Just a little over a year ago I graduated from Washington State University with a degree in public relations. While I learned a lot about the PR world and am grateful for the opportunity, not one of my classes focused on social media. Interestingly, after a quick scan of this year’s course catalog, I still see no mention of social media. Now that I have been working at Communiqué PR for a couple of months, it is clear how important social media is in the PR and business world these days.
Many of our clients are looking to integrate social media with ongoing PR activities, and we are not the only firm experiencing this need. As I was reading Advertising Age, I came across an article entitled “How Social Media Is Helping Public-Relations Sector Not Just Survive, but Thrive.” The article details how social media has played a role in the resurgence of PR during the current economic downturn. A few of the points that I found to be most valuable:
- Three-quarters of the 59 agency CEOs and CFOs surveyed by the Council of PR Firms reported growth in the first half of 2010 vs. 21 percent in 2009.
- Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm that publishes annual reports on the state of the PR industry, reported that “growth in the industry is being accelerated by a significantly increased rate of client adoption of social media and word-of-mouth marketing techniques.”
- “PR, up until now, wasn’t central to a corporation’s overall branding strategy. There is now an opportunity for the PR profession and practitioners to use these digital tools and make PR a more important part of the communications arsenal,” said John Suhler, co-founder and president of Veronis Shuler Stevenson
A lot of the work that we’re doing at Communiqué surrounds helping businesses leverage social media to help reach their audiences and drive their business objectives forward. Whether it’s developing a social media strategy, providing counsel on a corporate social media policy, or educating executives on how to use social media platforms, it’s becoming critical that social media continues to play a significant role in PR and business.
As this trends continues, it is equally important to teach college students the importance of social media and how best to harness the platforms to achieve success.