Tracking How Social and Other Digital Media are Being Used in Public Relations Practice: A Twelve-Year Study

• Main Authors: Donald K. Wright, Michelle Drifka Hinson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Insitute for Public Relations 2017-06-01
• Series: Public Relations Journal
• Online Access: https://prjournal.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/PRJ-2017-Wright-Hinson-2-1.pdf
• ISSN: 1942-4604; 1942-4604

This paper reports on the results of a twelve-year longitudinal analysis trend study involving more than 5,500 public relations practitioners. Findings have found that the use of social and other digital communication media in public relations practice has continued to increase each year. This has provided unique opportunities not only for those who practice public relations but also for a wide variety of strategic publics who have been given dynamic new communication vehicles many are using effectively with a variety of internal and external strategic audiences. Results of this 2017 study include benchmark comparisons reflecting the opinions of those who practice public relations – and an analysis of how these opinions have changed during the past twelve years. During the past five years results have highlighted the increasing use of Facebook and Twitter in public relations practice. That’s the case once again in 2017 with Facebook increasing its lead over Twitter as the most used social medium in the public relations industry. The paper also reports on the monitoring and managing of social and digital media in organizations, how much time public relations practitioners spend working with social and digital media and how social and digital media use in public relations is being measured.