PR PRACTITIONERS & SOCIAL MEDIA Themes in a Global Context Prue Robson, University of Newcastle Karen Sutherland, Monash University

ADOPTION RATES PLATFORMS USED GOVERNANCE MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION

(KPMG 2011, p.3) SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION

Active vs Passive users? SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

GOVERNAN CE (Macnamara, 2011; Zerfass et al., 2011a; Zerfass, Verhoeven, Tench, Moreno, & Verčič, 2011b)

NO. 1 FEAR LOSS OF CONTROL (DiStaso et al., 2011; Kelleher & Sweetser, 2012; Macnamara, 2010a; Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012; Robson & James, 2011; Smith, 2011; Verhoeven et al., 2012; Wolf & Archer, 2012) GOVERNAN CE

HAVE GUIDELINES OR MONITORING IN EUROPE <1/3 (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012; Verhoeven et al., 2012) GOVERNAN CE

DON’T HAVE POLICIES OR GUIDELINES IN ASIA-PACIFIC 65% (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012) GOVERNAN CE

NEVER MONITOR OR MEASURE IN THE US 46% (Wright & Hinson, 2010) GOVERNAN CE

MEASUREMENT IS USUALLY LIMITED DESCRIPTIVE AN D (Fitch, 2009a) GOVERNAN CE

OFFER NO TRAINING IN ASIA-PACIFIC 67% OFFER NO TRAINING IN EUROPE 73% (Macnamara & Zerfass, 2012) GOVERNAN CE

TRAINING AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION NOT A PRIORITY GOVERNAN CE

PRACTITIONERS FEEL UNDERPREPARED (Avidar, 2009; Fitch, 2009b; IBM, 2011; Lariscy, Avery, & Sweetser, 2009; Macnamara, 2011; Zerfass et al., 2011a) GOVERNAN CE

Academics and practitioners alike claim that social media provides an ideal platform for dialogue, collaboration and building relationships with publics (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Estanyol, In press; Evans, Twomey, & Talan, 2011; Grunig, 2009; Macnamara, 2010b) very little evidence MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

MESSAGE DISSEMINATI ON MESSAGE DISSEMINATI ON 1. PROMOTION 2. MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

Even where there is evidence: “this finding is considered questionable and suggests rhetoric within public relations unmatched by practice, based other information provided in this research and the findings of other studies” (Macnamara 2010, p. 32) MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

Even where there is evidence: “...respondents pointed out that they were offering advice based on their opinion of how Twitter functions successfully and not how their firms currently employ the tool” (Evans et al., 2011, p. 15) MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

Problems with current research: 1. self-reporting2. short-term content analysis MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

AREAS OF SILENCE 1. qualitative research not reliant on self- reporting 2. case studies of ‘best practice’ 3. application of theory4. audience/reception studies

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