Social Media Builds Corporate Reputation

PR New York Professionals Take Notice

The explosion of social media has created another weapon in the marketing arsenal and has emerged as an ideal tool for marketing in a broad range of industries. Beyond marketing products, the use of social media can help build corporate reputation.

Technology companies, rightfully so, have been among the early adopters (after all, you do have to walk it like you talk it) as these companies succeed and thrive based on how innovative they are, not just in the technologies, applications and services they produce, but also in the tools they use to communicate that innovation to the world.  However, other industries are discovering the benefits of social media and the world of PR New York has always known is rapidly moving to adapt the fundamental changes in the way news and information is disseminated and corporate reputations burnished.

Let’s step back a bit… The first generation of media was about one-way communications and mass markets. The social media era is about completely decentralized bi-directional and many-to-many dialog; individuals, niche markets, microcasting. Not as a replacement for the traditional press - but in addition to it.

Since the advent of the Internet in the middle of the last decade, the dynamic has changed quite dramatically. People aren't just passively consuming media. They're participating and contributing in a global conversation just about everything. The public now has unprecedented access to information gathering, tagging, aggregating and publishing tools. Free. And they're using them.

Companies are waking up to the fact that social media can influence buyers and shape a company’s reputation, as already known by the leaders of PR New York City is home to.  While technology companies are capitalizing on the increasing use of social media by consumers to promote their brands to their target audiences, other industries, particularly financial services companies, are beginning to recognize that they can no longer simply issue information to the media in hopes that their stories will be covered. They are working with communications experts – again those PR New York professionals – to assist them in telling their stories directly to the public and to engage in conversations with their customers, which the social media does better than any other medium.

A comprehensive social media strategy for public relations should be shaped by the fact that the media revolution has already transformed the way people obtain information.  

Public relations outlets are being used to communicate corporate and brand messages simultaneously to customers and the media as press releases are posted on search engine news sites as well as on blogs, becoming materials which are marketed directly to the customer.  Visual versions often wind up on Facebook or YouTube. 

People are often placing greater credibility on social media and user-generated content than professionally written editorial reviews and information and that’s where public relations practitioners can put social media to use.  Peers are considered the most respected source of information, according to many studies.  A recent white paper from the Council of Public Relations Firms entitled, “Creating Value:  Public Relations and the New Brand Strategy” notes “Winning companies are increasing eschewing advertising and instead deploying social and conventional media in ways designed to enhance the perceived value they deliver to customers.”  The Council’s white paper also states:  “…many believe its (advertising’s) constant, repetitive presence actually corrupts the brand experience and erodes value.”

Not all news or information passes the 'mass market' test of the journalist, but it might be perfect for an important and influential group of bloggers, or it could even reach your target audience directly. Social media opens up opportunities for a return to the fundamental objectives of public relations: Help people who actively care to find you and locate content of interest; provide users and enthusiasts with materials they need to help spread the word to others; tell the story in your own words; and to educate, inform, persuade.   After all, isn’t that what public relations – New York PR and beyond – is all about?