Social Media Challenges

Researchers Aten and Thomas estimated that in 2016It has been estimated nearly nine out of ten United States organizations use social media for marketing or publicity purposes. Social media use can provide organizations with greater levels of community, action and participation than traditional advertising or publicity mechanisms. Beyond the United States, globalization has vastly increased the levels in which societies and organizations are interconnected. This has created massive benefits and challenges for organizations. Now, organizations can more easily access audiences and consumers outside of their geographic sphere of influence. However, to access these benefits organizations must change the ways that they connect to consumers

Social media is increasing the challenges for public relations in organizations because it requires a much different social acceptance. To have social acceptance or legitimacy, an organization must understand social expectations and the appropriate strategies to achieve their goals. This paper analyzes how mass media can be a source of environmental intelligence. It can provide insights to an organizations strategy and allow an organization to adapt and provide messages that resonate with its consumer base. Thus, for organizations to be successful in using mass media or learning from it they must change their strategy. This article looks at theoretical frameworks that attempt to explain the pressures mass media places on organizations. Specifically, it analyzes conceptualizations of strategic public relations. It argues that public relations must monitor and interpret its social environment to have legitimacy to maintain long term organizational success. This article is significant because it recognizes that mass media has the potential to change organizations and vice versa. This means as social media changes organizations change to remain relevant and as consumer desires change social media adapts to account for changing audiences. It also highlights that organizations face much larger pressure to be socially

He focuses less on the context and situation and argues that having goals, staying on brand, knowing the organizations audience, utilizing different mediums, and doing audience research are the keys for successful social media organizational strategies. He argues that because many organizations are now utilizing social media, Twitter and Facebook no longer suffice. While he recognizes knowing one’s audience is important, he is different from other scholars in that he is cares less about the context and situation of social media use. However, his research is significant because it demonstrates why planning and diversifying social media strategy is important for achieving organizational objectives, and that there are clear steps organizations can have to best utilize social