The first thing you learn about PR is that it’s an ever evolving field, the clock never stops ticking, and there is alway something to do. But the way we strategically plan out the tactical moves we make has changed drastically since the invention of social media.
Robert Wynne calls the PR field a three pronged fork, seeing as it has evolved over time; These three different areas he talks about are traditional PR, advocacy PR and social media. While I agree that traditional PR and advocacy PR are extremely vital in researching, pitching, generating publicity, and so much more, I believe the research field of social media in public relations is one that cannot be ignored at this point in time. Several fortune 500 companies have even justified cutting their funding towards larger news media companies such as CNBC and Forbes as Wynne points out, because of the new alternative- social media.
Social media is virtually free publicity for any and all companies due to the fact that billions and billions of people log onto platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat every day. Not only this, but the age range between 18 and 29, the most active on social media, fit into the target demographic a lot of companies are attempting to reach.
Being within this demographic and having my own accounts on almost all of these platforms, I can tell that the products and companies that I get the most advertisements for have been specifically targeted to me because of the way that I get my media. Guilty as charged, I get most of my news from social media, but what can I say! I’m a millennial!
According to Digital Information World, as of 2019 these are the popularity of all social media platforms available to the world’s population.
https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/most-popular-global-social-networks-apps-infographic.html
From Nicole's Perspective 