SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON PUBLIC RELATIONS

Currently, the rise, impact and versatility of social networks have been influencing the
ways that companies have traditionally used and institutions to communicate and interact
with their stakeholders. Since originally, public relations has always focused on planning,
executing and control strategies and activities that create healthy relationships and
sustainable between organizations and their internal and external audiences. From the
perspective of the development of Information and Communication Technologies,
arguably, despite the passage of time, the strategic functions of the Public relations
remain almost unchanged. However, with respect to use and emergence of new media, it
has not happened the same thing.

Since the advent of blogs and social media, relationship management public has changed.
The rise of social networks has had an impact of 360 degrees, which is reflected in the
quantitative and qualitative changes to which they have been interpersonal, social, labor
and corporate relationships submitted.

In addition, social networks have made it easier for companies and institutions to be more
interactive and empathetic with your stakeholders. Nowadays, it never was there had
such importance for the reputation and public image of organizations, customer opinions,
complaints and claims, consumers and citizens. Social networks are the most efficient way
to create positive word of mouth, but also negative. The human talent responsible for
managing current public relations does not may lose sight of the fact that with the
development and legitimacy of Social networks have established new communication
scenarios in which ideas are debated, perceptions, attitudes, opinions are constructed,
they are revealed emotions, negotiations are carried out and different types of business.

In today's competitive environment, it is not advisable to try to manage public relations

policies, objectives, strategies and activities regardless of the impact that social networks
are having on lifestyle and in personal, social and corporate relationships. These social
networks allow the creation of virtual communities, in which it is possible to access
services that allow groups to be created according to the interests of the users, sharing
photographs, videos and general information.

The current reality of the markets, the continuous changes facing the organizations and
the critical and questioning attitude of customers and consumers of the 21st century, are
just some of the indicators that serve as references for managing public relations from a
different perspective. Besides what pointed out, other important signals to consolidate
the public image of organizations, it is related to the quantity and quality of the feedback
that maintain with each of its stakeholders. It also adds value to the credibility and
reputation of companies and institutions, the level of transparency with which they decide
and act.
The level of vigilance that customers, consumers and citizens maintain at internal and
external actions carried out by organizations, is increasingly more growing and
questioning. In the new scenario of public relations, has established that to maintain
healthy and productive relationships between the organization and its publics it is not
enough to use the traditional means of communication as a platform only to spread
messages. It is becoming more and more the role played by the media in the process of
development and dissemination of content, which help in decision-making and create
sustainable relationships between people and organizations.

APLICATION OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT

The application of social networks to the management of public relations, allows speed
and efficiency in the relationships that must exist between organizations and their
audiences. A comparative and competitive advantage of companies and institutions of the
current century is to create mechanisms that help give responses to concerns expressed
by customers, consumers and citizens. It has been shown that social networks can be
managed as part of the strategies that implement public relations to help bringing people
closer to companies.

It is unthinkable to perform efficient public relations management in companies and

institutions of this century, wanting to ignore the level of incidence that social networks
have in the quality and sustainability of the relationships between organizations and
strategic and interest groups. To facilitate the achievement of some of the specific public
relations objectives have been created Social networks on the Internet that specialize in
certain sectors or that target attracts a specific group of users.

The development of social networks has been so powerful and concrete that in recent
years, several of them have been created with specific purposes that cover from
establishing intimate relationships, sharing scientific information, concretize business
relationships and even share music. Without a doubt, the diversity and flexibility of social
networks allows public relations use them to develop different types of strategies, both
outside and inside companies and institutions. To understand this in other way, the main
functions that social networks have on public relations are:

 Putting people in contact and interconnect to each other, in such a way that
through the electronic platform the connection of simple and fast way.

 Allow some interaction between all users of the platform, either sharing
information, contacting or facilitating contacts of interest to the other user.

 Allow and promote the possibility that users initially contacted through the online
world, end up making a real contact, from which new social relations will most
likely be born.
  Allow the contact between users to be unlimited, to the extent that the space and
time concept becomes relative to being able to communicate from and to any
place, as well as at any time, with the only condition that both parties agree to
relate to each other.

 Promote viral dissemination of the social network, through each of the users that
compose it, using this method as the main form of growth of the number of users.

Relations between organizations and interest groups are based on sincere conversations
and in direct and permanent dialogues. The challenge more important that the public
relations of the 21st century have before them consists of understanding and adapting to
the digital culture that has been created from the obvious progress achieved by
Information and Communication Technologies. The Today's digital environment has paved
the way for new audiences to emerge Social: Digital natives and digital immigrants.

The boom and impact that characterize social networks allow organizations can be in
contact with their publics directly, without intermediaries. In this way, public relations
become a medium so that companies and institutions can create communities around its
economic and social purposes. In other words, what is related to managing intangible
assets. For example: trust, relationships, transparency, honesty, truthfulness and public
image. Ultimately, what has changed are the means to interact, gain trust and engage
with the public.

Public relations has an excellent platform on social networks to offer internal and external
audiences with those who necessarily have that organizations interact, institutional
information of interest so that they can know and identify with the decisions and actions
of the company with greater ease and credibility. About this Carlos Manzano Kossik states:
“However, any organization that interacts in Social Networks and aims to grow and build
trust among its audiences, not only provide information, but must also listen to the
opinions, comments, concerns and other expressions that the public issues about the
company"1.

Achieve that social networks add value to the process of managing public relations
involves, among other decisions, creating the technical conditions and necessary
operations to carry out their effective management. The Social networks must be
managed by professionals who can use correctly the possibilities offered by web 2.0. In
this sense, the community manager presence is increasingly relevant in the context of
public relations, since as part of its functions the one of listen to audiences, have an online
reputation check, analyze the competition in social media, knowing how to promote
participation and interrelation with its users, stimulate dialogue and know how to
measure service quality offered to members of interest groups.

1
Social Networks in Organizations. Carlos Manzano. 2014.
More and more teenagers, youth and adults use the networks social as a platform to
relate, communicate, exhibit and express the more plausible emotions. In this context, the
role of networks social is essential, since they allow keeping open the channels of
communication between companies and their internal collaborators, as well as interacting
with members of external groups of high incidence in the dynamics daily organizational.
Thanks to the web, distance is no longer a problem that hinders the links between
organizations and their direct collaborators and indirect.

As the needs of customers, consumers and citizens to learn more about the way in which
the organizations with which they maintain some kind of link operate, in that same
proportion their desire to establish win / win relationships. In this sense, for achieving
these goals will require changing the traditional way of manage public relations.

Customers, consumers and citizens they are no longer satisfied with the information
offered by companies and institutions prefer to search for more and better info for
themselves. Social networks have to be seen and understood as media strategies to carry
out comprehensive public relations management. This technological trio has facilitated
the emergence of the so-called mouth communication to the mouth, which spreads like
gunpowder in a fraction of seconds. The messages of this type of communication come
from customer dissatisfaction and consumers, who express opinions that end up affecting
the reputation, public image and sales of companies. The relationships public must be
managed from the perspective and reality of the web.
REFERENCES

Manzano, C. (2014). Social Network as a tool of Public Relations Research. [Online] p.A.03.
Available at: http://www.gestiopolis.com/redes-sociales-como-herramienta-de-investigacion-
enrelaciones-publicas/. [Accessed 8 May. 2020]

Martínez, J. (2012). 10 marketing advices eco-eficient in social media. [Online] p.A.03. Available at:
http://www.gestiopolis.com/10- consejos-marketing-eficiente-redes-sociales/ [Accessed 8 May.
2020]

Rojas, J. (2016). Impact of Social media in Public Relations. Comunicaribe. [Online] p.A11. Available
at: http://www.cienciared.com.ar/ra/usr/50/1652/comunicaribe_rojas_pp5_julio2016.pdf.
[Accessed 8 May. 2020]