It is evident that most fields of career today are inseparable from technology, this can easily be observed seeing that most business today, including small/medium enterprises, all have some form of presence online, be it a website or a Facebook page. Public relations, being the most relational element in a business management model has also got onto the trend of using technology. Emails and social media are just some of the basic examples that show technology’s role in shifting the process of building and reinforcing relationships between businesses and the public in the vast world today.

This was precisely my thought process when I decided to take on Technology in Advertising and PR. The way that technology is guiding advertising and PR is undeniable. Technology made advertising and PR into what it is today, and I believe that, as more new technology is released into the world of consumers, the field of advertising and PR will also adapt and transform accordingly.

Acknowledging the role that technology plays in PR implored me to better equip myself as a public relations specialists in-the-making, and to be competent in this ever-changing field of PR. This is primarily the reason why I chose to take on CAP 105.

Aside from the perspectives that I fostered as a PR student in Grand Valley State University, I think part of my acknowledgement for the importance of technology in advertising and PR also stems from my past internship experiences.

In 2017, before I transferred to GVSU, I decided to apply for internships, in hopes to better understand the media business, as well as to get a taste of a full-time job in the fast-pace and ever-exciting media field.

And so I did, and it was not long before I was officially hired as a content intern for SAYS.com, a social new company in Malaysia. I can still recall moments from my internship, everything that I did was absolutely tough. But in hindsight, I really saw how technology eased me into the job. I was introduced to tools like slack, tweetdeck, adobe photoshop, and SimpleReach, all of which really helped me in getting my work done efficiently.

Of all the tools that I used in my four-month internship, the one that really made an impression on me was SimpleReach. It was the social analytic tool that my department used all of the time. We used it to check views, reads, mentions, reach, and clicks. It was very exciting to see how the work that you have created resonate and react with the public. I would always check the score on my published stories to recalibrate myself. I would give myself a pat in the back myself when I had a good social score on SimpleReach, and conversely, dissect the report to improve my next story, and set a goal for myself.

Through that internship, I learned that technology is far beyond a basic communication tool. If used right, it can be used to educate, discipline, and improve oneself.

I hope that through this course, I am able to be introduced to more tools, such as SimpleReach, that is used in advertising and PR. I also hope it provides me with the chance to refine my skills of using designing applications as it was the one thing that I did not get a lot of guidance on during my past internships. I also hope that this class will instill within me the curiosity for new technology, be more aware of technology news and updates, to be in the zeitgeist of this technologically advanced society.

Though I think that I have seen much of the wonders that technology brings to, not just the field of advertising and PR, but to the fast-growing world. I strongly believe that technology has the infinite capacity to evolve.

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Picture credits:

Sources from pexel and own collection

https://www.pexels.com/photo/blogging-blur-business-communication-261662/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-hand-fist-bump-1068523/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/apple-applications-apps-cell-phone-607812/