Usage of social media as a public relations tool: Local governments

Public relations is described as a management function that help to create and continue the collaboration, understanding and communication between an institution and its shareholders, include crisis management, help managers to inform and answer public opinion, emphasize the importance of management for the sake of public services, serve like an early warning system to help guessing tendencies, help management to take advantages of the changes effectively. Public relations which use ethical communication techniques and researching as main tool, use social media applications which is also one of the communication tools. Internet which provided simplex communication like traditional mass communication at the beginning, became gradually multiple communication tool with the developments of political, social, economical, cultural and technological and communication tool which is used in public relations. Social media that is one of the opportunities of the Internet which is known as technology of telecommunication and informatics, became a communication medium also for municipalities. Public relations which is attributed as a communicational bridge, generally inquires creating and continue the relations between the municipality and its environment. İn this context, municipalities which is described as the closest government unit to public, takes advantages of social media to satisfy the needs of public, develop the communication, acknowledge and publicity. The research, which is done in this context, tries to determine how and with which aim the municipalities use social media as a public relations tool, what it adds to the process of communication between the social media and its shareholders, and which social media applications is used for public relations model(s). Multiple methodology is used in this work and this research is formed of two parts; content analysis and semi-structured interview. In content analysis part, message properties which is solved and digitized, are coded in categories. This analysis was evaluated with the results of semi-structured interview. As a result of test which was done, it was answered the questions of research which were revealed in the direction of the purposes which are wanted to be obtained in the research.