Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

Social media adoption among Turkish public relations professionals:

A survey of practitioners夽
Ozlem Alikilic ∗ , Umit Atabek
Public Relations and Advertising Department, Yaşar University, Selcuk Yasar Kampus, Universite Cad. No. 35-37 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Social media is emerging as an important public relations tool and empowers two way sym-
Received 6 June 2011 metrical communications with publics and stakeholders. PR professionals are confronted
Received in revised form 26 October 2011 with the swift rise of social media that forces practitioners to pay due and timely attention.
Accepted 8 November 2011
They are not only excited about utilizing these tools together with conventional media,
but are also excited about speaking directly to their publics and stakeholders without the
Keywords:
involvement of any intermediaries. Through the perspective of UTAUT model, this paper
Social media
Adoption of social media
examines the social media adoption of PR professionals in Turkey and how they employ
Public relations social media tools both internally and externally. We employed a web-based questionnaire
Turkey to 126 PR professionals who are members of the Turkish Public Relations Association. Find-
ings reveal that Turkish PR professionals highly appreciate the importance of social media
in recent PR practice. However, not all social media tools are equally adopted; e-mail is the
most, and virtual world applications are the least adopted social media. It is also found that
in the future, social networks are expected to be the most important social media, while
corporate web sites get the second and mobile phone (PDA) applications get the third rank.

© 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

As a dynamic and emerging country, Turkey is a unique “social media lover” when compared with other countries in the
region. In 2011, 45% of the Turkish population can access the Internet, and this sums up to 35 million people (Internet World
Stats, 2011). This Internet population makes Turkey the fifth largest in Europe and the second largest in Eastern Europe after
the Russian Federation. Turkey’s relatively high Internet access ratio reveals how social media can drastically affect both
social life and business. Based on the data from Comscore (2009), Internet users in Turkey – spending an average of 32 h
for surfing and viewing an average of 3044 pages of online content per month – were also found to be the most engaged
users among Europe (Comscore, 2009). Turkey has the third largest population of Facebook users in the world. Following
Facebook, other most popular social media platforms are “Twitter” and “Netlog” (a local social network service). Recently,
personal blogs have also gained popularity. Favorite blog atmospheres in Turkey are: “Blogspot.com”, “Wordpress.com” and
the local platform “Blogcu.com”. Another trend that will grow even more in the near future is Turkey’s mobile phone market.
Mobile penetration is larger than Internet penetration which means that people increasingly access social networks from
mobile phones as well. Although some web sites have been banned for access by local court decisions, it is generally agreed

夽 A draft version of this paper with preliminary survey results was presented in EUPRERA Spring Symposium 2011 in Lisbon-Portugal. The authors wish
to thank symposium participants for their valuable contributions.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 232 411 52 38; fax: +90 232 411 50 20.
E-mail addresses: ozlem.alikilic@gmail.com, ozlem.alikilic@yasar.edu.tr (O. Alikilic), umit.atabek@yasar.edu.tr (U. Atabek).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.11.002
 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63 57

that Turkey will be able to revise its legislations accordingly and continue to open up to this new form of communications
in a more liberal way.
Social media is creating an entirely new set of influencers with a completely different mechanism for generating, collecting
and sharing information, and it is also reforming the daily routines of how people generate and contribute content (Solis &
Breakenridge, 2009). It also forces traditional media to evolve and integrate itself. These new dynamics have enlightened
public relations professionals, and hence they can effectively initiate relationships with people directly through online
conversations.
Social media has also changed the way businesses communicate with their stakeholders and the way publics affect the
decisions of their peers. Much of this engagement is driven by the usage of blogs, social networks and other social media
sites which maintain both users’ and corporations’ attention. Traditional public relations tools and tactics that converged
with social media would give a real understanding of publics and lead a better engagement.
We believe that there are certainly great online public relations and integrated marketing communications opportunities
in reaching these 35 million Internet users in Turkey who are eagerly engaged with the social media. Corporations, executives
and public relations professionals are responding to social media with excitement.
The Internet and social media tools in Turkey, like social networks, blogs and forums, have revolutionized the dynamics of
public relations, and like traditional media, social media might be one of the major tools used in the field of public relations.
While mainstream media still plays a vital role in the dissemination of messages, social media has created new disseminators
which replace the old media as it has existed for many years.
Many articles and research topics regarding the practical value of social media in public relations have increased around
the globe (Sallot, Porter, & Alzuru-Acosta, 2004; Curtis, Edwards, Fraser, Gudelsky, Holmquist, Thornton, & Sweetser, 2010;
Diga & Kelleher, 2009; Jin & Liu, 2010; Kelleher, 2009; Kitchen & Panopoulos, 2010; Porter, Sweetser, Chung, & Kim, 2007;
Solis & Breakenridge, 2009; Steyn, Sangari, Pitt, Parent, & Berthon, 2010; Taylor & Kent, 2010; Toledano, 2010; Tomasello,
Lee & Baer, 2009; Venter, 2010). However, there is still a fundamental need for research in Turkey regarding public relations
professionals’ adoption of social media and their opinions about these tools for professional activities. The rationale for our
study is based on the increased use of the Internet and social media platforms at work in Turkey and the accompanying rise
in interest by public relations professionals to use these applications both internally and externally.
An e-mail invitation was sent to all members of the Turkish Public Relations Association (TUHID) to participate in a
web-based online survey; they were asked to complete a web-based questionnaire in January 2011. The authors developed
a web-based survey instrument which asks the respondents to identify their social media usage and how much they adopt
social media in professional activities. This study seeks to provide an academic baseline for public relations professionals’
adoption of social media and their opinions about these tools both for industry and their companies. Social media tools
which have been researched in this study are: Social networks, blogs, forums and newsgroups, podcasts, virtual worlds,
instant messaging, video sharing, photo sharing, wikis, game applications, PDAs and social bookmarking. We have also
added corporate web sites, intranet and electronic mail to our research since they form and foster direct communications
and create engagement with publics. In addition to determining practitioners’ use of and adoption of social media, we aimed
to determine whether a relationship between demographic profile among PR professionals and social media adoption could
be established.

2. User acceptance models

The presence of innovation based on online technologies has expanded dramatically. Internet related communication
technologies let corporations communicate with their publics effectively and efficiently. Researches on individual acceptance
of new technologies are generally consistent with individual reactions to a new technology. There is a variety of theoretical
perspectives, and many studies have addressed individual adoption of new technologies. Most of them have studied how
and why individuals adopt new information technologies (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003: 427).
Within this broad research perspective, they mostly focus on explaining acceptance and adoption of new technologies
and basically stem from the “uses and gratifications” perspective. Information technology acceptance research has yielded
many models. Venkatesh et al. (2003) reviewed eight models which employed technology adoption models in their studies.
According to their study, there are two main perceptions which are the most influential predictors of adoption. These
perceptions have been determined to have significant impact on adoption: “Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of
Use” (Hong & Tam, 2006: 165). Popular perspectives which are employed for research on adoption of new technologies are
summarized below:
Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw (1989) applied the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to individual acceptance of technology.
Davis also (1989) designed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to predict information technology acceptance and usage
at work. He applied the theory of Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) about reasoned action to show that beliefs influence the attitudes
which lead to intentions (Lederer, Maupin, Sena, & Zhuang, 2000). The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is an extension of
the Theory of Reasoned Action. TPB traces attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control to an underlying
foundation of beliefs about behavior (Ajzen, 1991: 206). Mathieson (1991: 173) compared TAM and TPB, both of which
predict an individual’s intention to use an information system. There is also a combined model which is called the Combined
TAM and TPB. This model combines the predictors of TAM and TPB and makes the model hybrid (Venkatesh et al., 2003).
Rogers (1995) introduced the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT). According to IDT, if an innovation (idea, product, system
58 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63

or process) is considered by members of any social system to be useful, it will be adopted. Rogers (1995: 23) noted that
innovations that possess greater relative advantage have a more rapid rate of adoption. With a few exceptions, the main
focus of these perspectives has been confined to understanding adoption processes within organizational settings (Hong
& Tam, 2006), where new technology has been regarded as a functional tool to improve business performance. In addition
to this approach, Hong and Tam (2006) proposed the Multipurpose Information Appliances Adoption Model to understand
individual adoption of innovations.
On the other hand, Venkatesh et al. (2003) have yielded the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). This
model provides the theoretical basis for our research. It integrated previously established models on individual acceptance
of information technology into a unified theoretical model which captures the essential elements of previously established
ones.
Venkatesh et al. (2003: 427) have indentified three main features regarding the acceptance and use of information
technologies. These are (1) individual reactions to using information technology; (2) intentions to use information technology
and (3) actual use of information technology. Based on an assumption that public relations professionals accept social media
as new technology, we may trace these three phases in their social media acceptance process. In their research, Curtis et al.
(2003) have employed the UTAUT perspective to social media usage in public relations for the first time. They indentified
seven UTAUT factors which are reported to explain the 68.7% variance; these factors have also been the basis for our research
design.

3. Method

This study seeks to provide information from public relations practitioners for their adoption of social media and their
opinions about adopting social media tools for public relations functions.
The data for the survey were collected through the use of an online questionnaire made available by Feedbackfarm.com
in January and February 2011. First, an e-mail message was sent to all 158 members of TUHID to participate in an online
survey. E-mail invitations were sent by the association secretariat that stated TUHID’s formal support for this research. At
the earlier phase, the response rate was quite low. Kent, Taylor, and Turcilo (2006) cited that Van Ruler and Lange de (2003)
in the Netherlands; Karadjov, Kim, and Karavasilev (2000) in Bulgaria and Wu and Taylor (2003) in Taiwan had common
concerns about low response rates in public relations research. In addition, Wu and Taylor (2003: 475) said that due to
the low response rate, they had followed Kim and Hon’s suggestion that employs additional supportive actions such as
follow-up calls and managing interpersonal relationships. In this study, we have also followed the same suggestion and
have employed additional support. We monitored TUHID members’ contact list in order to find any lack of updates. Almost
30% of contact details in the member list were not updated. New contact details were gathered, and a second request was sent
to each member via e-mail. Follow-up calls were carried out for more questionnaire completion. These attempts increased
the response rate. A total of 126 respondents completed the survey. This response rate has acceptable margins for similar
surveys (Karadjov et al., 2000; Kent et al., 2006; Venter, 2010; Wu & Taylor, 2003). The authors believe that some significant
conclusions can be drawn from these findings.

3.1. Sample

The research uses a convenience sample of public relations practitioners who are members of the TUHID. The reason for
selecting this group of practitioners was that participants in an association are those who care about their professional iden-
tity and tend to be familiar with the industry. The sampling frame included both large and small organizations which were
identified from the member list of the association. The participants comprised of a wide range of people from international
public relations firms, local firms, the business, non-profit and government sectors, and boutique public relations firms. 126
TUHID members completed the online questionnaire. This sample size is fairly adequate to represent the general population
of 162 TUHID members.

3.2. Research development

This research used Eyrich, Padman, and Sweetser’s (2008) questions and improved them with additional questions which
were developed by the authors to find out which social media tool is mostly used in corresponding to specific public relations
functions. The questionnaire has employed Gillin’s (2008), Eyrich, et al.’s (2008) and Curtis, et al. (2010) social media tools
list. Practitioners’ opinions and attitudes towards social media section were adapted from Toledano’s (2010) study. On
the other hand, authors developed another special section to find out which social media tool is mostly used for internal
communications. The survey had the following major sections:
Socio-demographic questions are about the respondent’s age, gender, level of education and field of education. There
were four items developed to identify the participants’ general demographic information. The section “working conditions”
is the second section of the survey. There were five items listed: Type of organization and functional area (from full service-
international to local or boutique PR agency), working position, work experience (seniority) and organization size.
A special section was developed to reveal the current Internet and social media accessibility at work. This section is
specially designed to explore any institutional or corporate intervention to access online content in Turkey. Some companies
 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63 59

in Turkey may tend to see social media as a “leisure time” tool rather than an effective communication tool for PR purposes.
The government and legislatives support these tendencies by intervening with some Internet sites and their accessibility.
There are four questions developed to identify the respondent’s actual Internet and social media accessibility at work.
The section “Use and Adaptation” contained six items which were aimed to determine the most prevalent social media
tools in the PR industry: the practitioners’ use, adaptation and their tendencies of social media. In this section, some items
were also designed to seek whether the corporations use social media for internal communications or not. Ratings on a 1–5
Likert scale allowed the respondent to indicate the extent.
Questions 14 and 15 are to reveal the extent to which public relations practitioners use social media tools. One item
focused on the popularity and the frequency of social media tools during external public relations work. The purpose of the
other item was to reveal the popularity and frequency of social media tools during internal public relations work.
In this study, authors have introduced a new item based on public relations functions that aims to determine the most
preferred social media tools in any public relations’ publics. 10 sub–categories were determined from a common platform
based on literature (Argenti, 2009; Cornelissen, 2008; Erdogan, 2008; Giannini, 2010; Kelleher, 2007; Seitel, 2011; Tench
& Yeomans, 2006; Wilcox & Cameron, 2009; Wilcox, Cameron, Reber, & Shin, 2011; Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman, & Toth,
2009). These categories were media relations, internal relations, customer relations, investor relations, government relations,
community relations and international public relations, with an addition of three supportive functions including corporate
communications, social responsibility and crisis communication.
The remaining two items are for revealing the prevalence of social media usage in the PR industry and adoption of
practitioners. One item asked the extent to which the respondent showed an overall perception of social media being used
in the industry (Eyrich et al., 2008). The second item asked the respondent’s personal adoption and future adoption in the
PR industry in Turkey. This item was used on a 1–5 scale from “the lowest” to “the highest”. The scales were modified from
Lederer et al.’s (2000: 273) study that measured from a 1–7 scale.

4. Findings

4.1. RQ 1: which social media tool is thought to be the most commonly used in Turkish PR industry?

RQ 1 asked how often and how effectively Turkish PR professionals believe they have used social media in their work.
Table 1 lists the 14 social media tools which were adopted from Eyrich et al.’s (2008) study. In this era of the Internet and
Web 2.0, Turkish PR professionals report that they are most commonly using e-mails (17.2%), social networks (14.6%) and
corporate web sites (14.6%) for their public relations efforts. The least commonly used social media tool is the virtual world
applications. On the other hand, the respondents showed higher involvement in using e-mails (25.6%) for internal public
relations.

4.2. RQ 2: are there differences in the adoption of social media based on gender, age, education and seniority?

35 of the respondents were male (33.7%) and 69 respondents were female (66.3%). Our data shows predominance of
women in the public relations field; many scholars had found the same dominancy in their findings (Curtis et al., 2010; Diga
& Kelleher, 2009; Eyrich et al., 2008; Kitchen & Panopoulos, 2010; Van Ruler & Lange de, 2003). Respondents’ ages ranged
from 21 to 66 years of age (mean = 36.8). The mean number of years in their current job was 6.71 years, and the mean of total
professional years was 13.45. However, the mean of years in their current job and the mean of total years in the profession
were quite lower for women (respectively, 5.21 and 11.61) than men (respectively, 9.55 and 17.28). This may indicate that

Table 1
Use of social media for public relations activities.

Social media %

Electronic mail 17.2

Corporate web sites 14.6
Social networks 14.6
Video and photo sharing 10.6
Blogs 9.9
Forum/news groups 8.4
Instant messaging 7.3
Intranet 5.7
PDAs 3.1
Game applications 2.0
Podcast 1.7
Wikis 1.7
Social bookmarking 1.6
Virtual worlds 1.6

Total respondents 100

60 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63

Table 2
Education levels of Turkish PR professionals.

Education %

2 Year vocational 11.3

Bachelor of science 62.1
Graduate (Master degree) 21.0
PhD 5.6

Total 100.0

Turkish women in the field of public relations have had less professional experience due to prior gender discrimination
(Table 2).
11.3% of the respondents have a two-year diploma (university vocational schools) and 62.1% of the respondents have a
four-year university diploma, while 21% of the respondents have a Masters degree and 5.6% of the respondents have a PhD
degree. Findings reveal that the educational background of the respondents in the PR sector is higher when compared to other
professions in Turkey. On the other hand, while 66.7% of the respondents graduated from public relations, communication
or any other relevant department, 33.4% of the respondents graduated from departments not related to public relations or
communication. These disciplines range from fine arts, design and social sciences to business, management engineering and
natural and applied sciences. This is consonant with many worldwide researches that were cited in Venter’s (2010: 283)
study.
Results reveal that age is negatively correlated with opinions about the importance and effectiveness of social media.
The belief that social media is increasingly important and effective in corporate communication is negatively correlated
with the age of PR professionals (Spearman’s rho = −0.263, p = 0.01). Additionally, the belief that social media is effective in
marketing communication is also negatively correlated with the age of PR professionals (Spearman’s rho = −0.288, p = 0.01).
These results show that older PR professionals are more pessimistic about social media effectiveness than younger PR profes-
sionals; however, correlation between the age and social media optimism is not very high. There have been no correlations
observed for social media in terms of gender and education. However, opinions on the effectiveness of social media on corpo-
rate communication (Spearman’s rho = −0.295, p = 0.01) and marketing communication (Spearman’s rho = −0.236, p = 0.01)
also negatively correlate with the total years in the profession (seniority), which can be attributed to the increase in the
participants’ age.

4.3. RQ 3: does adoption of social media vary based on the organization type?

As shown in Table 3, most TUHID members are from national public relations agencies (37.1%). Organizational size
(number of people working in the agency/department) varied widely (min = 2, max = 135, mean = 21.6, SD = 25.5). How-
ever, in terms of optimistic opinions about social media, there were no correlations observed with organizational size or
organizational type.

4.4. RQ 4: how PR practitioners in Turkey are adopting social media into their various publics and other PR functions?

Regarding various publics and public relations functions, respondents have shown good understanding of public relations
functions in relation to their proper social media choices. Each public relations function is properly matched with social media
tools as expected. As consonant with Table 1, e-mail is the most commonly used tool (n = 699), and it is conceived primarily
as an internal communication (15%), media relations (14%) and investor relations (13.7%). Similarly, video and photo sharing
is commonly used for media relations (19.9%), and instant messaging is commonly used for internal communication (21.8%)
(Table 4).

Table 3
Distribution based on organization type.

Organization type %

National PR Agency 37.1

PR department/corporate communication department/marketing department in national corporations 19.0
International PR agency 11.2
PR department/corporate communication department/marketing department in international corporations 9.5
Boutique/specialty PR agency 7.8
Freelance 6.0
Others 5.2
Digital agency 4.3

Total 100.0
 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63 61

Table 4
Social media usage according to PR functions.

Social media tools Media Internal Customer Investor Social Crisis Community Government International Corporate n
relations comm. relations relations respons. comm. relations relations (%) relations (%) comm. (%)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Blog 18.4 8.2 12 3.2 14.6 10.1 13.3 0.6 1.9 17.7 158
Electronic mail 14 15 13.7 5.7 8.9 9.4 8.6 6.3 5.9 12.4 699
Intranet 7.3 40.6 9.4 3.1 4.2 9.4 4.2 1 3.1 17.7 96
Podcast 19 16.5 12.7 1.3 12.7 5.1 6.3 2.5 8.9 15.2 79
Video and photo 19.9 17.8 16.2 3.3 11.6 5.4 7.9 1.2 3.7 12.9 241
sharing
Instant messaging 17.7 21.8 19.7 2.7 8.2 7.5 5.4 2 3.4 11.6 147
Wikis 17.6 9.5 18.9 1.4 13.5 5.4 13.5 0 2.7 17.6 74
Social networks 14.4 12.7 14.1 4.6 14.4 8.8 10.6 2.8 4.2 13.4 284
Virtual worlds 21.7 8.7 17.4 8.7 13 4.3 4.3 4.3 0 17.4 23
Game applications 16.7 20.8 33.3 4.2 4.2 0 8.3 0 4.2 8.3 24
PDAs 14.9 19.4 23.9 6 6 7.5 6 1.5 6 9 67
Social 13.3 13.3 12 8 12 9.3 12 4 5.3 10.7 75
bookmarking
Forum/news 19.9 9.6 11.4 6.6 11.4 10.8 9 5.4 6.6 9 166
groups
Corporate web 13.2 9.3 14.5 8.5 9.9 7.2 9.9 7.4 6.4 13.6 484
Sites

4.5. RQ 5: how PR professionals consider that they are adapted to certain social media?

PR professionals consider that they are most adapted to e-mail (mean = 4.66) and least adopted to virtual world appli-
cations (mean = 2.25). The second most adopted social media is corporate web sites (mean = 4.47) and the third is social
networks (mean = 3.69). It is not surprising why e-mail ranks as the most adapted tool among PR professionals when we
consider e-mail as one of the earliest Internet services. The same applies to corporate web sites as well; the Web is the
earliest and the most known Internet service. Adaptation to social networks is reported to be the third; this shows that
Turkish PR professionals have already conceived the importance of social media as a PR tool.

4.6. RQ 6: What are the PR practitioners’ opinions and attitudes towards the impact of social media in PR industry?

PR professionals in Turkey believe that the most important social media in the future of public relations will be social
networks (mean = 4.63). The second will be corporate web sites (mean = 4.54) and the third will be PDA (personal digital
assistant) applications (mean = 4.44). The positive prospects for PDA applications are quite noteworthy; mobile media is
expected to be a very important in the future. Furthermore, the importance of e-mail is expected to decrease slightly,
moving from number one position today to fourth place (mean = 4.43) in the future.
Turkish PR professionals strongly believe that social media will improve qualifications regarding the profession
(mean = 4.23). They also believe that due to the involvement of social media, the organizational structure of PR agencies
(mean = 3.98) and ethical codes of PR practices (mean = 3.71) will change in the future. They reported slightly positive views
about the economic efficiency of social media (mean = 3.64). This finding shows that PR professionals do not strongly believe
that social media decreases the budget and increases economic efficiency of PR activities. On the other hand, none of these
attitudes are found to be correlated with either gender or organization type.

5. Limitations

The first limitation is the operational population from which a sample had been drawn. Although there is a significant
number of PR practitioners in Turkey who are involved professionally in the sector, the number of responses was quite
low. This was due to the fact that the authors had decided to choose the sample group from the members of the National
Public Relations Association. Therefore, the response rate would not meet the expectations. There are many factors to be
considered. Efforts have been made to identify factors which decrease participation and membership engagement.
One of the factors would be “high cost of membership”. When compared to the membership fees of any other related
association in Turkey, TUHID membership fee seems to be much higher, and this may prevent PR practitioners to apply. The
individual membership fee is 1000 TL and the annual membership fee is 500 TL; the total fee for a new member is 1500 TL
(aprox.700 Euro) (TUHID, 2011). When compared to the membership fees of other Turkish NGOs, National Public Relations
Association’s membership fee exceeds the average. For instance, another strategic communication association in Turkey is
“International Advertising Association Turkey” (IAA Turkey). Its annual membership fee is only 250 TL (aprox.100 Euro) (Iaa
Turkey, 2011). IAA Turkey also welcomes many disciplines across the full spectrum, ranging from advertisers and media
companies to agencies and direct marketing firms – as well as individual practitioners. However, the registration fee is less
than TUHID. When we compare TUHID’s membership fee on an international basis, we can see that EUPRERA’s (European
62 O. Alikilic, U. Atabek / Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 56–63

Public Relations Education and Research Association) membership fee is only 110 Euro (Euprera, 2011). This comparison
might demonstrate why TUHID members are not covering the whole population of PR professionals in Turkey.
Another factor would be “decreasing engagement”. The authors believe that the national PR association may not have used
two way symmetrical communications in discussing this survey with members. Normally TUHID have supported authors
in sending invitation e-mails to its members to fill the online questionnaire. Thus, authors made many phone calls and sent
e-mails to the association to ask for their contribution to foster symmetrical communication with their members. However,
the engagement rate did not support the research very much.
The third factor would be “non-updated member information”. When the response rate did not meet the authors’ expec-
tations, they tracked the members’ contact information record from the official web site and compared existing contact
information with the updates. Additional primary data were collected to compare the members’ existing information and
the actual ones. It has been revealed that more than 30% of TUHID members’ contact information had been completely
changed. This may show why the response rate did not meet the expectations.
The second limitation was the “incompatibility between places” where the research was held. A huge majority of PR
professionals live in Istanbul. Membership information details have also showed that majority of TUHID members work in
Istanbul. However, it would not be easy for the researchers to manage the research from the city of Izmir. The authors believe
that if this research would have been managed from Istanbul, the engagement rate would have been higher.

6. Discussion

Despite the moderately low response rate, this study successfully aims to provide an insight on the social media practices
of public relations in Turkey. On the other hand, the authors believe that this study will leverage new researches for future
exploration. A follow-up study in the near future may determine whether awareness and the use of social media have
increased. It can be suggested that “face to face” interviews could be used as another research instrument for such future
studies.
This study also shows that Turkish practitioners are highly aware of the public relations functions. Another implication
for PR practitioners is that social media awareness has been raised, and in the near future, their intentions to use social media
for internal and external public relations would increase. The PR professionals reported fairly positive perceptions of social
media’s effectiveness. They might find creative solutions for integrating social media in their public relations activities.
There may be new business opportunities for PR practitioners and also for PR agencies. Survey results indicate that digital
agencies emerge as separate specialized agencies. Digital agencies have employed public relations practitioners as social
media specialists, and this means that social media contributes as a new employment opportunity. The need for designing
education and training programs for PR practitioners might be an additional implication of this research. Consequently, they
might have learned how to use and integrate social media into their businesses.
The authors believe that this study suggests a number of new routes for future researches by PR scholars. The restrictions
about Internet and social media access in Turkey may be one of the most important research topics in future studies. Our
research had also several questions on PR practitioners’ claims and corporate policies regarding Internet/social media access
and restrictions. Results have shown that Internet and social media access is believed to be restricted up to a certain extent.
Another important research topic would be the integration of social media to the curriculum of higher education PR programs.

7. Conclusion

While many studies regarding the implications of social media revolution for public relations (see Curtis et al., 2010; Diga
& Kelleher, 2009; Eyrich et al., 2008; Gillin, 2007; Kelleher, 2009; Kitchen & Panopoulos, 2010; Toledano, 2010; Oettigrew &
Reber, 2010) discuss social media as a PR tool, there is a fundamental information need in Turkey providing public relations
professionals’ adoption of social media and their opinions about these tools for managing their efforts.
Internet and social media tools in Turkey, like social networks, blogs, and online videos have revolutionized the dynamics
of public relations and social media, like mainstream media, might be one of the major tools in the field of public relations.
There is no doubt that mainstream media still plays a vital role in the dissemination of messages; social media has created
new disseminators which replace the old media as it has existed for many years. New disseminators are “new influencers”
(Gillin, 2008) characterized by online conversations and communities.
This exponential rise in interest of social media seems to be pressuring PR professionals to integrate these tools into their
work. Research findings show that public relations professionals in Turkey have started to facilitate dialogues with their
publics by using social media. It also shows that the value of engaging in social media can be seen in every aspect of public
relations. We can assume that public relations professionals have realized that they need to stop talking at their constituents
and begin to talk with them. Transparency and engaging in conversations are very important contributions of social media.
This may introduce an opportunity to public relations practitioners to influence and shape their relationships with their
constituents (Gilbert, 2009).

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Ozlem Alikilic, PhD., is currently teaching at the Faculty of Communications at Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey. She completed her PhD in 2004, and
she is currently an assistant professor. She has three books and many journal articles on several PR topics. She is a member of EUPRERA (European
Public Relations Education and Research Association). Her current research interests include the role of social media in public relations and the social
media practices in the public relations environment.

Umit Atabek, PhD., is the dean of Faculty of Communication at Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey. Professor Atabek’s current research interests are
research methods in communication studies and new communication technologies. He had been in the Communication Committee of the Turkish
National UNESCO Commission and is a founding member of SEEDI – South-Eastern European Digitization Initiative.