Twitter Reflection: To tweet, or not to tweet?
I have really enjoyed this aspect of the course, finding it engaging and informative. I have always liked using Twitter, whether to follow the news or to post my own opinions and so to have this as a component of the course was very pleasant. It felt more like an extension to my own interests rather than homework to complete. I think that this project has demonstrated to the class at large the importance of the role played by social media in modern public relations, especially the ‘word of mouth’ principle at the lengths companies and organisations will take to engage with an online audience and cultivate relationships. It was also enjoyable to be able to have a ‘hands-on’ approach with this assignment, allowing me to apply the theory learnt in class into practical application.
I feel that overall through this assignment, I have been able to understand via practical application and research the vital role of communications in public relations and how such communications may be used to persuade and influence the beliefs, opinions and views of others. This has been achieved through following a mixture of PR experts, news channels and politicians. I have been able to witness especially the role Twitter plays in politics by following politicians such as Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton; it was interesting to see how they utilised Twitter for their 2016 Presidential candidacy announcements and how their tweets refer to their official websites and provide links to donation sites. In comparison, I was able to see how Ted Cruz failed to fully utilise Twitter and so failed in an element of PR campaign as his tweets regarding his candidacy failed to refer to his website, instead referring viewers to his YouTube channel. I feel this demonstrates a lack of understanding of the importance of a structured PR campaign; as Torie Clarke constantly reiterates in her book, communications must be linked to be fully effective, and I think that Cruz failed to secure an effective PR strategy immediately following his launch on that basis.
I also found it interesting to note how the role of PR on Twitter differs in both the UK and the USA. American politicians tend to use tweets as a means of directly calling out their political opponents in a dramatic fashion, knowing that this will engage the American electorate. Conversely, UK politicians tend to favour a more restrained approach, as politics in the UK are not so emotional or dramatic. Thus UK politicians adopt a different approach knowing it will be more readily accepted by the British electorate.
Twitter deploys and encourages the use of the hashtag; I feel that this is arguably an important tool to be utilised in PR as it encourages communication and interaction which in turn develops relationships. It also enables the discovery of other discussions relevant to the same topic, which we as a class discovered through using our class hashtag of ‘CoePR205’.
I also thought it was be helpful to follow PR ‘experts’ and PR websites as I gained knowledge and understanding about the professional realm of PR communications through the experts’ tweets about their work or share their experiences.
I will most certainly continue in my use of my PR twitter account. It has been both enjoyable and useful and I feel that now I have started, I will not be able to continue – it has become a habit to analyse new stories from a PR standpoint and tweet article links and my thoughts on the same on my account. I will continue to do this in order to increase my knowledge and understanding of PR communications.
I also think it would be valuable to retain the use of this account in terms of maintain my online presence and as an additional means to demonstrate my knowledge and professional skill set for prospective employers. It will be useful to emphasis the skills I have gained from studying this course when I return home to Northern Ireland; maintaining this account can complement my CV.
I have really enjoyed this aspect of the course, finding it engaging and informative. I have always liked using Twitter, whether to follow the news or to post my own opinions and so to have this as a component of the course was very pleasant. It felt more like an extension to my own interests rather than homework to complete. I think that this project has demonstrated to the class at large the importance of the role played by social media in modern public relations, especially the ‘word of mouth’ principle at the lengths companies and organisations will take to engage with an online audience and cultivate relationships. It was also enjoyable to be able to have a ‘hands-on’ approach with this assignment, allowing me to apply the theory learnt in class into practical application.
I feel that overall through this assignment, I have been able to understand via practical application and research the vital role of communications in public relations and how such communications may be used to persuade and influence the beliefs, opinions and views of others. This has been achieved through following a mixture of PR experts, news channels and politicians. I have been able to witness especially the role Twitter plays in politics by following politicians such as Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton; it was interesting to see how they utilised Twitter for their 2016 Presidential candidacy announcements and how their tweets refer to their official websites and provide links to donation sites. In comparison, I was able to see how Ted Cruz failed to fully utilise Twitter and so failed in an element of PR campaign as his tweets regarding his candidacy failed to refer to his website, instead referring viewers to his YouTube channel. I feel this demonstrates a lack of understanding of the importance of a structured PR campaign; as Torie Clarke constantly reiterates in her book, communications must be linked to be fully effective, and I think that Cruz failed to secure an effective PR strategy immediately following his launch on that basis.
I also found it interesting to note how the role of PR on Twitter differs in both the UK and the USA. American politicians tend to use tweets as a means of directly calling out their political opponents in a dramatic fashion, knowing that this will engage the American electorate. Conversely, UK politicians tend to favour a more restrained approach, as politics in the UK are not so emotional or dramatic. Thus UK politicians adopt a different approach knowing it will be more readily accepted by the British electorate.
Twitter deploys and encourages the use of the hashtag; I feel that this is arguably an important tool to be utilised in PR as it encourages communication and interaction which in turn develops relationships. It also enables the discovery of other discussions relevant to the same topic, which we as a class discovered through using our class hashtag of ‘CoePR205’.
I also thought it was be helpful to follow PR ‘experts’ and PR websites as I gained knowledge and understanding about the professional realm of PR communications through the experts’ tweets about their work or share their experiences.
I will most certainly continue in my use of my PR twitter account. It has been both enjoyable and useful and I feel that now I have started, I will not be able to continue – it has become a habit to analyse new stories from a PR standpoint and tweet article links and my thoughts on the same on my account. I will continue to do this in order to increase my knowledge and understanding of PR communications.
I also think it would be valuable to retain the use of this account in terms of maintain my online presence and as an additional means to demonstrate my knowledge and professional skill set for prospective employers. It will be useful to emphasis the skills I have gained from studying this course when I return home to Northern Ireland; maintaining this account can complement my CV.