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Social media has become a prevalent part of public relations practice. Research and observation suggest young public relations practitioners are often the ones to perform social media tasks. Guided by literature on public relations roles, millennials, and pigeon-holing, this qualitative study explored whether new professionals are in fact relegated to being social media practitioners. Analysis revealed several factors, including agency billing rates, mentorship, and personal attributes, which impact the tasks new professionals are assigned....
Key Findings
- Several participants admitted that they used social media for one-way message dissemination, although they recognized that this might not be the best use of such platforms.
- Although many participants spent more time on social media than they did on traditional tasks, very few of them did social media exclusively.
- Many participants attributed their social media use to agency billing rates, rather than specialized expertise. Senior practitioners have higher billing rates that do not fit into the client budgets allocated for social media.
- Several young practitioners discussed the role of mentorship in their professional development. Those with strong mentors and advocates shared more diverse professional experience.
Research indicates juniors get social media role because of lower billing rates for social media functions. Iandicates PR agencies aand organizations haven't bought into the value of social media.