PR and Social Media

In my previous blog before, I have mentioned that I am working with non-profit organization, Animal Aid Abroad (AAA). There a lot of things that I learnt during working with AAA and this time, I want to share how social media is really important for PR especially when you have to work with very limited budget for your campaign. These days, public relation tends to use social media to communicate with their target public, to answer questions, to share any information about the new campaign or event.

For AAA, social media plays an important role as I have found they mostly share any information about their projects and events through social media. I have been using social media myself, however before I had no idea how social media would work for organization in real life. I always remember in my PR class I learned about how PR use social media as part of their strategies and tactics. I am glad that I could see and practice how to use it.

So, as part of AAA strategic and tactic in order to reach their goals and objectives, why did they use social media? These what I have found:

1. As non-profit organisation, AAA has very limited budget to spend. Social media is perfect to use as it does cost a little to no money at all.
2. Social media will help AAA to send out their message in order to get people who share the same thoughts together for a common cause. It is because social media will enlarge a message by connecting groups of people together.
3. AAA target public is around 18- 55 years old. Most of those target public are using social media to share things and communicate.
4. There are a lot of potential volunteers and donors for AAA projects who are using social media. AAA target public is not in Australia as the projects are worldwide. Everyone has a chance to support. There are millions of people around the world are using social media and there are always a chance to for them to be potential volunteers and donors for AAA projects.
5. It essential for AAA to keep their target public especially their memberships inform and social media is valuable tool. A lot of people have donated their money/time to support AAA projects and social media will help the donors to keep inform about their contribution into AAA projects.
6. Social media helps AAA to share any events, information and or anything that is happening within organization. It is a perfect way to raise people’ awareness about the issues because it is easy and quick. The goal to use social media is to get people’s thought about the issue and then to make them supporting the issue through AAA. .
7. Social media provide two ways conversation. It means, it is not only AAA who can share the information but people can also share their thoughts. People are freely to ask question to AAA through social media.
8. Social media allows AAA to monitor how people’ satisfaction of their works.

Social media is a valuable tool for PR; however as PR practitioner it is important to always make sure to use it right.

These are few things that you should always remember:

1. The first thing to know before posting online is the target public. Knowing your target audience is essential to avoid any misleading/wrong information. For AAA, PR practitioner has to keep in mind that AAA target public is not only in Australia but worldwide.
2. Second, to always make sure what your goal is.
3. Be honest by showing your audiences what is exactly happening within organization. As I mentioned before, a lot of people already supported AAA by donating into AAA projects. It is important to let them know what has been done with their money.
4. To communicate and update regularly so audience will always keep inform. It is important to update social media pages with the new content daily.
5. Act professionally. If you find out any negative comments about organisation in social media, response it wisely.

The use of social media is not only for non-profit such as AAA, but also for profit organisation. There is no limit whose can use it or not. Everyone can use it. This time, I just want to share what I have learnt during my internship about social media. It is such a great experience for me to see how the real organisations run. J See you guys in the next blog