The Impact of the Internet on Public Relations Practice

The Internet has allowed for public relations to take off into different directions than before. Communication has stretched from mostly relying on one way, companies putting out messages and their publics receiving them, to two-way communication where their publics are able to respond to the messages that they receive. The Internet has allowed for companies to distribute large or small amounts of information immediately and for their publics to respond to this information through mediums such as social media. Key from Public Relations Tactics (2005) believes that companies are not taking full advantage of what the Internet has to offer them and instead of adapting their ways they are simply transferring how they used to do things to a new environment. It is essential as a company to keep up with the new digital age rather than just start using it. By using new strategies then public relations practitioners will be able to excel and build expand their client’s audience more efficiently. 

Before the Internet, businesses could only rely on their physical stores and stories printed by journalists in order to boost their public opinions, which was often restricted to the city or town it was located in. Due to the Internet public relations practitioners are now able to build campaigns and spread them online to reach a larger audience, getting the word out about what their clients are doing on both a national and international scale instead of purely locally. Unfortunately, according to Holtz, many public relations practitioners see the introduction of the Internet to their PR practices to be an inconvenience.( 2002, p5) This proves that while the internet has had a large impression on the public relations industry, not all practitioners are using it to the extent that is possible.  

Brown (2009) believes there is a large amount of competition in the public relations digital environment. Similarly as to the physical environment, companies are competing for customers and having a strong online presence can be beneficial. The presence of a company online is easy to measure with social media. Both consumers and competitors are able to see how many other users have ‘liked’ a company on Facebook and how many people have ‘followed’ a company on Twitter. A larger audience on the Internet allow for its users to share content easily with other consumers that would not have previously seen these company’s messages because they were not already following them. This is known as the ‘word of mouth’ on the Internet. In order for the Internet to continue improving the public relations environment it is essential that the practitioners invest more into it and apply new tactics and strategies. There is still a considerable amount of room for public relations to grow in the online world.

Bibliography

Key, R (2005) How PR Professionalism Can Flourish in this New Digital Age. Public Relations Tactics; Vol. 12 Issue 11, p.18-19

Holtz, S (2002) Public Relations on the Net: Winning Strategies to Inform and Influence the Media, the Investmet Community, the Government, the Public, and More! 2^nd ed. Amacom: New York

Brown, R (2009) Public Relations and the Social Web: How to Use Social Media and Web 2.0 in Communications. Kogan Page: London