthly for a complete strategy. Many agree that while it helps for integration in a well rounded media strategy, it is only a tactic, part of a larger strategy and should be used when one intends to connect in a highly targeted, authentic and personal way. On the issue of longevity, many are not certain of the future of twitter but believe micro blogging is here to stay; others believe that the utilisation of the site by audience will determine the usage by organisations. Some call for continuous evaluation and also encourage their clients to tweet chats and tweet ups. They are also advised not to start a tweet page, if it cannot be maintained as it lives a negative impression on the mind of the audience.

Conclusion: Regardless of the seemingly numerous benefits of twitter in public relations, some respondents raised concerns about the disadvantages. Stating that twitter makes it hard to sift conversations and the more people you follow, makes it easy to get distracted by irrelevant information. Some also say it is very easy for reputations to be damaged on twitter and as such it requires careful monitoring, evaluation and responses to conversations.

The limitation of this article stems from the fact that some respondents adjusted their responses to protect their firms without necessarily divulging how they use the micro blogging sites in their campaign strategies. Also only those who use twitter were approached, which makes it difficult to generalise the results, and the fact that it is executives, who by nature of their positions are barely involved in communication campaign strategies that were interviewed poses a bit of a problem; it would have been more reliable if junior officers who are responsible for coming up with these campaigns and utilise social network sites heavily were interviewed, however this leaves room for further research.

A measurement tool should be developed to test the effect of twitter, because the lack of measurement tool to prove its success and return on investments makes it difficult to quantify or ascertain its value. It would also help if an experimental research can be carried out between face book, twitter and no social media to see the impact on communications campaign. Finally this research can also be replicated with lower level PR practitioners involved with hands-on communication campaign strategies.

 Another little summary to help aspiring and practicising practitioners of PR, especially in this day of social media/networks....Enjoy!!