Public Relations — The Tools for Unilateral Communication and Dialogue on the Internet

The development of technology and IT tools have brought about an extraordinary acceleration of the public relations branch around the whole world. We live in the times of revolution in communication, in which one year is whole eternity. Messages, the speed of their publication, the tools are changing. The sender and the recipient, who have become used to the dynamics of the message and the fact that it is and will be distributed without spatial and temporal limitations, are changing too. Netscape browser, wp.pl, the era of Wikipedia, Facebook, dynamically developing YouTube, or Nasza Klasa, Twitter and a whole range of other tools from the scope of social media, as well as monitoring systems¹ - these are just chosen stages, or as others think, milestones in the pursuit of novelty and new forms of distribution of information. It is in times like these that public relations experts have to create, send and receive messages. Back at the end of 1990’s hardly anyone expected that such changes could take place. It is also hard to predict what we will see in a few, or a dozen years. One thing is certain, namely, that changes will be taking place and will be even faster than now.

As the currently modern media already have a significant impact on voting decisions, or social transformation, the process is analysed and studied in detail. Moreover, what is subject to research is the question whether communication on the Internet should be based on mass communication, or rather on an individual approach. Private individuals make decisions based on their own needs, but companies have to analyse many factors that influence final decisions concerning the choice of tools, or the very decision concerning communication. Among these factors there are: scope, availability of tools, even the branch in which a company is active.

This article includes a presentation of chosen tools used in the process of unilateral communication with the environment, but also tools used for dialogue. Unilateral communication discussed in this article doesn’t assume a response from the recipient, apart from a possible decision to take action in form of purchase, or clicking. At the same time dialogue gives the opportunity to interact, exchange thoughts and ideas, direct assessment. Moreover, the benefits from the process of conducting dialogue online, as well as the barriers hampering the dialogue will be presented. Also, the directions of changes taking place in association with the dynamic development of online communication tools and processes will be presented.