journal of digital research & publishing - The Sydney eScholarship ...

1 P M J O U R N A L O F D I G I T A L R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING
How social media is changing public
relation practices
By Katharina Otulak
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Abstract
With the rise of social networking and microblogging tools, public relation practitioners are given new
opportunities to pursue the form of relationships between their organization and the publics that had
long been favored by public relation scholars: a balanced relationship based on two­way symmetrical
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strategic framework for dialogic relationships is the central theory in this article. The framework
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mutuality, propinquity, empathy, risk and commitment.
The article examines Ford Motor Company’s social media strategy in the light of the aforementioned
framework by Kent and Taylor with the help of a prominent case study. Ford’s efforts show that organizations
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Keywords
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As Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company’s Head of Social Media, was logging into his
Twitter account early in the morning on 10 December 2008, he was alarmed to discover
a number of comments criticizing Ford for allegedly trying to shut down a fan website,
TheRangerStation.com. Ford’s legal department seemed to have sent a letter to Jim Oakes,
the owner of the website, to *(>>%"8%>&6+%&*$6%L*&_&
Immediate Release Interview 2008). Not knowing what to do, Jim Oakes had posted
his dilemma to the The Ranger Stations’ user forums. Within minutes, angry comments
started to come in and the message that Ford was shutting down a dedicated fan website
was spread though other fan sites and Twitter (Ploof 2008).
Scott Monty immediately replied to the angry Twitter messages, saying he was looking
into the matter. He investigated the case and within hours he reported that Ford’s lawyers
believed the site was selling counterfeit goods. He persuaded Ford’s lawyers to withdraw
the shutdown request if the site would halt the sales. By the end of the day, he could
announce via Twitter that the dispute had been resolved (Ploof 2008).
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