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PRSA

Social media is a means for any person to: provide and obtain real-time feedback via

online commentary, discussions, and evaluations; publish creative digital content, and

incorporate the corrections or changes to original content. Social media is different from the

traditional media because of its discovery system, consumption, distribution and conversation

that surrounds the media. The definition of social media is that they are platforms enabling

interactive web engagement by users to comment on, participate in and create content as a means

of communicating with other users, the public, and the social graph. Evolution, Contribution, and

Revolution are the hallmarks of social media, and it is an evolution of how people communicate

that replaces email. In a revolution, we look at the free access to global communication and

instantaneous capacity if the platform. And lastly, social media can share with everybody and

contribute to publications. The value of social media relates to public relations as a necessity for

the health of all brands in the market. Therefore, social media as the value of giving an

immediate public address; the mass disbursal of information to consumers; and gives businesses

direct customer interaction.

PR people have become facilitators of engagement and conversation, and this has seen

the difference between failure and profitability for organizations. PR is a means to maintain

ongoing, beneficial relationships, to listen systematically to and understand public concerns. The

engagement of PR facilitators has seen ongoing public relationships such as strategic managerial
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issues prevent the occurrence and encounter of organizational problems. Through the

conversations made between the PR and organization, it is demonstrated that organizations can

recover from its footing and repair their tainted reputation and relations. All this is possible only

after they acknowledge their mistakes and commits to change. Social media has risen in

popularity, and this has created a platform for people to talk about a company and its products

and or services. The difference comes in the viral nature of the company’s platform in engaging

customers and facilitating conversations that the public relations department handles effectively.

If the company’s social media platform is active, it becomes monumental and noticeable making

easier conversations for the company to spread its wings. Also, the conversations have the

potential of reaching a larger audience than before.

The role change for a PR person should ensure that media outlets write about the

company’s products, and this becomes media relations. If this does not happen, then media

relations for PR people is absent, and they need to convince their clients that they can persuade

reporters to use and or understand the things they write is about the company he/she is

representing. From the above, it is evident that the role of the PR person changes from that of

sending press releases to that of engagement and conversation with customers because they want

to promote their products and company. By engaging customers, the PR personnel attract a large

customer base for the company and results in conversations that lead to the growth of business

and relationships.

In my opinion, social media is the new world order in PR because many people are

getting their news online and are moving away from the traditional mass media. The new

communication technologies have empowered a wide range of strategic publics through giving

them dynamic new media. Hence, they are able to communicate effectively using a variety of
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internal and external audiences using the digital direction. Moreover, communicating via the

Web is free, and this saves costs for companies that are directed to other departments in the

company. The business of managing relationships have also been changed by using these new

communication media stakeholders are empowered.

Social Media Laggards Question

The disbelief that social media is not for the food industry is false because many

companies such as the Chobani Greek Yogurt uses social media. It is an innovator and is of the

health food brands, and the strategy they used is different from the rest of the companies.

Chobani tapped into their base customer lifestyle and joined in their conversations on the social

media platform and through knowing their target’s habits; they gained insights on what interests

the target and elicited engagement. The content customers provided were linked to things like

snack ideas, recipes and the tips on staying fit. From this example, it is evident that the social

media is not just for games and dating, but the food industry has embraced the value associated

with the social media concerning increasing the companies target market.

The underestimation given to social media is huge because many people have not understood the

power of social media to a business entity. To those individuals who use social media, they

understand that it is an amplification tool and hence, those businesses that are doing things well

will use it to magnify their activities. Moreover, those companies that have poor performances

can use this platform for purposes of magnification. Hence, many corporations see it as an

extension of their marketing department especially with the ever-changing landscape of social

media that presents unique challenges for businesses. Therefore, most brands view social media

as their integral piece of their overall marketing strategy and with this, an enthusiastic audience
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is mobilized. At the same time, the company remains cost effective, and the food industry is the

consistent leader in this department.

The return on investment (ROI) for food products is present for the social media platform

because we have the technology to measure engagement. Social media is seen as part of a rich

habitat providing enterprises with countless opportunities that go beyond their marketing

strategy. Along the entire value chain, social media is relevant and also includes the brand

building, product development, service, sales, human resources and external communications. As

such, social media has long transgressed the interpersonal relationships realm and has become a

commercial force. Therefore, it is not true to assert that the food industry lacks the metrics to

measure whether an investment is worth the time because many food products have benefitted or

have found value in social media. For example, Chipotle has managed to use the highly

responsive strategy of the social media to tap to their marketing. By so doing, they have found

value in using multiple community managers who have maintained consistent, jocular voices,

and this has proved helpful in establishing brands that are customer-oriented. It is through this

strategy that Chipotle managed to forge genuine relationships with their online consumers.

Therefore, companies see the value and effectiveness of social media channel regarding digital

word-of-mouth marketing.

In any business, fear should not be present because business people are risk takers, and

when a new technology comes into the market, the corporations should be ready to embrace and

try. Therefore, food products should be embodied in social media channels because these

channels contribute to their freedom into higher realms. As we know, fear immobilizes as it

makes one stand still and never move forward and hence, businesses need only to fear itself. Fear

is something that keeps you looking back at where you failed rather than looking at the available
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options you can take. It is important for businesses and companies not to indulge fear but rather

defeat it and move forward towards success and victory.

The other reason food industries use is the aspect of not understanding how the social

media platform works. These channels are easy to operate and cheap to maintain, the only things

that need to be done is to ensure that messages are replied, and updates are given to customers

concerning questions asked. Furthermore, it is important for companies in the food industry to

use this channel of communication because many of their customers use social media. Online

business is gaining popularity, and this does not sideline on the food industry but rather embraces

companies that use these channels.