The growth of the social media sector presents some interesting opportunities for public relations specialists. Because there are no costs to uploading material, social media is an affordable avenue for reaching a large number of people. Some organizations are limiting their involvement with social media to buying ad space on popular blogs; however, most now acknowledge that the ability to develop content and have a dialogue with its publics presents an enormous opportunity.
These opportunities also present significant challenges. Managing the reputation and brand of an organization in such a vast sea of information is a significant task for organizations of all sizes. Constant monitoring of social media sites has the potential to consume mass amounts of time and resources of public relations professionals.
Credibility of information is another challenge faced by public relations specialists. Savvy users of social media are skeptical of content. A collaborative effort in maintaining high ethical standards from the public relations industry will help with the perception of credibility.
The lack of regulation on the Internet is one of the reasons it is so successful, however, this lack of regulation also creates some big legal and ethical questions that remain unanswered at this time. The Facebook controversy is an example where the privacy of its users was being questioned after Facebook changed its terms of use. Take a look at the YouTube video to learn more.
