Strategic Communication and Emerging Media

One of the most prevalent forms of emerging media popular in society today is social media. Webster Dictionary defines social media as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking.” Social media has become a new dimension to create and build relationships with a large audience of people in a small amount of time without face to face communication. Social media is a great tool for organizations to use to communicate a message to a large audience of people in a short amount of time. As mentioned in the Hubspot publication How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success , the viral nature of social media makes it a critical tool for strategic communications professionals to use to promote the image of their organization. They are able to reach a large amount of audience members with each message in a short amount of time. Social media also gives organizations the opportunity to reach social influencers who ca

As I mentioned in my previous post, opinion leaders, also known as social influencers, are beneficial to utilize when trying to capture the Millennial and post-Millennial generations. By using opinion leaders on emerging media platforms, such as social media and blogs, a company can reach a larger audience and influence more people to invest in their product or service. In order to effectively utilize opinion leaders on digital platforms, we need to analyze what an opinion leader is, why their opinions matter, and who are the opinion leaders that matter to your company. According to Business Dictionary, opinion leaders are “influential members of a community, group, or society who others turn to for advice, opinions, and views.” These people are not necessarily famous or wealthy, but they are influential in their communities and have a large follower base. Opinion leaders can also be defined in relation to the DIffusions of Innovations theory developed by Everett Roger

In today's ever-changing society with evolving technology and communication channels, it can be difficult to get an understanding of, and learn to apply, emerging media while simultaneously trying to capture and keep the attention of the upcoming generations. To accomplish this goal, one must first start with an analysis of the upcoming generations and the emerging media that is growing up with the members of this generation. Let’s start with an analysis of the new “asset-light” generation. One important question that should be examined before analyzing who is in the “asset-light generation” is: why is the upcoming generation so important to capture anyway? According to Pew Research Center (2018), the Millennial generation is the largest generation in the workforce. As of 2017, the Millennial and post-Millennial generations comprised 40% of the workforce in the United States, and that number is expected to continue to grow. This means that the younger generations have