Talkshow Social Media for Public Relations

Talkshow ‘Social Media for Public Relations’ was attended by 30 professionals from various companies

To provide knowledge for the use of social media to optimize the function of public relation, FISIP UPH Department of Communication, held a talk show entitled ?Social Media for Public Relations? in Meritus Hotel, Surabaya. This event took place on June 21, 2014 and was attended by 30 professionals from various companies.

Talkshow?s speaker, Edhy Aruman, Chairman of BPP PERHUMAS conveyed the topic of PR before and on the social media era. The second speaker, Dr. Deborah N. Simorangkir, a lecturer of Communication Department UPH delivered the topic of internet and the implications for PR practitioners.

In the second session, Dr. Deborah discussed the internet as an agent of transparency. For example, with a company?s website, various informations about the company can be publicly known. Now, in the era of web 2.0, website is no longer a one way communication device but an interactive one. When someone dislikes a company?s  product, he could do a direct complaint through facebook or twitter. The viral effects of communication is extremely fast. Therefore, a website will encourage companies to provide good services as well.  As a consequence of the internet , the transparency of information needs to be controlled. This is one of our homeworks. The information published on a company?s website or social media must be managed properly. It can?t be managed by part time or merely by a third party. Rather it should be monitored by the top management or public relations. Hence, PR should have the right strategies in managing the website and social media.

In a Q & A session, participants were interested to ask about the strategies to face reportes as well as how to choose and utilize social media for corporate communications. Responding to these questions, Edhy explained that PR should seek a good relationship with the mainstream media such as newspaper, TV and radio and also with the online media users such as buzzer, bloggers and others. While Deborah added that in the selection of social media for the company, there?s no harm in using a variety of social media that is currently booming. Such as facebook, twitter, instagram and other social media that was much loved by the public. As for the minimum, we could utilize facebook and twitter. Because these two is the most widely used social media in our society currently.

At the end of session, participants were explained about UPH Distance Learning Program, concentrating on Public Relations recently launched by UPH. This program must be able to answer the needs of professionals whose works were involved with communications or marketing activities, such as PR, Sales, HRD, and other areas within the company. The program will begin in August 2014 (rh/seli)

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