A number of research studies have been conducted to examine the transition from traditional practices to public relations in the social media age. The majority of these studies aimed to answer a common set questions regarding the use of social media for corporate communications, involving the most common forms of social media marketing, the time commitment involved a for social marketers.
The benefits of social media marketing, the audiences being reached by social media marketers, how the effectiveness of communications are measured in social media marketing and the impacts that social media marketing will have in the future.
An online survey of 880 participants was conducted in march of 2009 by social media marketer, Michael Stelzner. Most of the participants use social media marketing to some extent, and the study sought to uncover the who, what , when, where and why of social media marketing (Stelzner 2009). In the report titled social media marketing industry report. How marketers are using social media to grow their businesses Stelzner examines the top ten social media questions being asked by public relations practitioners, the time commitment and benefits of social media marketing, the most commonly used social media tools, the social media tools practitioners want to learn more about and additional analyses of demographic information (Stelzner, 2009).
Social media is relatively recent innovation, and social media marketing is a comparatively new industry. of the almost 900 survey respondents, most still had questions regarding the best tactics to use in social media marketing, how to measure the effectiveness of social media and where to begin with social media marketing Stelzner, 2009. Eighty eight percent of the practitioners surveyed in Stelzner's study, reported using social media for marketing, but 72 percent of those have only been doing so for a few months or less. When measuring the time devoted to social media marketing efforts, 64 percent off respondents spend five or more hours weekly on social media, and 39 percent devote 10 or more hours each week.
The number one advantage of social media according to 81 percent of respondents is getting more exposure for the company. This was followed by increased traffic and the formation of new business relationships. The practitioners surveyed in Stelzner' study reported using twitter, blogs, linked in and facebook most frequently for social media marketing, and reported wanting to know more about social bookmarking sites (Stelzner, 2009).
The survey indicated that the longer a practitioner has been using social media, the more time he or she devotes to it per week. another benefit of social media cited by more than half of respondents was a rise in search engine rankings. The study also examined some demographic information for social media marketing and found that people between the ages of 30 and 39 are most likely to be using social media for marketing (Stelzner, 2009).
In a 2007 PRSA online survey, working public relations practitioners were asked about their use of 18 social media tools and their perception on the growth of social media trends in public relations practice. The survey found that social media technologies allow PR practitioners to each out to and engage their public in conversation and provide an avenue to strengthen media relations, and that majority of practitioners felt that communication technologies such as social media had made their jobs easier, allowing them to reach broader audiences and expedite the circulation of information.
All of the relevant studies of social media and corporate communications report similar findings . Along with demographic information for both practitioners and audiences, are the ideas that content is no longer exclusively controlled by professionals, corporate communications are moving from pure output to dialogue, and traditional public relations practitioners are interested in using social media for marketing, but there are still questions and concerns regarding the proper way to infiltrate this rapidly growing market.
BY MWINYIJUMA REHEMA
BAPRM III - 42686
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