The organization-public relationship goes social

As social media become increasingly popular, it is important for practitioners to understand how they are best used in public relations. This study surveyed the publics of a local, governmental organization to test the effectiveness of social media for relationship building. The results indicated that pages that are used primarily for one-way communication will not improve publics perceptions of the quality of their relationship with the organization. If practitioners wish to use their organizations Facebook page as a tool for relationship building, they must balance content that gratifies their publics need for information with content that intentionally promotes interactivity.