Collaboration is Key

Read to learn how journalists and PR professionals use social media collaboration with audiences in various aspects of their work.

Social media is a tool with countless different uses for PR practitioners and journalists alike. As the articles I’ve read this week discuss, one of the most important aspects of this tool is how it allows for collaboration and engagement not only between PR practitioners and journalists, but also between them and the public. Word travels incredibly fast through social media, and with this new demand for instant gratification, PR practitioners and journalists have to keep up. One surefire way to do this is to get on social media and engage/collaborate with others; I’ll analyze the benefits of doing so in these professions.

Social Media in Crisis Management

PR practitioners have the ability to use social media as a crisis management tool through communication and engagement. On social media news spreads fast, and bad news spreads faster. But it also allows for companies’ PR practitioners to quickly evaluate when there is a crisis or problem arising. The issue can then be addressed quickly and thoroughly. More than this, a timely reactions, transparency, and open communication on social media build a trusting relationship with the public that a company may not be able to get anywhere else.

Collaborating to Develop Ideas

Journalist and PR practitioners can also use their audiences on social media to not only come up with story ideas, but also create stories. Journalists are able to see what issues are most relevant to the public, and they can ask the public’s opinions in order to make information better suited to them. This is known as open source reporting, and it allows journalist to choose from a large number of sources in their writing. Writing articles and press releases that reflect the interests and opinions of your given audience is incredibly important and can also reinforce that trusting relationship between the PR practitioner or journalist and the public. 

Waze and Crowdsourcing Collaboration

Crowdsourcing is one of the best examples of the benefits of social media use in journalism. When you get the entire public involved and contributing their own perspectives and knowledge on a subject, your information becomes more interesting and maybe more accurate that without their input. A great example of this is Google’s GPS app Waze. This app allows users to view and contribute live traffic information across the globe. Users can actively report traffic updates or passively contribute speed and traffic information to all other users in the area. 

Collaborating with the public, and with each other ultimately results in more information and more opportunities for journalists and PR practitioners. Using social media to do this is highly effective, and we need to begin making this a habit in these fields.