I wanted to talk about social theory, so I tried to find a company that utilizes social theory. It was a little difficult, I know companies use employee of the month all the time, but I couldn’t find proof. Walmart wanted me to sign-in using a Walmart email to view their newsletter.
So I thought I’d lean on my previous experience working at a McDonald’s in Sunnyside, Washington. I started working there in March 2021. It wasn’t until four months later that we even did employee of the month. I unfortunately was never employee of the month. I tried to win it for August after I found out, but then I gave up because I had to move back to Bellingham in September.
Obviously the McDonald’s I worked a did not effectively utilize social theory, or I was under a rock.
I like social theory because mimicking behavior to repeat a desirable outcome is interesting to me. We all feel a need to fit in, and social theory plays into that need to fit in. It may be unethical, but it’s ok, I haven’t taken ethics yet, but I think it would be really cool to see how PR/advertising was able to market a product so well that if someone didn’t have one or buy one you’d be missing out. But now I’m roaming into fomo or fear of missing out.
The least interesting theory to me is the magic bullet theory. Mainly because its been discredited. I think it’s great to learn from but its not practical in PR today. There is no magic bullet to influence every single audience.