The Rising Trend of Social Media Marketing: A Look at Public Relations and Advertising

Social media has become the new way for not only individuals to communicate with each other, but for companies to connect with their customers. In addition, social media platforms have become hubs for public relations and advertising efforts. Big corporations — such as Google, Amazon, and even Walmart — have a strong presence on social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube allow companies to also participating in public relations and advertising efforts, as well as build their brands in more visually appealing ways.

Social media provides many benefits to companies. Research done by professors from the Anna University School of Management Studies explained that social media can be used by companies to create awareness of brands, products and services, as well as learn from and target customers. Social media is used to engage with consumers, as well as let companies promote themselves. The professors’ article states that social media makes it easy for anyone to create their own content, and have it viewed by millions, practically free of charge. They explain that some of the most popular forms of social media are: blogs and microblogs, such as Twitter; social networks like Facebook; media-sharing sites like YouTube and Instagram; review sites, such as online shops that offer customer testimonials of products and services; and virtual worlds, such as ones found in gaming communities. 

Jose Aviles, an assistant professor of communications at Albright College teaching advertising, public relations and media, had similar thoughts regarding the fast moving trend. He plans on teaching a course on social media for advertising and design in the next school year, and has done research on the use of advertising in gaming. 

He explained that the difference between public relations and advertising is that advertising is paid media and public relations is earned media, which is not necessarily something companies may have to pay for. Companies use social media to their advantage when it comes to paid and unpaid media. “Social media use in public relations is largely the engagement that individuals and brands create on their own page, feed, or comments,” Aviles said. “Advertising is the paid sponsorship or ad space in between.” He also explained that the two are similar in that advertising in social media often looks like public relations posts, even if they are paid for. “Brands do their best to hide that they are actually advertising,” he said.

Companies mainly use social media to strengthen their communications with the outside world, Aviles explained. He doesn’t think many organizations are using the platforms for internal communication, since most public relations and advertising strategies are for consumers to be aware of their products and services. 

Aviles explained that social media has allowed brands to directly interact with consumers, and allow advertisers to send advertisements that come in many different forms. “These are significant changes that companies can take advantage of to create an ‘authentic’ engagement with consumers,” he said. “Advertisements on social media platforms don’t look like your traditional commercials and print ads, so consumers may not even know they are liking or sharing a company’s advertising strategy.”

Aviles said that he doesn’t know what the future of social media marketing holds, since trends continue to change at a rapid rate. “The biggest change I see happening is that companies are moving away from staged and perfected content to more authentic ones,” he said. He thinks that public relations and advertising professionals will possibly stay in this phase for some time.