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4 Social Media Use in PUBLIC RELATIONS Virginia Chi A large proportion of public relations and corporate communication practitioners claim to be primarily responsible for social media in organisations, according to a recent research on social media use. The findings show that in Australasia, 57.9% of PR and corporate communication practitioners say they take the lead in advising on, planning, and managing social media in their organisations, compared with just 14% who say marketing staff perform these roles. This finding, however, is not in line with that of an earlier research which shows that a higher proportion of social media programmes are managed by marketing (41% by marketing and 30% by corporate communications). The research shows that the types of social media most used in Australasia are highly consistent with those in the US and Europe. The social media used are social networks (72.9%); microblogging (55.2%); video sharing (51.1%); blogs (47.5%); photo sharing (23.5%); and wikis (20.4%). A much smaller number use podcasting and only a very small proportion use virtual worlds or vodcasting. Conducted between February and August 2011, the research is part of a global study undertaken in Europe, the US, and Asia Pacific. In the US, the research is coordinated by Professor Donald Wright from Boston University; and in Asia, it is coordinated by Professor Jim Macnamara from the University of Technology Sydney. Social Media has been high on the agenda of many PR and communications practitioners in recent years. The huge population engaged in social media and the growing influence of the media have become just too big to ignore. The latest figures released by Facebook show that their active users have reached 800 million. Among them, more than 350 million access the social network through their mobile devices. Hong Kong Public Relations Professionals Association (PRPA) has supported the research in view of the increasing significance of social media and the need for quantitative and qualitative research on the subject. Apart from our members, the research also collected data through online survey from members of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ), the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore (IPRS), and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in Australia. There were also in-depth interviews with social media specialists in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and in regional roles. Social Media Governance in Organisations The findings also show that almost half (46.7%) of the organisations do not monitor social media regularly. More than 38.4% monitor only in an ad hoc or occasional way and 8.3% do not monitor social media at all. A further 8% monitor only specific issues. This is broadly similar to the European finding. The research finds that more than 65 % of private and public sector organisations have no specific policies or guidelines in relation to social media use by employees. More than half the organisations surveyed (51.5%) allow only a few approved individuals to comment about the organisation and work-related issues in social media (e.g. organisation bloggers). A further 10.9% authorise only specialist social/digital media consultants to comment and 6.9% of organisations allow only senior management to comment in social media on behalf of the organisation. The findings also show that Singaporean and Hong Kong organisations are stricter in guiding or controlling employees social media use, while Australian and New Zealand organisations are more liberal. The lack of social media governance, as noted by Professor Mcnamara in the research report, exposes organisations to significant risks, including acciden-

9% of PR and corporate communication practitioners say they take the lead in advising on, planning, and managing social media in their organisations, compared with just 14% who say marketing staff

5 tal or intentional release of confidential information or trade secrets, public embarrassment through employees commenting inappropriately online or engaging with inappropriate content. Some may even lead to legal actions for defamation or damages. Social media governance as noted in the research report may comprise the following: Social media guidelines for communicating in blogs, Twitter, etc; Tools for monitoring stakeholder communication on the social web; Training programs for social media; and Key performance indicators for measuring social web activities (Zerfass et al., 2011, pp ). Objectives and control for social media communication PR and corporate communication practitioners surveyed cited their main reasons for using social media at work as another channel for marketing and promotion (82.2%), followed by twoway engagement with key stakeholders/citizens (70.3%). Only 40.6% said they use interactive social media for research and listening and just 20.3% use social media for collaboration. Professor Mcnamara noted in the report that this research indicates that, to a significant extent, Web 2.0 social media and networks continue to be used for one-way information transmission, although the use of social media is being widely cited as enabling of public relations for two-way interaction. In addition, Loss of control over messages and image building was cited as the major risk and challenge in using social media, nominated by 57.9% of practitioners, followed by the difficulty of meeting response time expectations (43.4%) and wasted staff time spent on social media (34.4%). Social media specialists echoed the view that social media could not be controlled and most argued that organisations should not attempt to control content and interaction, as this runs counter to authenticity and dialogue which are hallmarks of social media communication.

Social media governance as noted in the research report may comprise the following: Social media guidelines for communicating in blogs, Twitter, etc; Tools for monitoring stakeholder communication on

8 Mr John Chan Non-executive Director The Kowloon Motor Bus Co. (1933) Ltd.