The Diffusion of Social Media in Public Relations - Annotated Bibliography Example

Adams, A., & McCorkindle, T. Dialogue and transparency: A content analysis of how the prudential candi s used twitter. Public Relations Reviews, 39(4), 357-359. This is a quantitative research where the presidential candidates in February of 2012 were observed and studied. All the candidates used their social network accounts for PR strategic purposes. The researcher concluded that Obama’s account was the most active account throughout the year. Alenizi, F. (2013). Estkhdam tatbeqat alenternet fe al’elaqat al ‘eama; drasa tatbeeqiya ‘ela akhbar ma’at sharka fe alqta’e alkhas fe almamlakah. Using Internet applications in public relations. An empirical study on the largest one hundred private sector companies in Saudi Arabia. Master’s thesis. King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This study reveals the importance of Internet usage in the top one hundred private companies in Saudi Arabia. The findings show that Internet applications have a high ability to elevate the quality of work in these companies. Moreover, the speed of the organization of services delivery to the customers can also be improved with the help of Internet. Almansour, M. (2012). Ta’atheer shbkat altawasol alejtem’ei ‘ela jumhoor almutlqeen: derasa muqarana le almawaq’e alejtema’eya wa almawaqee alelectronia ‘alarabia enmothj’ [The effect of social media on the audience: comparative study of Arabic social media and electronic websites]. Unpublished master’s thesis, The Arab Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark. In this 257-page study the researcher gives definitions of social media. He explores the state of social media after the WWII in details and studies the history of social networks I Arab countries. First the author explains that social media started in 1995 when the site classmates.com was launched. Then other social websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, were launched, and the number of Facebook users’ increased rapidly in 2011 during the Arab spring. The researcher focuses his attention in his research on Alarabia.com., Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts during the Egyptian revolution. The researcher used a content analysis and the results showed that Alarabia.com’s social media account supported their website content. Alothman, A. (2013). A survey of social media users in Saudi Arabia to explore the roles, motivations and expectations toward using social media for social and political purposes. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1419422776?accountid=14541. (1419422776). This article by Alothman (2013) gives a brief history of Facebook that started in 2004, YouTube that started in 2005, and Twitter that started in 2006. He describes how social media turned into a tool that people in the Middle East can use for empowerment, and the role it plays during Arab spring. Then the researcher described how Saudis start to use social media to express their opinion more freely. Saudis start to upload YouTube videos and send tweets aggressively criticizing the government decisions. Such form of criticizing was not possible ten years ago and became available only with social networks launch. The researcher used diffusion of innovation and gratification theories to analyze what people do with social media. Alothman claims that technology has revolutionized the Saudi culture. The result of this study indicated that most of the Saudi users are influenced by their peers to join social media and to express teir opinions via Internet. It also shows that most active participants use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Alriyadh Economics. (2010). Mobily tosgy le aswat mushtrekeha ‘ela tweeter [Mobily communicate with their subscribers through twitter]. Alriyadh Newspaper. Retrieved from : http://www.alriyadh.com/516370 According to Alriyadh newspaper, Mobily started their account on Twitter in 2010 as the way to connect with their auditory. Mobily was one of the first companies that launched their social media accounts in Arab countries. In 2005 they started their fan page in Facebook to keep stakeholders updated. Alriyadh economics. (2014). STCcare alakthar estejaba fe tweeter [@STCcare is the most responsive account on Twitter]. Alriyadh. Retrived from: http://www.alriyadh.com/516370 This article shows how STC used Twitter as a tool to connect with their stakeholders and how it was rated as the most active account in Saudi Arabia. Al Saud, A., & Khan, R. (2013). Role of social media in brand development in Saudi Arabia. European Journal of Business and Economics, 8(1), 4-8. In this article Al Saud and Khan (2013) highlight the effect of social media on brand development and explain how social media changed marketing. In their study they tried to interpret the phrase “social media” defining the word “social” as that which describes the need for human communication with other people, and the word “media” as the medium by which people make these communications. The researchers also conducted a quantitative research to find out how often Saudis use social network to keep up with brand news. Argenti, P. (2011). Digital strategies for powerful corporate communications. European Financial Review. Retrieved from: http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=2581 This article describes the importance of all social media outlets in business because of modern globalization trends. The researcher analyzes the quantity of the Facebook users and other social network website, and examines the way how they have been used as a tool to reach people. For example, Barack Obama gathered a wide audience through social media platforms. The author concludes that using social media can attract more customers online, provide digital tool for the employees, make your investors engaged, and become the source of the news. Diga, M., & Kelleher, T. (2009) Social media use, perceptions of decision-making power, and public relations role. Public relations review, 35(4), 440-442. The purpose of this study is to learn which type of PR practitioners use social media and the benefits they gain using it. The research survey was sent to 115 PRSA members. The result was 34.8% (n = 40). Thirty participants (75%) were females and 10 (25%) were males. Of those who provided their age (n = 38) the mean was 37.15 years. The study shows that the practitioners who use PR have more sense of influence because of the followers and likes. Evans, A., Twomey, J., & Talan, J. (2011). Twitter as a public relations tool. Public Relations Journal, 5(1), 1–20. This study is stressing on the importance of Twitter accounts for successful PR. The study gives a profound literature review for PR practitioners using Internet and Twitter as a PR tools. This study conducted in-depth interviews with executive-level public relations practitioners. The author concluded that using such social media sites as Twitter is extremely important in PR. Eyrich, N., Padman, M., & Sweetser, K. (2008). PR practitioners’ use of social media tools and communication technology. Public Relations Review, 34, 412–414. The authors demonstrate a good quantitative research of social media platforms. When social media started it was mere a buzz but after several years it became an important social media tool. The researchers conduct survey that aims to find out if PR practitioners use any of the 18 social media websites out of the list. The findings show that PR practitioners use at least 6 social media outlets regularly. Himelboim, I., Golan, G. J., Moon, B., & Suto, R. J. (2014). A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations. Journal Of Public Relations Research, 26(4), 359-379. doi:10.1080/1062726X.2014.908724 This study focuses on public relations practitioners’ usage of social networks as a mediator between the organization and its public. The authors examine US State Department as a case study for the research. Scholars and PR practitioners agree on the effectiveness of Twitter as a mediator in PR. In this study the researchers did content analyze using social network approach. The study analyzed Twitter users interaction on the hash tag #SecClinton. The findings show that the US State Department tends to be a broadcasting source rather than two-way communication. Howard, W., Mangold, G., & Johnston, T. (2014). Managing your social campaign strategy using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube & Pinterest: An interview with Dana Howard, social media marketing manager. Business Horizons, 57(5), Pages 657–665. In this interview Howard stated that the university used social media as a marketing tool. She explained how student started to share pictures in Instagram being exited to move in dorms. In this way students used other social media accounts for promoting their university. Jenaibi, B. (2013). Use of social media in the United Arab Emirates: An initial study. Global Media Journal, 1(2), 3-27. This study explores which social networks UAE residences prefer. This study used media system dependency theory and mixed methods approach. Using questionnaires as the source of achieving the information this study reveals the most visited social networks and the preferred internet applications. The authors conclude that public relation department is one of the organizations departments that have been using social media. LaMarre, H., & Suzuki-Lambrecht, Y. (2013). Tweeting democracy? Examining Twitter as an online public relations strategy for congressional campaigns. Public Relations Review, 39(4), 360-368. This is an interesting research that shows the role which public relations played in presidential campaigns online. This study analyzed the Twitter official accounts of the candidates in 2010. The findings showed that the candidates with high Twitter activity have better chances to win the election. The study basically observed the following: twitter usage, Twitter followers, Twitter list frequency, and party ID, incumbency, and election outcome. Liptak, M. (2012). Diffusion of social media among public relations practitioners. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Quinnipiac University, 49. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1501441513?accountid=14541. This thesis discussed the rapid spread of social media and the slow adoption of social media by public relations practitioners. The researcher used diffusion of innovation theory and wrote a brief history about the theory that was founded by Gabriel Tarde, the father of diffusion of innovation theory. He defined the theory as “the process by which an invention communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”. The researcher also discussed the elements of the diffusion of innovation theory: the innovation, communication channels, time and social systems. The research used qualitative method in-depth interviews with public relation scholars. Discussion sections shows that the age of the practitioners plays an important role for the slow speed of the adoption of new social media. The negative comments online also cause an issue for public relations practitioners. This thesis recommends that this time this era PR practitioners have to familiarize themselves with social media. Muhammad, F. (2013).Twitter usage in KSA grows ‘10 times’ the world average. Retrieved from: http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=201 30106148256 The article gives a big amount of data regarding social platforms usage in Saudi Arabia. This statistic demonstrated in this article showed that the number of Saudi Arabia Internet users has grown over the last decade. Saudi Arabia is number one internet users in the GCC (The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf). STC and Mobily are two of the top brands on Twitter and Facebook. The statistics shows that 70% of Facebook users are males and 30 are females. It reveals also that 55% of twitter users are males and 45 are females. Smith, B. (2010). Socially distributing public relations: Twitter, Haiti, and interactivity in social media. Public Relations Review, 36(4), 329-335. The author of the article claims that social media have empowered the public relations role. When the earthquake happened in Haiti Twitter users have fulfilled PR role by updating information about the Haitian recovery. This is a qualitative research where the researchers follow what have been said about Haiti by using the keyword Haiti on Twitter. The study found that at first the tweets where promotional then they started to get personal then after few days they stated to be critical. Taylor, M., Kent, M. L., & White, W.(2001). How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 27(3), 263-284. DOI: 10.1016/S0363-8111(01)00086-8 In the past active publics conceded to be a threat yet this article shows how things have changed, and how public relations practitioners have been using the dialogue approach trough their website pages. This study did a random sample to 100 activist organizations website site to provide an insight on Operationalizing principles of dialogue and data. However, the results showed that the 100 activist website were not using the dialogue approach as much as expected. Wedlock, B. (2014). The diffusion of social media in public relations: Use of social media in crisis response strategies. Unpublished Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1548009573?accountid=14541.(1548009573). Crisis management plays an important role in public relations. In this study the researcher stresses in the importance of using social media in the public relations work especially in crisis management. The social media make it easy for the organizations to reach their publics. This study describes how social media websites have been used by public relations practitioners in crisis response. The researcher used the diffusion of innovation theory. The researcher compares traditional crisis management and the social media crisis management. The author claims that social media has more power to control how people think through many channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. He discussed the seven blocks the social media deals with such as identity, internet users, dissemination of information, constant connectivity, relationships, reputation, groups connection. The researcher used qualitative method to analyze the use of social media in the PR department. The study found out that the divers of social media do help PR practitioners in usability and services. Read More