CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Social media have changed the pattern of corporate communications, affecting the ways public relations campaigns are formulated, disseminated and measured. The power over the message is no longer the exclusive preserve of an organisation; the various publics also enjoy equal power to initiate dialogue. Prior to the digital explosion and the popularization of the social media, audience engagement was based on print and electronic media. The focus of a PR publicity campaign was all about securing decent coverage in television, radio and dailies. With over 75% internet surfers using social media, (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010), the social media have provided public relations practitioners a unique opportunity to collect information, monitor public opinion on issues, and engage in direct dialogue with their publics about a variety of issues. (McAllister & Taylor, 2007) Eyrich, Padman & Sweetser, (2008) observed that public relations practitioners are shifting to social media as the lines between online and offline promotion becomes blurry. However, the level of compliance of PR managers to the social media varies. While many public relations practitioners value the social media, a few of them actually maximise the advantage it offer to their profession. (Gordon 2010). It appears that a good number of public relations practitioners are yet to understand how social media can help improve their professional practices. Some of them simply use social media as another tool of personal communication while others do not even use them at all.

In the distant past, the people that lived as families and clans in villages and towns communicated among themselves. From the Stone Age up to the present computer generation, communication has been the tool with which to interact and sustain individuals and societies in