Public relations is just one of the factors of social media. The use and impact of social media has vastly increased, with people from across strata present on at least one social media platform, if not more. Public relations and social media are both about communication, but the latter is now a few steps ahead of old school PR in terms of reaching out to a wider audience through real-time messaging, amplifying your messages, and helping your business to be more approachable and forthright.