5 social media sites PR practitioners should be using

With social media becoming more popular, many sites are starting to pop up. There is not just livejournal anymore, there are micro blogs like Twitter and Tumblr, networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, video-sharing sites like YouTube, and the list goes on. Below is a list of the five social media sites PR practitioners should be using.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking website used to connect with businesses and other professionals.

Why PR practitioners should be using it: LinkedIn is a great way to communicate with people who can directly impact your business. This is a professional site, and therefore, those who you connect with can help give business advice or even point you in the direction of other professionals.

2. Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site where you can add friends, post photos, share “you” and your experiences, and join groups

Why PR practitioners should be using it: Facebook is a great site because everyone is on it! You can make a fan page for your business and invite people to events via facebook. It is a great way to improve customer satisfaction because you can get direct feedback.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a micro blog where you can share information and get that information out as a live stream.

Why PR practitioners should be using it: With Twitter, you are able to listen and respond to what others are saying about your business within seconds. This feedback is direct.

4. YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing site where you can upload and share videos.

Why PR practitioners should be using it: With YouTube, you can post videos about your company or product and get feedback about what the consumers think about your company or product. Also, if you make your company or businesses YouTube channel, you are in control of the image your business is portrayed as.

5. Digg

Digg is a social news website where you can post articles and others vote on whether they like your story or not.

Why PR practitioners should be using it: Diggcan increase the visibility of your stories, therefore giving your business more social networking opportunities.

CRISIS!

The three most important things that PR practitioners can do during a crisis seem to be the following:

1. Know possible threats and be ready for them:
If you prepare for possible threats and have the solutions to them, you will be prepared to handle the situation and fast. If you have a fill in the blank pre-prepared statement, you will never be stuck.
2. Divide work, finish the job:
Most of crisis management is about speed. The decisions can be made by the team, but the work should be done individually to help with time management
3. Speed:
Speed is everything! If you don’t work quickly to fix the problem, someone else will fill in the blanks for you. In order to get things solved, you must work fast. If the first two above statements are done correctly then this last bullet should be easily done.


PR practitioners play a major role during a crisis. They are the person that a company or organization turns to when things turn sour. Although it may not, and usually is not only one person solving the crisis, the PR person is the one that they turn to. They make the problem solving decisions that have to be taken during any crisis.

A crisis can most definitely be an opportunity. Although something bad has just happened, this can be a chance to make things better than before if the necessary steps are taken. Like with any situation where there are risks involved, there lies an opportunity with the right steps taken and right attitude.

Uses and Gratifications Theory vs. Agenda-setting Hypothesis

A valuable aspect of PR practitioners is the skill in persuading publics. Two communication theories that support this statement include the Uses and Gratifications Theory and the Agenda- Setting Hypothesis. These two communications theories are tied closely together. To explain how, I will first explain the theories.

Uses and Gratifications Theory:

• the audience chooses which messages will be received and acted upon
• the audience also has an influence on the media
• grants power to the individual audience members

An example: A person watching television may choose to watch the commercials or choose to change the channel.

Agenda Setting Hypothesis:

• the media does not tell people what to think, but tells them what to think about (meaning that the media doesn’t try to persuade its audiences to think one way or another)

An example: News channels often have the same top stories

The difference between the two are that uses and gratification theory focuses on the connection between an individual and the message while the agenda setting hypothesis focuses on the media's influence of the message to the audience.

The relationship between the two models goes back to the audience. The agenda-setting hypothesis states that media gives the audience the most important information, or top stories, and the uses and gratification theory states the audience's action to keep or pass through the message. Through the agenda setting hypothesis, media outlets showing the same stories hand feeds the audience the messages that the uses and gratification theory states. Therefore, these two theories are directly related in that they intertwine with each other.

PR practitioners play key roles in these theories. With the uses and gratification theory, PR practitioners give information, or messages, to the media through the publics. In the agenda setting hypothesis, the role of PR practitioners is in the background, or behind the media. Otherwise, PR practitioners give information to the media and the media gives the messages to the public.