The Impact of Social Media on the PR Industry [Infographic]

I have finally found some time to write this blog post! I’ve been planning it since my dissertation results came out end of July; at first I wanted to just present the survey findings in a text form with lots of explanations, but then I thought, no, an infographic would be perfect. And here it is - my first infographic! It shows in a nice visual way what I found from the survey I conducted with PR professionals earlier this year.

In addition to the online questionnaire I also carried out interviews with PR pros from the UK, some of which I will post soon. So, stay tuned! (update: here's the first interview with Heather Yaxley.)

As for the dissertation, now it’s time to brag a little bit :P I was very happy about my result and the positive feedback I got – my mark was 75%, or a First as it’s called in the UK (for the ones unfamiliar with the UK grading system, here’s a simple grade chart). I consider this an achievement, first because I don’t have much practical experience in Public Relations (or more precisely, didn’t have at the time), and second because I am not native in the language I wrote the dissertation in – English, which is just another foreign language for me.

As happy as I am, I still have a second dissertation to write and one more term back in Germany to finally finish my entire BA degree in International Business. Yes, I know how complicated it sounds…

So, getting to the point, below you’ll find the results of the online survey I conducted for the dissertation, which was entirely targeted at PR/Communications professionals (I have not included the participants’ profiling; however if you wish to have a look, just get in touch with me). Once again I would like to thank all survey (and interview) participants. I admit gathering enough questionnaire responses was one of the major difficulties of the project.

Again, the infographic below only shows a summary of the findings, the actual results are much more detailed and in-depth as all survey questions not only had pre-determined answer options, but also open-ended questions asking for explanations, more details and opinions. Nevertheless, the following should still give you some food for thought.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the findings as well as some feedback on the infographic design.

(Click on the infographic for a larger view)

Want to know more about social media’s impact on PR?

Get the book here. The research was published as a book called "Social Media and the Rebirth of PR". Read it now!