New Influencers

While reading for class this week, I came across this quote in Paul Gillin's book called The New Influencers, "The irony of the New PR is that it's not anything new, it's just the industry adapting to new forms of communications - which is something that our industry has always been able to do." This quote was stated by Jeremy Pepper, a big-time PR blogger. This quote made me stop and think. To many different types of fields and professions, the world of social media can seem intimidating, uncontrollable and appear to be someone of a risk to dive into. However, PR professionals viewed social media as an opportunity to better connect with target audiences and publics, which I find to be fascinating.


PR professionals dove head first into the world of social media and the majority of them have been extremely successful. It appeared Gillin felt the same way when he wrote, "The opportunity is to raise the profession's visibility at a time when market trends are clearly headed their way." People in the public relations field attempt to connect with customers, consumers and their audiences through establishing a social media presence. 


Another interesting point Gillin makes in this chapter is about communities on the Web. He states, "people will belong to dozens of them, some more important that others, but all receiving a slice of their attention." Gillin also states that, "there is no reason those communities can't be operated by corporations." This is a great point. Target audiences belong to professional and social communities and by creating a social media presence in these particular areas could benefit the relationship between the consumer and the corporation.


All in all, I have very much enjoyed this book. Each time I pick it up, I learn something new. The world of social media is constantly changing and growing, which for me, are reasons it is so intriguing. However, as a somewhat new blogger, this book helped me understand the in's and out's of creating a presence through the use of social media.