As daunting as it is, Social media runs the world.

Social media has given people the impression that silence is disloyalty. #BlackLivesMatter is a campaign formed in 2013.It was formed in the United States. Find more information here https://blacklivesmatter.com. #BlackLivesMatter had people talking about the ill treatment of black people globally through social media.

Advantages of a Public relations professional using social media to address #BlackLivesMatter

Social media is very impactful. It is good place for Public relations professionals to address #BlackLivesMatter. The Public relations professionals becomes an advocate for the campaign encouraging people to get involved in the campaign. #BlackLivesMatter can reach as many people as it can through post sharing in different social media platforms. It can gain a large audience. The public goes to social media to hear the story of #BlackLivesMatter and it can get more influencers who will support, donate and engage in their events . The Public relations professional can communicate directly with supporters or the whole community. Social Media also gives the PR practitioner the upper hand in terms of making it easy for him/her to focus on the public. 

Disadvantages of a PR professional using social media to address #BlackLivesMatter.

However, there are things the PR professional cannot control. Such as negative comments or feedback, see https://rdcu.be/cljLV. For example, I saw one comment on Facebook where the person was saying it wasn’t fair for the campaign to say Black lives matter, the campaign must have been All lives matter. Another article said the campaign was racist. Surprisingly this comment got about 10000 to 16000 likes. Social media needs the PR professional to be available all time to give information and that is time consuming. There can be uncontrolled exposure.  Misinformation can spread much quickly through post sharing.

Recommendations

I think #BlackLivesMatter is a success, but it could be more successful if the PR practitioner was more available to interact with the audience, for example comment on posts that give out untrue information. They also need to control exposure efficiently. The PR practitioner also need to know real-time crises management as much as social media is time consuming, you need to be on alert all the time in case a crisis surface. Some people buy plants and never water them, they leave them to die that’s what PR professionals do. They build relations and never manage which is their downfall. They should manage each relation they build by creating content and answering the audiences question on #BlackLivesMatter.