5 ways social media has reshaped the PR industry

Its influence is simply too large to ignore.

With a global usership in the billions, social media has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

While it has touched just about every industry under the sun in some capacity, it has had a huge—and arguably more pointed—impact on the public relations industry.

From changing the way people consume their news to contributing to the rise of the citizen journalist, social media has forced PR pros and reporters to adapt or perish.

Here are five key ways social media has impacted the PR industry and why it’s essential for all professional communicators to get on board.

1. The lifespan of a news story is shorter—but its reach is astronomical.

Social media is immediate and noisy. How noisy? Roughly 6,000 tweets are shared per second on Twitter. That’s just one of many social networks.

While that makes social media a highly effective tool for communicating breaking news coverage, it also means the lifespan of a news story is much shorter than it used to be. This means that journalists are constantly searching for the next big thing and PR pros must keep up.