Users

A user is defined as someone who consumes or interacts with a product, service, or issue. Compared with other terms such as publics or stakeholders, user is used infrequently in corporate communication. One reason for this is the impersonal nature of the term itself and that the more frequently used terms—consumers, stakeholders, publics—apply to a broader swath of individuals. This entry discusses the term user and variations of the term.

In the tech industry, the term user distinguishes those who use the product from those who develop the product, the developers. The term user has been criticized for being impersonal, compared with other terms such as consumer, customer, or even people. Most public relations campaigns focus on publics or stakeholders as opposed to users because the ...