Online Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Developing an Online Strategy in the World of Social Media

Citation

Wolburg, J.M. (2010), "Online Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Developing an Online Strategy in the World of Social Media", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 481-482. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761011063402

Online Public Relations offers an insightful look at the practice of public relations in an era where social media has changed the way people communicate, both on a personal and professional level. I read the book as a novice who wanted a down‐to earth primer on the use of social media in public relations, and the book delivered exactly that.

Authors David Phillips and Philip Young divided the book into five parts. Part 1 offers a welcome opportunity for newcomers to social media to get up to speed on common terms. It defines blogs, Flickr, games, micro‐blogs, pay per click, podcasts, RSS, search engine optimization, video sharing, virtual worlds, widgets, wikis, and others, which provides a foundation for later chapters and serve as a handy reference.

The chapters in Part 2 identify a cultural shift in public relations from an era that closely guarded information to one that values transparency. Some forms of transparency include deliberate leaks of information whereas others include accidental ones. The authors give an example of an accidental leak when Bono played four U2 songs from an upcoming album so loud that a passerby was able to record them on his mobile phone and download them to YouTube.

The authors further note that the cultural shift has brought about the need for a new model of communication, which has important commercial implications for the internet. The Guardian newspaper, for example, reported a circulation of about 347,000 in 2008, with the majority of readers in the UK. By comparison, The Guardian web site had an audience of 771,000, with only 37 percent in the UK. Furthermore, 5 percent of impressions on web pages were from blog posts and other forms of social media, the majority of which was written by the general public. Shifts such as these not only mean changes to media companies but for PR practitioners, who now need to consider the organization's internet strategy as a discipline in its own right.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter in this section is “People's use of the internet as media,” where Phillips and Young not only define the terms “platforms” and “channels”, but also address the context in which a person uses the internet. They emphasize the need to recognize the differences between using the internet at home versus at work, when traveling, etc.

Part of the cultural shift that affects people's use of the internet is the greater effectiveness of its “pull” versus “push” function. The pull function is characterized by people purposefully seeking “information, action, fun and anything else at the time when they want it” (p. 97), unlike situations when people have information pushed on them, which typically results in irritation. “Promotion may be ‘tolerated,’ but for a public relations practitioner or marketer to believe that a message can be ‘pushed’ to an audience without the absolute and individual acceptance of the recipient is to be arrogant and naïve” (pp. 97‐8).

Part 3 takes the readers deeper into the discussion of platforms and channels while offering strategies and tactics that make sense for the online environment. Phillips and Young start from the position that the profiles of most organizations leave a negative impression. Inconsistencies, appalling search engine optimization, lack of continuity between platforms and channels, intrusion of competitive or derogatory content, static information on websites that are years out of date, etc. create a chaotic mess. The authors then take readers through several chapters on topics that fix these problems through management approaches to planning, landscaping the online opportunities, organizational analysis, online PR strategies and tactics, as well as an understanding of risks and opportunities.

Part 4 takes readers through various influences on present‐day PR practices, starting with the way the internet changes news coverage. Noting the debate over “Who is a journalist?,” Phillips and Young point out that within an hour of the July 7, 2005 strike in London by four suicide bombers, the BBC received 50 images. As the events of the day unfolded, the BBC received more than 300 e‐mail messages, with an average of three images each as well as 30 video clips. While the added source of information is a bonus to media companies, the authors conclude that vast majority of bloggers and citizen journalists do not know the traditional rules of engagement observed by journalists and PR practitioners, nor do they see the need to learn them. “This new journalism may be distinguished by a lack of respect for normative behaviours such as fact‐checking, an attempt at objectivity, and some commitment to the notion of balance…The voice of the typical news blogger […] is personalized, opinionated and often one sided” (p. 215). It is also more conversational, less structured, and features a narrative style characterized by storytelling. The challenge to PR practitioners is to decide with whom to engage – traditional journalists, social media writers, or both – and then do it ethically and with an eye toward corporate social responsibility.

Part 5 concludes with what social media will mean for the future of public relations. Phillips and Young comment that they began the book in the belief that the internet changes everything; yet, they hold to the conviction that the essential elements of public relations – relationship management – remain the same.

“Here is the crucial point: the command‐and‐control model of PR practices was always something of an illusion, but real enough to fool some of the people some of the time. But social media have blown away the smoke and cast a piercingly perceptive light on the mirrors that created the illusion. Social media are forcing an honesty onto public relations that in fact provides a great opportunity. And at the same time as transparency weaves its magic, organizations are being forced to contend with the limitless interventions of online participants who are creating their own content and have the potential to refract, distort or enhance reputations and relationships” (p. 270).

All in all, the book is a worthwhile read that fills many gaps for the person seeking a greater understanding of online public relations.