The way we absorb and communicate online has changed drastically since social media was born, and it's driven huge transformation in business communications and public relations.
To a degree, Schumpeter’s concept of "creative destruction" applies — social platform innovation disrupted established PR models, creating great new opportunities as well as introducing new challenges.
DIRECT-TO-AUDIENCE COMMUNICATIONS
Companies have long relied on press to tell their stories, and there's still nothing quite like earned coverage (whether a business outlet, industry trade, targeted newsletter or podcast). But social media has diminished the gatekeeping role of media in both audience reach and messaging.
LinkedIn, X, Instagram, YouTube, etc. have opened up a massive opportunity in telling your own story and promoting your own products, services or expertise.
DISCOVERY: INFORMATION movement & barriers
Social media has allowed news and information from across the web to be accessed in real time. Many people tune into social first to find out what's going on and what's trending.
Access to this large built-in audience, whose usage is often frequent, is a gift. However, since listeners can curate their own feeds by following specific accounts — and then are served more of the kind of content they're already interacting with by algorithms — reach of content can be somewhat closed off. Companies can't expect their target audience to find them, and instead need to weave in efforts like paid amplification, influencer marketing and employee advocacy to help their content get seen and their messages get heard by target audiences.
Also, it’s not always the official source that gets to the news first. As we’ve seen with live events (sports and entertainment), natural disasters and political announcements, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allow the public to contribute to and control the news, reaching a tuned-in audience, often faster than any traditional news outlet has time to publish a story.
SKIMMABILITY: THE RISE OF BITE-SIZED CONTENT & HIGH-QUALITY CREATIVE
As people (nearly constantly) skim social feeds, they've learned to tune in and out of information quickly, investing time only on the images or headlines that really grasp their attention.
The way information is presented is key to grabbing attention. That means high-quality or unique creative paired with great storytelling and copy.
It has also given rise to micro-storytelling, or the use of small moments or creative content to champion a narrative or product. There's no news hook too small, as long as the storytelling is high-quality, and social platforms have truly democratized content creation and distribution for companies and the executives leading them.
INFLUENCERS: Everyone has a VOICE
Perhaps the biggest effect of social media that anyone who has an opinion or something to share has the forum to do it. While this has created an overwhelmingly saturated social atmosphere, it has also led to a genuine wave of voices and influencers on social.
It's created opportunities for marketers to uncover helpful audience insights, behaviors and trends as well as see engagement to campaigns in real-time. It's created a slew of user-generated content to be mined. And, of course, it's given way to the massive creator economy and influencer marketing.
With all these active voices, though, community management and social listening has become important to brand management and PR.
AMPLIFICATION: SHELF-LIFE EXPANDS
Last, social media has extended the reach and lifespan of content. Earned, owned and shared content can (and should) be promoted again and again, reaching hundreds to thousands of new eyeballs depending on the number of followers and how others engage with it, giving it visibility with their followers as well.
Those who really understand social sharing and engagement techniques (i.e., how the algorithms work, how to create visibility and how to generate engagement) can get their high-value messages and content way more airtime.
These are just some of the ways that social media has enhanced traditional media, so as you’re coming up with communications strategies, consider how these two channels can support another for a more creative and, ultimately, successful program.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
