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New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations
Society for New Communications Research, Dec 2008, Pages: 39
New media and new influencers speak to anything but tradition. Nevertheless, the Institute for Public Relations’ support for this work by the Society for New Communications Research reinvigorates a tradition of research going back to the mid-1980s.
That’s when we published New Technology and Public Relations, a book that included an early look at the Internet’s impact on our profession. We returned to this overall theme in 2006 by launching a new research program with Wieck Media, the Institute’s online technology partner, whose funding made this SNCR project possible. Our goal is to build rigorous knowledge regarding the impact of digital technology on public relations and corporate communications practice today.
As an independent nonprofit dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™, the Institute for Public Relations bridges the academy and the profession, supports research and mainstreams this knowledge into practice through education. “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations” connects with all of these elements of our mission.
The Institute and Wieck Media salute the Society for New Communications Research for its groundbreaking work in an area that is essential to understanding this profession and its future.
Marketers and public relations professionals today are confronted with an astounding array of new communications channels. Internet-based social media tools like blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks are giving voice to the opinions of millions of consumers. While mainstream media continues to play a vital role in the dissemination of information, even these traditional channels are increasingly being influenced by online conversations. The “new influencers” are beginning to tear at the fabric of marketing as it has existed for 100 years, giving rise to a new style of marketing that is characterized by conversation and community.
Marketers are responding to these forces with a mixture of excitement, fear and fascination. They’re alarmed at the prospect of ceding control of their messages to a community of unknowns. Yet at the same time they’re excited about the prospect of leveraging these same tools to speak directly to their constituents without the involvement of media intermediaries.
The Society for New Communications Research set out to conduct an examination of how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes by adopting social media. The goals were to discover how organizations:
- Define new influencers;
- Communicate and create relationships with them;
- Use social media to create influence; and
- Measure the effects of these efforts.
Another goal of the study was to use these discoveries to offer a set of recommendations to professional communicators.'
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