Is social media creating competition for PR professionals?

Whilst the possibilities for forms of PR stretch far and wide, social media is becoming a huge part of PR due to the amount of time and the number of people on social media websites. Because social media is a fairly new concept it has allowed a huge amount of people to learn the workings of sites like Facebook and Twitter and offer themselves as ‘social media experts’.

Whilst some of these social media experts come from a PR background and know how both PR and social media work, others are simply comfortable with the ins and outs of social media sites yet have no real idea of how PR works.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube offer great information on how to get started, add this to the huge number of social media for business guides on the internet and it’s clear why so many people think they are able to offer something to businesses.

The reality is however that they need to know how PR works to really effectively work an online campaign as chances are they will approach customers in the wrong way. There is nothing stopping these people from learning about PR though and then they will be able to compete with existing PR professionals.

There is a big difference between what a PR professional does and what someone who purely works on the internet does. There is still no substitute for speaking face to face and this is what will be missed. Whilst ‘social media experts’ can possibly offer a fair level of PR online, you pay for what you get as they say and you really will get a lot more from someone who is experienced in both areas and not just slightly knowledgeable in one.