2010 - Public Relations Society of America

social media. One focus of the article discussed the importance of being able to accurately
measure how social media impacts an organization. This study helps practitioners fulfill some of
this need, particularly within the Millennial market. Findings from this study can help public
relations practitioners allocate resources to social media tools that are most frequently being
interacted with by Millennials. For the companies/brands that were emphasized in the study,
further knowledge can be gleaned from public relations practitioners from those particular
organizations in regard to social media tool usage and their company/brand. Lessons in which
social media tools are being used and even which combination of tools is strongest for each
company/brand can be gathered and used for future allocation of time and resources.
Communication scholars of the early 1900s remember the days of media effects with
terms as “magic bullet theory” or the “hypodermic needle theory” to describe the times when
mass communication was assumed to have great effects on the public through one message
through one medium to the entire public (Windahl, Signitzer & Olson, 2009). Findings in this
study suggest that Millennials demand specific mediums to have their messages arrive to them.
When public relations practitioners do not take into consideration targeting their messages, those
messages fall upon the mass society as a blanket with only hopes of the targeting audience being
able to pick up the message. Millennials are unlike any other generation in the way they that they
have surrounded themselves with new ways to build relationships: through a communications
medium (Tapscott, 1996). Social media tools have provided new ways for key publics to build
and maintain relationships with companies/brands. Much work remains to be done in the
academic realm to further examine the variety of relationship dimensions that can all work to the
organizations’ advantage in building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with key
publics. However, the current study helps shed some light on how public relations practitioners
are using social media tools to effectively reach the Millennial audiences.
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