Lifeline Public Relations Essay

Understanding Public Relations

New media technologies for Not for Profit organisations
Part 2

Analyse, discuss and explain how effectively Lifeline Australia is using new media technologies to manage the reputation and image of the organization and its relation to the publics.

New media technologies are a set of digital tools emerging in the end of 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, predominantly social media. The use of social media by all of the publics involved in public relations provides public relations practitioners with both new opportunities and challenges in their field of operation. Shifting from the public information and two-way
Lifeline processes an average of 1400 calls per day and works with over 11,000 volunteers (Lifeline.org.au, 2013). The organisation utilizes such social media platforms as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to communicate the messages to the publics. The vision of the organisation states “An Australia free of suicide”, therefore the consumer public is the primary receiver of the messages, as the purpose of the organisation reflects. As any organisation of such size, Lifeline Australia has a large number of employees and is seeking to employ new individuals; therefore interaction with the employee public is another important category, which helps support the primary goal of the organisation. Operation of Lifeline Australia also involves a large number of volunteers and donating individuals, as well as corporate engagement and sponsorships and government funding, therefore stakeholder, member publics, government publics and investor publics all need to be addressed (Brown, 2009). The purpose of use of social media by Lifeline Australia differs from one public to another, but for a Not-for-Profit organisation dealing with human beings, one of the two main purposes is to build a relationship with its consumer publics based on trust
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Lifeline.org.au. 2013. Lifeline Australia home 13 11 14 - Suicide Prevention, Crisis Support & Mental Health services - Lifeline | Connect with someone who cares. (online) Available at: http://www.lifeline.org.au/ (Accessed: 9th July 2013).

Lifeline.org.au. 2013. Support Lifeline - Lifeline | Connect with someone who cares. (online) Available at: http://www.lifeline.org.au/Support-Lifeline/default.aspx (Accessed: 9th July 2013).

Lifeline.org.au. 2013. Media Kit and Fast Facts - Lifeline | Connect with someone who cares. (online) Available at: http://www.lifeline.org.au/About-Lifeline/Media-Centre/Lifeline-Media-Kit-and-Fast-Facts/default.aspx (Accessed: 9th July 2013).

Facebook. 2013. Lifeline Australia - Facebook. (online) Available at: https://www.facebook.com/LifelineAustralia (Accessed: 9th July 2013).

Twitter.com. 2013. Lifeline (LifelineAust) on Twitter. (online) Available at: https://twitter.com/LifelineAust (Accessed: 9th July 2013).

YouTube. n.d.. Lifeline - YouTube. (online) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/LifelineAustralia/videos (Accessed: 9th July