A Study on Social Media's Influence on Public Relations Effectiveness

This report examines the significant impact of social media on public relations, focusing on how platforms like Facebook and Twitter have transformed communication strategies. It explores the ways businesses, including BT Group, leverage social media to engage with customers, manage brand reputation, and foster strong relationships. The report delves into the shift towards digital communication, the importance of customer feedback, and the use of social media optimization. It analyzes the objectives of public relations, the importance of direct communication, and the use of social media analytics. The study reviews existing literature, presents a rationale for the research, and identifies key themes such as the challenges and benefits of social media in public relations. The report highlights the need for public relations practitioners to adapt to the changing landscape of digital communication and emphasizes the role of social media in building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. The report concludes with a focus on the impact of social media on business practices and its role in the modern era.

The role of social media in
boosting effectiveness of
public relation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORMULATING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL.............................................................................1
1. Introduction and Identification of the Project Topic..........................................................1
Aims and objectives...............................................................................................................2
2. Literature review and contextualising the topic within existing knowledge......................3
3. Consideration of the relevant theoretical perspectives.......................................................5
4. Methodological considerations...........................................................................................6
5. Identification of key themes to be pursued in the project..................................................8
6. Preliminary sketch of how your dissertation will be organised.........................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

FORMULATING RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1. Introduction and Identification of the Project Topic
Social media platforms help business in promoting product and services. Most of the social
media platforms have built analytics tools, which help company in tracking the progress,
attainment and engagement of ad campaigns (Warren, Sulaiman and Jaafar, 2014). Consumer
can interact with the organization directly when companies join social media platforms. Social
networking sites and blogs help followers to review comments made by peoples about the
product being promoted (Valentini, 2015). Customer can express their needs, wants and values
online by using social networking websites. Social media facilitates two way communication
which is very much important for developing strong relationship between customers and
company
Social media help in promoting businesses among the current and potential customers who
are already there. Facebook has 1.13 billion daily active users, and this platform business can use
for the advertisements of their product. Twitter has 313 million active users monthly, in addition
to Facebook (Ways You Should Be Using Social Media as Your Top PR Platform, 2018).
Businesses uses twitter as a prospects for leading the market, for instance, an auto mechanic
businessman can do search for term like need mechanical or recommend mechanic within 10
miles of their business address. Social media can be a great tool for growing the business
following and increasing more users. Social media networks and mobile app has changed the
method of doing businesses which means by adopting these technologies an organisation can
reach the target customers.
Mostly popular mobile applications such as, WhatsApp, Instagram have billions of users
globally and businesses use this app as a part of their communication solutions. Businesses are
holding campaigns and contest for attracting more users in their WhatsApp group and Instagram
page. They can ask users to comment and share their views. Businesses take a look at what their
business competitors are doing. Like what type of content, the competitors are publishing on
their Instagram page and WhatsApp page. By using Social Media Optimization services
provided by various companies at affordable rates (Saxton and Waters, 2014). The business is
improving their online presence. Previously, P. Social media has encouraged many companies
to start concentrating more on their customers, and building positive relationships. Customers
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can always go on Twitter and Facebook to sound off about bad client experiences.
Communication on social media has to be contrastive in context of Public Relation. An
organisation by utilising social media sends informal messages with the goal to power sales. An
organisation can utilised social media platform for analysing the customers opinion about
services or products. By posting question on the companies social networking page, customer
can get answers to their technical quires, product related questions or sales. In addition to this,
by utilising the social media platform an organisation can provide quick response to customers
queries which will further assist firm in developing strong relationship with clients.
Present survey is based on the role of social media in boosting effectiveness of public
relation. This study has been conducted in to find out the role of social media in strengthening
public relation. Study will have focus on analysing the importance of social media in an
organization (Ngai, Tao and Moon, 2015). It will also have emphasizes on determining different
reasons behind the increase in use of social media. The research report will include justification
for selection of methodologies for conducting investigation on specific topic. Furthermore,
researcher will conduct a literature review to identify views of different authors. Report will
provide rationale, significance and research plan for the present report.
The report is on the role of social media in maintaining the public relation effectively is
one on organisation BT Group. It is British multinational telecommunications holding company.
It is headquartered London, United Kingdom. It operates around 180 countries all over world and
the largest provider of fixed line broad brand. The BT group was founded in 1846.
Problem Statement
Social media has strained nearly every sector. Public relations practitioners now have to
make modification in their strategies in order to make sure they engage their audiences in the bes
Possible manner. Social media has brought the major transformation in communication
techniques used by firm for facilitating interaction with customers. Many of the organisations
such as BT group is utilising the social media for interacting as well as sharing information about
products or services with Public.
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Aims and objectives
Aims
“To analyse the way social media has changed Public relation : A study on BT Group.”
Objectives
 To study how an organization utilizes the social media in their business process for
strengthening their relationships with customers. (Lin, 2017).
 To analyse the way social media has helped BT group in developing strong relationship
with public.
 To identify the use of social media in public relation a
 To study the significance of social media and how BT Group can use social media as an
essential tool for developing strong relationship with clients.
Research questions
 How an organization utilizes the social media in their business process in order to
transform their relationships with customers?
 How companies can harness power of social media keeping in mind various difficulties?
 What will be the role of social media in context of building public relations i
 What is the significance of social media and how social media can be used as an essential
tool to reach out customers?
2. Literature review and contextualising the topic within existing knowledge
As per the view of Saxton (2014) public relation is a distinctive management which aids
administration and helps in maintaining the mutual lines of communication, understanding,
acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its public. It helps management In
analysing the public or customer responses related to the products or service offered by an
enterprise.
According to author Valentini (2015) social media refers to internet-based applications
and websites that promotes sharing user generated content, communication and participation on
large Scale. According to Tsai (2017) when the name of social media arises the people think of
Facebook and twitter. Therefore, social is very broad term it not only includes Facebook and
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twitter but also consisted of blogs, forums, message boards, really simple syndication search
engine marketing etc.
As per the view of Theaker (2017) Public relations practitioners are in the concern of
communication with public and hence must realize the importance of technological
development. Social media enables company to communicate messages effectively to
customers. However, due to the accelerated development inf social media, has provided firm an
ease in interacting with customers and help business entities in developing strong relationship
with cliens.. According to Waters, (2017). The communication is moving dramatically towards
digitalization. The practitioner of public relation is in concern of communicating with public and
therefore, must understand transformation in order to make their communication effective. A
study conducted by Ngai, Tao and Moon, (2015) among 574 practitioners in all over USA has
revealed that social media supports companies in facilitating direct communication with public.
As per the view of Lin, (2017) an organization utilizes the social media in their business process
in order to transform their relationships with customers. For every company it is very important
to strengthen the relationship with their stakeholders as well as customers for that an organisation
need to communicate with them which can be done utilising the social media.
According to the research by Leonardi and Vaast, (2017) Social media obligate many
brands to start centring more on their consumers, and structuring optimistic relationships.
TSocial media has provided organisation an ease in identifying the needs of customers which is
very much important in context of developing strong relationship. It helps business entity in
getting the customer feedback which further assist management in identifying the business area
which requires improvement. . According to Ibrahim, (2017) the over a past decade, area of
public relation has got various changes. In last decades, great advancement in technology, many
communication devices were launched in the market but all those products have not gain
popularity. It is the social media platform which has been preferred by many people as well as
companies for facilitating communication. It enables business entities to provide quick response
to people queries which is very important in context of developing strong relationship with
clients.
According to Ferguson, (2018) social media holds the power of reputation of various big
businessmen. It also helps in targeting the market in simpler and advent form. Social Media and
public relations are conjugate together in contemporary world.
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As per the view of Leonardi, (2017) companies address a range of stakeholder through
social media marketing, which includes current and potential employees, current and potential
customers, bloggers, journalist and public. Social networking websites help businesses,
individual many organisations in interacting with people and building relationships with others.
As per the view of Vaast (2017) these SMO companies utilising the business websites by
strategically for purpose of advertisement and posting on websites, blog sites and on social
media site. Social media has permitted Public Relation to limit a much larger gathering.
According to Tao, (2015) through social media customers hear about sales, coupons, and
about special deals. Once they follow any page on Facebook or on twitter. Customers are
included by business in early-bird sales or special deals designed for their social media contacts.
This helps them in saving their money on buying product from companies. Social media offer
customers instant access to answers from companies and its social networks followers. Social
media has established in an era where businesses and celebrities rise and fall under the tide of
social media and public opinion. Social media networks and mobile app has changed the method
of doing businesses which means by adopting these technologies business reach the target
customers.
According to Sulaiman (2014) Three hundred million tweets are sent daily and mostly
they use two phases on twitter are “I want” and “I need”.The author also states One of the
biggest benefits of using social media platforms is that it is entirely free to start no platforms
have sign-up fees of any kind, so the only investment business needs to make is time but there
are paid options.
3. Consideration of the relevant theoretical perspectives
Rationale
The rationale for selecting the specific topic is that increase in use of social media by
many of the popular brands such as BT group. (Epstein, 2018). In addition to this, researcher
interest in developing the understanding about the way social media has changed the public
relations. Researcher also intends to know social media has really played a important role in
increasing the effectiveness of public relations. Learner has done has this research for
establishing the valuable connection with faculty and expanding understanding and knowledge
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of the academic field for particular topic. By this research on social media helps investigators to
identify the various positive and negative impact of social media in building public relation. The
reason behind this research is to gain deeper understanding of specific process. This research
helps investigator to find out various implications of social media in developing the public
relations. The utilization of social media is increasing day by day. Investigator by doing
investigation on this topic will provide various of impact of social media in organization in
building public relations. Researcher seen to be tech savvy and very much interested in social
media that's why chosen this topic for research.
Significance
The research has been done in order to determine the roles of social media in boosting
public relation. From last decades the fields of public relation have undergone through various
changes (Criado, Rojas-Martín and Gil-Garcia, 2017). Various aspects of technologies and
advancement of communication leads drastic growth in public relation throughout social media.
This research is important as it provides various useful information for researcher in
accomplishing objectives of research. This study has significance as it will help in developing
the understanding about the way social networking enables companies in developing the strong
relationship with public. This report will help us to know that how business man targets their
market with the use of social media. The report will provide investigator to know visibility
between organization and its target audience. The study will also help in identifying present
scenario between public relation and social media in an organization. The organization requires
public relation departments, or organization must have outsourced this work to PR consultant.
This report will be beneficial for upcoming researchers as a secondary data to continue their
research. For them, it will give a basis to determine role of social media in boosting
effectiveness of public relation and also helps them in comparing outcomes of this research in
the past, present as well as in future scenario.
4. Methodological considerations
Research methodology can be defined as the various techniques, approaches,
philosophies utilised by scholar in order to collect as well as present information. In present
study, researcher will use different methods for gathering as well as presenting data.The
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methodology part for the research paper allows researcher to critically evaluate a study's overall
validity and reliability.
Present topic for the study is role of social media in boosting effectiveness of public
relation. It is to be performed in order to identify the role of social media in encouragement of
the effectiveness public relation (Ibrahim, 2017). Interpretative philosophy will be used for
specific research as it involves various theories and models. The source of collection of data will
be primary.
Interpretative philosophy
The researcher will use Interpretative philosophy. This philosophy presumes that people
move and match their own personal and intersubjective meaning as they interact with world
around them. This research considers different models and theories of researches which will be
helpful in determining the objectives.
Research approach : In present study scholar will utilise both qualitative and quantitative
research approach. As this will help investigator in reaching to the conclusion.
Data collection
The primary method of data collection will be used by researcher. It provides most
dependable and fresh data to researcher for research. Researcher will utilise interviews, surveys,
questionnaire etc. for gathering the information related to the topic. Questionnaire will be
circulated through Email. Market surveys as well as telephonic interview will be organised for
gathering primary data. (Epstein, 2018). The reason for selecting interview method for data
collection is that researcher by analysing the facial expression of respondent can judge whether
the information provided by them is correct or not. This technique enables researcher to ensure
relevancy as well as quality of information. As quality as well as information relevancy are two
important factors which has great effect on results. There are end number of ways for the
collection of primary data such as interviews, focus group, surveys et (Why Public Relations
Should Play a Role in Your Social Media Marketing, 2017). In addition to this, books , journals,
magazines will be used for gathering secondary information. This technique has been selected as
it will help researcher in gathering the detailed information about the topic.
Sampling
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Sampling is defined as the procedure in which the few participants from big population
will be selected by researcher using the specific techniques. This activity will be executed as
considering the time and cost it is not possible for scholar to collect data from each and every
individual at large scale. For this study the scholar will use the random sampling methods for
selecting few people as a participant in research. Reason for selecting specific method is that In
this technique there is an equal opportunity for every sample to be chosen. It is an unbiased
representation of total population. Under this method of sampling, every individual of subset
caries an equal chance of being selected. In present study, researcher will select 20 participant
randomly. Participants will be the employees of BT group.
Data analysis
Thematic analysis is most ordinary forms of analysis in qualitative research. It will be helpful in
identifying patterned meaning across a dataset. In present investigation , thematic analysis will
be utilised by scholar . In addition to this graphs chart will be used for presenting information.
5. Identification of key themes to be pursued in the project
6. Preliminary sketch of how your dissertation will be organised
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter one consisted of introduction part of the topic which social media. In this chapter
the background of the study has been discussed along with the brief introduction of organization.
This section also includes aims, objectives and research questions of the present study.
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Role of Social Media in
Boosting Effective
Public Relation
Concept of Public
relation
Importance of social
media in creating
effective relationship
with customers
Contribution of social
media in building public
relation

Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter consisted of literature review in which the various opinions and findings of
the eminent scholars have been discussed.
Chapter 3: Research methodology
This chapter is of research methodology. Which involves meaning of research,
interpretative philosophy which includes various models and research. Apart from that data
collection procedure have been discussed in this chapter. The learner has taken primary data for
further research. Investigator uses the random sampling method to identify the appropriate
result. Later, in this section researcher has taken the use of thematic analysis for identifying the
researches objectives.
Chapter 4: Data analysis
In this chapter rationale and significance of the research has been discussed. Rationale of
the study tells the reasons behind the selection of topic by researcher whereas significance tells
the importance of the research.
Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendation
This is the endmost chapter that will consist of the above acquired research findings in
the form of summary. This will also assure the attainment of all undertaken study objectives,
followed by recommendation to suggest effective measures to the chosen firm. In this section, on
considering the present investigation, BT Group will be recommended several effective ways of
building a strong public relation with their customers through social media.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Criado, J.I., Rojas-Martín, F. and Gil-Garcia, J.R., 2017. Enacting social media success in local
public administrations: An empirical analysis of organizational, institutional, and
contextual factors. International journal of public sector management. 30(1). pp.31-47.
Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring
corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Ferguson, M.A., 2018. Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a
public relations paradigm. Journal of Public Relations Research, pp.1-15.
Ibrahim, A.M., and et.al., 2017. Visual abstracts to disseminate research on social media: a
prospective, case-control crossover study. Annals of surgery. 266(6). pp.e46-e48.
Leonardi, P.M. and Vaast, E., 2017. Social media and their affordances for organizing: A review
and agenda for research. Academy of Management Annals.11(1). pp.150-188.
Lin, N., 2017. Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28).
Routledge.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management. 35(1). pp.33-
44.
Parveen, F., Jaafar, N.I. and Ainin, S., 2015. Social media usage and organizational performance:
Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics. 32(1). pp.67-
78.
Saxton, G.D. and Waters, R.D., 2014. What do stakeholders like on Facebook? Examining
public reactions to nonprofit organizations’ informational, promotional, and community-
building messages. Journal of Public Relations Research. 26(3). pp.280-299.
Theaker, A., 2017. What is public relations? In The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (pp. 17-
27). Routledge.
Tsai, W.H.S. and Men, L.R., 2017. Social CEOs: The effects of CEOs’ communication styles
and parasocial interaction on social networking sites. New media & society. 19(11).
pp.1848-1867.
Valentini, C., 2015. Is using social media “good” for the public relations profession? A critical
reflection. Public Relations Review. 41(2). pp.170-177.
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Warren, A.M., Sulaiman, A. and Jaafar, N.I., 2014. Social media effects on fostering online civic
engagement and building citizen trust and trust in institutions. Government Information
Quarterly. 31(2). pp.291-301.
Waters, R.D., 2017. Applying public relations theory to increase the understanding of sport
communication. In Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication. (pp. 80-88).
Online
Ways You Should Be Using Social Media as Your Top PR Platform. 2018. [Online]. Available
through <https://www.inc.com/inc-entrepreneurship-index/index.html>
Why Public Relations Should Play a Role in Your Social Media Marketing. 2017. [Online].
Available through <http://csic.georgetown.edu/magazine/public-relations-play-role-
social-media-marketing/>
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