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SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE
EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE
COMMUNICATIONS
BY LAURA MATTHEWS
What is social media?

Online technologies, practices or
communities that people use to
generate content and share opinions,
insights, experiences and perspectives
with each other
 Blogs, intranets, podcasts, video sharing,
photo sharing, social networks, wikis,
gaming, virtual worlds, micro-blogging,
videoconferencing, instant message chats,
social event/calendar systems, social
bookmarking, news aggregation sites
Literature Review


A number of research studies have been conducted
to examine social media and its use by marketers
and PR practitioners.
The majority of these studies aimed to answer a
common set of questions:
 the most common forms of social media marketing
 the time commitment involved for social media




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
the impact that social media marketing will have in the
future.
Traditional Corporate Communications

Negative stereotypes:
 Spin
 Flack
 Propaganda

Highly controlled output
 One-way communication
 Staying “on-message”

Channels:
 Traditional Media
○ Newspapers
○ Radio
○ TV
The Social Media Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYP
QjYhv8
 Source data:
http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statisticsshow-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-think/
http://searchengineland.com/images/Social_Media_Building.gif
What’s Changed?
Corporate communications can no
longer be one-way output.
 DIALOGUE is key.
 Social media offers companies new
ways to reach stakeholders, as well as
to evaluate their communications.
 New channels, new tactics:

 Bloggers are the new journalists
 Interactive news releases
What’s Changed?

New Jobs:
 According to former Secretary of Education,
Richard Riley, “The Top 10 in-demand jobs
in 2010 may not have existed in 2004.”

Companies NEED social media
expertise – good news for those of you
who have it.
The Future
Social media is going to continue to
change, and corporate communications
is going to change with it.
 Traditional media still matters, but
standard PR tactics are evolving to fit
new channels, like social media.
