Adoption of Social Media for Public Relations Professionals in Oman

Abstract

Social media is considered a powerful business communication tool in nowadays businesses. Most businesses are trying to utilize this tool in order to enlarge their customer outreach. Therefore, using social media networks will provide excellent opportunities and building relationships for Public Relation Professionals. Hence, this study aims to identify the main factors that encourage Omani public relations professionals to adopt and use social media based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The proposed model of social media acceptance by public relations consists of seven variables, namely, six (demographic information, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and perceived enjoyment) are independent variables and seventh (behavioral intention) is dependent variable. Data was collected using an online survey from public relations professionals from both public and private sectors in Oman. The findings show that the tendency and general awareness of social media by public relation professionals is high and many organizations use or plan to use social media for the purpose outreaching target audience.