Title: The use of social media by journalists: guidelines for public relations practitioners

Authors: Agnieszka Żbikowska

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Cracow University of Economics, ul. Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to indicate how PR professionals should develop their activities in cooperation with journalists using social media and to give some guidelines which could have a positive impact on media relations and publicity. Recommendations for the PR industry are based on a comparative analysis of the research conducted among journalists in 2013-2014. The analysis leads to conclusion that social media do not play a decisive role in building relations between journalists and PR practitioners, but these media can facilitate the process of establishing relations and cooperating with journalists or make it more attractive. Social media are also perceived as a place where the outcomes of journalistic work are published and act as a source of information for editors. As such, they can be important elements in the publicity of an organisation. Therefore, PR professionals should focus their activity in social media more on a dialogue with a wide audience, and especially with consumers.

Keywords: publicity; public relations; media relations; journalism; social media usage; journalists; consumers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2016.078847

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2016 Vol.17 No.3, pp.299 - 312

Received: 02 May 2015
Accepted: 24 Nov 2015
Published online: 03 Sep 2016 *

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