ABSTRACT
Technology has reshaped the practice of public relations in the last fifteen years in terms of the channels of communication available to the industry. While PR professionals and scholars tend to regard this as unquestionably positive, and while billions of people have been empowered by social media interactions among themselves, we argue in this chapter that most organisations are not yet realising the full communicative potential offered by digital and social media. Much online content is really just advertising or marketing, rather than a manifestation of new ways of doing sophisticated public relations. Key to effective use of technology in PR is that organisations should find ways of developing real engagement with their online audiences, but much organisational messaging remains unidirectional. Social media influencers have been extensively used in PR campaigns, but trust in them is now beginning to decline as we become increasingly aware that much of their content is paid for by brands and companies.
