To be honest I really didn’t like the idea of making a twitter or a blog at first. I thought that there was no point in making theses online social media sites and that they would not correlate with my future. Boy was I wrong. Social media is and will be the future especially in my Advertising/Public Relations major. I find them to be a bit challenging to get started and used to but I bet with a couple of months of casual use I will be a lot more comfortable. I plan on understanding some of the sites I do not understand a little better so that I can use them more for personal and academic use. I find these social media sites to be very useful in getting my opinions and ideas online and worldwide fast. I definitely foresee myself in the future using social media sites to advance the advertising corporation that I will hopefully work for. They are a great way to engage with coworkers and to understand customer concerns.
Consumers do not seem to trust corporate messages as the used to and they especially do not want to sit through 30-minute commercials. Public Relations, in a quick definition, has to do with positive relationships that lead to positive behavior. Consumers don’t want to hear a used car sales man shouting at them on the radio which car is better and why. Consumers want to read or hear opinions from their mom, cousin, or people they know and have a positive relationship with. Whether the information is positive of negative consumers want to know they are getting it from someone they know and trust. They want to know it that the car they want is really all that its advertised to be by someone they can personally talk to and believe. To be honestly that exactly what I do too. I want to hear it from someone I personally can email and ask how it is like in “the real world.” Advertising is sometimes perceived as false information sometimes and just knowing and trusting someone is a better way to get people to buy things.
Social media has altered the reliance on paper advertising to deliver an organization’s, or companies, message. I am not suggesting that advertising will no longer be a profession, but placing a message from a company on a social media site is cheaper and easier to do yourself. You can even access it from the office or at home making social media a lot more convenient. Blogging and forums are a great way to gain relationships with consumers and adds trust within a specific online community. Both help you gain insight from customers and employers from all over the world. They are great tools that even extend to search engines so that anyone can find and access your information to have written. Social media is the new rule to every profession out there and everyone needs to get on board as soon as possible.
jbustillo 